2 Timothy 4 - Fighting the Good Fight

Tom Shrader concludes a six-week study of 2 Timothy by examining Paul's final charge to Timothy and his personal reflections as death approaches. He warns that people will reject sound doctrine in favor of teachers who tell them what they want to hear, turning to myths like 'God helps those who help themselves' and 'you can't love others until you love yourself.' Shrader emphasizes that every Christian is in full-time ministry and challenges believers to live in such a way that they can say with Paul at life's end: 'I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I kept the faith.'

“You will not die that way unless you live that way.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2000)

Recorded: 2000

Duration: 43 min

Themes: perseverance, faithfulness, ministry, suffering, endurance, legacy, doctrine, persecution, facing death, pastor, mentor, aging believer, church leader, experiencing persecution, end of ministry, faithful servant

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-22, 2 Timothy 3:12, 2 Timothy 3:16, Ephesians 4:32, Romans 1

Theological Themes: pastoral epistles, sound doctrine, apostolic succession, christian ministry, biblical fidelity, spiritual warfare, sanctification, eschatology

Full Transcript

We today wrap up what has been a six-week look at the book that's identified in the Scripture as 2 Timothy. Again, when we use that term book, it's important for us to understand that what we really mean is it's a letter. It's a letter that is divided into four chapters in your Bible, written by the Apostle Paul to the person that he, I think, humanly speaking, loves most in the whole entire world, and that is this young man, Timothy.

Timothy is referred to as Paul's beloved son. There's a special kinship and relationship there between these two. Paul at one point writes to one of the churches and said, "I don't have anyone who has a kindred spirit with me like Timothy." And Paul eventually appoints Timothy as the pastor of this very favorite church of his.

So there's a special relationship there, and this letter is seasoned, humanly speaking, with the reality that Paul has that his death is near. He writes these words knowing that his life is just about over. And humanly speaking, again, I think we can understand that as you take someone with this power and this mind and this intellect, and you give them the opportunity to sit down at the end of their life and to scribble out some words to a person they truly love, those words become pretty significant as we break them apart and look at them. And that's exactly, hopefully, what you've seen as we've looked at this study.

The Reality of Christian Suffering

One reoccurring theme, and let me just touch on it, and then we'll kick us right into today's study, and that is, as a Christian, you will always suffer. Second Timothy 3, verse 12, says this: "Those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." When you suffer, when you're persecuted, that is not a passing fade. That is a permanent aspect of your life.

We have a friend who, a few years ago, was diagnosed with cancer. It was really all through her, but in her bladder especially. They went in, they could not get it, and they told her that they couldn't get it. And they told her that, in all likelihood, this was the end of her life. She was in enormous pain. Very important for us to understand, that's not the suffering Paul's talking about here. The godly and the ungodly alike get cancer. The godly and the ungodly alike suffer physically.

As she's going through this, she has a husband who doesn't believe, who's not a Christian. At this moment when she's most vulnerable and most hurting, he's coming in to see her and saying, "Where's your Jesus now? If God's such a great loving God, why are you going through this now?" Now that's the suffering that Paul's talking about.

As a believer, most of us, unless things radically change, most of us are never going to experience that physical persecution that Paul experienced and wrote about. But we will, guaranteed, experience the hurt and the pain that this woman experienced at the hands of her husband. It's part of the deal. How do you handle it? How do you stand firm?

The Word of God as Our Foundation

Well, He tells us, continue in the things you've learned and become convinced of them. You and I have the Word of God, which is true. 2 Timothy 3:16: "For all scriptures inspired by God." And here's what it does. This is what we looked at last week. It tells us, number one, what's right. Number two, what's not right. Number three, how to get straight. And number four, how to stay straight. So here we go. What's right, what's not right, how to get right, how to stay right. That's what scripture does for us.

