What is Success? - 2 Timothy 1:13-2:2

Introduction

We’re obsessed with success. Success that has come to form the two black and white categories through which we evaluate every aspect of our lives — success or failure. This makes me wonder today how many of you feel like failures. You see, our obsession with success has made ‘failure’ our greatest fear. So, we’re paralyzed. We want to get married, but what if it fails? We want to have children, but what if we can’t handle it? We want to go on mission, but what if something happens or the money falls through? We want to do great things for God, but what if it’s just our idea or our desire for adventure or our creativity and it goes badly? What if we fail?

But, what if success isn’t as we’ve understood it? What if we’ve defined our categories wrongly? What if we’re evaluating ourselves on each individual tree in our lives when success can only be appreciated by looking at the whole forest? Could it be that we’ve made finding success too complicated, and by overcomplicating it, assured our own failure?

God’s Word

Christians use different definitions than our neighbors, especially when it comes to success.And, this is what I want us to examine as we look at the next step of our discipleship process: Disciple. You see, there’s a reason that we want to connect you. Jesus has saved you because there’s someone for you to be and something for you to do. That is, Jesus has saved you to be his disciple, and Jesus has made you a disciple that you might disciple others. Success in the Kingdom is evaluated on this basis: Are you a disciple, and are you making disciples? In 2 Timothy, Paul is at the end of his life, and he’s giving final instructions to his son in the faith, Timothy. So, the right definition of success is at an all-time importance for Paul, and he helps us set the right definitions for ourselves as disciples of Jesus. So, in a self-help world, I want to add the words of Paul to the equation that we might see his four steps to a successful life (headline) — the type that will be deemed success at the final judgement. You’ll notice that our passage is outlined by four commands/imperatives from Paul. These help us to know what he intends for us to do with all that he has said, and it’s here that I think we see the four steps.

Follow the “gospel’s path.”

v. 13 “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” So, if you are to find the type of success that will hold up forever, you’ll follow the “gospel’s path”. At one time, the Grand Canyon was just a stream of water. Have you ever thought about that? And then, generation after generation generation, the Colorado River flowed down the same path in the same direction, and the result is what we see today — a canyon so vast and wide that it moves you emotionally. What we’re reading here in 2 Timothy 2 is the initial trickle that would lead to the vast and wide Kingdom of God we know today. We travel a well-grooved path, begun by Jesus, passed to the Apostles, and now to us. The Kingdom we’ve inherited has been carved out of the rock of men’s hearts through the wonderfully erosive, transformative power of the gospel, one person at a time and one generation at a time. The disciple’s path isn’t open for reinvention. We can’t alter what it means to be a disciple and to make disciples so that it is more pleasing to our 21st century sensibilities.

Jesus Doesn’t Eliminate Personalities; He works through them

But, we shouldn’t understand this to be calling us to a boring uniformity, where everyone in the church looks the same and sounds the same and acts the same. Rather, it’s a call to a collective unity in our path, in our doctrine, in our gospel and in our mission, but that well-grooved path is filled with a beautiful and peculiar uniqueness. You see, when it says to ‘follow the pattern of sound words’, a ‘pattern’ is something similar to the way someone might sketch a house plan before they had an architect draw it up. It’s like a prototype. The structure will be the same, but the cosmetics will differ. The gospel works a lot like that, and that’s what Paul is saying. Jesus doesn’t eliminate our distinctions and personalities; rather, He works through them. The gospel path is calling us to be uniform in substance (‘pattern of sound words’) and uniform in spirit (‘in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus’), but to walk the path with Jesus as ourselves. Jesus is calling you, and everything that makes you— you, to be the disciple He’s called you to be and to make disciples in a way that is uniquely, effectively you. No two disciples are the same, and no two disciples make disciples the same way. We don’t need 350-400 carbon copies, like we build our church membership at an assembly line. That wouldn’t be success. We need 350-400 distinctive personalities locking arms together to pursue Jesus and to make disciples of the people that we’re uniquely positioned to reach.

