2 Tim 4:7 I have fought the good fight
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2 Tim 4:7 I have fought the good fight
2 Tim 4:7 I have fought the good fight
Before I read the Scripture for the sermon today. I need to explain what it is not.
It is not a funeral or a retirement farewell, I am not saying that Rick is in the end of his life. They are an example to us and I pray that they will still have many and many years to serve and love the church.
Today we pause and appreciate Rick and Sandy. Their love and service to this body of Christ. The Scripture that we will study today remind us all as well to pause assess where we are and where we are going and to keep our eyes on Jesus.
We are going to study only v 7, but let’s read from v5-8 to ensure we see this verse in context.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Children are dismissed for Children’s church
Illustration: About year and half ago during deer hunting season I was driving to my mother’s in law farm to hunt. It was very early in the morning and still very dark, but I have driven there so many times that I don’t have to think when to turn because I know it like the back of my hand. Actually I know only two ways to get there, one going through Shelby and the other with several turns but avoiding the city.
So I was driving without thinking it was going well and then in a couple seconds later everything changed from being familiar to everything being unfamiliar. I couldn’t recognize anything around, the trees and the fields where all suddenly different. Then I realize that somehow in only a couple seconds I had gotten completely lost. I had no idea how I got lost and on top of that it was the end of the road I had to turn either left or right. I was grateful that it was really early in the morning and it was country road so there was no one else driving on the road only hunters. So I had to pause, be humble and recognize I was lost, stop and not go forward but assess my situation where I was and where I was heading.
I don’t know about you but with everything going on, what bother me the most is not being able to know the truth. It seems like there are two sides, and you can find “truth” to support whatever you want to believe. I would have never imagine that different opinions about a virus and masks would be dividing churches, families and friends apart. Yet this is where we are, it seems like everything is uncertain.
This passage today, reminds us that when life is uncertain and everything seems to be in chaos. We need to Pause and assess what we are doing and what is our goal. Then align that to our goal.
First we need to PAUSE. Here in this letter of Paul’s to Timothy it is likely the last letter that Paul wrote before he died. In the previous verse Paul says my departure has come, so here he pauses to reflect on his life, that’s why all that Paul says in v 7 is in the past, I have fought, have finished, have kept.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
We don’t need to be in the last moment of our lives to pause and reflect on what has been what I have been living for. In reality we have no idea when our time to die. It is in God’s hand. It could be today, tomorrow or years from now. Sometimes it’s a disease or an accident that makes us stop and pause.
I know Rick had some of those moments in his life, and you as a congregation have supported and carried Rick and Sandy through these moments. Thank you for loving and caring for your pastor. These moments you realize that it only takes a couple seconds for us to go from alive and well to really close to death.
When Paul pauses here he looks back and says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
The Message of 2 Timothy c. The Aged Apostle (Verses 6–8)
Some years previously, speaking to the elders of the very Ephesian church over which Timothy was now presiding, Paul had expressed his ambition to do just this. ‘I do not account my life of any value,’ he had declared, ‘nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus …’ (Acts 20:24). Now he is able to say that he has done so.
And now to God’s glory he is able to say that he has done so. So have Rick and sandy as has been evidenced by your testimonies this morning and every day.
You might say well that’s not me I am not called to be in full-time ministry. However, God has called all of us for some kind of ministry.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Then a little later in the same letter when Paul says:
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Many think that the church’s function is to serve them, but according to this verse the church function is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
And this church, under the direction of Rick and Sandy, has been faithful to this- may we continue in this…not stopping, but rather continuing in the race before us.
We all have different callings, different things that the Lord is calling us to do, our job is to listen and obey Jesus. Doing the work that God has called you to do and then to fulfill your ministry, be that of evangelist as Timothy’s or teacher, discipler, an encourager... etc.
But when we do obey and follow Jesus, it might cost us something, for Paul it cost a lot,
we see a summary of some of Paul’s sufferings are in 2 Cor 11:23-28
23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
If the world would assess Paul’s life, they might say - it was pointless and it was a waste, he wasted his education, his rights, and now he is just going to die like a dog, like a criminal.
But when Paul looked at his life, he saw he lived for Jesus,how he obeyed and followed Jesus even when it meant great suffering and ultimately death.
Rick and Sandy have lived this and continue I know their heart and pray that you will do the same- even in this Covid crisis or even when greater persecution comes. That is the legacy that will indeed honor greatly Rick and Sandy.
Having talked with dear friends of mine who escaped their countries because of their faith. I can say the hardest thing is not when your life is at risk, it is when the life of your loves ones are at risk because of your faith.
I might be crazy, but sometimes in my life I stop and consider would I still obey and follow Jesus even if it would cost me loosing my wife and son, and when you really stop and honestly consider this you will realize just how a high the cost could be. But with lots of tears in my eyes I would give up everything even my wife and son that I love more than my own life in order to have Jesus.
You have seen Rick and Sandy model this to you over the years as they have given up time together to walk with you through difficult times. And while this is a mere fraction of what people experienced or what is yet to come. It is an example of faithful service of the good fight.
I personally have been challenged and inspired with how Rick continues to wrestle with Scripture rather than depending on experience or comfort. It has caused me to refine the goal and to fight the good fight that God has called us to fight.
Pray
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.