As I was driving up the road today, Scottsdale Road, for whatever reason, I noticed a building and I assume that, I know the building's been there, and I assume that the same tenant's been in there for a long time. But for whatever reason, I looked at today on the name of huge letters in the front of this building say, "Present Truth Ministry." Kind of an interesting phrase when you think about it and you break it down and you're having your morning cup of coffee and you're reflecting on the things you see around you.

In other words, what that name says, whether they intend to or not, is that we've got what's true today, but no guarantee that it's true tomorrow. What the Word of God is, is true forever and ever, unchanging, unwavering, uncompromising truth. So now you live. And He says to Timothy, this is true and this is what equips people to live.

Paul's Charge to Timothy

As we start the last chapter in this book, Paul becomes, I think, very autobiographical and at the same time you see Him become, I think, tender as He shares His final thoughts with this young protégé, again reminding you that Timothy is a pastor. So Paul says these words to him: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is appearing to the living and the dead by appearing in His kingdom to preach the Word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction."

Now you or most of you, at least in this study, I don't think we have any pastors in here. We throughout the week probably have a half a dozen pastors that come to the study. Most of you aren't in that situation, that vocation in life. These words are still important to you because you preach a sermon every day. Every day when you've said to somebody, "I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ," they are watching you. And it is essential for you to preach that Word because it is the truth, it is the answer.

A Picture of Youth Responding to Truth

I was at the arena yesterday for the study and when I was done, one of the denominations is having their youth rally there. They had 7,000 kids there yesterday morning, a couple thousand yesterday afternoon and supposed to be 10,000 or 12,000 last night and it's interesting. I wanted to stick around just a little bit and watch these kids and they started with music and these kids are singing and they're going and they are having a blast.

And then a speaker comes in, very honestly, to do some pretty mundane announcements, the kind where this group would be coughing and shifting and going to get coffee and fairly unruly.

And these 2,000 kids sat there. I was amazed and I was talking to one of the security guys. I said, is this a crowd kind of like the same crowd you get at the Nine Inch Nails concert? And he said, no, he said, this is a little bit different. He said, I'm standing down there today letting them in and they're coming in and they're saying thank you, sir, thank you, sir, thank you, sir.

This comes right in the heel of listening to all these legislators and all these politicians and all these social gurus try to con me for more money to go fix a problem that they cannot fix because the problem isn't economical or political. The problem is spiritual. These kids, by and large, know the Lord Jesus Christ and it transforms their life. Just throwing more and more money, all you're doing is hurting the entire society because you're not going to fix them. The fundamental problem is a heart problem and until you change that heart, you're really never going to change that behavior, by and large.

You and I have the truth. You and I have the answers to the questions that people are asking. So I guess what they're going to want to really do is really hear what you've got to say, huh?

The Coming Rejection of Sound Doctrine

Well, not exactly, Paul says. "For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and they'll turn away their ears from truth and turn aside to myth." Paul says there's a time coming when they're not going to want to hear sound doctrine anymore, but what they're going to do is try to find teachers that'll tell them what they want to hear.

It blows me away because of this environment. There's this study and three others, so there's lots and lots and lots of people that come to the study and it is not at all unusual. It happens regularly, frequently, but someone will call and say, I'd like to get together and I'd like to talk to you about something. I've got something in my life I'd like to talk to you about. And I'll say fine and we'll get together and I won't know the person and we'll sit down and we'll begin to talk and he lays out the problems and he starts, and he'll say, what do you think? And I'll say, well, who cares what I think? Here's what God says about that.

You would be surprised how frequently that person will say, you know, you're the fourth person that's told me that. I hear that over and over and over again. So I say, well, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm going to think about it. And then I'll see that person a week or two later, I'll say, hey, how are you doing with that problem? He'll say, well, you know what? I've been going to this counselor who says basically what I want to hear.

Whenever there's been a day when people want to have their ears tickled, they want to retain some form of spirituality. So if you can slide Jesus in there, that's fine. And if you've got a Bible verse, all the better. But they want to have their ears tickled. They want you to tell them what they want to hear. Truth is not really important to them. In fact, they're going to go and they're going to find myths.

