Do You Look to the Reward?

0:04 How many here grew up on farms or have extended family who are farmers? You see? Oh, that's pretty good. This is Missouri, right? All right. How about how many are from military families? All right. We got any active military?

0:25 Okay. How about any present athletes? or students from families that loved athletics? Okay, that's a lot. There we go. Now, I know nowadays not many of us are farmers and relatively few in this room of college students, I'm assuming, have already served in combat.

0:52 But many more of us in this room have tried our hands at competitive athletics. Now I'm talking about the kind of athletics you train for. You don't just show up and play. You train, condition, and get ready. And you may not have been aware of it at the time, but if you have been a soldier or a farmer or an athlete, then you have been challenged. Like relatively few modern people have been challenged to learn how to really work. That is, you were presented with some objective, some concrete challenge, train for battle, plant a field, practice for game day. And you either put in the required effort and found it in you to complete the task, to be successful on the field, or you grew weary. you cut corners eventually you gave up perhaps you either demonstrated you had it in you to do the hard thing to persevere and achieve the goal against the obstacles against the challenges or you didn't find it in you and if you did find it you probably didn't do it on your own You probably did it with help from coaches, from family, from teammates.

2:29 But however much you have experience in soldiering, in athletics, in farming, the Bible stands ready to fill the gaps for us. And correct wrong ways of thinking. And recast those images of the Christian life. And override our personal experience or fill in for lack of personal experience. and the Bible teaches us in all that what we might call a Christian work ethic.

2:59 It's a work ethic that is for our joy. That's how it connects to Monday. For our joy, for the good of others and for the glory of Jesus Christ. And this is not only relevant for you as a student trying to complete a degree. This is relevant for you as a Christian who wants to be happy in Jesus. They want to pursue joy. There's a pursuit. There's initiative to take. There's efforts to make. We talked about some of those last night. So many of you came out to the After Dark session to talk about habits of grace in God's Word and in prayer and in fellowship. We talked about steps to take, initiative, effort to give. and one classic place in scripture that anchors in to this work ethic and these very concrete images of soldier and athlete and farmer is second timothy chapter two there will spend a few moments this morning here in second timothy chapter two i'll read for you now verses one to seven but in particular we will linger over verses 4 and 5 and 6 about the soldier and the athlete and the farmer.

4:23 Hear then from 2 Timothy 2, verses 1 to 7. You then, Timothy, Paul says, my child, in the faith, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That's so good. Strengthened by grace. and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Maybe you've heard that verse 2 as we've talked about D groups for the fall. At least the D group leaders. Verse 3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

5:24 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Let me pray for our few moments in God's word. So Father in heaven, we come to you now and ask for the help of your Holy Spirit. The Spirit who dwells in us, who claim Christ, the Spirit who loves to brood over gatherings like this in the name of Jesus, to exalt him, to make your word clear, to drive it deep into our hearts, to change the patterns of our lives, to strengthen us by grace. would you give us your spirit in generous proportion this morning as we come to your word in Jesus name we pray amen So what the Apostle Paul has in his sights here in 2 Timothy 2, verses 1-7, is the advance of the gospel through disciple-making. This is an echo of the Great Commission.

6:31 The Great Commission discipled the nations. Jesus discipled his men and told his disciples to disciple disciples like he discipled them. Paul is picking up on that in 2 Timothy 2, talking to his disciple Timothy and talking about gospel advance through making disciples. Not just sharing a message and having it embraced, but having it go deep into the person, change the person, make him a different person who then would disciple others.

7:02 The gospel of Jesus, Paul trusted to his disciple Timothy and he now charges Timothy to entrust that to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So you've got four generations right there. You've got Paul, Timothy, the faithful men, the others also. And what's implied is others also, and others also, and others also. All the way down to 21st century America, and others also.

7:30 But as simple as that plan is on paper for gospel multiplication, it will not be easy. Discipleship is not easy. Discipleship is opposed by the world. And it's opposed by our own sinful flesh. And it's opposed by Satan himself. Almost constantly. And at the most inconvenient times. Paul himself is writing to Timothy from prison.

8:07 He's been opposed. Timothy can read the writing on the wall. Paul invested in Timothy. Paul is put in prison. Now Timothy's investing in faithful men. What's next for Timothy? but rather than shy away from this task of disciple making opposed by Satan opposed by the world opposed by our own sin Paul calls Timothy in verse three to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ this is all very relevant for discipleship week because discipleship will not be easy. Jesus talked about counting the cost. Count the cost in this call to discipleship. And when you count the cost, count the benefits. Yeah, Jesus talked about counting the cost. You know what he talked even more about?