God’s Kingdom is Built with Quirky People

I wonder what is not being done for Jesus’ glory in our church and our community because you’ve convinced yourself that you’re a failure. You’ve convinced yourself that you’re a failure because you have quirks and idiosyncrasies and certain things are more difficult for you. But, y’all, God’s kingdom is being built with quirky, eccentric, inadequate people.

Stay the “course”.

v. 14 “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” Now, I want you to see that success in the Kingdom isn’t just about following the gospel’s path; it’s about staying on the path. That is, you must stay the “course”. When Paul says that Timothy must ‘guard the good deposit entrusted to (him),’ the word ‘good’ means ‘beautiful.’ ‘Deposit’ can also be translated as ‘treasure’, which the NASB does. So, think about what he’s saying, “Defend, protect, guard the ‘beautiful treasure’ that you’ve been entrusted with.” It’s to stay the course with the true gospel so that THROUGH YOU the gospel might reap a return on investment, so that its beauty might become more clearly seen by your neighbors. You’ll see here how ‘disciple’ can be both a noun and a verb. The nature of ‘guarding’ is to ensure that you’re treasuring the true gospel and that you’re teaching and passing on the true gospel to be treasured by others. It envelopes both concepts. And, that’s how the Holy Spirit helps. The Holy Spirit changes your nature so that you’ll treasure the treasure, and He works through you to accomplish the same in others..

A Gospel without Innovation

There’s an impulse that’s been realized by every generation of the Church to edit and innovate the message that we have so that it becomes more accepted by whichever generation is modern at the time. In Timothy’s time, some wanted to make the gospel more Jewish and some wanted to make it more stoic and some wanted to be able to mix in some of the local religions so that it would be more widely embraced, so that it wouldn’t be so offensive to others. Today, some want us to make the gospel more nationalistic or more republican or less supernatural or more modern in its views of sexuality so that it will be more widely embraced, so that it will be less offensive. We’re tempted to innovate the established ‘pattern of sound words’ with splashes of modernity so that now others don’t see us as so strange, so ignorant, so anti-intellectual. That is, so that our lives on Jesus’ path won’t be so painful.

But, to ‘guard the good deposit’ will be painful, though the pain should not be viewed as failure. In fact, that’s success. That’s the point of 2 Timothy. That’s the point of the two examples he gives in verses 15-18. On one hand, you have an entire region of people who had professed faith in the gospel who have now, abandoned Paul. On the other hand, you have a single household that has ‘refreshed’ and encouraged Paul. So, you have one family as an encouragement, and an entire region of discouragement, and it’s a picture of what it means to follow after Jesus and Paul and Timothy through well-grooved path of the disciple.

Jesus was a Success

Jesus was a success, even though there was Judas, even though there was Caiaphus, even though there was a cross. Paul was a success, even though Asia abandoned him, even though there was only one household left. And, if you give your life to being a disciple and making disciples, and have nothing left but the same beautiful gospel you were given, your life has been a success. A couple of years ago, I had a conversation with a woman in our church who had committed to giving her life to make disciples of a group of young mothers. Essentially, they rejected her and decided they wanted to go their own way. She was so burdened for them, and they seemed so cold and indifferent to her. And, she wanted to quit, not because she didn’t see the need or didn’t feel the burden or didn’t want to help, but because she felt like she had failed. But, let me tell you, that is a success and not failure. Disciplemakers, I’m calling you back, not because I think you’ll receive your validation from the disciples that you’re going to make, but because I am convinced with all of my heart that you’re going to receive your commendation from Jesus.

Rest in “grace”.

