2 Timothy 2:1-10 - Mentoring and Spiritual Warfare
Tom Shrader explores Paul's charge to Timothy about spiritual mentoring and dedication in Christian service. Using three vivid illustrations—a soldier who avoids entanglements, an athlete who follows rules, and a hardworking farmer—Paul calls believers to single-minded focus on pleasing God. Tom emphasizes the importance of one-on-one discipleship relationships and warns against the distractions of modern life that can entangle believers from their primary mission.
“My whole job in life is to please God, and that becomes the process that helps me make these hard decisions, like how much house to buy, where to live, how much car, all those kinds of things.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2000)
Recorded: 2000
Duration: 42 min
Themes: mentoring, discipleship, focus, dedication, warfare, distraction, service, faithfulness, mentor, new believer, seeking guidance, spiritual father, disciple, young adult, feeling distracted, needing direction
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-10, Philippians 4:9, Deuteronomy 6, Acts 13, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Theological Themes: spiritual warfare, discipleship, sanctification, spiritual maturity, pastoral care, biblical mentoring, christian service, spiritual growth
Full Transcript
We hit, after we're done today, the halfway point of six weeks. We're going to do six weeks focusing on a book and doing a verse-by-verse study of the book. The book that we're doing is 2 Timothy. So what we've encouraged you to do is to bring a Bible with you. Obviously, you'll be able to follow along without one, but you're going to gain a great deal by having the copy of God's Word right there in front of you.
Today we start 2 Timothy, the second chapter, and the first verse. We're not going to do a summary because that first verse really summarizes what we've seen so far. It says, "you therefore, my son, be strong in grace that is in Christ Jesus."
Paul's Relationship with Timothy
It's the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy. He says, you are my son, not my biological son, but you are my spiritual son. We don't know if Paul was the one who was used by God to bring Timothy to faith. Maybe he was. Most likely he wasn't. Most likely he was someone who came along, met Timothy, saw the relationship that Timothy had with the Lord, also saw something in Timothy. Something in Timothy that said, this guy has got it. This guy's got potential. This guy's worth the investment of time.
Let me talk to you about that for just a second because we're going to talk a lot about mentoring. You hear that all the time. Women's ministry, as we're talking about a variety of things, the thing that keeps coming back is they want mentors. Now not everybody knows exactly what that means, but what is a mentor? What is a protege? To me it's essentially a relationship where one person who's further down the line in terms of spiritual growth, further with their journey, begins to share what they know with another person.
The Need for Mentoring
I came to Christ on a Wednesday. Two weeks later, Larry said to me, you need to be discipled. I said, perfect. I'm ready to go. What's it mean? And he said, well, you need to have somebody talk to you about what it means to know Christ and to grow in Him and to follow Him. And I said, perfect. You're the only guy I know. Why don't you do it? So he said, fine. And that started this mentoring protege effort.
You need to be mentoring somebody. And you say, I don't know anything yet. I'm only average. Okay. If there's 100 people in the room and they're average, that means there's 49 who know less than you. 49 people who you can provide a role as a mentor.
What to Look for in a Protege
What do we look for? We're going to do it this way. What do we look for in a protege? If you're here today and you're saying, I need to be mentored, here are five things you need to have in your life. Five things we look for in a protege.
First thing is, you want a person that's got a questioning mind. Not somebody that's got an open mind that just continues to question. You've got people like that. We see people in the study and they come. They got a question. You answer it. They got another question. You answer it. They got another question. You answer it. And they don't want to learn. Questions, questions, questions. What I mean is a curious mind.
My daughter Sarah came out of the womb and her first word was not dad, it was not mom, it was why. Why? Why dad? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why is the grass green? Why is the sky blue? Why do we sleep? We're driving along one day and I'm kind of reaching the end of my patience with her and she said, she may be four or five, she said, why do we sleep lying down? And I said, gosh, Sarah, where'd you come up with that? And my answer was because mom told us to. But I said, where'd you come up with the question? I mean, why do you ask? And she said, well, last night, and she wasn't very old, four or five. She said on the last night on TV, the astronauts in the shuttle were sleeping standing up. They just moved into a little thing and Velcroed themselves in and slept. Well, that's a good question.
