Men's Breakfast

It's wonderful, I know every speaker says this, but it's wonderful to be here, to be with you.

It seems like these times are so too far in between, you know? Three years ago

I was here with my wife and kids, Andrea and Jeremy Jr., Abigail and Nathaniel, and they weren't able to come this time and I'm sad about that, but anyway, you get me and I get you.

It's wonderful to be here again and see how the Lord is working in the church. Some of you I know, some of you

I don't know, but at least hopefully this morning and tomorrow we can build some more relationship a little bit as we go along.

I was so encouraged by the testimonies, I think we all were. I was just thinking, as we were hearing

Simon and Chuck's testimonies, just how wonderful it is, the salvation of the

Lord. And you notice it's through His Word that He saves. The Word of God is living and active,

I was thinking about this as you were telling the testimony, for the

Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That's so true, isn't it? And there's no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord for His work. We wouldn't seek

God, we wouldn't want Him, we wouldn't know Him, we wouldn't even want to if He hadn't, by His grace, done a work in each one of our hearts.

Praise the Lord, we give Him the praise and glory for it, huh? So it's just wonderful, praise Him for that.

It's wonderful to be able to be with you this morning and share a little bit from the Word of God. And I am preaching,

I think somebody said I'm preaching, I'm a preacher so I guess I'll be preaching. But I want it to be somewhat interactive preaching.

If there's questions, comments, I'll ask questions, that means I actually want you to say something. So if there's any doubt, they're not rhetorical questions.

Sometimes I ask rhetorical questions, but assume for the time this morning that you can answer those questions.

Because I want us to get into the Word of God together, I want us to be challenged by it from a classic passage.

I'm sure you've studied it, thought about it, maybe you've taught it, I don't know, I mean been taught it or taught it yourselves, even perhaps recently, but it's one

I think that we need to come back to again and again. And that's 2

Timothy 2 verses 1 -7 and I have some notes for that, I'll pass them out to you in a minute. I don't know if we're going to have enough, this is more people than I anticipated, so I'm sorry about that.

But in just a minute I'll pass those out and you can take notes on those, some fill in the blanks and so on.

But first I want to ask you a question before we get into the text. Question is this, are you a strong man?

Everybody's saying no, no, no, I'm humble, I'm not a strong man. Well, there you go.

But I want you to think about that for a minute. Are you a strong man? Does God want you to be a strong man?

Well, yes, he wants us to be strong, he wants us to be men. But let me ask you this, if I had a volunteer this morning, somebody want to volunteer for a test of strength, all right, you can just stay there.

But if I were to ask you to come up here, Carl, and pick up this pulpit, it's pretty heavy, we can move it a little bit, come on up, just pick it up, carry it to the back of the room.

What? No? Okay. Well, you know, if you were going to do that, if you wanted to do that, and I just called you on the spot right now to come up and do that, would you be able to do it?

No. Why? Because it's too heavy. It's too heavy, it's too strong. Now, you're a strong man, but not that strong maybe.

I don't think I'm that strong either, all right? If you wanted to do that, could you do it? You can have a seat.

Well, you could if you worked out, if you went to the gym every day, if you became a muscle man, a bodybuilder, right, and you trained and you equipped, not because you're picking up pulpits every day, but because you wanted to be a strong man, and if you had that constant practice, you would do what?

You would prepare, you would get ready. When normal life is going on, so that when the time comes and you need the strength, then you could lift that baby and carry it, right?

What does it take to be a strong man? I was thinking as I was studying for this time of another story when

I was a, I don't know, I must have been a teenager or maybe a little bit younger than that. My father had a boat, and we went out on the lake one day to have a ride in the boat.

We're all excited, and we're going, and we get in the boat, and we push out into the water, and we're starting to go, and all of a sudden,

I notice in the back of the boat, it's one of those fiberglass, I don't know how big it was, but I look in the back, and the back is starting to fill up with water.

I'm like, Dad, what's going on? And all of a sudden, we realized what had happened, you probably know. We forgot to put the plugs in, right?

And we're all excited, and we're going, and all of a sudden, now, it's getting deeper and the back of the boat's going down.

We're like, ah, quick, where's the plugs, you know, and my dad's reaching down under the water and trying to get that thing in, right?

What was our mistake? We hadn't prepared beforehand. We hadn't worked in advance, and the boat was going down.

You know, the same thing is true about being a strong man. The Lord wants us, wants you, wants me to be a strong man.

It doesn't, but what does that mean? How does that happen? What does that look like in our lives?

That's what I want us to talk about tonight. What is the foundation of our strength? What is the basis of it?

How do we prepare for that? That's what Paul was explaining to Timothy. That was on his heart for his disciple,

Timothy, as he wrote this letter of 2 Timothy. From the first chapter, even into the second chapter, he wants to safeguard the gospel.