9:09 Counting the benefits, looking to the reward, real joy, real satisfaction on the other side of the hard work. Greater nearness to Jesus. Greater joy in seeing others become like him as you invest in them. It's the Apostle John's amazing statement. His third letter, fourth verse, he says I have no greater joy than to see that my children are walking in the truth. You might say, wow, no greater joy. what about Jesus John don't you have no greater joy than him he'd say of course the joy I'm talking about in the lives of others is joy in Jesus extended into their lives a shared joy as a double joy when I hear that those in whom I've invested are doing well in the faith I have no greater joy than to hear that that joy I have in Jesus has expanded to them.

10:15 So Paul says, 2 Timothy chapter 2, in effect, you want joy? disciple others invest in others take what you've heard Timothy from me in the presence of many witnesses this is the big thing the central stuff, the gospel not your own hobby horses or idiosyncrasies the big stuff invest that into faithful men ladies, women who will be able to teach others also it will be hard work and it will be wonderfully rewarding like soldiering and like farming and like athletics. Let me read verses 4 to 6 again and we'll linger over those images.

11:10 Verse 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. All right, so let's consider these three. Consider the soldier. Consider the athlete. Consider the farmer.

11:43 And because so many of you are familiar with athletics, I mean, it's amazing the number of athletes on this campus. What, they told me 18 sports? What, almost half the campus involved in one of those athletics? I'm assuming you know athletics pretty well. I'm going to save that for last. And let me put the two least familiar ones together, the soldiering and the farming. And then we'll come back to athletics. So first, persist like soldiers and farmers. That's Paul's charge here to Timothy. That's God's charge here to us. Persist like soldiers and farmers.

12:25 Even if soldiering and farming aren't in your own personal experience, I think the broad brushstrokes are clear enough. Let me paint that for you. Soldiers are men who are under authority. They do not serve alone, but they serve alongside others and bands and battalions and companies. This is why the uniforms are so important and so powerful. Like what the uniform signals is when you mess with that soldier, when you mess with that officer, you're not just messing with him. He's not a lone ranger. There's other people in the same uniform who are with him and have his back. It's the power in numbers of a police force, of a military. a single trained champion like Goliath with a weapon. He may seem like a formidable foe, but when he's met by hundreds or thousands who are trained as one to act together, it's just a matter of time before the great champion is a goner in the face of the army.

13:40 The power in soldiering comes from this collective force. There is training together. There's acting together under the authority and clear direction of an able commander. And to do so, to get battle ready and to stay battle ready, soldiers must overcome the temptation of getting entangled in civilian pursuits. you can't do what you're called to do as a soldier if you just live the life of a citizen soldiers are called out to protect a citizen they're received into this new company they train they stand ready that they might defend the citizens and good soldiers paul says They aim to please the one who enlisted them.

14:36 They get this goal in mind. They want to please their enlister. And they are pleased when their enlister is pleased. They're pursuing their own joy in this. They deny themselves the immediate pleasures and comforts of civilian life to endure in their calling. and in the end enjoy greater, more enduring satisfaction by not abandoning their mission for the trivialities of this life.

15:05 Soldiers. How about farmers? Similar with farmers, but it's not the same. Farming requires the hard work of both foresight and physical labor. these tractors nowadays are amazing how they help to work just imagine this metaphor 2,000 years ago of the physical labor involved in farming there still is plenty of physical labor on the farm farmers plan and plan ahead you got to know the seasons got to know the time and they till and they sow and they weed and they wait with patience for rain and for growth. And then in the end, there's the hard work of the harvest that you got to do before it spoils or the winter comes.

16:00 And when the farmer does the hard work, he then holds in his hand the reward, the fruit, the first share of the crops, Paul says. Farmers have much to teach us, not only about hard work, but also about anticipating a reward. The farmer has a clear reward in view. He's got the fruit in mind. He can see it in his mind, the fruit that will be on the trees, the fruit that will be in his hand, the fruit that will be on his table, the fruit that take to market. the farmer teaches about patience patient for the rain patient for the growth so James chapter 5 says see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains so you also Christians James says be patient so in pursuit of joy in the Christian life, brothers and sisters, persist like soldiers and like farmers. But second, persist like athletes. Let me give this its own focus now. Persist like athletes.

17:22 And the Apostle Paul may have more to teach us about athletics than we expect. And you may have some kind of image of Paul only sitting at desks and in prisons with nothing really to say about the life of the body. But you may be surprised. Nobody talks more about athletics in the scriptures than the apostle Paul. In addition to this verse 5, he takes up athletic imagery in 1 Corinthians 9 and in 2 Timothy 4, we'll go there in a minute, and in Philippians 3, 13-14, he says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's a race. That's the last section of the race. He's straining forward, pressing toward the goal. Or 1 Timothy 4, 7 and 8. I mean, this is a classic one. Like some of you who are into fitness, athletics, workout culture, you may know 1 Timothy 4 well, right? Have nothing to do with the reverent silly myths. Rather, train yourself.