With my kids, I find myself periodically going because I said so. Finally, I reach a point where I go because I said so, which is a very good answer. I also find sometimes in this where I've got to go the adult spiritual version of that because God says so, which is also a very good answer. And sometimes I can't get a specific answer. I can't answer every question. Very hard to answer one of these questions to start with a why. Why would God do those are hard, but the way I begin to accept and understand the answer is to begin to understand who God is. So the first thing I want is a curious mind.
Being Coachable
Here's the second thing. Someone who is coachable, somebody who will listen. I get a lot of people who come in, they want to meet. I've got a problem, got an issue, want to deal with it. We sit down within minutes. We identify the problem. We identify the solution. Here's for me the payoff. When they come back a week later, if they haven't done anything about it, I'll give them another week. If they haven't done anything in two weeks, I'm done. Cuts down on the workload and everything else.
But you know what? If we agree that this needs to be done and you aren't going to do it, I can't waste any more time. It doesn't mean I don't care, it doesn't mean I don't love you, but there's a whole bunch of them lined up right behind you that are waiting for the time. And I have to be a steward of that time. And if we've established that something needs to be done and you're not going to do it, then we don't have any time.
I was just talking to somebody this morning about a person, and I was saying, I'll tell you the one thing I like about this guy, among many, this guy's coachable. I mean, we had a meeting, discussion a week ago today on an issue, and within hours, he's moving on this thing. Now, it may take a different path, but there's action. I love it.
A Heart for God
Here's the third thing you want. You want a guy or a gal with a heart for God. So I've got somebody who's curious. I've got somebody who's coachable. They have a heart for God. We're working our way at church through the book of Acts. And we just came
When I look back to Paul's first recorded sermon in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 13, I'm struck by a particular moment. In the middle of giving a history lesson to the nation of Israel, he says to them that Saul was replaced with David. Then he quotes God as saying David was "a man after God's own heart."
When I heard that the very first time—I love these very first-time memories, and you need to remember those in your faith too—I remember thinking I'd better read about this David. So off I went to the bookstore to get a book on David. I started reading, and I'm going, "Wow. This guy's a coward. This guy's a chicken. Now he commits adultery. Now he commits murder." I thought to myself, "I think I'm in the right organization. I can meet these standards. I can be part of this movement because I know I can live up to this standard right here."
What Made David Special
But what was it about David that God found so attractive? I remember going to Larry and asking him that question. He said, "Well, I don't know. Why don't you read some more, and you'll figure that out?" I hated that answer, so I went and read some more. Ultimately, here's what I found: David was a man who had two aspects to his life.
Number one, when he sinned, it broke his heart. One of the great spiritual indicators in your life is how you respond to sin. We come along and say, "How are you doing spiritually?" and you want to talk about how many books you've read and everything else. Here's a great spiritual indicator: When you sin, is your heart broken over it, or do you just want those people to say, "Hey, boys will be boys. That's the way life is. That's just part of the deal. I've been forgiven"?
David was repentant. Then Paul tells us in this message, as he quotes from God talking about David, that he was somebody who wanted to do everything God asked him to do. He just wanted to do God's will. Did he do it perfectly? No. But his heart condition was right.
The Fourth Quality: Willingness to Pay the Price
So if I'm going to mentor somebody, I want to see somebody who's coachable, somebody who's curious, somebody who has a heart for God. Here's the fourth thing: somebody who will pay the price or make an investment.
I mentioned to you that after two weeks, Larry said to me, "You need to be discipled." I said, "Perfect. You do it." He said, "Great. Let's meet." I said, "Okay." He said, "How's Tuesday?" I said, "Tuesday's good." He said, "Six o'clock." I said, "That's all right, because I get off work at five." He said, "No, I'm thinking six in the morning."
I said, "Really?" He said, "I want to make it as convenient as I can for you. How about six o'clock?" I said, "Well, if you want to make it convenient, let's do it this way. You swing by. We'll roll Susan out of the bed. You can just sit right there and talk to me while I'm sleeping, because I don't think I'll be up at six o'clock in the morning if you want to make it convenient."
