2 Timothy 2:1-7 Soldiers, Athletes & Farmers
Read
Verse 1-7
Consider what I
say: Think about this Analogy
Paul
writing to Timothy encouraging him in his ministry: Strong leader
A) Gives him 3 Analogies: Christian life /
Christian ministry is like:
A
A Race
Like Farming
DEDICATED
Soldiers
DISCIPLINED
Athletes
DILIGENT
farmers
B) Although Paul is dealing
with 3 different professions
1) There
are Similarities to the three analogies
C) All 3 deal with
Submission to a higher authority
Soldier
is under the Authority of his superior officer He takes orders.
A) His desire is to please
his superior Motivates a good soldier more than anything
B)
The Athlete is under the Authority of his trainer He has to submit to
rigorous training and to the rules of the competition
C) The
Farmer is under Authority of the Elements He has to submit himself to the
seasons.
D)
So all 3 deal with Submission to a higher authority
All 3 involve discipline,
TEDIOUS training and hard work
All 3 have
their own difficulties and hardships
All 3 offer some form of
REWARD
Last
time we spent the whole morning talking about Soldiers
A)
Today look at DISCIPLINED Athletes
and
DILIGENT farmers
B) Start with
Athletes - Mentioned last
time how much Paul loved the analogy of the Soldier Even more found of the
Analogy of the Athlete!
C) In his letters
he makes more than 2 dozen references to athletics:
1)
If Paul was living today he definitely would have been into ESPN & ESPN2!
D)
The Greeks & Romans were enthusiastic athletes, & spectators. RELEVANT
picture.
Paul
knew that the Romans considered sports a good source of entertainment
A)
And that the Greeks saw athletics as a means of personal enrichment, reasoning
that a healthy body was associated with a healthy mind.
B) Gymnasiums (where the athletes
trained) and stadiums (where they
competed) were in most major Greco-Roman cities.
C)
In ancient
D)
The games were so esteemed in ancient times that states involved in wars would
call a cease
fire to allow the games to go on unhindered.
1)
In fact many of the competing Greek athletes were also soldiers.
Now
Paul states here that an Athlete has no Chance of being rewarded unless he
competes
.rules
A) Every participant had to meet three qualifications:
1. Trueborn Greek - contending athletes were
required to produce a Greek birth certificate
2. The athlete had to compete within
specific rules for the individual athletic event.
3. All Greek athletes had to train
for 10 months prior to the actual competition.
Now important to not be misled by this
idea: The Christian life isnt so much about a set of rules to follow.
A)
As it is a DAILY SUBMISSION { Abide
B)
Some people wish it was as simple as 10 rules to follow
1)
Instead it requires a relationship, daily communication.
C)
Christian faith is the only faith where you have a personal coach with you 24 X
7
1)
Colossians 1:27 Christ in you is your hope of
glory!
D) That right there is the DIFFERENCE:
There
is no other religion in the world that makes available a personal trainer
always with you.
A) You see, Jesus is not
just by your side, or on your side He is inside- your inside
B) He is in the heart by His
Spirit constantly speaking to your heart mind spirit.
1) Our Guide book is the Bible instruction in every area
of life.
C) He is constantly bringing understanding and
conviction concerning His Word
Now
if you are into Islam: Your god is Allah who requires appeasement through the
five articles of faith and practicing the five pillars of faith.
But Allah doesnt live
inside!
Hindu: Your
god is Raman- The ultimate reality, but
man can only get to him after going through a progressive cycle of dying and
being reincarnated.
Buddhist: For
you there is no real personal god. The ultimate
objective in Buddhism is to be free of suffering. You achieve that through ones
own self discipline.
Scientologist:
Your god is not really a personal god but rather an impersonal force a realm of spirituality you might be able to attain to one day if
you follow the practices of Scientology faithfully and correctly.
Christianity
is uniquely different because the author died and rose again Now lives in His
followers
A) Personally teaches /
empowers and guides
B) I spent the first half of
my life really involved in athletics lots of coaches
1) some who knew the sport /
others didnt.
2) some good teachers /
others poor.
3) Some mean / others nice
4) Some great motivators /
others very poor.
C)
I never had a coach like Jesus who could literally get inside my head / my
heart
1) Move my will and
empower me to do His !
D) That really is the Beauty
of the Christian life!
Like
this glove: No hand in it Empty glove useless
Only
becomes useful once the hand is inside
A) Same is true spiritually
Christ inside is your Hope of glory.
B) The Christian life is all
about learning to respond to and be led by the hand living inside the glove
1) Sensitive to His spirit
C) Thru His guidance
learning to follow the hand
C) If we are going to be Victorious we have
to follow His instruction.
D) If we dont, we might achieve results that
make us look successful in the eyes of others.
1)
And still not receive a reward from Christ
We
need to Realize that we are not running
against each other: We all have our own race to run!
A) Rather,
our competition is against our fleshly old self, against the world, and against
Satan
B) And our goal is to press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).
The Greeks had a race in their Olympic
games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his
torch still lit.
We are so often so busy with lifes activities that we are in
danger of allowing the torch of our spiritual life to become extinguished.
I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for
Him."
In
order to do that it takes training& Discipline!
A) Any athlete that is going
to be successful has to learn to discipline his flesh put it into
subjection
Someone has defined a football game as an event in which thousands
of people who need exercise pay for the privilege of cheering for twenty-two
healthy men who need no exercise
B) Most of us would rather
watch someone else work out for us!
