WRITE YOUR STORY

Introduction

-{2 Timothy 4}

-In the past few weeks, in recovering from shoulder surgery, there was something that was made abundantly clear to me—I can’t bounce back like I used to. I have been reminded that I’m getting older—and it made me reflect on my own mortality. I’m just going to keep getting older and then die one day (or the Lord returns).

-I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer or anything. But we all have to face this. And when our time comes and they hold our funeral, my question to you is how do you want to be remembered? When your friends and family are gathered, what do you want them to say about you? Will it only be superficial things, like, “AL, HE SURE LOVED THE GREEN BAY PACKERS or STAR WARS.” Is that the kind of stuff we want said of us? Will people have a hard time coming up with anything, or will they have to lie?

-It reminds me of a story I heard about two brothers who were rich but very wicked. Both lived a very wild life, using their wealth to cover up the dark side of their lives. They attended the same church  and gave large sums to various church related projects. Suddenly one of the brothers died and the pastor was asked to preach his funeral. The surviving brother gave the pastor an envelope and said here is a check that will pay for the entire amount needed for the new sanctuary and I only ask one favor: Tell the people at the funeral that my brother was a saint. The pastor wanted the check but he didn’t see how he could ethically make a statement like this because it’d be tantamount to lying. Then he had an idea, so he gave the brother his word that he would do it, deposited the check in the bank and the next day at the funeral said, “This man was an ungodly sinner, wicked to the core but compared to his brother he was a saint.”

-If we want people to be able to say something of substance and spiritual importance about our lives, we write that story by the choices we make of whether or not we are going to live to the glory of Jesus Christ. Now, we can’t undo the past, but we can start writing the story of our lives from the present on into the future. As the cliche goes, “TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.” Of all the things that could be said about you, wouldn’t you want it to be that you faithfully served our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Yes, we want to be known as a good family man or woman. Yes, we want to be known as people who were kind and helped others out. But above all else we want to be known as people who made an impact for the Kingdom of Christ in the midst of a wicked world. That’s the story we want for our lives.

-In the passage that we are looking at, the apostle Paul is writing from prison knowing that the time of his departure from this earth is at hand. So, he reflects on his life and ministry and considers the story that he wrote with his life—that it was a life devoted to Jesus Christ. I want us to start today writing the story of our lives and that they too would be stories about devotion to Jesus.

2 Timothy 4:6–8 ESV

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.

-{pray}

-There are three particular aspects about Paul’s story that I really want to encourage us to make a part of our story as well.

1) Fight the fight

-Paul first describes that living faithfully for Christ was a struggle, but he did not give up or give in. Paul met the struggles head on in the power of the Holy Spirit and he persevered. In a world that is hostile to Christ and His church, there are going to be struggles, but we don’t run or hide, we fight the fight.

-The picture that Paul alludes to are the sporting contests in the Grecian games—the battles that took place in order to get the crown. I guess it would be comparable to the wrestling matches in the Olympics. Not the fake wrestling of the WWE or AEW, but the real wrestling of the Olympics where opponents lock up and do battle and struggle to come out the victor.

-When we live lives for Christ that are aligned with Scripture with the intent of doing good for His kingdom, we will face struggles and fights and trials of various kinds. That is the reality of living in a world that is opposed to Christ. Nowhere does Scripture say that a life of devotion is going to be easy. It is going to be a street fight—the question is will we throw up our hands in defeat, or will we face the struggle faithfully and have our hands later raised in victory.

-Paul knew all about struggle. After his conversion, and throughout his ministry, it was one battle after another. Just listen to how he describes the story of his life:

2 Corinthians 11:23–28 ESV

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.

-So, there is Paul fighting the fight, out there struggling for the glory of Christ—willing to suffer so that the name of Jesus is known and praised in his day. But in our day and age, someone hurts our feelings and we throw a pity party for ourselves, and we quit. Someone says something mean about us on social media and we want to hide a in a corner. Brothers and sisters, can we please grow a Christian backbone. I hope that by reading what Paul went through we can get a proper perspective on things.