He wants to safeguard Timothy, to make him strong, so that the gospel would be fruitful, so that his ministry would be fruitful, that he would be a strong man in the difficult times that were coming ahead.

And that's what I want us to be challenged about this morning, is what does it mean to be a strong man?

For the glory of God, so when the hard times come, when the carpet's ripped out, you won't try to be up there stumbling and crushed under the pulpit, but you'll be able to carry, you'll be able to stand, and God will be glorified in your life.

Why? Because you're prepared. Because you have the foundation laid for strength. And I want us to talk about that.

So I'll pass out the notes now, and maybe if I could have a few guys help pass these out.

Again, I don't think we have enough for everybody, but maybe you can share. All right, how long can

I go, by the way? I see the clock there. We're supposed to be over about what, 10 .30 until I'm done?

You know what we do in India? It's called Indian Standard Time, or we call it

Indian Stretchable Time. Is there food for lunch also, or?

Just kidding. I'm in America now, and America do like the Americans, right? There you go.

Second Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. All right, well, why don't we read the text first of all?

And again, as I said before, this is a classic text. We all know these verses. We could just about, you know, we have them almost memorized.

We could quote them just about. But let's look at them afresh anew today, and be challenged for the glory of God to be a strong man.

Okay, well, let's read the text. I'll read it. You can follow along, and then we'll look at it together.

Chapter 2, verse 1. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what

I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Okay.

We're going to look at this one. You can see there in your notes, and you can write on those if you want to. It might help you to remember the things we're looking at here.

It's first of all the foundations of strength. In the first few verses, the first three verses,

Paul gives three commands. His concern, as I said before for Timothy, is that he would be strong.

He is going off the scene. You know this. Second Timothy was the last book that Paul wrote.

He is about to, at the end of the book, he says, I've run the race, I've finished the course. He's passing the baton to Timothy.

He says, you have to do the work of evangelists. You have to preach the word. Now it's up to you to carry on the gospel.

And he's giving these last words to Timothy, and he had lived a full life of ministry.

It was hard. It was full of suffering. It was full of difficulty. And he knows the exact same thing is going to happen to Timothy.

One thing you can guarantee about life is what? It's going to be hard. There's going to be times of suffering.

Sometimes more, sometimes less, for various people in various ways, but life is going to be hard.

And Paul, in his heart, he loved Timothy dearly. You notice what he said there. You, therefore, my son. He says,

I want you to succeed. I want you to be strong. I want you to be prepared. And so he gives them these three exhortations, and then he gives them those three pictures, which you're familiar with, of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer.

He says, this is what strength looks like. And so let's, first of all, lay the foundation of strength. What are the issues that Paul is exhorting

Timothy to that we can learn from as well about being a strong man for the glory of God?

Look at the first one there in verse one. It says, you, therefore, my son. What's the first command?

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And this is the first fill -in -the -blank.

You can write it in there. The first command is the command to find strength in the right place.

And this is the foundation. This is the starting point, really, of our whole discussion. Find strength in the right place.

When we think about being a strong man, we have all kinds of ideas that come into our head, right?

Courage, physical strength. We'll talk about some of the nature of those things.

But Paul makes a very specific, very focused command here to Timothy, his son.

He says, find your strength in the right place. And what is that? Be strong in the grace, which is in Christ Jesus.

In the grace. It's the location. It's the source. One way you could understand this with the word Paul used is, be strengthened.

Find your strength is the idea that Paul says here. And he says, find it in the right place.

Don't go running here and there and have worldly ideas of your strength. No. What is the foundation?

What is the bedrock of your strength as a man so that God can be glorified in your life? And it's the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

It's something totally foreign to you. It's a gift, right? What does grace mean? What's the concept of grace?

Unmerited favor. Good. What else? Something you don't deserve.

Right? It's a gift. Right? It's something given freely. It's not something that you earned.

It's not works -based. It's nothing that you deserve or have earned or somehow, oh, you get more, you get more, less because...

No. It's totally free. It's a gift of God. Now, the kind of grace that Paul's talking about here, and I want to explain this just for a minute, is grace generally is that free gift.

But as Paul uses it here, he uses it in a more focused way. It's talking about strengthening grace.

Sometimes in the scriptures, we hear this word grace being used about grace to give strength, grace to help in time of need.

I just want to look at a couple passages. Turn to 2 Corinthians 12. 2

Corinthians 12, verses 7 through 11.

2 Corinthians 12. Let's read this and we can understand something about this strengthening grace.

Paul says, Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, revelations which he had received, supernatural revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

Now, we don't know exactly what that thorn in the flesh was. Paul doesn't go into great detail. Some people think it was a person.

