Making LIFE COUNT
2 Timothy 2:1-2:13
I still remember the exact moment when I realized that I was truly an adult. It wasn’t my 18th birthday, or when I enlisted in the Navy a few years later. It wasn’t even when I got married a year after that
I first realized I was an adult when I was 22 years old, and I still remember the day. It happened when I held my newborn son in my arms. As I looked at that helpless little baby, I realized that there was no turning back, that I was responsible for this life. If I didn’t feed him, he’d starve. For the first time I realized that I was totally responsible for another person’s life. My life would never be the same again. Every risk I took, every impulsive decision I made, every unwise dollar I spent would effect this little person’s life. I guess I should’ve realized that on my wedding day, but it really didn’t sink in deep into my heart until my first son was born.
When you realize that you’re truly an adult, you start to think beyond your own lifetime. You start thinking about things like life insurance and college funds. You start to wonder what kind of legacy you’ll leave, what kind of mark you’ll make on the world during your brief time on this earth. This is where the word character has reference to an engravers tool, as Matt said this morning. If you’re a Christian you also wonder what kind of role your life will have played in fulfilling God’s purposes on the earth. You see, for a Christian a legacy is more than a nice inheritance for your children and a gold watch for twenty years of employment. It’s more than buying an RV and enjoying your grandkids. A legacy from God’s perspective is participating in the purposes of God in our world.
I think of the names of Christians made a difference in the past. People like Augustine, John Wycliffe, Justin Martyr and Galileo. I think about American Christians like Patrick Henry, Jonathan Edwards, and Barton Stone. Perhaps you’ve heard of some of these people, perhaps others you’ve never heard of before, but each one has left his or her mark.
What kind of legacy will we leave? Are we making our life count for something? We’ve been in a series through 1 and 2 Timothy in the Bible called Deepening Your Life With God.
Tonight we’re going to talk about how to make our life count. It is a life that is more than a successful life. It’s more than a happy life or a life that’s upwardly mobile. It’s more than staying married and having kids who turn out okay. A life made to count is a life that makes a mark.
As Paul reflects back on his own life and the legacy he’s leaving, he gives young Timothy some important advice about how to make his life count. We’re going to find five insights into living that kind of life today.
1. BE STRONG (2 Tim 2:1)
One way to study the Bible is to pay close attention to the commands. Four of the five insights we’re going to look at today come from the commands of these verses. The final insight will come from a promise.
Let’s begin by looking at the command in v. 1. The command here is to "be strong." This Greek verb here is actually in the passive voice, so it’s more accurately translated, "Let yourself be strengthened" or "be empowered" (Marshall 724). In other words, you don’t get strong by trying harder or drawing from your own strength. Being strong in this sense is not a matter of gritting your teeth and flexing your biceps.
This kind of strength comes from outside of ourselves, from the grace found in Jesus Christ. God’s grace is a kind of catch all phrase for everything God offers to infuse into our lives.
So here we find the first insight. IF WE WANT TO MAKE OUR LIFE COUNT, WE NEED TO FIND OUR STRENGTH IN GOD’S RESOURCES.
Every person’s life is like a power tool with an electrical plug. When we’re plugged into God and his resources, those resources flow into our lives to empower us to do that which we could not do on our own. The love we need to care about people, the patience we need when we’re frustrated, the courage we need in the face of fear…all these things come from being plugged into God’s grace. Lives that don’t plug into God’s grace won’t have the resources to leave a very significant mark.
Lives that refuse to plug into God’s grace are self sufficient lives, lives that rely on self and ego. It takes humility to admit that we’ve sinned against God and to trust in Christ for our salvation, but until we do that we can’t plug into God’s grace. We’ll find ourselves being like a power saw trying to cut wood without a power supply.
Only lives that are empowered with God’s resources will leave a mark that lasts.
That’s one reason why we meet together each week, to be empowered by God’s grace. To admit that we can’t do it alone, that we need God’s powerful grace operating in our lives to be the kind of people God wants us to be. Our worship breaks the spell of self sufficiency, so we can embrace a sense of God sufficiency.
2. PASS ON THE TORCH (2 Tim 2:2)
Now just to review what’s happening behind this letter, remember that the author Paul is in a Roman prison cell. He knows the time of his execution is nearing, that his life on this earth has reached its end. Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to help the church in Ephesus recover from a major crisis. So Timothy is in Ephesus when he gets this letter. But now there’s a bigger crisis: Paul’s impending death. So in chapter 4 of this letter Paul is going to ask Timothy to come to Rome quickly, so they can be together one last time before Paul’s execution.
So here in v. 2 Paul gives Timothy a plan for how to help the church in Ephesus before he leaves for Rome. The command in v. 2 is to "entrust."
