Letters to Timothy: Good Practical Advice: Don’t Give Up!
May 29, 2016
Dr. Tom Pace
2 Timothy 4:1-8
We’re continuing our series on Practical Advice from Paul’s letter to Timothy. We’re going to be looking at the end of Second Timothy, so this is almost the very end of both of these letters, and it is near the end of Paul’s life. So listen now as we hear the Scripture read from 2 Timothy chapter four.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:1-8
I want to invite you to take out your Sermon Notes and there’s a place inside for you to take some notes. I’m going to move around a little bit, actually starting with point 3 and then doing one and two. And that’s just to keep you awake and because it was due on Thursday at 10:00, and I wasn’t quite ready. But other than that, that’s why it’s there. I hope you’ll follow along.
I want to review first. We talked four weeks ago about character, focusing on character rather than success. That when you look at the characteristics of a leader that Paul’s talks about in Timothy, they are not resume values but eulogy values. That’s an image created by David Brooks. So that rather than talking about competence, they talk about character, so that we focus on building character.
Second, we looked at all the names and places that Paul talks about relationships in his letter to Timothy and see that Paul’s focus, that that really mattered to him. We are called on to invest in our relationships, not becoming so task driven that we ignore the relationships that make life worth living.
Third, we looked at the passion that Paul had, and that he was clearly willing to even die for the cause that he had enlisted in. Is there something that matters to you enough that you’ll give your whole life to it? Do you have something you care about that much? And the wisdom I think the Scripture gives us is that we are called to find something we are really to believe in and to really give ourselves to it.
And last week Eric Huffman talked to us about discipline and the daily discipline. And that’s really where I want to pick up, because the theme is sort of an extension of that today.
Let’s pray together. O God open us up. Open our eyes that we might see and our ears that we might hear. Open our hearts that we might feel and then, O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
The Olympics are coming. I love the every four years summer Olympics. I’m not a big fan of the winter Olympics, but the summer Olympics I just love it. I get tingling up and down my spine when I hear the national anthem played and see our flag go up. I cheer for our team and our athletes. There will be 28 sports in the Olympics this year. Some have almost 400 events. They have added golf to the Olympics this year, which I do not understand. It’s not like the ball is even moving when you hit it. It just sits there. No one has to throw it to you, it’s not moving. It’s like T-ball for those who have too much time on their hands. That’s what golf is. It’s just there.
So the Olympics began in the 8th century BC in ancient Greece. There were only three sports. There was track and field, which did include discus, and runs of about three different lengths - one time down the stadium, two times down the stadium, and then somewhere between 7 and 24 – it would change back and forth. Then it had discus and javelin, those races. Then they had wrestling, and they had boxing.
And they continued to hold the games all through the Roman Empire. Then once the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, the Christian empire, it was discontinued. Interesting, in Rome… this is more than you wanted to know about the Olympics, but I get to preach on what I want to preach about. After Rome defeated Greece in 167 BC, Rome allowed there to be professional athletes. So up until that time the city-states would have their best athletes come and represent them. But after that the athletes would sell themselves to the city-states or the trade unions and be paid to represent them. So the Olympics were held every year. An athlete might represent this city-state one year and another city-state the next year. So people didn’t have quite the same spirit about it.
But it was clearly a part of Paul’s life. Everyone would have known about the Olympics and Paul is using that very image when he reaches the end of his life. He says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” You see, the victor would receive an olive branch that was woven together into a crown and would wear that crown.
So he’s using the image of athletic competition to symbolize an image for the Christian life. So what I’d like to do is look at that single verse and begin to understand what it says to us about the Christian life. I want to start with the last statement, “I have kept the faith.”
So the focus is on faithfulness. You see, the victory comes. It is given to us. You don’t earn the victory. You don’t earn the victor’s crown in the Christian faith. It is a gift of God. Our job is to be faithful.
I think a lot about second string quarterbacks, backup quarterbacks, particularly in college. In the pros they still get paid too much money, so I don’t think about them so much there. But in the college - these are guys who have been great players all through high school and were starting and were stars. Then they get to college and now they’re the backup quarterback. They have this internal conflict about whether they want the starting quarterback to get hurt or not. They don’t want their team to lose, but they want to get to play. And everyday they show up, they train, they do the drills. They put on the uniforms and they work just as hard, if not harder, than everybody else. And they may never ever get to play. But they suit up, and they show up. That’s faithfulness, a sense of consistency. You may never do something mighty and amazing for God, but you suit up and show up and you’re a consistent, persistent witness for who Jesus is.
This series began on our senior Sunday, and we were talking about what advice we would give seniors as they graduate from high school with many of them going off to college. Here’s the advice I’d give them about success in college. It’s really very simple. Go to class. That’s it. Go to class. You don’t even have to do all the reading. Just go to class. Set your alarm, and when it goes off, go to class. And if you do that I suspect you will do just fine. Because much of it is just showing up.
When I was a young pastor Charles Williams took me aside and here was his advice to me: “Go to the meetings. Go to the Conference meetings, go to the District meetings, go to your church meetings, go to the hospital, and preach your sermons. And you’ll do fine.” In other words he’s saying, “Just suit up and show up.” Be a part of what’s going on. Be in the arena. You don’t have to be a champion, just be in the arena.