Testing Commitment
So we started what became a year and a half, two year journey, meeting every Tuesday morning at six o'clock at the Humpty Dumpty on Central and Camelback. Every Tuesday morning, we were there. About three months, three and a half months into it, Larry said, "Would you like to change the time?" I said, "No, it works out fine. I go from there down to the office. It's fine." But I said, "Why are we meeting at six o'clock?" because I never asked that. I just did what he told me to do.
He said, "Because I've got a bunch of people that will meet me in their office between 10:45, but we've got to be done by 11:30. If I'm going to dump time into you, I want to make sure you're committed to the process. I want to make sure you're committed to what we're doing." You have to make sure that this person is willing to make the investment if you're going to invest this time.
The Unexpected Fifth Quality
Here's the fifth thing, and I don't know that you'd guess this in a million years if I gave you a chance. I'm listening the other day to Chuck Swindoll. I've just got it on as background noise, just pulled it off the net while I'm working. Swindoll says, "Here are four characteristics every teacher needs." I thought, "Well, I ought to listen to that. That could be helpful to me."
He said, "Here's the first thing. You need to be studying. You need to be able to study. Not necessarily a scholar, but study." I said, "Okay, that's me. I can do that." Number two: "You need to be able to present. You need to present information in a way that's engaging." I said, "Hey, I think I can do that. I'm perfect. I'm two for two."
Number three: "You need to be able to communicate in a way that is simple." I said, "I know I can do that because everyone says, 'Tom, you are simple.'" A lot of people take the things that are very simple and make them so complicated, or take the complicated things and make them to the point where you can't understand them. A teacher takes the complicated, makes it simple, takes the simple and keeps it simple. I thought I could do that.
He said, "Here's the fourth thing, and it's a key ingredient for a teacher." I'm thinking, "Okay," so I even hit pause on my computer because I wanted to hear it. Let me guess what that would be. I went down a whole stream of possibilities. I hit the button. He said, "A teacher needs to love the people they teach."
I've got to tell you, it wasn't on my list. Over the last 10 years, I bet I've had 50, maybe 100 guys who have said to me, "I want to be a teacher." I will always say "Why?" Not one time have I had somebody say, "Because I love people and I want them to understand the things of God."
See, if you're going to dump your time into somebody, they need to be somebody who's coachable, somebody who's curious, somebody who has a heart for God, somebody who's willing to pay the price, and somebody who loves people.
The Characteristics of a Faithful Disciple
A faithful disciple must be someone who has a heart for God, someone who is questioning and willing to make the investment. But ultimately, they need to be a person who loves people so that they can take the information you're going to give them and pass it on. That's what Paul says: "You are my son"—not biological. We don't share a chain of DNA, but you're my spiritual son. There's a connection there.
In verse 2, Paul says, "The things which you heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust." That word in the Greek, "entrust," means to make a deposit of something that's valuable for the purpose of safekeeping. I want you to take these things you've heard from me—in our case, that would be the Word of God—take them, and I want you to pass them on.
Now, let me make sure we understand the context. The context is Paul speaking to a pastor. Remember, Timothy is in the role of pastor at the church of Ephesus. But that would apply to all of us. In all of our life, there's the opportunity to do what Paul is talking about here. Susan has done this with our children since they were born. She's been faithful to pass on these things, to pass on this truth. In Philippians 4:9, Paul says, "The things you've seen, the things you've heard, the things you've learned from me, I want you to now go and do them."
The Importance of Personal Relationships in Discipleship
This process—these first two verses here—screams to us that we need to be continually in personal relationships where we are passing on the truths of God. Deuteronomy 6 is the call to the mothers and fathers in the nation of Israel: "Pass these things on to your children. When you stand up, when you sit down, when you walk." This is lifestyle evangelism and lifestyle discipleship. This has to be an intricate part of your life.
Let me be really candid here. What I do here on Thursday morning has some value. What I do on Sunday morning in a pulpit has some value. But you're never, ever going to really grow until you are involved in small group, one-on-one, intimate discussion of life's issues. You have to be in that setting. If you've got to make a choice, you say, "Well, boy, the only time I can meet with my small group is a Thursday morning at 7, and I don't want to miss this," I'm telling you, you need to be there rather than here. This is way important—this one-on-one time.