The Deadly Myth of Justification by Death

What are some of those myths that are so dominant now? Well, probably the most deadly is the idea, here's the theological term would be this, justification by death. In other words, all you've got to do is die to go to heaven.

There is a fellow who's an ordained pastor who used to write, I think still may on a periodic basis, write an article for the Mesa Tribune. And literally every week it was heresy. I mean, it was just, it was a matter of degree of how bad it was. But one week he was talking about heaven and he made this comment. Here's what he said: I can't wait to get to heaven and to see all my friends, my Methodist friends, my Catholic friends, my Presbyterian friends, my Episcopal friends, my Mormon friends, my Orthodox Jewish friends, yes, even some evangelicals and my atheist friends as well.

Now this is interesting. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to give him the Methodist. But the atheist, can you possibly—just kidding about the Methodist—can you possibly, this is an ordained guy. See, this is the sham that you have going in so many churches. This is an ordained guy who studies the Greek and the Hebrew and who presumably has some respect for this Word. How can you possibly read this Word? How can you read Romans 1 and say that an atheist is going to go to heaven?

And this guy, and I used to read him and then I just said, this is just a waste of time. He would talk about how godly his ungodly friends were as compared to His Christian friends. How really these were pretty good guys. The standard is not how good you are, it's are you perfect? The answer is no.

The Importance of Logical Thinking

Listen to these statements. It's kind of like, and I think if there's anything I could wish for you, other than coming to Christ and those things that you know we would talk about. But beyond that is that you would start to become an observer of the things around you. That you'd see a sign like Present Truth Ministries and go, what does that mean? That when this guy says, okay, I got an Orthodox Jew and I got a Mormon and I got a Catholic and I got an Evangelical and they're all going to heaven and they believe fundamentally mutually exclusive things. How can that possibly be?

How can you have one guy that says, Jesus is the Savior, He died for us and we're saved by grace. One guy who says, Jesus is a God and you can be too. One guy who says, yeah, Jesus died to cross, but you better work, work, work, work, work. And one guy who says, He isn't even a God, He isn't even a prophet. How can all of these guys be right? They can't.

So important to understand this. They can all be wrong, or one of them can be right, but they can't all be right. That's why I say to you, and I know that this

Watch out for this ecumenical stuff. Watch out for this attitude that says, "We're all brothers and sisters, the real issue is just Jesus." Well, it's a little deeper than that. There's a little more to that. And even if we just say it's Jesus, what Jesus are we talking about here? This is fundamental truth, basic truth that is non-negotiable. We can't negotiate this one.

The time's coming, and here's the irony of it. When they don't want sound doctrine, they'll get people to tell them what they want to hear and they'll turn to these myths.

Common Myths Christians Believe

I made a list of these myths. Let me just finish them off. "God helps those who help themselves." I still have people who say that to me all the time. Here's a great myth that really appeals to you because it appeals to your selfish pride: "You can't love others until you love yourself, so you better really learn to love yourself. Pay for yourself. Take care of yourself."

There was a famous author who wrote a book a few years ago called Self Love, and someone said to me, "What do you think of the book?" And I said, "Well, I haven't read it, but I can tear it apart without reading it. It's a title." The minute you say self anything, I become self-ish. The exact opposite is the goal of the Christian life, to become self-less, to get my eyes off me and on to Him, my eyes off me and on to His people.

The Happiness Myth

Here's three interesting ones. "God wants me happy." I met a guy, and I admit it's only happened to me twice, where a guy sat down and I said, "What's new?" He said, "I'm getting a divorce." And I said, "Wow, how's that coming about?" And he said, "God wants me to."

I'm always fascinated by those. So I said, "How did you get there? Help take me through that." He said, "It's very simple. It's logic 101. God wants me happy. My wife makes me unhappy. I'm getting divorced."

So that's why I keep saying, God doesn't give a flip whether you're happy or not. God wants you joyful. There's a big distinction. Any slug who can get up in the morning and go get the stock report, and he bought yesterday at 27, and it's at 50 today, this boy's happy. Anybody can be happy in the midst of that.