2:1 “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” So, here’s what may be troubling you about what I’ve said so far about success. It just sounds like too much. It sounds like a marathon, and you hardly have enough energy for a Criminal Minds marathon. That’s why he says what he does in 2:1. It’s endurance, but it’s about enduring in rest. It’s about keeping it from becoming a drain on your strength and your will and your passion by keeping a posture of rest the whole time. It’s a resting marathon, which is probably as good as I could ever do any way. We have in our minds that those who are successful in God’s family are those super-endurance, ultra-marathoners in the Kingdom. But, it’s open to you because the third step we’re being called to take is to rest in “grace.” And, we can rest. To be ‘strengthened by grace’ is to be made strong by what Jesus has done. It’s to be bound to Jesus so that Jesus does all the work and you rest.

Maturity isn’t What We Think It Is

The call to ‘be strengthened’ is a call forward to us disciples to mature in our relationship with Jesus. But, maturity for the Christian is the opposite of what we expect, just like success for the Christian often is. When we think of maturing, we think of getting stronger, tougher, more hardened. But, in the Kingdom, maturity is less about you being strong and more about you abandoning your strength altogether. The immature are likely to say, “I’m too weak to do what God is calling me to do.” But, those who find their strength in Christ and have learned what a source He is say, “I need to get weaker still.”

Grace Doesn’t Need Michael Phelps

To search for strength within yourself is a death sentence, and that’s why so many of us feel like failures all the time. We keep looking within for strength, and we keep coming up shorter and shorter of what we’re trying to attain. But, if strength for the task is given to us by grace, anybody here can get in on this. You don’t have to be the Michael Phelps of the Kingdom. Grace doesn’t need five star prospects. Grace invites YOU to join the mission. Grace invites you to advance the kingdom. Grace is calling YOU, not just the competent, not just the prominent, not just the wealthy, not just the healthy, not just they young or the old. Grace says, “Anyone can get in on this!”

Take “others” with “you”.

2:2 “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.” And then, the coolest part of this is what happens, grace doesn’t just call you, but it calls others THROUGH you. That the successful life in the economy of the Kingdom is to follow gospel’s path, stay the course, rest in grace, and, then, most wonderfully, take “others” with “you”. Grace can save anybody, and grace can use anybody, and perhaps, most wonderfully, grace saves the anybodies by using the anybodies.

Discipleship is Giving Others What You Love

Verse two shows us what discipleship is and how discipleship works. You’ll notice that the phrase ‘what you have heard’ comes up a second time. We also saw it in verse 13. That’s all discipleship is. It’s taking what you love, and it’s spending time with someone else so that they can love it too. It’s running after Jesus and taking somebody with you. Discipleship is living astonished by the fresh discovery of God and intentionally helping others to be astonished by it, too. It’s cherishing the ‘beautiful treasure’ and helping others to see the treasure as beautiful, too. And, you’ll see how it works. Notice there are four generations represented here. You see, the plan of the Kingdom is not primarily stadiums and events and five star, ultra-marathoner Christian superstars. It’s YOU. Quirky, ordinary, called, grace-strengthened you. It’s from one person to the next, one parent to their child, one generation to the next, one friend to another.

May We Find Success

I was on NAMB’s website this week, and did you know that right now in Denver they have nearly 30 people planting churches? Which is awesome! But, do you know how many they have planting in SLC? Two. Because it’s such hard, infertile dirt. May God raise up the planters here. What if we advanced the gospel by going to rural communities up and down Hwy and planting campuses or gospel-centered churches for them to hear the hope of the gospel? We can. We’re ordinary. We’re quirky, but we can. What if our church became a training ground used by God to raise up the next generation of pastors and missionaries? What if we never had to go outside of these walls for any future hires because God has raised them up? We need to be planting churches on every continent. China has a higher population than almost the entire western hemisphere. We need to be there. We need to be in secularized Europe. I’m praying God uses us. How can these things be? How can we be a part of works like this? Follow the gospel’s path. Stay the course. Rest in Grace. And, as we take others with us, God will multiply our capacity and multiply our role in the Kingdom as more people follow the path with us. That’s success.