Some of you have heard my story about when I was teaching a class we have here for new members. It used to be called Life Together, but now we call it Coffee with the Pastor. It talks about what we expect of people when they come to be a part of the church. I tell the story that it used to trouble me so much that on the Sunday after Easter and the Sunday after Christmas were our lowest attendance Sundays. I used to think “That’s crazy. I thought we were pretty good the week before. That was when we pulled out all the stops, and the next week people think, ‘Aw, they weren’t very good. I’m not coming back.’”
Finally someone in the class, a sort of engineer type, said, “Pastor, you don’t understand. It’s math.” I said, “Math? What do you mean?” And he said, “Well, you have your every Sunday people, your every other Sunday people, your every third Sunday people, your every fourth Sunday people, and on Easter everyone’s there. And the next week the only people who come are the every Sunday people. They say, ‘I’m not going to go. I went last week. Why would I go this week? I only go every other week.’”
I don’t need to tell you all that because it’s Memorial Day weekend, and you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t every Sunday people. I get that. I’m preaching to the choir here. This is the remnant, the faithful remnant that’s with us here today. But you see the point I’m making is that you’re not going to get in good shape by going to the gym once. There is a consistency that is required, a faithfulness.
One of you sent me this cute little story from the Internet. I’ve heard it before, but it fits so well, and I was reminded of it. There was a conversation going on in a small town newspaper, and someone wrote a letter to the editor about why there’s no need to go to church. He writes, “I’ve gone for 30 years now, and in that time I’ve heard something like 3000 sermons, but for the life of me I can’t remember a single one of them. So I think I’m wasting my time, and the preacher’s wasting his time by giving sermons at all.” Okay, maybe so. Here was the response. (I didn’t write it by the way). “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of them. But I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals I would be physically dead.”
Friends, what I’m telling you is that there is a consistency that faithfulness is about. So, “Keep the faith.” Second, “Fight the good fight.” This image of life as a journey is swell, but sometimes life feels more like a wrestling match, doesn’t it? It feels more like a boxing event. You don’t give up when life is difficult.
But listen to what he says to Timothy a few verses earlier. This is verse 1 and 2, end of verse 1 and verse 2. “I solemnly urge you proclaim the message, be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Sometimes it’s going to be easy and sometimes it’s going to be hard.
The Astros won last night. Six to 4, got 2 runs in the sixth inning, they got a run in the fifth to tie it up, and they held on to win. Last year the Astros went to the playoffs. I wore my Astros jersey in the pulpit while I was up here preaching. I wore my Astros jersey. I was so proud. They were in the playoffs. They went up against Kansas City and should have won. They were that close. This year, they are now tied for last place in the American League West.
Now here’s my question. Last year everyone was talking about the Astros. This year no one’s talking about the Astros. Why is that? See, if you really love the Astros, you’re going to cheer for them when they’re in last place in the American League West or when they’re leading the division. See, the word faithfulness – faithful is about a relationship. You’re going to be faithful in a relationship whether times are (to use Paul’s words to Timothy) favorable or unfavorable. Whether things are going well or whether things are not going well.
If you got married, when you got married you said these words: “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” And what you were saying was, “I’m going to be faithful whether times are favorable or unfavorable.” Those are relationship words.
So I want to ask you about your relationship with God. Is your picture where you say, “I’m going to love God when things go well. And I’m going to ignore God, or curse God, or not believe in God when things are not going well?”
See, if you think to yourself, “The reason I have faith is so I can ‘prosper.’ That if I believe I will ‘prosper’...” That’s like being for the Astros when they’re winning.
But if your faith is about loving God all the time, if it really is about faithfulness, then even when it’s difficult and you’re struggling and you’re fighting, then you love God – still - when you’re losing the match.
Angela Duckworth was a McKinsey Consultant. She had a big fancy job. She quit her job to go teach math in the inner city schools of New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. She came out, went back and got her Ph.D. in educational psychology and is a professor now. Her research was in what made some of those students in those inner city schools excel and some of them not. She said, “Yes, part of it was intelligence.” But more important was something she called grit. Grit. And she defines it as “passion, and perseverance toward long term goals.” And some of those students had people who had helped them develop grit. That when it gets difficult, when there are obstacles, you keep pushing. You don’t give up. You don’t quit.
Emmitt Smith of Dallas Cowboys fame has the record for more rushing yards of any other running back - over a 28,000 yards. What I find more amazing than anything is that he got those thousands of yards even though someone knocked him down every 4.1. Every 4.1 yards he’d run, and someone would knock him down. He’d run and someone would knock him down. He’d get back up and go back to the line and start again.
Sometimes I think that’s a pretty good picture for what life’s like. The Christian life is that every once in a while you’ll have one of those Emmitt Smith breakaway runs. You’ll just break away and zoom! It’s like everybody moves out of the way. But most of the time you’re going to run a couple of yards, and then someone’s going to knock you down.
