August 20, 2023
Consider your Role
2 Timothy 2:1-7
I. Introduction
It gives three illustrations. A soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. And from those, I know it says husbandman, that's a farmer. And from those illustrations, we can learn some truths about living the Christian Life. Because we all have a role to play. As we learned in Sunday school, Peter's teaching through Holy Spirit and we're talking the gifts. We all have a role to play in God's plan. He's given us a gift in order to fulfill that role and a question is, are you doing it?
II. Soldier
As we look at these different illustrations, these three different people, we're going to see they all have some things in common that we really can focus on. As we look at the first one, he's talking about being a soldier. He says,
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
A. Know You’re in a War
In case, you didn't know this, we are in spiritual war? And believers. Have all been entrusted by Jesus Christ to be a spiritual warrior. You think, wait a minute, I don't want to be a soldier. Too late. You've already enlisted. Although, some people have gone AWOL from God's Army. Some people have not fulfilled their purpose. How many people here were in the service besides me? Anybody? Think they all stayed home today?
You know, when you go in a service first of all, you go through boot camp and then you go, you get assigned to different places and you're expected to fulfill the role within that command. You listen to your commanding officer and you do what he says. But we're at a spiritual war. We're a soldier of Jesus Christ.
B. Endure Hardness
And it says, first of all, we need to endure hardness.
That's not what we want to hear. Sometimes, you know, you listen to some of the I'll call them TV preachers and they'll say as long as you have faith, your life will be wonderful. Well, I want to tell you those that preach that have never read the word of God. Because God says you live a life of faith - there's going to be problems, there's going to be times you need to endure hardness as a soldier of Jesus Christ. Because why?
In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11 and 12 says:
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
It's a spiritual battle we're in. And many of us have been subjected to the spiritual battles. The more your faith grows, the more Satan will try to tear you down, and convince you. That's why it says endure hardness, being a soldier of Christ, just like being a regular Soldier.
And I'll be honest. I joined the Navy back in the mid-70s because the Vietnam War wasn't over yet and I was concerned they were going to draft me. My number was coming up. So I figured I would join the Navy cuz I'd rather ride a boat then walk in mud. All right? Because that's what soldiers do. They endure hardness. They go out in the fields. They walk in all kinds of weird stuff. They are concerned somebody might shoot at them at any time.
And as a believer, that's what we have to have that attitude. As a soldier enduring hardness realizing any moment, Satan may try to attack you. So be aware, how do we be aware? How do we fight these battles? If you read the rest of Ephesians chapter 6, it talks about what? Putting on the whole armor of God. That's how you survive being a soldier of Christ.
C. Don’t be entangled with the Affairs of this Life
But also part of this, it tells us that "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life."
That's the thing that gets to us sometimes. Being so caught up in living in this world that we lose track of why God has left us in this world. In Luke chapter 8, when Jesus is talking about the parable of the sower, one of them he talks about those that fell among thorns. What happens? "He says they which when they had heard go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasure of this world and bring no fruit to perfection."
You see, that's where we get entangled with the cares of this world. With the pleasures of this World, with the riches of this world. We get so concerned with "making it" that we fail to realize that God may have a different plan for you? Now, don't get me wrong. Can you be rich and still serve God? Absolutely. Can God bless you in many different ways as you go through your life, as you're still serving him. Absolutely. But unfortunately, as human beings sometimes we get caught up. How many, for example, how many professional singers that used to sing Christian songs, suddenly got caught up in the fame and started serving more to make money than serving Christ?
And it can happen to any of us. We have to not be entangled with the cares of this world. You know Roman soldiers, Paul here, when he's talking about soldiers - he was used to the Roman soldiers. One of the things, a Roman soldier couldn't be married because they realized if they were married, they may care about their family too much. That doesn't mean we can't be married. I'm just letting you know a little facts here.
But worrying about our family sometimes, if we're not careful, will take us away from serving God. In, I believe it was March of 1979. The submarine I was on, we were in the middle of the ocean making circles. And we got a message that a nuclear power plant in Middletown, Connecticut ... Three Mile Island, it just melted down.