That's why, every once in a while, somebody will come in to Priority Living, and they'll say, "Why don't we start small groups? Why don't we start getting people together?" You know why? Because we're not a church. That's why I keep telling you, you need to go to church. That's what a church does. We're one club in a bag. We're a five-iron. That's it. We don't want to be a putter, and I don't want to be a driver. I just want to be a five-iron. That's all I've ever wanted to be in my whole life—a five-iron. I don't even want to be a utility club where you spin it, and I can be a seven-iron or a three-iron. I just want to be a five-iron. That's all we are.
The things you need—and that is God working in your life—those things you need, you find in a church. You need to be in a church, a Bible-teaching church. Be good at even the names in the title. "Bible church"—that would be helpful. Bible. You need to be where the Bible is taught and where the people live this stuff. And one of the marks will be when you say, "What's going on among the people?" and they say, "Well, here you go. Boom."
Three Illustrations of Christian Living
Now, Paul wants to talk to us about life. He's going to use three illustrations here. He's going to use the illustration of a soldier, the illustration of an athlete, and the picture of a farmer. I've never been any of the three, so it should be helpful.
Here we go. Verse 3: "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." So He says, first of all, you're going to suffer with me. We're going to talk about that in a couple of weeks. That is about the fourth or fifth time we've seen that word "suffering" in here. Always the idea of suffering—that's part of the Christian life.
The Soldier: Single-Minded Focus
Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4. And I've got to tell you, I have fallen in love with this verse. This is, again, one of those—I remember the first time I ever read it, I thought, "Wow." In fact, I ended up doing a series out of this verse. "No soldier in active duty entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."
So here's what He says. He said, we've got a soldier here. It's not a soldier that's in the reserves. You're in the army of God. You're a soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ. But you're on active duty. A soldier on active duty does not entangle himself in the affairs of everyday life. In a sense, he severs relationships that are normal to civilian affairs. He does it to free himself up so that we can take this one characteristic of a soldier: he is single-minded. He is focused. He is dedicated. He has a mission, a singular mission.
So the best he can, the best we can do with this soldier is to eliminate the distractions of life. Have you noticed that your life is filled with distractions? If you go down to Fort Huachuca this morning and you watch the guys wake and now they go to the closet, do you know that they don't go to the closet and say, "I wonder what I'll wear today?" They say, "Oh, I think these fatigues will work just well." When they get out of the mess hall, they say, "What do you want for breakfast?" They don't say that. They say, "Well, we'll just eat this right here."
Freedom Through Simplicity
Solzhenitsyn said that he found true freedom in the gulag. Now think about that. When he's imprisoned with all the options—they come by in the morning and they say, "What do you want? Swill? No? No? Boom." And that's how they work this thing. And this is all there is. Those are the options.
John Bunyan writes Pilgrim's Progress. Where? In prison. Because the things of life that complicate our life, those things are—
gone. See, in my life, your life, I'm coming in today. This is so interesting, this is fresh in my mind, obviously, but I'm driving in this morning and an ad comes on for a gated home community on the west side. But it's not a custom home, so it's just a, I'm sure, very nice track home. They're talking about these homes. They're talking about the advantages of these homes. They're talking about the options. Now maybe it's just me, but they started to talk about the optional four-car garage.
The next ad is for Ford, a Ford Ranger. And it's just like, you know, hey, it's a one for $154 a month. That must be a lease price. No, that's a sale price. And I'm thinking to myself, $154 a month? I think I'm going to listen to what comes next, because I'm kind of curious. How long do you have to amortize a car loan to get the payment at $154 a month?
So I'm listening to the guy who talks real fast at the end. That's based on $2,500 and 84 months. Seven years? We're going to take a Ford Ranger that's going to run for a year and a half and amortize it over seven years? And some poor little guy or gal, who'd love to have a little pickup truck, they don't care. They don't. And neither do you. You just go, all I care about is the payment. And they never stop to realize that they're going to be on their third transmission by the time they pay this dog off.