18:32 That's the workout room, the gymnasium. Train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, he said some value, not no value, some value, godliness is a value in every way because it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So yes, bodily training, amen, value, and even more so, its value is but a picture of the value of godliness. The lesson in 2 Timothy chapter 2 is consistent with this portrait of athletics throughout the Apostle Paul. So let me highlight three lessons for the Christian life from the way Paul uses this athletic metaphor. Here in 2 Timothy 2, verse 5, and elsewhere.

19:26 So these are three lessons from athletics for the Christian life. Very briefly. First, maturity comes through training, not through coasting or indulging desires for immediate comfort. maturity comes through training, not through coasting or indulging desires for immediate comfort. That is, even before the competition, even before the discomfort of enduring on race day or on game day, there's the obstacle of training.

20:03 If you saw some recent Olympics, none of them got there without training. Most of them were born with extraordinary physical abilities. None of them got there without extensive training.

20:24 And effective training requires discomfort. The body is not conditioned to better performance by leisure, but through stress and through strain and especially through persisting in discomfort. That last little bit of the race Paul's talking about in Philippians 3 straining toward the goal, persisting in that discomfort toward the prize.

20:52 Both body and mind are trained by constant practice Hebrews 5.14 says and that leads to maturity. those of us who are mature straining forward to what lies ahead press on toward the goal for the prize all training whether bodily training or spiritual training requires some measure of toil and of striving that's the first lesson second lesson this is in the competition itself so the first one's about training and conditioning the second lesson from athletics is in the competition itself, athletes press on through weariness, through frustration, discouragement, and pain to get to the finish. Press on. Football players put up the four at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

21:47 One more quarter. Press on. Don't give up. However disappointed, however frustrated, however exhausted, press on. Get through. Finish. Learning to press through and endure discomfort in training readies the body and the will. What's inside you? The will to press on through that resistance on race day, on game day. And verse 5 here highlights a specific temptation to overcome.

22:19 Cutting corners. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Whether that's in training or in the competition. the successful athlete knows what it's like to have subjective desires that do not rule over the objective aspects of the competition. You got to adjust yourself to the game. You can't pretend to adjust the game to you. The game has its rules. It has its objectives. It has its fixtures that are stubborn and you're the one that has to change and be conditioned. The athlete's not bigger than the race or the game. He cannot train or compete simply as he pleases on a whim, but he must exercise self-control, Paul says. And that's Paul's own testimony in that famous passage in 1 Corinthians 9. This is his racing boxing metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

23:36 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable wreath. So I do not run aimlessly, he says. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. So a lesson for training, a lesson for the actual event, and third, this is most significant. This is the main thing I have to say. This is why this is the follow-up message on Monday's message about pursuing our joy. Third, across the New Testament passages, the key to enduring discomfort.

24:25 Do you want to know this? The key, what's the key to enduring discomfort is looking to the reward. Whether in the training or in the event itself, Paul, and along with him the book of Hebrews, emphasize that the reward, the crown, the prize, the victory, the fruit is a vital element in what makes work ethic particularly Christian.

25:00 Are you looking to a Christian reward that powers you in the present through the obstacle? I love that Paul explicitly identifies the prize. 1 Corinthians 9 we saw the prize Philippians 3 we saw the prize the imperishable crown that awaits the Apostle Paul is not icing on the cake in Christianity but the reward he says is to be kept in mind he wants us to keep the reward in mind remember the reward have the reward help keep you going as you face obstacles and challenges and so Paul himself as he comes to the end of his race his life in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 he says I'm not ashamed I'm intentional I'm drawing your attention to the reward here's what 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 the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award me on that day and not only me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Paul says I'm looking to the reward and I'm telling you about it because I want you to look to the reward.

26:21 But this is not just Paul. Where did Paul learn this? You might say is Paul going rogue with all this hedonistic talk? Where's Paul getting this? The answer is that no one teaches us to look to the reward like Jesus does. His teaching, his example, and more. In Jesus' teaching, again and again he draws our attention to the reward. He doesn't say, forget about the reward, and maybe one day it'll be icing on the cake. Again and again, He draws our attention there. Just in the first half of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 and 6, He mentions the reward from your Father that is great in heaven nine times.

27:15 and perhaps this this repeated refrain in jesus's teaching is what would have the apostle paul summarize jesus's teaching in acts chapter 20 verse 35 as remember what jesus said it is more blessed that is more happy more joyful more satisfying it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. What an amazing summary of Jesus' teaching. Yet, every bit as clear as Jesus' teaching is, is the power of His example. He didn't just say it. This is what Jesus did. This is how He lived. Hopefully you know that climactic 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Sometimes people call it the Faith Hall of Fame. And the way that the chapter climaxes is by turning our attention, not only to the reward several times, but to Christ himself as the paradigm for pressing on, persisting through pain by looking to the reward. Hebrews chapter 12, verses one to two, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the