Notice the four generations mentioned here. It began with Paul, who was chosen by Jesus to be an apostle. Paul had a message that he communicated consistently wherever he went throughout his ministry. This message was passed on to Timothy. In the previous chapter Paul described his teaching as a treasure that’s been entrusted to Timothy to guard. Now Timothy needs to find reliable people to entrust this message to. A reliable person is someone who will keep the message intact, someone who won’t add to it or take anything away from it. It’s someone who will hold on to the message, preserving its integrity. Yet these reliable people must also be able to teach others. And ultimately they too will have to pass the message on to another generation, so they must be equipped to find reliable people to in the next generation they can pass the message on to.
Much like we did this morning, we entrusted our young people to present the service, we entrusted them to lead the singing, the prayer time, and the message. They did not shirk that responsibility, they stood up to the test. We can entrust them to carry the torch, and bring the light to the next generation. If we want our lives to count for something, we have to make disciples.
You could argue that Paul’s most effective years in ministry were the years he was locked up in a Roman prison. This is because Paul had learned how to multiply his influence through people like Timothy, Silas, Titus, Luke and other coworkers he invested himself in. So even though Paul is locked up when he writes this letter, his ministry is still active through the people he’s multiplied his influence through.
Maybe you’ve seen the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus. It’s a movie about an aspiring composer named Glen Holland who takes a job as a high school band teacher to pay the bills. His real passion isn’t teaching, but it’s to compose a symphony. But life has a way of edging out our dreams, and he spends the next 35 years teaching high school band, never finishing his symphony. When he retires, all of his former students gather together to honor their high school music teacher. One of his former students who is now a governor, takes the podium she says, "We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and notes of your opus. We are the music of your life." Glen Holland learned to multiply his influence through other people.
We multiply our influence through our children. Although we must resist the urge to project our own dreams onto our kids, we multiply our influence by instructing our kids in biblical values and equipping them to live Christ centered lives. In fact, part of the legacy we leave our world is our children and grandchildren.
3. Willing to Pay the Price (2 Tim 2:3-7)
This brings us to another command followed by a series of three word pictures in vv. 3-7. Now the command is to "endure hardship," which refers to a willingness to take the difficult road, the road less traveled. Now was Paul a masochist who glorified suffering or is there something else at work here? The answer to what kind of hardship he’s talking about is found in the three word pictures.
Notice the first word picture, that of a soldier. Soldiers endure hardship because being a soldier is a demanding way of life. Soldiers are exposed to the elements, to danger, to times without food or shelter. It’s a dangerous and demanding way to live. I think about U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady, who’s F-16 fighter jet was shot down in Bosnia a few years ago. Captain O’Grady evaded Bosnian Serb soldiers for six days until his rescue by a Marine Corps search and rescue team. During that time he lived by eating bugs and licking the dew from plants. Being a soldier is demanding.
A soldier wants to please his commanding officer. Literally the Greek word for commanding officer in v. 4 is "the person who enlisted him." You see, back then generals would recruit their own soldiers, to serve in their own units, so the commanding officer was often the person who recruited all of his soldiers. It has to do with making disciples.
So the idea is that serving Jesus is like being recruited by Jesus to serve in his army. The focus here isn’t so much on fighting battles, as it’s on the single mindedness and self discipline it takes to stay disentangled from things to please Jesus. That kind of discipline and single mindedness is a kind of suffering, because it means saying no to certain things.
The second word picture is that of an athlete who competes in the ancient Olympic games. The training a modern day Olympic athlete goes through is sophisticated and comprehensive. I read an article in Scientific American that goes in depth about the kinds of training Olympic athletes go through, and I was amazed ("Training the Olympic Athlete" 6/96). Everything from computer sensors to sophisticated machines assist athletes in their training. According to this article, 1,000 hours of intense training will only achieve an improvement of a single percentage point in an athlete’s performance. Yet often a single percentage point is the margin of victory in today’s Olympic events.
Being a follower of Jesus Christ is like an athlete who trains according to the standards to compete. It requires self-discipline and single mindedness.
The third word picture is that of a hard working farmer. The word "hardworking" refers to work that involves difficulties and troubles, it can refer to toil. Now I’m a city boy, so I’ve never been around a farm during harvest season, but from what I’ve heard it can be brutally hard work. Getting up at the crack of dawn and working in the blistering heat until your fingers bleed. Staggering into your bed at nightfall, only to do the same thing the next day. The idea is that while a lack of effort leads to a lack of crops, the hard worker can expect a crop So all three word pictures involve discipline, effort, and single mindedness. In fact, he encourages us to think deeply about these three word pictures, so we can have even further insight.