The Entanglements of Modern Life
See, that's the world around you. These are the things that entangle you. I've done this. I'm not going to do it this morning. But I did it Tuesday night when I was teaching the singles. I did it yesterday morning. But I just shout out, what are the things that entangle us? Here's what you hear. Money.
And again, my point here is not to be judgmental. Good grief, there's enough guilt around. I don't need to add to it for you. But when I... What's a car cost? I saw an ad the other day for a new Beetle, which they look so cute. I'm sure they're impractical as it can be, but they look so cute. And it was sixteen thousand dollars. I'm sure that's stripped and everything.
Well, let's say I can get a pretty nice car for twenty to thirty thousand dollars. Well, let's agree that it's thirty thousand dollars. So I'm being awful nice here. If I spend more than thirty thousand dollars then on a car, let's say I spend fifty thousand dollars. Some people do that. Maybe even people here. Maybe even on motorcycles.
If I'm spending anything over thirty thousand dollars then, all of a sudden it's not about transportation. It's about arriving in luxury and making a statement when I get there. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. That's fine. Do it. Knock yourself out. But that twenty thousand dollars has to come from somewhere.
The Cost of Our Choices
I have to spend... Let's say it's four hours a week. I got to spend four hours a week just to earn the money to go ahead and pay that. Doesn't sound much, four hours. I'll just work real hard. That's 200 hours a year. And here's the problem I have in those decision-making process. The problem is I don't care about the twenty thousand dollars because life has taught me one thing. You can lose a lot, make a lot, lose a lot. Not a problem. You lose twenty thousand dollars, you just go get another twenty thousand dollars. Not that tough to do. Here's the deal. Where do I go to get my 200 hours back? I can't get both, see?
So all of a sudden, all I want... I just want a spare bedroom. That's all I want. We don't want much in a house. We just want a spare bedroom and maybe one extra car garage, not even for the car, but a jet ski on one side and then storage. And it isn't that much. Well, now I have to amortize that over 30 years. I have to insure it. I have to furnish it. I have to clean it. I have to air-condition it. I'm spending a fortune on that room to have available when people come to visit. See, these are the things that entangle me.
I'll tell you what entangles you. Relationships. If you're single, you are so much... that's what the Bible says... you're so much better off. You're so much more free. Because you're not entangled. Male-female relationship.
I was laying in bed last night, and Susan just dozed off, much to my chagrin, by the way, and I'm laying there, and I'm thinking, you know what? I can't imagine being married to anybody but her. I can't imagine the hassle of going through... I just can't imagine all of it. I am so... And I gave her a little tap. She was snoring a little too. I gave her a little tap just to edge her. I'm teasing about that. But I gave her a little tap just to kind of let her know I was there, and to kind of in my mind say, man, this is it. This is terrific.
The Time Factor in Our Entanglements
Relationships. Finance. You know all the things. Athletics can do that. You know, six rounds for a... six hours for a round of golf and hit balls and stuff. Not a thing wrong with it. But there's the time. You know, if you've got season tickets for the Suns and season tickets for the Diamondbacks, that is 120 nights a year that somebody in New York City has arbitrarily scheduled you to be somewhere else.
You're too busy to come to something at church. But somebody you don't know can arbitrarily schedule 120 nights a year out? I'm not saying any of these are wrong. They're all good. Knock yourself out. All I'm saying is, do you see here? These are the things that entangle me. That's what Paul's saying.
Let's make sure we got the verse now. No soldier in active duty entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life. Do the best you can here. The desire then, or the mission, is to live the simple life.
The Quest for Simplicity
You know that people... this is one of the hot items in discussion right now is, how do I find the simple life again? I use Larry as an illustration. Virtually anybody who knows me and knows Larry, when I see them, they'll say, have you seen Larry lately? And I'll say, yes I have. And they'll say, how is he feeling? And I'll say, awful. And they'll say, well, is he still keeping up his schedule? And I'll say, yes. And then they'll
walk away. And they miss the lesson. The lesson is this. How does this man, who can barely walk, how does he maintain the same schedule that he's had for 20 or 25 years in teaching? A few adjustments, but how does he do it?