Some people think it was his physical ailments, perhaps with his eyes. Different ideas are there. We don't know exactly.

But anyway, it was a hardship. It was suffering. Paul says, To keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

Concerning this thorn, this I implored the Lord three times, that it might leave me.

And what was the Lord's answer to that? No. God answered his prayer.

He said no. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

This is strengthening grace, right? It's the grace to persevere, to endure in suffering.

And Paul says, If that's the Lord's choice for me, and I am given by grace the power of God to endure and to be strong in the midst of that suffering,

I'm going to rejoice. Look at verse 10. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulty for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is the kind of strength

Paul is talking about. That the Lord gives to his sons and daughters in the midst of suffering.

It's a strength to glorify him in the hard times. Peter talks about this also.

1 Peter 5 verses 8 to 10. I'm not going to read that. But he talks about strength and grace as strength to resist

Satan and his attacks. 1 Timothy 1 .12 and verse 14 talks about the strengthening of the

Lord. 2 Timothy 4 .11 Philippians 4 .13 2

Thessalonians 2 Hebrews 4 .16 Again and again the

Lord talks about the grace to give strength, to help, to give strength. This is what Paul is saying back in 2

Timothy 2. He says, Find your strength in the riches that you have because you're in Christ.

Think about it. Make it your foundation. Make it what you go to every day. Don't look to your own resources.

Don't look to your own financial abilities. Don't look to whatever other things we can look to for strength.

No. Find your strength. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Do you think about that?

Do you think about that? What are some of the chosen sources of strength that we go to? Especially when hard times hit.

Right? Religion. You go to church. Right? In the crisis.

What else? Any other ideas? What are the idols or the false foundations that we might run to?

Think about your own life. Money. That's pretty much number one.

Money or other financial resources. Right? Insurance. Right?

401k. IRA. Whatever else. Right? Everything can be solved through money.

What else? Any other ideas? Booze. Booze is right. Drugs. Distraction.

Pleasure. To be distracted from the difficulty or the hardship.

Yeah. Other ideas? Okay. Right?

Counsel. Relationships would kind of go in that same category. You know, we run to people to find strength.

Now, some of these things we're talking about are not wrong necessarily. Right? Money. There's nothing wrong with having money.

You ought to have insurance. Right? But where do you find your strength?

What is the foundation? What is your knee -jerk reaction when something happens? That's what

Paul is saying to Timothy. He says, Timothy, hard times are coming. Life is going to be tough.

You're going to suffer for Christ if you're faithful to him. And you need to lay the foundation, the bedrock in your life.

Paul's command here is wonderfully narrow and focused. Maybe that's a better way to say it. Find your strength in the right place.

Think about it. Think about your foundations, what you run to. Is it the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it being found in him?

Is it the assurance that he is in control of all things in your life? Is he the first one you run to when life is pulled out?

You know, one of the greatest things that can happen in our lives is when the Lord takes away, or at least threatens to take away, some of those things we run to other than him.

Right? Because suddenly we don't have anything else to grab on to, falling. But we are reminded in those times that his grace is sufficient.

That's the first command as we lay the bedrock of being a strong man for the glory of God. Find your strength in Christ alone, in who you are in him.

Now let's look at the second one. Continuing on in verse 2. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Now typically this passage, 2 Timothy 2, verses 1 through 7, is explained and understood as a discipleship passage.

And of course discipleship and building into men's lives and helping them to grow in their faith is a key component of what

Paul is saying here. But if we look at the context all the way from chapter 1 all the way through what we're looking at today, the main burden in Paul's heart is strength, courage, boldness.

And when part of that, part of being a strong man is not in the time of crisis, when the hard times come, just getting focused in on yourself.

I think that's why Paul is explaining here in verse 2, part of being a strong man is being strong enough to not think only of yourself.

Let me just tell you what you can fill in the blank there. The command to disciple faithful men. When a hard time comes, think about this with me for a minute.

When a hard time comes, where do your thoughts go naturally? First thought in your mind is, suddenly it's all about me, right?

This has happened, this is going to happen, the fear is there, and I've got to watch out for me and mine.

What's going on here with me, right? And we think, well, that's natural.

You know, there's nothing wrong with that. We think of strength oftentimes in terms of what

I can get for myself, right? Isn't that the way the world thinks? And sometimes we're drawn into that as well.

A strong man is a man who can accomplish, who can get things for himself.

He can build his empire, he can advance in his job, he can do it for himself.

Self -made man. Pull up by your bootstraps, right? We think of strength in those ways.

But that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's saying, find your strength in Christ, and when you are a strong man in the

Lord's world, according to his definition, you are one who has the strength to die to self and to give yourself for the benefit of others.