What we're looking for is joy in the midst of circumstances, good and bad. That's what joy is. Joy is relational based on the vibrancy of my relationship with my Savior. Happiness is circumstantial.

The Health and Wealth Myth

Here's another one. "God wants me healthy and wealthy." It's amazing how many Christians are running around, some just openly proclaiming this and others assuming it. Let me give you some bad news. God may want you poor, and He may want you sick. And I'll give you a reason. You don't learn so good when things are going well. You don't learn so much when you're in the top ten.

Very interesting to me. You go to a company and you take the top ten and the bottom ten. Those bottom ten are much more coachable. You ever notice that? The bottom ten just seem to be more open.

You go to somebody that's absolutely a stud in all of that physical fitness there. They can get on that stairmaster and go, go, go, go, go. And then all of a sudden, they go to the doctor and there's a little spot on the lung. You ever notice how much more coachable they are once we find that spot? See, God may not give a rip about whether you're poor or rich.

When Grace Becomes License

Here's one last one, and this is a true story. We had a fellow who came to one of the studies. He said, "You know, you told me I'm supposed to hang out with Christian guys, so I found a group of Christian guys. But I don't think this is what you had in mind." And I said, "Well, what is it?"

And he said, "Well, they kind of meet and we talk and we do some stuff, but once a month, we go and we get pretty liquored up and we go to a strip joint and we pick up girls." I said, "Well, no, that isn't the typical study that we look for." It's kind of curious how this works, how does this go?

He said, "You know, I asked him that. I said to him, 'This doesn't seem right.'" Here's what they said. They said, "Schrader sins, doesn't he?" And the guy said, "I don't think so." The guy said, "Obviously Schrader does." And the guy said, "That's the deal. Christ died for us. We come to Him. Now we sin and He forgives us. That's the deal."

See, that's where grace becomes license. One of the great indicators of where you are spiritually is how you respond when you sin. Now you sin. You flat sin. You know it's sin. Everything in you tells you it's sin. You know it's sin. How do you respond then? "Ah, the big guy upstairs died for that one."

See, I think David is a man after God's own heart, not because of all he did, because he did a bunch of junky stuff. But every time he sinned, you read how broken his heart was in the midst of that sin. If you're in the midst of an ongoing sin and it doesn't bother you, you've got deep, serious spiritual problems.

Sound Doctrine Answers Practical Questions

Now look at this. Here's the thing that kills me. Here they are. They want their ears tickled. They want all this stuff. They won't endure sound doctrine. And it's sound doctrine that will answer all those practical questions.

One of the great illustrations to me is this idea of forgiving. It is not at all unusual to have someone who's been hurt seriously by another person. They've had a spouse say, "Pfft." They've had a boss say, "You're out." They've had a friend double-cross them. They've had somebody steal from them. Whatever it is. And they'll come and they'll say, "I just can't forgive that person."

Well, if I've got a bunch of counselors who are just telling me, "Well, just kind of see this person, and then see all of your hatred kind of go on that person, and then see that hatred evaporate away." What is this? What are we doing here? That doesn't work.

I've got to ask, why do I have to forgive this slug? Doesn't this person deserve to be punished? Well, the answer is yes, sure. But you forgive them because, Paul writes in Ephesians 4:32, you and I are to forgive one another

and be kindhearted to one another because just as God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus. Why do I forgive? Why did He forgive me? Because I deserved it? Because I earned it? No, but because His grace and mercy was extended to me.

When Christ was on that cross, I'm literally just spitting in His face. I couldn't care less about Him. God has made provision for my sin, and I'm just saying, "Who cares? God, get out of the way." And now I'm in His kingdom. He says, "How are you supposed to be bitter against anybody else?" This whole thing of guilt and forgiveness, we could get rid of it in one fell swoop with sound doctrine.