He does it because God has come in and eliminated so many of the things that entangle you and me in life. Larry doesn't get up in the morning and say, am I going to climb, I think I'll climb Squaw Peak today. He doesn't get up in the morning and say, gee, I think I'll play golf. I think I'm just going to go a long hike or walk. I'm not saying good or bad. I'm just saying those aren't options. So now when you're Larry, your life is focused down to this singular thing. If you say to Larry, what do you do in life? He's going to say, I teach Bible.
I found, and I've learned this from him, my father was very focused in what he did in business. I've learned the same thing from the two of them. I see the same thing in my life. My life now is very busy. Somebody the other day, I've got a lot of this lately. Are you going to burn yourself out, burn yourself out, burn yourself out? I don't think so, but I'll watch out for it, thank you. But I would rather burn myself out than rust out, I'll tell you that.
Life Simplified Through Focus
But I'm at that point where my life, I don't have much of a life. I've got Susan and the girls, which is a big chunk of it, but that chunk varies in time. As the girls get older, they don't need as much time. I just need to be there. Sarah came in the other night, and I heard the alarm, and I heard her come in, and I just knew she was thinking about some things. And so I woke up when the alarm went off, so I just went down, gave her time to get settled and get everything into bed, and went down, and I just said, hey, how are you.
She said... and these are great moments. These are moments you want... she said, what do you think I ought to do with... I don't even care what comes next. And we had probably not a long time, maybe seven, ten minutes to talk about two or three, four things. And she said what do you think I ought to do, and I said here's what I would do. And she said, well that's exactly what I did. And she said, what do you think I ought to do here? And I said, well I think you ought to do this. And she said, that's exactly what I did.
She said, what do you think about this? And I said, well here's what I see. And she said, that's exactly what I see. And it was a great moment for me to be able to say to her, Sarah, I think you're on the right track here. Isn't that great stuff? But my life consists of family, priority living, and the church. I got no life after that. And there was a point in my life where I couldn't imagine a life like that, and now I can't imagine anything else.
The Soldier's Primary Mission
You are a soldier in active duty, and one of the things that Paul says is, don't entangle yourselves in the affairs of everyday life. Why? It's the second part of the verse. Why? Why did He enlist me? Boy, if I'm a soldier in active duty, He must have brought me into this to win the battle. No! So I may please the one who enlisted me. Here's my whole job. My whole job in life is to please God.
You see how that ties in? David, a man after God's own heart. Why? All he wanted to do is please God. Did he do it every moment of every hour? Obviously not. But in his core, when you cut him to the quick, all he wanted to do is please God.
By the way, that becomes the process that helps me make these hard decisions, like how much house to buy, where to live, how much car, all those kinds of things. I look down and I say, okay, does this car I'm driving, does this purchase please God? Is God edified by this? Those are good questions.
Practical Application of God-Pleasing Decisions
One of my girls came in the other day and they said, here's what I'm thinking about doing. And I love those moments. And it's just, you know, I mean, it just speaks so highly, really, to Susan and how she's really provided that environment where we go back and forth and to participate in that for me is such a treat. She said, here's what I'm thinking about doing. And I said, okay. And she said, do you think I ought to do it?
And I said, what do you think? And she said, well, it's not a sin. And I said, well, no, it's not a sin. I'm not being rebellious. And I said, no, I know your heart. You're not rebellious. And she said, well, why not? I said, well, let me just spin it just a little bit. Because let's ask ourselves a different question. Why?
So you apply these to all... these are just great exercises. This has great takeaway value. You can take this and you can apply this today.
The "Why?" vs. "Why Not?" Question
Example. A lot of you love to have a drink. Well, in the Bible... What's the Bible? The Bible... Well, the Bible says this. Don't get drunk. Can you have a drink? You're free to have a drink. Now, a couple little things. One way to make sure I never get drunk is to never have a drink. So that's pretty good. I like that thinking. But you're free to have a drink.
And in these questions of freedom, often what people say is, well, why not? Here's my point. Why? Why set yourself up for false accusations? I saw Him in a bar. You know, if I go in, look it, I get off work. My hours are flex hours. I get off today. I'm done teaching at about one, a little after, by the time people hang around.