This is true strength. Think of the Lord Jesus. Was there a stronger man?

Is there a stronger man? Where was his strength found? In what he could do for himself?

In the glory and the majesty that he could gain for himself? The strength of our

Lord was in that he would empty himself, pour himself out, pour out his life unto death, even death on a cross, to give up the glories of heaven, right?

Philippians chapter 2. So that we might live. So that his riches he would forfeit, so that we would become rich in him.

The strength of a man of God is in the strength to be like the Lord Jesus. By the grace of God to give of himself.

And that's where Paul comes to here in verse 2. The command to disciple faithful men.

Did you notice the people focus here? The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses.

It's all about people. Entrust these to faithful men. And who will be able to teach others, other people, other men also.

It's all about people, right? And it's not about this person. It's about other people.

How can I build you up? How can I encourage you? How can I spur you on to love and good deeds? How can

I help you to become more like Jesus? Because that's the greatest joy. And that's the greatest fulfillment.

And that's the greatest glory to God. What are you doing to build up other people? It takes a strong man to say, you know what?

What matters to me, what's best for me is not that important. It's what you need.

It's what the church needs. It's what my wife needs. It's what my children need that I'm going to live for.

It's the glory of God is what's most important. And what happens to me, that's not so important.

That's strength. And Paul says, Timothy, pour your life into these faithful men.

Pour your life into them. Teach them. Pass it on so that the gospel won't suffer loss.

I know you might be thinking to yourself, I'm not called to make disciples, right? That's what Pastor Steve is here for.

That's what Pastor Mike is for. That's what the pastoral staff is for. That's what the elders are for. They are to disciple us.

They're to equip us, right? Ephesians 4, that's biblical, right? What do we pay them for, right?

I don't know if anybody would think that. I want to raise your hand. No. Well, are you called to make disciples?

Well, yeah. Matthew 28, verse 19, does that apply to you? Yes. Go into all the world and make disciples.

Baptizing, teaching them to observe everything that I have taught you. Ephesians 5, 25 to 32, husbands, you are to nurture your wives.

You are to disciple them. You are to bring them, to teach them, to love them like Christ loved the church, to nurture them spiritually.

Ephesians 6, 4, fathers, train up your children in the fear and admonition of the

Lord. Spur one another on to love and do good deeds. Consider how to do that.

Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. 1 Corinthians 12, the

Lord has given to each one a special gift for the edification of the body, and each member has its part to play.

Yes, you are called to disciple. You know, very often we think of discipleship in terms of, well, you know, you have to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Starbucks at 9 .30

and, you know, go through a book, right? Now, that's good. Don't get me wrong.

But discipleship is more than that. It's using your spiritual gift to build up the body, to contribute, to encourage, to teach, to love, to serve, so that the body builds itself up into the perfect man, like it says in Ephesians 4.

You are called to be a life giver. And this is part of the strength that Paul is encouraging

Timothy to. Pour yourself, invest yourself in the saints.

This is part of the foundation of strength that Paul is exhorting Timothy to. Okay? So the first command was what?

Find your strength in the right place, in the riches, the glorious riches you have in Christ, because you are one with Him.

You have an eternal inheritance. You have forgiveness of sin, new life. Secondly, disciple faithful men, pour yourself, give yourself for the building up of the saints.

And thirdly, the third piece of the foundation is the command to suffer hardship with courage.

Suffer hardship with courage. Look back at your Bibles. Verse 3.

Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now, the soldier is the first picture. So we're really just looking at the first half of the verse here, which of course leads right into the three pictures that Paul wants to give us.

But just think about that for a minute. Suffer hardship with me. How often do you make that a part of your gospel presentation?

Suffer hardship for Christ. Paul knew about suffering, right?

Happened all the time. And actually tomorrow in church we're going to be talking about Paul's sufferings a little bit more, from Acts chapter 20.

But just think about it for a minute. Paul, he faced all kinds of sufferings, right? Why? Mainly because he was a leader in the persecution of the early

Christians with the Jews. He was zealous. He was on fire. Thought he was doing God a favor, right?

And then God saved him. He totally turned around. He immediately started preaching Christ. And what do you think that made the

Jews feel? He jumped ship. What has come over?

He's insane. What's going on? And they started persecuting him. We've got to get rid of him.

They tried to kill him. They chased him all over the country. They threw him in prison.

They produced plots, devised plots and strategies to get rid of him, to discredit him.

All kinds of suffering. And so Paul knows what he's talking about here. He says, now Timothy, you're going into the ministry.

I think I'm going to die pretty soon. Suffer with me. Suffer with me.

You know, a lot of people had bailed on Paul as well, even believers. He said,

Paul, he's in prison. What kind of name is that going to be? They were ashamed of him.