-Now, I do want to point out that the struggles and fights that Paul had were for his faithful service to Christ. A lot of times we seem to be in a battle, but it’s because of our own bad choices. Paul says that he fought the GOOD fight. The terminology that Paul used actually describes a struggle or fight of the most noble kind. The reason for the struggle was honorable and the struggle was faced in a noble way. The cause of Christ, the cause of the gospel is the only cause worth fighting for—the most noble and honorable struggle there is.

-If you are thrown into jail because of your biblical stand on issues or because you shared the gospel in a militant Muslim nation, that is honorable. That is a good fight. But if you suffer in another way for selfish reasons that center around you and your own little universe, that is not a good fight—it’s dealing with your own consequences.

-If we want to write a good story for our lives, that means it involves fighting the good fight for Christ and the gospel. But writing a good story for our lives also means we:

2) Run the race

-Paul tells Timothy that he has finished the race. What he is literally saying is that I HAVE FULFILLED THE COURSE THAT GOD HAS LAID OUT BEFORE ME. Just like a racetrack, God plots out a course for each and every believer. Paul had his racecourse from God, and each of us has our own racecourse from God. The question is if we are going to stay on track on the course, or will we go off course and mark our own path.

-Only we are able to determine if we are on the course God has laid out for us. We can’t compare ourselves or our course with anybody else. No two courses are alike. My course is different from your course, and yours from the person sitting next to you. If I try to compare how I’m doing on my course in comparison with how you are doing on your course, it would be like apples and oranges. My course is leading in a completely different direction than yours, although our courses have the same goal in glorifying Christ and making Him known.

-All God asks us to do is to be faithful in the course that He sets out in front of us, not looking to the left or right, but keeping our eyes on Jesus who awaits us at the end of the race. We keep our eyes forward toward Jesus, as Paul himself said:

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

-Paul finished his race, he completed his course, by keeping his eyes on Jesus, and we must do the same. If our eyes get distracted, we will be tripped up. And so, we heed the words of the writer of Hebrews when he says:

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

-If we want to run the race without tripping, we keep our eyes forward. I fear too many Christians are too busy either looking back or looking side to side, and it slows them down and gets them off course. Many are letting the past avert their gaze from Jesus. Past problems or hurts are clung too stronger than anything Gorilla glue can put together. These past issues become your constant focal point. Have you ever tried walking while looking behind you much less running a race? Just walking through my house, but looking behind me I have run into more walls and door frames than I can count. Focusing on the past will not help you finish the course.

-Or you get too distracted looking from one side to another which can represent us focusing in on what’s going on in somebody else’s life instead of concentrating on whether or not we are still on our own course. For some reason we think it’s our duty to nitpick how other people are running on their own course. We Baptists like to get into everybody else’s business. But if all your concentration is on someone else, you’re not minding your own course.

-But the writer of Hebrews also warned us of the weights that hold us down. If you are going to run the race you need to lighten the load.

Picture you are running a race or a marathon, but you tie yourself to several of those big, heavy anchors that steady luxury cruise ships. Are you going to get anywhere being tied to those weights?

-And yet we think we can run the race with un-repented sin or being tethered to the things of this world. The writer of Hebrews says these things entangle you. You are not going to finish the course tied to these things. You can sit there and rationalize your sin or worldliness until you are blue in the face, but it hinders you from running the course God has before you.

-There might be some here that have been harboring bitterness and anger and unforgiveness for years. From the day that you decided to hold onto that bitterness you tied yourself to an anchor, your progress stopped, your spiritual growth stopped, you have been still and stagnant for years. How are you going to finish the race, how will you complete the course that God has before you if you aren’t moving? You say, “Al, you don’t know what that person did to me?” You’re right, I don’t, but I do know that God’s word says that we are to forgive else our sins are not forgiven us.

-There are some who don’t think a lick about Jesus all week long until Sunday morning comes around. All of a sudden on Sunday you’re super-holy person. The course that God has for you isn’t just something run one day a week. It is a constant lifestyle, being run every moment of your life. You think giving Jesus an hour or two a week is a relationship with Him? In our day and age, the world doesn’t need Christians who only think about Jesus one or two hours a week. It needs Christians who are constantly and consistently running the course that God has laid before them, fulfilling the grand calling He has on their lives.