Sound Doctrine Transforms Lives

You are at a time when people are saying, "We want practical teaching and real teaching." Well, the teaching that will change lives is when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to people's lives. You take biblical revelation and cultural relevance, and you put them together. You understand that something as basic as forgiveness is essentially a doctrinal issue.

Paul says to Timothy, "Timothy, there's going to be times when there aren't going to be a lot of strokes in the midst of this, and you just need to hang in there and do what's right. You be sober." That word sober means clear-minded. It means focused, alert, on guard, calm. You be sober in this stuff, and you endure the hardship, and you do the work of an evangelist, and you fulfill your ministry.

Every Christian Has Full-Time Ministry

Let me make a very important point here. Again, Paul writes to Timothy as a pastor, and I understand that. But it's important for you to understand, God has given you a ministry as well. It's essential for you to carry out your ministry.

I get the perception from a lot of people that say, "Well, you know what, Schrader's in this thing full-time, and my pastor's in this thing full-time. I look around, and the world seems to be in pretty bad shape. These guys better go to work harder. They don't seem to be pulling their load. Isn't that what they do? Isn't that why we hire them, to clear this?" No.

There's a myth in this idea between full-time ministry and part-time ministry. There's no such thing as a Christian who's in a part-time ministry. Every one of us is in a full-time ministry position. Granted, some make their living at it. Some of them, it's a vocation. But you're in a full-time ministry. My sense is that most people are not about their ministry.

The End of Life Test

Let me try to tie it all together for you as Paul winds this down. He says, "I'm about to be poured out as a drink offering." All he's saying is, "The time of my departure has come." We're at the end of the life. Here it is. And now he said, "I fought the good fight. I finished the course. I kept the faith."

I'm not into a lot of visualization. But if you would, visualize with me the end of your life. It's interesting. When I was 35, I used to say, "Well, I'm halfway there. I'll be 70 and I'm halfway there." I'm 45 and I'm going, "Well, I'm kind of halfway there, it looks like. I'll live to be 90, kind of halfway there." I imagine when I'm 50, I'll go, "Well, you know, I mean, I can see me on Willard and the Mortal or it'll be gone. But I can see him going, 'You know, there he is from Tempe, Arizona. Boy, he sure looks handsome today. Good looking, strapping guy.'"

Living with the End in Mind

So get a picture of the end of your life. Now for sake of discussion and to make my point more clearly, let's not say that you're halfway there. Let's say that that end of your life is going to occur, let's say, noon today. Now I ask you a very important question. The reason I moved the departure date up to today at noon is because if I leave it out there, you're never going to deal straight away with this issue.

Now you're there today and your life is over. Would you say what Paul says in verse 7: "I fought the good fight, finished the course, I kept the faith"? See why we moved it up? I'm not that concerned really about what you're going to do in the next 20 years because in all likelihood, the last 20 are a pretty good indication of how the next 20 are going to go.

Every person I know wants to die that way. Every person that is reflective at all wants to be there at the end and say, "I fought the good fight, I kept the course, I kept the faith." Every person I know wants to die that way. Let me give you a tip: You will not die that way unless you live that way.

The Modern Rat Race

Most of us get in those rat race that starts especially now, especially my generation. We get out of there and most of us have had the privilege of going to school, college education. We get out and we say, "Okay, here we go. Now I've got to get a career." We start in that career and somewhere along the way we pick up a spouse and those little kids.

Maybe that relationship didn't work out so well. So after that little thing gets started, maybe then we shift gears and we find a new spouse. So now we're a little bit older. This is a phenomenon that's happened. You have women 40, 42, 43, 45 years old having babies at a time when traditionally we're empty in the nest, we're just filling the nest. So now I'm a 50-year-old dad. I'm going to a little league game at age 62. See how this is getting pushed back?

So I'm going, "Hey, you bet I'm going to do business with you, God. But I've got all these kids. I've got this family. I've got this business." My boss is saying to me, "40 hours doesn't cut it. We want production. We want income. We want revenue."