There were no casualties, we found out later. So what's that got to do? One of my good friends, Spike, lived in Middletown, his wife was still there, and she was pregnant. He had no clue what was happening to her. It weighed heavily on his mind. He did his job. But he was constantly in fear of what might happen? It took several days before he finally got a .. we call them family grams. They were radio messages from his wife, that said as soon as she heard it happened, she move down south with some relatives. She was safe. But in that interim, see, Satan could have used that to make him do all sorts of things. Go crazy even. But he kept his mind because he was a Christian and he knew that even though he was concerned for his wife, God was in control.
So, we have to make sure like the soldiers, we have to realize, one, we're in a battle. A spiritual battle. Two, it's going to be hard. Three, never let the cares of this live overshadow God's will for you in serving him.
You say, where how can that do? Well another illustration. Let's say that whatever job you're working, you suddenly realize - they're going to pay you double time for working on Sundays. And you think, you know I'm doing okay financially. But if I can make more money. And so we start working double time on Sundays. "Oh, I've got to miss church, I got to miss fellowship with others, but Got will know."
Yeah, God knows. God knows that you give up on what you should be doing to satisfy your own lust or greed. Now granted, sometimes we have to work. We have no choice. But you have to consider. Why are you doing the things that you're doing? Why do we miss doing what God wants us to do? Why do we miss reading his word? Why do we miss prayer times? Why do we miss fellowshipping with other believers? You're saying, it'd be hard to still serve God. Be a soldier, endure hardness.
III. The Athlete
It gives a second illustration. The athlete. Oh boy.
It says, "if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." [v. 5]
In 1st Corinthians chapter 9, he also talks about the same thing. About how, and apparently, Paul, liked sporting events. He's all the time talking about boxing or running or Marathon like things. But he said, listen. There's some things you can learn from an athlete. One of them.
A. Understand your goal
It says you have to understand what your goal is. 1st Corinthians Chapter 9:
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Paul's saying, listen, Here's what we can learn from being an athlete. One, there's a prize at the end of the race. Know what that prize is. What are you running through life to obtain? Fame? Glory? Are you running? That's a corruptible crown.
Or are you running like he says, for our Incorruptible Crown, that crown of rejoicing, that crown of righteousness. All of those crowns that we get.
B. Know what you’re racing for
What are you, what are you living for? This is he what he saying? Just like an athlete, what do they race for? They race for that crown at the end. They practice, knowing that's where they have to be. No one, I don't know .. and you can tell I've never been a real Runner, even in high school when I play football, I could run fast. But that didn't last very long. Besides being big, I got short legs. But you know what? Those that do run. They practice. They know what they're running for.
How many people enter a race so they can place second? Anybody? No? Third? Well I'm third, there was 14 people in the race. I placed third, that's good enough. No, we enter the race, we want to win. And that's what he says. When you enter the Christian race, you realize there's a goal line and your goal is to finish the race strongly. That's what Paul said just before he died. "He said I've run the course, I finished my race. There's laid up for me, a crown of righteousness."
You know, we learned also from athletes, they practice. But they practice for what they're going to compete in. If you're a runner, you practice, running. If you're a shot putter, you don't practice running as much as you practice shot putting. I don't know how else to say that. Shooting the .. I don't know. But you get the idea. As a Christian, what should we be practicing? Christianity that we get from God's word,
C. Know the rules of the race
But also with this, it tells us in verse 5, "5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully."
A runner realizes that when they win, they have to do it according to the rules. And God wants us to understand, he's given us as Christians rules. He says, we are free and we have freedom, but we're not to use that freedom for sin. We have rules to follow. I know a lot of believers. They will wait a minute. Then it's being works.
Yeah, we have works. But not for salvation. Once you trusted Christ, as your savior, your saved. Your safe. But then he expects us to work. But he wants us to do it by the rules. Anybody ever heard of Jim Thorpe? In 1912, at the Olympics ..I think it was in Denmark. Jim Thorpe, an American Indian, won both the decathlon and the pentathlon. And won gold. Man. All the American Indians in United States, they went ballistic cuz one of their own had won. A lot of white men, they were not so happy.