They were ashamed of the gospel also. And Paul is saying, Timothy, don't you bail out.

Don't you cut bait on me. Like many others have done.

Just look at it back. And this is his burden all the way from the beginning to chapter 1. This is what I've been saying the whole time. Look there in verse 7.

And this is how he starts the letter. And you're familiar with this, but let's just look at it again. For God has not given us,

Timothy, a spirit of timidity. Why do you say that? Well, Timothy was probably struggling with fear.

God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and of discipline.

Stay the course. Stay focused. The rough waters are coming. Look at verse 8.

Therefore do not be ashamed. See, here it is. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner.

Your best friend is a prisoner, a convict. How does that make you feel,

Timothy? But join with me in suffering. It's the same word there.

Join with me in suffering. Suffer with me for the gospel according to the power of God.

Just don't be ashamed. This is weakness. To be ashamed. To shrink back.

To say, no, no, no. Yeah, I'm a Christian, but I'm not that kind of Jesus freak kind of Christian.

No, there's a limit. I mean, there's reason. There's logic here. There's something that has to be maintained.

Paul says, no, don't do that. Don't shrink back. Join with me in going all the way.

And then in verses 9, 10, 11, really 9 through 14, he encourages Timothy. He says, this is what

Christ has done for us. This is what he has called me to. This is what he has called you to. He encourages him. We're not going to look at those in detail.

You can just scan them through. But then notice he comes down to verse 15 again and says, you are aware.

This is heartbreaking. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me.

All who are in Asia turned away from me. Paul was abandoned by everybody in that particular geographic region.

And he gives some examples. Among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

He says, this is what I'm talking about. Don't you be like them, Timothy. Don't be afraid. Don't be scared. But then he commends, on the other hand, those who were not ashamed.

The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

See, this is the outworking of this fear of the weakness that Paul is talking about.

They were ashamed. But Onesiphorus, he was not ashamed. So what did he do when he was in Rome?

He eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the

Lord on that day. And you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.

Because Timothy was working at Ephesus. He continued to serve, right?

That was the strength. He continued to give himself. He wasn't ashamed of Christ or of Paul or of the shame of following the

Lord. So he says to Timothy, suffer hardship. How are you with suffering?

Let me just challenge you that way. You know, very often, most of the time, when it comes to suffering, it's either the possibility of suffering.

That's enough for us to back off. No, no, there's a chance I might suffer. So, no, we're not going to go there, right?

Or perhaps out of your control, the suffering happens. Hardship, maybe financial hardship, maybe mockery because you're a

Christian. How do you do with that? What do you say? Do you back off? Do you move forward?

Do you maintain? Do you continue telling and sharing about who Christ is and the impact he's had on your life?

I remember when I was in seminary, I worked at UPS. Not one of the guys in the brown suits, you know, who drives the trucks.

No, that was, you have to be there a long time to do that. I was in the warehouse, you know, hauling boxes, loading the trucks, unloading the trucks.

It was hard work. But those guys are rough. Those guys have no pretense towards any kind of religion except loving themselves.

And they knew I was going to seminary. I was kind of the preacher boy, you know. And they would, you know, curse them like sailors.

Any sailors here? No? Sorry. But I mean, you know, and we were in Los Angeles, Newhall, California.

And there was a lot of pornography. It's kind of the pornography capital of the nation, I think, in Northridge and Newhall.

Not Newhall, Van Nuys. Sorry. It's in Van Nuys. But they would recognize the boxes that were coming through with pornography.

And it comes down, all these conveyor belts. The whole thing is full of conveyor belts. And they would, you know, preacher boys down the conveyor belts.

So they'd rip a box open, which is, of course, illegal. But hey, who cares, you know. Rip a box open and have their jollies.

And then they'd set it on the thing, and what's preacher boy going to do, you know. And they're, you know, who are you?

Sometimes conversations, mocking the gospel. What am I going to do? What am I going to say?

How do I respond? Shrink back in fear, or do you continue in humility, in boldness, to continue to share, to continue to be a witness for Christ?

Are you willing to suffer hardship? When you do suffer hardship, what is your foundation?

What do you run to? That's what Paul is exhorting Timothy to, and I want us to be exhorted by that as well.

How is your foundation, men? Are you prepared to be strong?

Are you preparing right now to be strong? Are you finding your hope and your joy and your fulfillment in Christ and his riches?

Are you reminding yourselves of those things? Are you learning about them? Are you reading about them, memorizing them?

Because there's going to come a day when you have to pick up the pulpit, and you're going to have to be strong.

And God's glory in your life is going to depend on whether or not you're ready, whether you're not prepared.

Are you living for others, or are you living for yourself? Are you trusting in him and valuing him highest?