-Do you think that history remembers the stories of people who gave an hour or two toward their craft or specialty? Do you remember the story of the guy who worked on his ground-breaking engineering project for an hour a week? I don’t either because because he wasn’t dedicated to running his course, he never accomplished anything. But I do know the story of Alexander Graham Bell who dedicated his life to the course laid before him in inventing the telephone. I do know the story of Mother Teresa who (although I have major theological issues with her) dedicated her life to running the course of helping the poor.

-If you are not running the course that God has before you, if you are not finishing the race, you won’t have a story to tell. But writing our story not only entails fighting the fight and running the race, we also...

3) Guard the gospel

-Finally, Paul says about his story that he kept the faith. What Paul is saying with this statement is: I KEPT UNDER GUARD THE FAITH AND DOCTRINE THAT WAS GIVEN TO ME BY GOD. Paul pronounces that the message with which he was entrusted stayed the same throughout his life—he guarded the gospel message against anything that would try to bend it or break it.

-Just as in our day, Paul had to contend with innumerable groups and false teachers that tried to pervert the gospel—trying to turn it away from what it was intended to be. Yet, Paul didn’t allow himself to be swayed by these perversions. Paul did not compromise the message when the pressure was great. Paul was given the truth of the gospel, focused on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he would not turn away from it, even when it cost him dearly.

-We have been given the same message, and we are under a lot of the same pressure. But there is only one gospel that saves, as Paul himself described in:

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

-That is the message: Jesus Christ died for sinners. There is no other message that saves a person. This is very personal to me because I did not grow up with the gospel. For the first 25 years of my life I was under the influence of a message of just going to church and doing good works in order to get to heaven. I truly believed that as long as I didn’t kill anybody that I would be alright. But then the true gospel reached my ears where I heard that I was a sinner under God’s righteous judgment, but Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sins and rose again to grant life, and if I put all my faith in Him I have eternal life. And so I did, and so I am gloriously saved, not by anything that I have done, but because of everything that He did.

-That is the only gospel and it is the only message that saves, but there are people out there who claim to be a Christian but are lying about the gospel. They are lying about my Jesus who said I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE AND NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME. I would never allow anybody to go around lying about my family, so I’m sure not going to allow anyone to go around and lie about the my Jesus and the gospel message.

-Paul took it very personally if anyone perverted the gospel, and immediately set out to set things straight. He wanted to ensure that people heard the truth. And so Paul guarded tooth and nail the pure gospel message—salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. And if you messed with that message, Paul confronted you with sayings:

Galatians 1:8–9 NET 2nd ed.

8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! 9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!

-Just because someone puts that title of Christian on their social media sites or whatever doesn’t mean they are actually a Christian. If they in any way mess with the gospel message, they are a false teacher or a false Christian that is to be marked and avoided, and their perverted message is to be confronted and corrected. That is what Paul did, and this is his story.

Conclusion

-Paul says in v. 8 that the story ends with the crown of righteousness that is laid up for him—it is the reward for all who have loved his appearing. The crown of righteousness, salvation, Christ’s righteousness counted on our behalf. That is the reward for faith, but the Bible also talks about other rewards given for those whose lives tell a story of faithfulness.

-I’ll close with this thought. There are many Christian biographies and autobiographies out there that are worth reading, telling the stories of those who were faithful to Christ and the gospel in many different ways. For example, the book TORTURED FOR CHRIST tells the story of Richard Wurmbrand who was a Romanian pastor who suffered in many different way for Christ under Communist rule. His loyalty to Christ cost him dearly, and it would be a good enough story just reading of all he did during that dark period. But the story of his life continues to how he then used those experiences to found Voices of the Martyrs to help the persecuted church throughout the whole world. That is a great story.

-As great as a story is given in words in a book or on a tablet, an even better story is given through a life that is lived for Christ. Let me ask you, how’s your story going? Is it a testimony of faithfulness to Christ and His faithfulness to you, or is your story no more exciting than a phone book? Christian, come to the altar and begin writing or rewriting your story.

-There may be some here who need to completely start their story over again by believing in Jesus Christ for eternal life. Believe in Jesus and begin the most exciting chapter of your life.

-Still, other people’s stories might lead them to join with our church family...