So, they started searching. And then you had to be, it was only for complete amateurs, you know what they found out. Couple of Summers before Jim Thorpe had played semi-pro baseball for $5 a week. So they brought that out and they said, "See. He cheated, he's a professional athlete." And they took his medals away.
Why? Because by the rules, he didn't play by the rules. Side note, they were restored to him years later after he died. They were restored because they realized, hey, it's not that big a deal. But, Thorpe when he wrote to the the king of Denmark to return his medals, he said something like "I'm sorry, I'm just an ignorant Indian and I didn't realize what all the rules were." Sometimes we're just ignorant Christians, we don't understand what the rules are. But if we're going to win, we have to strive lawfully, by the rules of God. And if we find out, we're not doing it the right way, then we need to change. Amen? And follow What God says. I mean, God wants us to be just like Jesus Christ. He's the ultimate example of how to be a Christian. I mean, after all isn't Christ, part of Christian? Being Christ-Like.
So are you like the athlete? You practice being a Christian. Are you running the race? Do you know what the goal is that God has for you? Now, they said, there's a lot of people run, but only one gets the prize. Here's good news. In Christianity, we're all running the race against ourself. if I cross the finish line doing what God wants me to, I win the crown. If you cross it, doing what God wants you to, you win the crown. Everyone that does that. Why? Because he wants us to be successful. He wants us to win that crown of righteousness, the crown of rejoicing. But just make sure that we're following God's rules and doing that.
IV. The Farmer
Third one, one of my favorites, the farmer. It tells us, "6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits." (1 Tim 2:6)
I have a question. Anybody in here ever been a farmer, Farmer? I'm not talking about home-gardner, but a farmer? Anybody. Good. Okay.
Farming is hard work. You know, a lot of people will look at pastors and they'll go, 'Man, what an easy job you have. You only work on Sundays.'
'Ahh, give it a shot. Go ahead.' There's other days we do a few things. Farmers, people look at them and go, 'they only work during the summer. They get to take the winter off.' No. I've known a lot of farmers. You know what they're doing in the winter? They're preparing for the summer, and the spring. They're fixing equipment, they're getting they're getting seeds ready. They're fixing up building. Why? A farmer realizes that it takes a lot of work in a lot of areas to gain the crop at the end of the season.
By the way, we need to pray for farmers at least in this area. If you haven't read the paper, the apple crop is down. The corn crop is down. The hay crop is down, all because of the rains. So, most farmers - they live on a very tight budget. And if they lose some of their crop, that budget gets tighter. But that's what a farmer does. He learns to live with what he has.
Farmer has to know a lot of other things. And I like to look at a farmer as, part of it is just when involved us reaching out to others. See, a farmer has to understand the weather. He has to understand rain cycles, dry cycles, when it's going to snow, when it's going to be cold. That's why they had the Old Farmer's Almanac. They also have to understand, which soil won't handle the best seed? They have to understand when to plant it. They have to understand how to make sure that the plants coming up are what they planted, so any other plants to come up, they might want to pluck them out or fight against pest or fight against whatever.
They have to know when the crop is at the perfect position to pick it. There's a lot to know, for a farmer. You know, as a believer, we should be like farmers. You see the crop is not corn, or wheat, or barley. The crop that we sow is the seed of the word of God.
And just like a farmer, we should know the soil we're planting it in. And know the right time to plant the seed. You know with some people when you talking to them and wanting to share the word of God, sometimes you just make, you start plowing the soil up first. You know, the farmer doesn't just go out to the field and start throwing seed everywhere. He has to plow it up first. He has to make it ready to plant, plow it, till it.
Then he plants a nice rose. But he has to know all of that and do it in the proper order. And so as witnesses for Jesus Christ, just like farmers, we have to understand doing things in a proper order. Start plowing up the soil first. When the soil is ready, plant the seed. Sometimes, we don't get to see that seed germinate, just like the Bible says, some plant the seed, some water, some get to see the harvest.