So the point here seems to be this. IF WE WANT TO LIVE A LIFE that leaves a mark we have to be willing to disciple, we have to be willing to strengthen ourselves and be willing to discipline ourselves to be single minded and focused.
Everything worth doing in life comes with a price. Keeping a marriage together through years comes with a price. Graduating with your college degree comes with a price. Starting your own business and building it into a successful business comes with a price.
The same is true of living a life that leaves a mark. It means saying no to certain things just like the soldier, just like the athlete, just like the farmer. It means single minded devotion to the task, just like the soldier’s devotion to his or her commanding officer, just like the athlete’s devotion to winning, just like the farmer’s devotion to harvesting a crop. There are no short cuts in this area.
4. Focusing our lives. (2 Tim 2:8-10)
That brings us to vv. 8-10. In v. 8 we find our fourth command, to remember Jesus. Now I’m sure Timothy hadn’t forgotten about Jesus, so the focus of this command here means to keep on thinking about Jesus. Recall to your mind again and again who Jesus is.
The focus here is on Jesus’ resurrection and his descent from the ancient Hebrew King David. Both of these factors uniquely qualified Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christ. In fact, both the resurrection and his descent from King David are also mentioned in Romans 1:2-3 as what uniquely qualifies Jesus to be viewed as the Messiah. So remember that Jesus is the promised one, the Messiah, the Christ.
This is the message for which Paul is sitting in a prison cell awaiting his execution. Yet despite his suffering, he is committed to enduring to the very end. He will not falter or waver, even if it means his own death. He knows that other Christians are watching, and how he endures his suffering will help them obtain salvation in the midst of their suffering.
Here we find the fourth insight. IF WE WANT TO LIVE A LIFE THAT’ leaves a mark, we have to be focused. That’s what Paul did, that’s what he encouraged Timothy to do, and that’s what the Bible encourages us to do as well.
Picture your life as being like a wagon wheel. Each spoke on the wheel represents something in your life: your spouse if you’re married, your job, your kids, your church involvement, your house and possessions, how you spend your time, and so forth. Where does the good news of Jesus fit on the wheel? Is it just another spoke?
This text is encouraging us to make the good news of Jesus the hub, the source from which all the spokes meet. When we make the good news of Jesus the hub, then our devotion to Jesus effects our marriage, our job, how we spend our money, how we spend our time, and so forth.
People who try to make the good news of Jesus just another spoke on the wheel don’t live lives that are built to last. Their entire life is a battle for control, as they try to domesticate Jesus and keep him relegated to the religious part of their lives. It’s a constant battle for control, as Jesus keeps reminding the person that he is Lord, yet they refuse to let him be in the center, the hub.
5. Don’t Give Up (2 Tim 2:11-13)
Now the word "remember" is the last command we have in this section, but what follows in vv. 11-13 is a kind of encouragement. This is the first "trustworthy saying" we’ve found in 2 Timothy, but we encountered two "trustworthy sayings" in 1 Timothy. Most Bible scholars believe these trustworthy sayings were slogans that were popular in the church at the time. Perhaps some of them were lyrics from worship songs they sang in their worship.
This trustworthy saying is a series of four conditional statements: if this, then that. The first conditional statement is that if we died with Jesus, we will also live with Jesus. Now our death with Jesus goes back to when we first respond to the good news of Christ, we become identified with his death on the cross and we die to our old way of life. This death is symbolized in our baptism, when we are immersed in the water, as we symbolically die to our old way of life. When we come up out of the water in our baptism, we’re symbolically identifying with Jesus’ resurrection, and this promise that we will live with him in eternity for ever.
Jesus told us to put our hand to the plow and don’t look back. We know the old phrase that quitters never win, well I liken quitters to the cowardly. Read the end of Revelation and see how Jesus sees those who shrink back from their Christian responsibility. The cowardly run when trouble comes, this is that soil that Jesus referred to in the parable of the sower. It hears the message with great gladness and when trouble comes, they shrink.
Do you know what failure is? We never truly fail as when we give up.
It’s better to press on risking failure than to give up. You see, completing the faith does require our endurance, but our endurance relies on God’s faithfulness not our own. This is the only part of this section not phrased as a command, but here we have a promise.
When we can’t imagine getting up another morning and facing the day, we remember his faithfulness. When our faith in Jesus is assaulted with doubts and questions, we remember his faithfulness. When we fall once again into that same sinful pattern that’s been beating us for the last year, we remember his faithfulness. Don’t give up no matter what.
Conclusion
Do you want to live a life that leaves a mark? Follow Paul’s advice to young Timothy.