So it would be no big deal for me to be at Manuel's at two o'clock, just eating lunch. I've got all the freedom in the world to go in there and have a margarita, by the way, at two o'clock. But imagine the commentary when somebody says, hey, I saw your Bible teacher at Manuel's yesterday at two o'clock. Nobody saw the fact I was having five enchiladas. What they saw was, oh, by the way, I'm having a margarita, and I'm not sure it was his first.
Why go? Because they're going to think the worst. And then I'll walk out and catch my foot like I do, and they'll trip, and they'll go, man, I don't even know how many of those he had. Why put Christ's testimony
through that? That's all I'm saying. I'm not giving you an order. I'm saying, think about it. You're smart people, a lot of you. Think about it. Why do it?
The Athlete: Discipline and Following Rules
Here we go, because we've got a race now. Here's the second example. He gives us the example of an athlete. Verse five: "And also, anyone who competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules."
The rules that He's talking about there are the rules of preparation, the rules of discipline, one of the characteristics of any athlete. Even at a level like many of us participate, on an amateur level, the key to success in athletics is discipline. You have to practice. You have to prepare.
My golf game, about four, five, six years ago, got very good. The scores improved quite a bit in a short period of time. I'll tell you why they did. Because I started going probably three or four days a week and hitting 100 to 200 wedges. That's all I did. Fifty yards, 100 yards, just worked on wedges. That's how you score. Well, I hate to practice. I love to play. Well, you're always going to be at the level you're at. An athlete is one who understands discipline.
The Farmer: Working to Exhaustion
Here's the third characteristic, verse six: "And the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive a share of his crops." The word that's translated in English, "hardworking," means literally someone who works to the point of exhaustion.
Now, the picture here is a farmer, not like the farmer that we have that cruises around all day in an air-conditioned cab watching satellite TV and on His cell phone. This is a farmer who's breaking His back in laborious work. By the way, with no government safety net, so no sense at all of whether they're ever going to see any result from their work. A drought, a freeze, and the product is gone.
Paul's Call to Timothy
Now, put this picture together. Here's what Paul's saying to Timothy, because then He comes back. Let's go ahead and close out. I only want to go to verse 10. But He said, "Consider what I say, for I will give you understanding in everything. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead." Look at verse 10: "For this reason, I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they may also obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, and with it, eternal glory."
Here's what He's saying: Timothy, I want you to be diligent. Now, you go ahead and put your name in there. If you're a Christian, He's saying to you, I want you to be faithful. I want you to pass on what it means to know Christ.
Three Essential Characteristics
And here's three characteristics you're going to have to have. Number one, like the soldier, you're going to have to be dedicated. You're going to have to be single-minded. You're going to have to be in a position where you disengage from the non-essentials of the world.
Let me use this illustration again. We've got a song we sing at church that says, a little line in it, "let the world around you fade away." Not go away, fade away. How does it fade away? I disentangle myself from all these decisions. I keep my life simple so I can please the one who enlisted me. So first, He says, Timothy, you need to be a man, a woman, a person in our context, who is dedicated.
Secondly, like the athlete, you need to be disciplined. Let me say it to you again. It is very nice and somewhat flattering to have you come up and say, "Wow, I read those ten verses and I would have never gotten that out of there." Well, let me tell you why. You didn't work. Because it's all right there and all you've got to do is study. You've got to discipline yourself and you're going to have to work hard like the farmer.
So you're dedicated, you're disciplined, you're diligent like the farmer. In your Christian life, for you to please the one who enlisted you in service, you're going to have to be dedicated, focused, disciplined, and you're going to have to be diligent like the farmer.
The Key to Staying Motivated
Now, let me tell you how you do that, because I don't think you do that naturally. See, my first inclination is, okay, put me down for yes. I want to be a soldier in active duty. But the minute some opportunity comes along, I get a little distracted. The minute it's a little hard to study and I'm tired, my discipline wanes, and all of a sudden, I don't think I want to work to the point of exhaustion.
How do you stay motivated? See, I even believe when somebody says "I'm a disciplined person," I don't think they are. They're a motivated person. They're not disciplined, they're motivated. How do I stay motivated?