That's what Paul is saying to Timothy. Timothy, be ready. Be prepared. Find your strength in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.

Now, what does that look like? Paul helps Timothy. He helps us by giving us pictures. And this is the second half of what we're looking at.

What is this going to look like, you might ask? And so Paul wonderfully gives some illustrations, some examples.

About what this strength will look like worked out in your life. Some specifics, some things to work on, to pray about, to nurture and build up in our lives, to be a strong man for God.

The first one is, of course, a picture shown in a soldier, right? Suffer hardship with me, first of all, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Let me just lay it out here. A strong soldier's strength is found in his singular devotion.

His singular devotion. This is what strength looks like in a man of God, who will stand up and glorify

God in the day, in the hard times. He is characterized by singular devotion.

The issue here is distraction. Look at the text again. The explanation in verse 4.

For no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

How important is a soldier's devotion to his work? Anybody here who was in the military?

Lots, quite a few. How important is your devotion to your commanding officer?

That you will do what he says, no questions immediately. How important is that? Obvious. It's most important.

What's at stake? People's lives? Your own life? The lives of the others in your group?

The freedom, the safety of those who you're fighting for? Of your nation? Of those whom you're protecting?

What happens if you're on the battlefield, and you're a soldier, and you're fighting, and you start thinking about, you know, the

NBA playoffs? Oh, my Blazers just lost. You know, I had high hopes, Brandon Roy.

That's my team. Right? They just lost last night. Was it last night or the night before? And you're thinking about that?

Oh, man, what's going to happen? What's going to happen to you? Instead of listening to what your commander's saying?

Boom, you're dead. Right? Because you're out of formation. You're not paying attention to what's going on.

Silly illustration, but that's what Paul's saying here. Don't be distracted by the unimportant things.

Have singular, focused devotion to your commander -in -chief. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ.

Are you listening to him? Is his priorities, his commands, his orders, his priorities, his purposes for your life, is that in the forefront, the foremost thing in your life?

Is he the only one who you ultimately care whose opinion matters to you?

Or is it all the issues of life that are distracting you from that singular focus?

See, what Paul is illustrating here, through this picture of a soldier, is what I like to call the sweet pain, the sweet pain of singular love and devotion to our

Lord Jesus Christ. Does it cost you something to push aside all of the,

I'm using the term distractions, which is kind of negative, but all the other things of life that you like, that you want, that are enjoyable, to push those aside and say,

I will live for Christ alone? Is that hard to do?

Well, yeah, because I want these things. I enjoy these things. And again, the enjoying of the good things that God gives us in life is not the issue.

The issue is, where is your heart? Where is your love? What is number one?

I like to think of it as a wheel. And I think I even used this last time when I was speaking from Philippians here, three years ago.

But I think it's a helpful illustration for me. Think of your life as a wheel. And all of the issues of life that Paul is talking about there, the affairs of everyday life, those are the spokes.

This wheel has spokes. And the hub of the wheel is what?

Well, it's Christ. And the spokes are not bad. You should enjoy those things.

My job, my family, my entertainment. Those are gifts from God. But they are driven.

They are given meaning. They are given power. They only have significance insofar as they are connected to the hub.

So my question to you is, where's your hub? What's your hub? If the hub is something other than Christ, then there's something wrong with my life.

And Paul is saying here, have Christ. Be sure that your life is purified to the point where Christ is your hub.

Where your devotion is singular. It is focused on Him alone.

So what are the competitors in your life? What are the competitors in your life for singular devotion?

Now sometimes that's hard to understand. It's hard to know. Because we're not tested. Right? Sometimes we're not asked to give up things.

We're not asked to choose between Christ and, you know, the new boat.

Right? So we don't know sometimes. But when crises happen, then everything starts to become clear.

Financial crisis. Do we put on hold those financial plans?

Or do we continue giving to the Lord? Then the decision, then the loves, then the focus, then the hub becomes clear.

And so my encouragement to you, and this is what Paul was giving to Timothy and to us as well, is think about it now. Prepare in advance.

Imagine, perhaps, what would happen. What would your heart do? What would your heart say if you had to make a choice?

You ever done that? You ever thought about that? This isn't morbid, you know, thinking about, oh, the worst and worry.

No, I'm just saying, think about where your loves are. And what would happen if you had to make a choice.

You know, if you're having trouble thinking about where your devotion lies, just think about sin for a minute in your own life.

Where do you struggle in sin? You know, every sin we commit is a choice to have devotion to something else besides the

Lord. It's true. Every time you decide to commit a sin, or you sin, you are choosing someone else besides the

Lord Jesus and His goals and His pleasures, somebody else. And you know who that person is?

Well, yourself. You're choosing to love yourself, to worship yourself, to place in the highest priority, number one, right?