The Coming Revolution

Now you've got something that's even more interesting that's happened. Guys my age, 45, 50 years old, 55, are saying, "Forget it. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to work six days a week, 10 hours a day anymore." By the way, this is the future. I do not have an answer to this, but you have a revolution coming.

You have guys getting older saying to the company, "I ain't going to do it." The company's saying, "That's not a problem, because this 25-year-old buck over here will do it." So now you're there...

got the right idea and the right view of life, but you're about to get killed for it. You have a whole people, a whole area of people, making $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year, who are going to lose their job over the next 10 years. And you aren't going to be able to replace them. You're going to end up back down here working for $30,000 to $40,000 to $50,000.

So let me give you a little tip. When you're up here, you better figure out how you're going to live on $40,000 a year. This whole area with debt and money becomes absolutely essential for you to figure out your lifestyle. Now you're there, you've got all these kids, you're saying, "God, I'd love to do something for you, but let me tell you something. I don't think I'm going to be able to get at it until these kids are raised."

And I've got a sneaking suspicion that when they're raised, I'm really going to be pooped. And then I've got to take care of retirement, so God, here's what I'll do. I'll give you from like 70 to the end of my life. That's really the way most of you think. And if you don't consciously think that way, it's the way most of you live. Let me encourage you, if I could. Don't live that way.

Overestimating the Day, Underestimating the Decade

Dave Baker was here a few years ago, and Baker made a comment. And when he did, I wrote it down and I said, you know, I don't know about anybody else in the world, but that's me. He said, most of us overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a decade. And I mean, when he said that, I said, that's exactly right.

And I find this in the Christian life in particular, in business and all those other areas. But the Christian life in particular, we come out of the chute. And the church right now is very good at feeding this basic guilt-driven insecurity. We come out and somebody says, men, you need to be in a men's ministry. Women, you need to be in a women's ministry. Well, why? And now guys don't have any interpersonal relationships anymore. Well, let me give you a tip. That takes time to develop.

And now, what are you doing as a couple? You need to be together as a couple in a small group. And you need to be in that setting. And you're not serving over here. And you need to be spending time with your kids. And you're not reading. And you don't have a quiet time. And you need to be in church. And I don't know why you aren't serving on Sunday.

I do. They're out of time. There's nothing left. I can't do all those things and put a job on top of it. So here's what happens. I go hard. I'm in a men's group. I'm in a small group. I'm in this. And I'm grinding and I'm grinding. I'm going to do this. And I'm going to save the world. And I'm going to do all this stuff. And after about a month, I go, there is no way. I can't do this.

I overestimated what I could do in a day and underestimated what I can do in a decade. I would say to you, you need to begin today, right now, to plan and prepare the rest of your life.

Living as if Today is the Last Day

Someone asked Martin Luther once. They said, actually, it was a good friend. So they called him Marty, which is what his close friends called him. And they said, "Marty, if you knew you were going to die today, what would you do?" And I don't know if you remember Luther's answer, but it's an intriguing answer on the surface.

He said, "I would plant a tree." And like you, they kind of went, "What do you mean you'd plant a tree?" And he said, "If my job was a gardener, I'd plant a tree." And then he walked away.

Here's what he's saying. He's saying, I'm living today as though it's the last day of my life. I'm doing exactly what I think God would have me do. In all reality, if I knew that I had a month to live, it really wouldn't change much of what I'm doing right now. I think there'd be a little more emotion to the relationships. And there's some goodbyes I want to say, but I would not alter this.

I can't think of where I'd rather be on a Thursday morning if I knew I was going to die today than right here. This is what God's—you need to be where God wants you to be and where He's called you to be. Not sitting there making excuses about why you're not there. If you're not there, confess it as sin and go. But don't be overwhelmed by the fact that you haven't gotten there yet.

The Crown of Righteousness

How come? Paul says, "In the future there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only me, but all those people at La Posada, too."