Well, the answer is in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16. Paul writes this: "Therefore, we don't lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day." Here's what Paul says. He said, because of all these truths, we don't lose heart, though the outer man...
The Reality of Physical Decay
I was, Tuesday morning, I was combing my hair, and I was not fully clothed. A picture you don't even want to think about this. I happened to be at an angle where two mirrors were converging over to my left, and I glanced to the left, and I thought, what a pathetic sight, really. I thought, it's true. No matter how hard I work, this body's decaying.
I went through a workout phase quite a while ago, and I was working out at MCC. They had a really nice program. It's right by the house from me. I went in there, and the first day I'm in there, I'm going through these things, so I'm on my back doing this. I'm pushing these weights up, and so I'm done, and I look over, and you just have to trust me that this was not a lustful experience, although it could have been. There's this gal there who had beautiful legs, and that's all I saw. I just looked at her, and I was thinking, wow, those are
Eternal Perspective Transforms Earthly Discipline
I had an experience at the gym that illustrates this principle perfectly. There was a woman there with really good legs, and I thought, "I better not look at them anymore," so I looked away. I need to know that I'm weak—there's something I could dwell on. I thought, "Well, maybe that would make me push these weights harder if I did look." But no, I said no.
Then about six weeks later, I noticed something. Every time I'm in there, she's in there on the StairMaster. That day, as I'm working around, I said, "Well, she's always on that StairMaster." I'm walking out, she walks out, and I said, "Man, you work out a lot." She said, "I work out at least three hours a day on the StairMaster." Three hours a day? Well, I'd have nice legs if I worked out three hours a day on the StairMaster.
And I'm thinking, all she can do is postpone the inevitable. The outer man is decaying. The inner man is renewed day by day.
The Eternal Weight of Glory
Here's verse 17 from 2 Corinthians 4: "For momentary light affliction"—that's Paul's description of life—"is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Here's what Paul's saying. If you take life and you get a scale, a balanced scale, you take all the hardship of life, all the suffering, all the difficulty, you put it on this side, and then you take heaven and put it on this side, the scale just goes like this. There's no comparison.
I did a funeral yesterday afternoon at five o'clock, and we have a song that we use a lot now called "If You Could See Me Now." I don't know if you've ever heard the song. The song is great. Basically, the song says, "If you could see me now, you wouldn't want me to come back." I'm where—we're in the land—everybody thinks we're in the land of the living going to the land of the dead. We're in the land of the dead going to the land of the living. See, that's what Paul's saying. All this life stuff can't compare.
The Motivation for Dedication and Discipline
Now here is the last verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18: "For we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen, for the things that we see are temporal, the things we don't see are eternal." Here's the motivation that's going to allow you to be dedicated and disciplined and diligent—to understand that there's a heaven, and that this is serious business, and that one day you're going to die. You're either going to spend eternity in a place called heaven or a place called hell, not based on whether you were a good person or not.
In fact, sometimes being a good person is really a hindrance to being saved. I do much better with the derelict, because you go, "You're a sinner," and they go, "Yep." I got a lot of guys that go, "You're a sinner," and they go, "I don't think so, I'm a nice person." You're a sinner, and you can be saved by God's grace, by coming to Christ in repentance and faith, and all of a sudden your life changes.
Your Call as a Soldier in God's Army
I'm telling you, that's the call that God—if you're a Christian—that's the call that God's placed on your life. The call that He's placed on your life is that you are a soldier in His army, and your number one mission is to please Him. To be dedicated and disciplined and diligent, and you're going to keep that motivation by understanding all of this is temporal, and your life becomes consumed with the eternal.
Pick up right there next week.
Father, help us see this truth. Help us apply it to our heart. God, we're here because we do care about You. We're here because they've paid a price to be here, to get up early, come out on a Thursday morning to hear what I pray is indeed Your Word. Would You let us be faithful to the things You've given us, and also don't let us keep it to ourselves. Give us an attitude that says, "I want to learn more so I can pass it on. I want to experience life so I can pass it on." Father, keep our eyes focused on the things we can't see, for they are eternal, and they will motivate us to be dedicated, disciplined, and diligent on the things we can see, the temporal. God, do that work in our life. We pray it to You in Jesus' name, Amen.