C) Discovered my Problem
with getting in Shape I love sports Hip doesnt let me participate like I
would want to.
D) )I love sports but I
absolutely hate working out and I love to eat ! Bad combo
E) Always Monday: often ½
hearted
For
some of us Problem spiritually ½ hearted effort -
Warren Wiersbe
"If Christians were putting into their spiritual walk the kind
of discipline that athletes put into their chosen sport, the church would be
pulsating with revival life. "
The same Tedious discipline that
is involved in working out is needed for spiritual training
A) Difference Never been
able to see working out as more than Work done
it, never enjoyed it
B) But Spiritually it is
different! I always hated reading High School little as possible
C) Really changed once I
started studying the Bible
D) There is a discipline
involved but it is much more enjoyable- see the benefits faster.
Growth
is little by little Reading in Duet. Devos
A) The Lord said not going
to give you the land all at once little by little
B) Each day is a race /
Boxing match Little by little victories
Scott
Hamilton, the Olympic skater, shortly after winning his Gold medal said, "Someone asked me why I was looking at the medal so
intently. What I was doing was looking at 16 years of my life."
NO CUTTING CORNERS
Associated Press headline Marathoner
Loses by a Mustache.
A) It happened in
B) It appeared that Abbes
Tehami of
B)
Checking eyewitness accounts & video replay Tehami had started the race
with a mustache and finished it without one.
1) it quickly became evident
that the mustache belonged to Tehamis coach, Bensalem Hamiani.
D) Hamiani had run the first seven-and-a-half miles of the race
for Tehami, then disappeared into the woods to pass his race number on to his pupil.
They looked about the same, race organizers
said. Only one had a mustache.
Christian
race, there are no short cuts cant get someone to run your race for you.
A) Daily run listening to
your coach
B) Things to avoid Right
diet
C) Result
? Reward:
Note
those who ran well: David /Jonathan / Moses { Hebrews 11 Tonight
Paul moves onto to the Analogy of the farmer.
A)This
analogy I think describes what Christian ministry is like 90% of the time.
B)
True it can feel like a Soldier in a battle at times 1)
Even though we are always battling in ministry There are times where the
battle doesnt seem as intense
C)
There are those times where it is like an athlete
especially preparing for an event Racing toward a goal, an outcome
But it is always like farming : How is
Ministry like Farming?
A)
Pastor friend of mine who lives in an area where they do a lot of farming, 4
Comparisons
B)
Asked What makes for a good farmer!
C)
#1 A Good farmer cant be lazy, there is no
substitute for hard work!
Hardworking = to toil intensely, to sweat and strain to the point of
exhaustion if necessary.
A) He starts early in the
morning and quits late in the day.
B) Not glamorous work but
he is doing something that is needed.
1) He Plows the field He prepares the soil He plants
the seed.
C)
He endures the cold, the heat, the rain, and the drought.
1)
He plows the soil whether it is hard or loose.
D) He does not wait for his
own convenience, because the seasons do not wait for him.
1)When
the time comes to plant, he must plant; when weeds appear, he must remove them;
and when the crop is mature, he must harvest it
#2
He has to be patient! Perseverance
A) The soldier often has the
excitement of battle, and the athlete the thrill of competing.
B) But most of a farmers
working hours are tedious, humdrum, and unexciting.
1)
And, unlike the soldier, and the
athlete, a farmer often works alone.
C) He has no fellow soldiers
to fight with him, no teammates or crowd to cheer him.
D) His work is TEDIOUS the
same thing day in and day out
He
has no idea what transpires under the surface of the ground
Aa) But he waits he trust
in the Lord to bring the fruit bring the increase
A)There
is so much that is out of his control
B)
Doesnt see the results he gets up and does it all over again
C)
Tomorrow When you wake up to face the daily grind think of as planting
seeds in the soil harvest
The renowned and eloquent British evangelist, George Whitfield, in his dying
words prayed
"Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of Thy work.
You
pour into your kids Little evidences that its taking
A) But you have no idea what
is going to transpire until years later
B) You pour into others in
Discipleship no idea the impact making
1)
Just spending time with them
C) Years later you hear them say: Affect
that it made on them
Cc)
Pastor: same sometimes never see occasionally email someone was here
years ago
D) Yrs go by Marc Orozco { Bible college /
Here /
Lorn Dunn
Jason Duff / Jim Stewart /
LA Nelson / Robert Nettles/ John Morten { getting fat
Phil McKay / Dave Andersen
list goes on
#3
He is constantly conscious of how the field is doing.
A) Absentee farmers dont do
very well.
B) Ministry is the same way
C) It is constant Absentee
Pastors dont do well
1) Absentee Parents
D) Discipleship Constant
continual -
#4
He needs to sow good seed into good
soil.
Reap
what you sow
There is an
element in this of you get out of it what you put into it
Here: Good seed Giving
word -
Only you can affect soil {
Parable of sower
1) Hard
2) Stone Shallow
3) Distracted Thorns
deceitfulness of riches cares of this life
4) Good Soft pliable
movable
ULTIMATE
REWARD?- ETERNITY
A) People there, because of
your impact you sowed a seed shared the word took time plant life
B) You water some seed
C) You did some farming
A battle: Fight the good fight
A Race: Follow Jesus {
Author and finisher
A farm: Be faithful tedious work hard
Dont grow weary in well
doing because in due season you will reap if dont lose heart !