What he's saying is, there's a crown. At the end of my life, there seems to be—and I'm not going to get into what these things are, because I don't really know—there is a time at the end of my life when I have the opportunity to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

I was in a guy's office not long ago, and he had a picture of himself and Ronald Reagan on the wall. It was just great, and it's Reagan giving him an award, and then he was able to get it autographed. And he is so proud of that picture. And I think rightly so. I mean, I think rightly so.

Imagine getting an award, not from Ronald Reagan, but from the creator God of the universe. That day is coming.

The Ultimate Performance Review

We had a guy that came to one of the studies, and he came in one day, and he looked as bad as any human has ever looked coming into a study. And he sat down, and I said, "How are you doing?" And he said, "I'm doing terrible." And I said, "Well, you look really terrible." And he said, "Well, I feel really terrible. I haven't slept in two days."

And I said, "What's wrong?" He said, "Well, the boss from the Twin Cities is coming in for my annual review tomorrow. And then, also, to take a look forward into the next year, and the word in the grapevine is we're downsizing."

And I said, "Well, I feel bad for you. I can understand that pressure. But let me add to it a little bit. You have a day coming when it isn't going to be the VP from Minneapolis, but it's going to be the creator God of the universe Himself who's going to judge your—"

life. If you're not a Christian, you're condemned. That's a given. Even as Christians, we learn from scripture that we'll be judged, that our works subsequent to our coming to Christ will be judged. And what we want to hear, not from the guy in Minneapolis, although that's important. And I don't want to minimize it. But my deepest desire is to hear from the God of the universe, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That's what you want to hear.

Three Men in Paul's Circle

Now Paul gets very autobiographical. He says, "Hey, come soon. Come quickly, would you?" And then he introduces us to three people. We've got about three or four minutes, and it's a shame because you could do a lesson on each one of them: Demas, Luke, and Mark.

Demas is a guy who's mentioned only three times in the New Testament. Twice, in a very positive note, as Paul signs off some of his letters to the churches, Demas is grouped with Paul's associates, is sending greetings. But here, Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. You want to know how strong the pull of the world is? Here's Paul with Demas. Demas is part of the inner circle. He's not just heard or observed Paul. He's interacted with Him. He's part of the group. But as the hardship comes, Demas says, "I'm on my way to Thessalonica. I hope everything turns out all right for you."

And then there's Luke. "Only Luke is with me." You wouldn't know it on the surface, but there's only one way that Luke could be with Paul at this point. The physician, historian, artist, this classical mind, the only way that he could be with Paul at this point is if Paul was able to say, "This is my slave." In other words, if Luke were to set aside all of His individual rights and submit himself to Paul, only then would Paul be allowed to keep Luke in prison with Him. There's a whole lesson there.

The Transformation of Mark

But this is the one that maybe we need to hear the most: "Pick up Mark. Bring him with you, for he's useful for service." Remember Mark? We met him earlier. Mark joins Paul and Barnabas as they're heading out on the first missionary journey. And they get into the trip, and Mark bails on them. He's gone.

And now it's ready for the second journey. And Barnabas says to Paul, "Let's take Mark with us." And Paul says, "We're not taking Mark. He's a loser. He's not going to make it. We're not taking Mark with us." And these two giants of the faith, Barnabas and Paul, actually split up over Mark.

Now Paul's at the end of His life, and He says, something's happened to Mark. "Bring him with you." Here you go. What great words these are: "He's useful for me in service."

Success and Failure

Give me just, if you would, two extra minutes today to hit this idea. I'm afraid that some of us have become scared to death of failure. You look at Demas, and you look at Mark, and here's a lesson for you: Success is not forever, and failure is not fatal. See, I want to suggest to you that I think failure may be one of the most important things in your Christian walk.

I've got two daughters, and they are unbelievably terrific kids. Different, but amazing. But Haley in particular, Haley is just the sweetest kid you've ever been around. I'm a pretty strict disciplinarian. I think you could get the sense of that. And Haley is 13 and never been spanked. There was one time when I said, "You know, I've got to create some situation for her to misbehave, because she needs to be disciplined."