Which is me. So think about it. Where is your devotion? Paul is saying, be like Timothy, be like a soldier.

Have that singular devotion. Let's look at the second picture then, in verse 5.

If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

The picture we have here is that of an athlete. Athletes are strong, right? Now, how are athletes strong?

I'll give you the point here in a minute, but how are athletes strong? When you think of a strong athlete, yeah, endurance.

True. There you go. Dedication.

Discipline. Very good. I think oftentimes we think of strength, physical strength, right?

The muscles, the ability to do it, perhaps skill, talent, either inherent or trained, right?

We think of those things. Paul's not talking about that, though. It's a little closer to what you mentioned, Dave. It's an inner strength.

What is the strength? Look at it there again in verse 5. If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

Does Timothy be strong like an athlete? Well, he's not talking about physical strength, ability to accomplish. What kind of strength is he talking about?

Strength to be obedient. Strength to be lawful. Strength to follow the principles, the rules of the game.

I'd like to call it this way, and this is the point that Paul is making spiritually. He says,

Timothy, be strong like an athlete. Have integrity. A strong athlete's strength is found in his integrity, or you might say his lawfulness, which is close to what was said here about obedience.

He's saying that the strong athlete is one who has a strength of character, right, which enables him to choose in favor of what is right and good instead of what is shady or questionable or the shortcut or what is just perhaps downright immoral or illegal.

To choose the path that is harder because it's right, because it is good. He says,

Timothy, this is what strength will look like in your life. This is what I'm talking about. That you don't go soft or easy or shrink back.

No, that you stand strong and you stay the course and you keep doing what you know is right, even when it seems like it's going to be bad for you or hard for you or damaging or hurtful, or you don't understand why.

This is a big struggle for us, isn't it? When suffering or persecution or difficulty is coming, the first thought on our minds is, well, maybe

I didn't understand right. Maybe there's a different way. This can't be what the Lord intended.

The big question oftentimes is why, when something happens perhaps from the world or just by chance comes into our lives, we think, why,

Lord? I don't understand this, like our big car wreck three years ago. The inevitable question that comes into our minds very often is, why?

Why? We're just driving, we're going back to India for ministry, right? And the guy who was driving, he crashed into the back of a truck in the hospital.

A whole year of time was lost in ministry. Lord, this doesn't make sense. I don't understand. It's painful.

It costs a lot of money. Why? Right? Some people asked us, you know, are you going back to India?

Because we came back to the U .S. for surgery. Are you actually going to go back, especially our unbelieving family?

Are you actually going to go back? Even some believers questioned. You're going to drive again from Bombay to Pune?

Why in the world would all this happen? How could God allow this? And the temptation is to say, yeah, you're right.

This doesn't make sense. There's good ministries we could do in America. Anyway, I never received a revelation from God saying go to India.

So, hey, maybe there's another way. You know, getting smashed on a dashboard, you know, wasn't an act of the

Jews persecuting me for my faith. But it's suffering. It's hardship.

It's similar in some ways, I guess. What Paul is telling us and telling

Timothy is, be a man of integrity. Have the inner strength. Because you are founded, your anchor is rooted in the grace of Christ and who you are in Him and what you are absolutely confident of in Him that you stay the course, that you remain strong, that you don't shrink back.

You ever face those kind of decisions of integrity? Whether to do what you know is right or to just compromise a little bit.

I think we've all faced those at certain times. Whether to save face, to look good, or to be a bold witness for the

Lord. Maybe in the workplace. Maybe with family. To be honest, to be true.

This is what Paul is saying, what the Lord is saying to us. Be like an athlete. Not because you can accomplish everything, but by the grace of God working in your life, you are strong on the inside.

Do not deviate. Be a man of integrity. When nobody is looking, when everybody is looking.

Be strong. Be a soldier of singular devotion.

Be an athlete of integrity. And lastly, we have the farmer. Verse 6. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.

Do we have any farmers here? Anybody ever farmed? Alright, thank you.

I lived on a farm for a good portion of my life. Let me tell you something about farmers.

Farmers are strong. Alright? And this is why Paul used it, this is an illustration.

Farmers are strong. They have to be strong. Ranchers, farmers. Why? Because it's a lot of work.

There's a lot of things to do. Oh yeah. And they hurt also.

You know? Get all scratched up. Farmers have to be strong.

And Paul is saying, be strong like a farmer. Now how is a farmer strong? It's interesting.

The farmer's strength here, and this is the whole point that Paul is making. A farmer's strength is found in his diligent labor.

His diligent labor. Look at the verse again. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.

Interesting the way he describes the farmer here. He uses an adjective to say, the hardworking farmer ought to be the first.

So he implies by describing him that way, he's the hardworking farmer. He's first. What does this imply?