But our job is to plant seed. Sometimes we get to water it, sometimes we get to see the Harvest. Oh, glory to God, that's a great time! But just like a farmer, we have to understand that there's a lot of preparation. Sometimes there's a lot of waiting. Sometimes, there's a lot of disappointment, just like the farmers in our area now. Yeah, it was watered, but just a little bit too much. Sometimes even the seed. If you're not careful, can be watered just a little too much. So what what do you mean?
My last church, I had a guy I'd been witness to. He'd been coming to church, I'd been witnessing. He wasn't, he was like this close to accepting the Lord. And we had a missionary come in. Found out the guy wasn't saved yet. Got right in his face and started yelling at him after the service about you need to be saved. You know, even though I told the missionary, the guys almost ready but, you know, we're taking it easy because he's skittish so to speak.
That missionary watered just a little bit too much. The guy wasn't at church next week so I searched him out. He said, that's it. I don't want people yelling at me. If I want to accept the Lord, I'll do it on my own. The guy almost ruined him. But fortunately, we're able to continue to witness and the guy got saved. Out of a really bad lifestyle, he got saved. So, we have to be careful that we don't water too much.
Or that we don't force the seed. But be like the farmer. Just follow the right order to complete your task of being a servant of God.
IV. Why Do We Work for the Lord?
Now, back when we talked about the soldier, the reason that the soldier does what he does, it says, "so that he can please him, who is chosen him to be a soldier." The reason we serve Jesus Christ is not so we please our parents, our neighbor, our spouse, the other people Church. The reason we act like a good soldier. The reason we serve is to please Jesus Christ. I don't know if you've ever thought about this.
When you get to heaven, and they got the gates. You know, the old story, the Pearly Gates are there and Peter's there, and Peter's going to say, why should I let you in? "My mom said it'd be okay." That won't work. "My spouse said I was a good enough person" That won't work. You know the only thing will work is? "Because Jesus Christ paid for my sins. And I'm covered in his blood." Peter will say, "Come on in. That'll work!" So we do everything to please him, just like a good soldier.
Why does an athlete run a race? To win the prize of the crown. An Incorruptible Crown, the crown of righteousness. Why does the farmer put through all of that work? It's to get a crop. To have fruit. And the farmer, it tells us, gets to participate. Gets to eat some of that fruit. Notice, it says, he's first partaker of the fruits. You get to enjoy the fruit of seeing someone come to the Lord. If you never led someone to the Lord, you need to do it.
One because we're supposed to. I want to tell you, the joy of seeing someone trust Christ after witnessing and after that. And the pleasure of just watching them grow in the Lord. Sometimes they grow slow. Sometimes they grow rather quickly. You see, these three illustrations just tell us some things. There's a, there's a common thread that runs through all of them, whether it's the soldier, the athlete, or the farmer. That's Focus.
Focus on the goal. Focus on what Christ wants you to be. Christ wants you to serve him, to please him. Christ want you to run that race and not give up. Christ wants you to be His witness, to see Fruit. Not just for your fields, but for his.
So, let me ask you. How you doing in your role? Are you a good soldier? Are you good athlete? Are you a good farmer? Are you a good Christian? Have you made ..
You may have accepted Christ in your life. but has he been placed first in your life? That's where he wants you to be.
Let's bown our heads, just for a moment. No one looking around. Just ask yourself. Am I focused on serving God? Now, I know life gets in the way. But the reason God left each believer here (because it'd be so much better the moment you got saved, he take you right to heaven) .. but he left us here for a purpose to serve him.
More specifically to serve him by sharing the good news with others. Are you the kind of Christian you need to be. Have you focused on what God wants you to do. The only one that can answer that is you. If the answer is no, you need to go to him now and say, 'Lord you know I kind of failed you, I've kind of veered off the path. I'm not running the direct race I should be, or I'm not plowing the right field, or I'm not doing .. you know, I let the cares of this world bother me or whatever it is. You know. Ask his help, ask his guidance so that we can be the best followers of Jesus Christ we can be. And be an example to the world of what it means to be called Christian.
Concluding prayer
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word; Lord, these illustrations to help us understand what it means to serve you. To be focused on a goal. One that you place in our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for the salvation you give us through Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for wanting to use each one of us, help us Lord to follow that. Help us Lord to consider our role and then fulfill it. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.