And she went running through the house, about five kids, going from the pool in our house, out through the kitchen in the living room, out the front door to go to the pool at the next house. And I said, "Hey, where are you going?" And Haley said, "None of your beeswax." I said, "This is it." I said, "Haley, come here. Haley, don't ever talk to me like that." And then I could see, well, this isn't really that big an issue. I said, "Haley, don't ever speak to me again." And I turned around and walked away, and I could hear their little wet feet follow me. And she said, "Dad, do I need to go to my room, or is there something I should do? Because I misbehaved." And I said, "No, that'll be OK."

Haley's Experience with Failure

Well, last year, seventh grade, Haley's ready. She goes out for student council, doesn't win. She goes out for basketball, doesn't make it. She goes out for volleyball, doesn't make it. But all she really cared about was cheerleading. Cheerleading was the thing.

She trained. Sarah, who was valedictorian of a class in basketball and volleyball and cheerleading, Sarah trained her for a week. And I mean, she knew it all. Cheerleading tryouts were on Friday night. We went to pick her up, and I was on my way to go to Long Beach to speak.

And Haley came out, and there wasn't one person in the car who had to say, "Haley, how did it go?" You could just kind of tell the lip was down. And her head was down, and she got in the car. And you know how different kids are. You've seen them strike out or make a mistake, and they cry, and they weep in such a, well, inappropriate behavior. Haley got in the back seat, and she just kind of sat there with her head down, and then she'd look out. And I could see her in the rearview mirror, and all I could see was Haley, and her eyes were all welled up. And she wanted to cry, and she was hurting so bad.

And I got this stupid flight, and I cannot miss the flight. So I go. I do my thing. I call. It's at night. I said, "How's Haley doing?" And Susan said, "Well, she's in bed, but she's really hurting." And I'm up all night. I couldn't sleep. I mean, I was literally physically sick all night just watching her hurt and praying for Haley. And then I'd doze off, and then I'd wake up.

Well, about six months later, Haley came home and said, "Dad, cheerleading trials for next year are next week." I said, "Haley, I don't think I can handle this. I don't. I said, hey, I know it's important and all this stuff, but Haley, I'm not over the last one. I don't think yet." And Haley said, "Dad, I got to ask you a question." And I said, "Yeah." Then she said, "How am..."

I'm going to make the team if I don't go out? And that's the point. You have a quality in Haley where her sister—and it's nothing against Sarah. Sarah's an unbelievable kid. I'm not in any way slandering or slighting Sarah—but she hasn't had that kind of experience.

You take one little kid over here who's sucking gas. It's interesting. You put a room of junior hires together, and you'll see one kid over by themselves. You'll just watch Haley move over there and say, "Why don't you come over here? Come on. Oh, you don't know anybody? That's all right. Come on. Be my friend for the day. Come on, let's go." Sarah just blows by because she's never been in those shoes.

See, that's what failure does. And if you figure out that failure is not fatal, but it is a way to learn, your life is going to skyrocket. I'm not kidding you. I cannot tell you how many mistakes I make in a day.

Learning from Failure

I've got 50 balls in the air, and on certain days, it seems like 49 of them hit the ground. But all 49 get back up in the air. When you make the mistake, away you go.

Let me just say to you, because we've talked about a lot of heavy stuff, your life perhaps has not been perfect to this point. And your Christian life has not been what you want it to be to this point. And I understand that. But you've got to get beyond that. If you don't get beyond that, you're going to be locked in that space and time, and the next 50 years will look like the previous 50 years.

Success is not forever. Some of you cocky little people need to be beat around a little bit, but I don't need to do it. Life will do that for you. And when it does, and you fall flat in your face, you remember failure isn't fatal. You get up, you confess it, and away we go.

Let's pray. Father, thank You. Thank You that You are a God of the second chance. Father, thank You for opportunities that we have. And yet, don't let us become presumptuous to think that those opportunities are there forever. Father, we pray that You apply this word to our heart, that You change our lives. Father, we trust that You'll do that. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

See you in September.