Well there are other kinds of farmers that are, they're lazy.

They're not hardworking. There is such a thing as a lazy farmer.

Gets up late. Doesn't get out there and do the work. What's going to happen to his crops?

They're going to be bad. They're going to be not very much. And Paul is making a contrast here.

He's saying the one who is hardworking, the one who labors, the one who puts in the time, who gets up early, who works hard, who sweats, who's not afraid to get down and take initiative and get his hands dirty, who stays the longest, he's going to be in the front of the line when the paychecks come.

That's what Paul is saying. He deserves to have the reward. He deserves to have the benefit.

He will produce a good crop. And he deserves it. Why? Because he was willing to pay the price.

He wasn't afraid. He wasn't the one who would rather just let everybody else do it and to serve him instead of him jumping in and being the one to serve.

He had the strength to be a finisher, to do the work, to benefit from the crop.

He will be the first to receive the share of the crops.

Why? Because he worked hard. And this is the last part, the last picture of strength that Paul is giving to us and to Timothy.

He says, put in the time, Timothy. Don't stop. Don't get weary. Don't get tired.

Don't say, well, it's hard. It's difficult. It's risky. You know, there's a lot to lose.

Because Paul says, if you have that kind of attitude, your life will be... There's a direct correlation between the level of work, the strength, and the profit, and the benefit.

And what's the benefit? In ministry, in my life, as a man of God, as a child of God, as a minister in the church, here or in India, as a teacher, as I do.

What's the benefit? What's the glory? It's glory to God. It's souls saved.

It's a church that is vibrant and growing that God can use to bring glory to Himself.

And Paul says, Timothy, I want that for you. I want you to be successful. I want you to be strong for the glory of God.

Do you have the strength? I'll ask you now about the farmer. Do you have the strength to be a finisher? Are you a strong man?

See, it's one thing to say, yeah, I'm a strong man, because I can do it. But that's not what Paul is saying here, is it? If we learn nothing else this morning about what

Paul is saying here is, he says, have the right foundation for your strength. Find your strength for these things in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

It's His work. It's His power. It's His Word working in you so that you will be strong.

His power is perfected in your weakness. So understand you are a weak man.

Why? So that by the power of God, you will be a strong man.

This is what Paul is saying to Timothy and to us as well. Be a strong man in the grace of Jesus Christ for the glory of God.

Now, how do you do that? How do you do that? Well, number one is humble yourself.

Stop thinking that you're a strong man. Stop thinking that I can do it. Like, oh, look what

God has done for me, and whoo, I'm going to go save the world. No, say,

Lord, I want to shine forth for Your glory. What happens to me doesn't matter a bit, but I'm going to pour out my life for You.

So, work in me. Make me like Jesus. Make me that kind of strong man.

And use me, Father, as I know You, as I love You. Use me as I strive according to Your power.

Use me for Your glory. And walk humbly each day. Now look at verse 7.

And then we'll close. Consider what I say. He says, For the

Lord will give you understanding in everything. That's a great way to end.

Interesting way to end this little exhortation. Consider what I say. Think about it, he says. Think about it.

What Paul is talking about here is foundations of your life. Things you value. The way you think about yourself.

The way you think about your things. Your life. Your relationships. Your involvement in the church.

Your involvement at home. All those things. He's saying these are fundamental principles which will guide the decisions, the issues of your life.

So think about it. I would encourage you to do the same thing. We need to do this. Think about it. And may the

Lord give you the ability to understand, to discern whether you're strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus or whether you're weak.

The Lord is in the business of making strong men out of weak men.

And so I would just encourage you, I would exhort you to consider what these things are.

Really think about your life. Do you have the strength of diligent labor?

The strength of persistence? The strength of integrity of heart? That singular devotion to the

Lord. So think about it. And may the Lord give grace as we become strong men for His glory.

Shall we pray? Lord, we know that apart from You we would be nothing.

We could do nothing. Well, that's just the facts. That's the reality.

If You hadn't saved us, if You hadn't drawn us to Yourself through Your Word and by Your Spirit, we would not seek after You.

We wouldn't long for You. Lord, we give You praise because You are a very merciful and patient and good

God. Lord, we have been bought by You.

Our lives are not our own. And Lord, we sometimes live like it is. But Lord, forgive us of that misunderstanding and wrong way of living.

Lord, I pray that You would give wisdom to each one of us to discern where we fail, where we are loving ourselves more than we love

You. Lord, we want to be strong, not so that people look at us and say, wow, what a strong man.

We want to be strong so they'll look at You and say, what an amazingly powerful God. So Lord, remind us to give

You the glory. Lord, give us that inner strength that comes from loving

You more than ourselves. And Lord, give us wisdom to work that out in each practical area of our lives today.