Commitment

This week I wanted to talk to our graduates but also talk to the rest of us. I wondered what it is that we could say to someone that is moving from teenager to adult. What is the best advice you could give someone making a major change in their life, what would be the most important for them to know. So I went to the place I get all of my best answers, I went to scripture.

There is a place in the bible where one of the greatest minds in history gives advice to his protege, the one he had trained up and has now sent out on his own. Paul writes this to Timothy

1 Timothy 4:12–16 NASB95

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

Many have used this passage because it speaks of Timothy’s youth and they have related it to the youth of those graduating or those in a youth group and they are on the right track but I think they miss the greater part of the message when they stop there.

Of course Timothy’s burden was his youth, many would not give him the respect he deserved because he was young. I knew a woman one time who told me she never listened to anyone younger than she was. When she told me this she was in the process of ignoring advice from her doctor because he was younger than her, of course since she was over retirement age that meant she might never listen to a doctor again, or much of anyone else. I am not sure that is a good policy to follow.

Of course we could not make her listen to the doctor, especially when his education, his licence to practice medicine and his board certification did not persuade her. So how do you avoid having someone sell you short because of your age, maybe you are too young, or even too old. What if someone ignores you because of your lack of education, or because of your lack of experience, or maybe they just think you have too much experience to understand the new ways or the younger generation. Any one of us can be blown off or sold short because someone else doesn’t respect who we are. So what do you do about that.

According to Paul you work hard to excel and you keep on doing it until it is obvious to everyone.

Of course Timothy was a preacher so Paul told him to act like a preacher, love, faith purity, begin an example to others. In other words you know what you need to do and what is expected of someone who is in your position so do it and do it well. If you do a slipshod job and have a whatever attitude then you will make it easy for people to discount who you are and what you are doing for any reason they can think up. You are too young or too old, you don’t know enough or are too set in your ways. If you act like an irresponsible kid you give others permission to treat you like one. If you act like you don’t know what you are doing or what you are talking about then others will accept that you are clueless. If you present yourself as too old or too young or whatever then people will take you at your word.

So don’t do it. Know what you are doing and do it well. Know what you are talking about and say it well. Excel at what you do and work hard at it. Keep it up, do it day after day and year after year. Make people see that you are willing to work and willing to learn, that you are capable and competent. Convince yourself that you are going to be the best you can possible be and set your mind to do it, then put in the effort and make it happen.

Every person is given a gift from the hand of God, in Timothy’s case it was the gift of preaching, it was confirmed by the elders, the presbytery. Paul told him exactly what to do with it

1 Timothy 4:15–16 NASB95

Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

Take pains with these things, in other words put in the effort and the time to learn what you are doing and what you need to know to do it well. Be absorbed in what you are doing. In other words put your whole self into it, be sold out, be a fanatic. Make it obvious to everyone that you are in it to win it.

Pay close attention to your teaching, in other words watch what you do and what you say. Don’t just travel along in life exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide find your purpose and dedicate yourself to it. Find more than one purpose and be dedicated to them all. Change the world, begin a new life. I don’t care if you are a high school graduate just starting to make your way in the world or a retiree creeping toward the end of your life. Figure out who God made you to be, what your gifts are, find the person you were intended to be and start being that person. A man named Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem that makes me think of what it means to be true to yourself, to stand above the crowd and be your own person.

If—

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream, and not make dreams your master; If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And, which is more, you’ll be a Man, my son!

Don’t follow meekly along with the crowd doing what everybody else does, find your own path and travel it. Find out who God made you to be and be that person to the best of your ability and then keep learning and living and trying all of your life. You have one life to live, make it an exceptional one.

Paul was telling Timothy God called you to be a pastor so be the pastor God called you to be. Preach and teach and love like no one else. Do the things only you can do because only you were given that exact set of gifts and that exact set of experiences. God designed you, he didn’t make your from a kit. You were not made in a factory from the same parts as everybody else. The creator God of the universe designed you to be more unique than any snowflake ever was. You were made with infinite care and infinite love to be the one person just like you in all of history and God has placed you where you are and given you the life you have been given and laid out all of this potential in front of you, take advantage of it.

Today I am going to tell you secret to making it all work. I am going to tell you what you need to know to be who God made you to be. God revealed it right there in his word, Paul told the secret to Timothy in no uncertain terms. Do you want to be successful, the secret is here. Are you a graduate trying to figure out what to do next make this secret the center of all of your efforts. Are you already traveling along life’s path and struggling to make it all work just employ this secret, it is the only sure way to win. Are you at the end of life, have you finished one race only to find out that although you are finished you are not done, are you wondering what to do next, are you doubting what you are doing now, apply this secret and you will always have one more chance, one more shot at making it work, one more opportunity.

Are you ready for it. Perseverance.

Paul Told Timothy don’t give up, try one more time, when you are knocked down get up, when you lose play again, when you fail, begin again and again and again, persevere.

Calvin Coolidge said “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

The person who seems to succeed easily at everything they do will be envied but not admired. That person will not inspire others to greater and greater lives. Someone who finds all challenges to be easy may succeed on their own and may seem on top of the world for a time but they are always eventually knocked down. Do you know who inspires me, do you know who I rood for. I root for the one who has it hard, the one who struggles and never gives up, the one who overcomes all obstacles and jumps every hurdle.

There is a movie called Rudy about Rudy Ruettiger a man who quote had not one trace of athletic ability. He tried and tried and practiced and practiced and after years of playing on the practice team and inspiring everyone around him he he finally got to play in one game, it is a true story and a great movie and someone who had a dream and struggled and fought to make that dream happen, and it did.

Go out and find your dream, get involved, make it happen, do the work, and keep on doing it. Persist. Try, don’t let anyone ignore you or shut you out, keep trying and trying and trying. Make sure you are on being who God designed you to be and never quit, never let anyone steal your dream or shut you down, change the world, change your life and change it over and over and over again.