My daughter asked me once, “How come when you play football they keep running where everybody is? Why don’t they run around them?” I’ve always wondered that myself. It seems they’d look for the place where everyone is, and they’d run right at it. I think honestly that … here’s what I’ll tell you… that the Emmitt Smith’s really like the contact. I mean I believe that. There’s something about the fight. There’s something about the struggle.
When Paul says, “Fight the good fight” what he’s not saying is, “Look, sometimes it’s going to be hard. You can make it through that because, there will be times that are good, and those times make it worth it.” That’s what we tend to think. We tend to think that the good times are worth the bad times, so we survive the bad times, so that we can have the good times. But what I tell you is that if that’s the case, then you sure miss half of life. Because it’s going to have bad and good.
Some of you may know Richard Rohr. He’s a priest who writes often. He wrote a book about the second half of life called Falling Upward. Here’s what he writes, a couple of quotes: “Before the truth sets you free it makes you miserable.” I thought that was good. But then he goes on, “Faith is not for overcoming obstacles.” That made me pause. “Faith is not for overcoming obstacles. It is for experiencing them all the way through. It is for leaning into the struggle. It is for finding God in the midst of it.” Not for just getting through it so you can get to times that are good. But to be in the fight, to be in the arena. So, “Be faithful, faithfully serve.” Second, “Fight the good fight.” And third, “Finish strong.” “I have finished the race,” he said.
Eugene Peterson has written a great book called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. That’s how he defines discipleship. And the subtitle is “Discipleship in an Instant Society.” And I have to tell you, I’m an “Instant” kind of guy. I like it to happen fast! I think most of us do.
When I was an intern I read my evaluation of my supervising pastor. I’m sure it said other things than this, but this is the only thing I can remember. “Tom is really good at starting things but not as good at finishing them.” Ouch! That might be many of us. We like to start things. That’s glamorous and exciting. But the truth is that finishing is much harder.
Paul is at a point in his life when he says to Timothy, “As for you, keep at it. As for me, I have finished the race. I’m finishing all the way to the end.” That’s because he knows he’s at the end of his life.
I ran a marathon in 2005. That does not make me a marathon runner, by the way. I have done the opening prayer at a number of marathons, so I do believe that ought to get me some sort of medal. Those happen really early when you do the opening prayer. Here’s what I know. When I was running all I wanted to do was finish. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, this is so much fun.” It was like, “Just get me through this to the end. And I’ll get to wear that finisher medal and strut around.”
Real runners like the running. They like the actual doing of it. They’re the ones with that 26.2 on their car. You know the little circle 26.2? I saw one the other day I want to buy for myself. It just says, “.2.” I thought that was really good. I think it said, “O.2” actually.
On the way out after the 9:45 service, some couple came by and she said, “I’m a 26.2 and he’s a .2. I’m a runner, he’s a sitter.” I thought, “Ooo. Okay.” I think we’re messing with something here.
So what I would tell you is that part of it is deciding that you really want, that what makes it worth it is not the finish, but it’s the race itself.
This year at Annual Conference, which actually begins tonight, we’ll be down at the Hilton Hotel for three days with Methodists from all over our region. On Tuesday night we will ordain David Horton, who’s our pastor at our Gethsemane campus as a full elder in the United Methodist Church. The bishop will lay hands on him, and he will be ordained an elder. Billy McMahon, who many of you know will be commissioned, so he now has to do a 2 year residency before he can be ordained fully. And he’s going to do that residency in Arkansas. His wife has gotten a dermatology residency there. So they’re moving to Little Rock. We’re going to miss them, I hope they will come back when she’s done.
So here are these two young shiny faced pastors, all enthusiastic. But at the same time on Tuesday afternoon, we’ll have a retirement service for many retiring. Bill Denham will be officially retiring from the appointive ministry. He will continue to stay on our staff here and do everything he’s always been doing. But there’s a mandatory retirement in the United Methodist Church, and so he will be technically retired and no longer appointed here by the bishop. Our bishop will also be retiring. She has been here now for 12 years, and she’s retiring.
Here’s the deal. What I respect so much about both Bill and Bishop Huie is that they’re not quitting. They may be retiring, but they’re not quitting. Bishop Huie still has this amazing twinkle in her eye. Bill has the same thing. Bishop Huie is the fastest walking woman I have ever seen in my life. She just zooms! Because she’s got stuff she’s got to do. So she’s going to go to work for Texas Methodist Foundation in Austin and continue to do that work. Bill’s going to stay here and work. It’s because there’s this sense that “I like the fight. I like the race. I’m staying at it.”
And what Paul says is even when he reaches that point he leans into what’s ahead. He says, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Even in my last moment. I don’t cling to what’s behind. I lean in to whatever God has in front of me. I don’t quit.”
So friends, I would just tell you – be faithful. Keep the faith. Suit up and show up. Go to work, go to church, go to your neighborhood, and go to your friendships. Suit up, and show up and be faithful to those. Lean into the difficulties that come your way, the challenges and the obstacles, and don’t give up.
Let’s pray. Lord God, we pray that you would through the power of your Holy Spirit give us grit, a passion and perseverance for running that race. We pray in the name of Christ, Amen.