James MacDonald - Refreshed by His Grace
Summary:
In this message from 2 Timothy 2, Paul urges Timothy—and us—to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus by living with focus and discipline like a faithful teacher, soldier, athlete, and farmer. The preacher stresses avoiding distractions, obeying God’s rules to avoid downfall, and nourishing our own souls first with God’s Word, while remembering Jesus Christ and anticipating the unstoppable victory of the gospel even through suffering. Ultimately, enduring hardship for the sake of others leads to eternal glory, with the assurance that God remains faithful even when we falter.
The Distraction Illustration
Who’s got a phone? I need a phone! I didn’t bring my phone in here. Come on, phone, phone, fast! Don’t act like you don’t have a phone. I know you’ve got a phone. Get your phone up here, girlfriend! Come on, and so people get there. You probably won’t ever see this again. You do, you do, you—I love you, and you know I do. Do you understand that you have 1,779 unanswered emails?
Okay, all right, you can sit down now. And I just have to say that I really respect you for that, and I wish that were true of me, but I have zero. And what that means is that I spend too much time like this. In fact, I had to go to our wonderful IT Department; I had to tell them to take my Instagram, take my Facebook, take my Twitter off my phone. I can’t handle it. You say, «Really? Can’t you just delete that yourself?» I tried that. I would delete it off my phone, and then like ten days later, I would put it back on again.
So, I actually had to have them hide it somewhere on my phone or something in my app store. I can’t even handle an app store anymore because I get distracted. I’ll get a spare moment, and instead of just thinking about the grace—what’s happening, what’s happening—and, oh, come on, do you know what I’m talking about? We all see the five people sitting at a dinner table, right? And they’re all looking at their phones, right? Oh, they must be so close! Since when did talking to someone who isn’t with me get better than talking to someone who is with me? Can the church say amen? Amen.
We Are Distracted People
And I just use it as an illustration: we are distracted people. How many mornings last week did you get up, make your bed, do your personal hygiene, get downstairs, get a cup of coffee, check some emails, do some stuff here, here? Thank you, dear. And here’s the thing: you’re in your car, you’re off into your day, but you’re not strong in the grace. You’ve taken no time to center your life, to look up, to be refreshed. You know, the Bible says that the Word of God washes us. We’re going out physically clean but spiritually still cluttered. Soldiers don’t do that. They’re on it.
You know soldiers, if you could see them, you can picture them in the trenches, in the battle scene. You don’t see a lot of them going, «I think I’m going to text my sister, » true or false? Because they can’t afford to be distracted—there’s too much on the line! I can’t afford to mess with those things. So here Paul’s saying to Timothy, «Bro, I’m gone, I’m out of here! I’m just going to tell you, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and don’t get distracted. If you get distracted, if you’ve got too much of all of this, you’re not going to have enough of this and you’re not going to be strong in the grace.»
The Athlete Principle
Here’s the third thing: well, the next picture is athletes. There was really no question about what was going on. Now, now, now, now, now, the fact that that’s your most enthusiastic response in the message so far might have made a point for me. Just saying, that’s my favorite part of the message so far. Check this verse with me, loved ones. Verse 5: «An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules, “ right? So no matter how successful you are in the field of endeavor, if you break the rules, people think you’re lame, right? Check, check this! Don’t call any names out; you don’t need to. It’s all good. But do you know who that is? How many people know who that is? And four women said, „I think so.“ It’s kind of an old news story—you’ll know this!
Now, go back. What do these people have in common? These are famous athletes. If you don’t know what they have in common, this will help: all four of those athletes were exceedingly successful on the field of competition, but they are not known for what they accomplished—how many home runs they hit, how many races they won, how many competitions they got the gold in, how many tournaments they held up the trophy—they are not known for that. They’re known as cheaters! „Cheater, you’re a cheater!“ No one cares what you got done if you’re a cheater. And nothing will tube your life faster than cheating on this. God loves you! How many times have I told you? These are God’s rules for your life—they lead to happiness.
It’s okay if you struggled this week to keep these rules, but repent and turn to God that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Don’t go on like that! Let a river of joy and delight wash away those things that you regret, and come back under the grace that flows to a humble heart confessing failure. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So that’s the athlete principle. Did I say it? Play by the rules! No matter how successful you are, private compromise eventually produces public collapse. That’s a fact! No matter how good you are, no matter how smart you are, no matter how financially secure you are—how we see the mighty fall, right? It doesn’t matter! If you break the rules, you’re going down! Be not deceived. You know, I used to thunder this as a preacher. I could weep as I say it today: Galatians 6:7—be not deceived! God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he reaps. Whatever you plant, you harvest! God will make sure of it!
He’s not going to let you mock Him. He wants to flood you with grace! So, I want the grace. Why am I losing it? Because there’s a hole in the boat. How did that get there? Teacher principle: transfer what I learned. Soldier principle: focus on the mission. Athlete principle: play by the rules.
The Farmer Principle
This is probably the most to-the-point fourth one: farmer principle—farmer principle. I know you want me to put this on, feed yourself first! Feed yourself first! Y’all, feed yourself first! Farmers know that.
I’d like to reach into the immense personal experience I have with farming, bringing some of those lessons out for us. Any farmers here today? I wish we had more farmers in our church. My grandfather was a farmer; my dad kind of fooled around with farming. But imagine for a moment that we’re all farmers when the New Testament was written. Everybody got this right away. Imagine that you had a farm with, how many acres? 100! You got 100 acres! And what would be a great crop in the Midwest? Corn! What would be a—how many people have seen the cornfields, right? I love watching now; it’s getting tilled. I love the planting happening. I love watching it all summer. Look, it’s coming up! Oh, it’s dry; it’s not coming up! Do you guys watch that? I do.
And how many bushels of corn would be an awesome summer for an acre? You know? Do you know? I think it would be like 150! 150 bushels per acre! You got 100 acres. How many bushels you got? Come on, social studies! You took math! I think it’s 15,000, okay? 15,000 bushels—a great summer! I love being a farmer! So, you know what we’re going to do this year? We’re going to take all 15,000 bushels of corn to market, and we’re going to sell it all, and then we’re going to have enough money to buy another 100 acres, and maybe next summer we’ll have 30,000 bushels of corn. That is a very bad plan because you have livestock to feed, and you got to turn some of that into groceries for your family. It’s going to be a long winter! You can’t take everything you get and turn it into output!
The farmer that labors must be the first to partake of the fruits! Feed yourself first! Now, I haven’t hid from you the fact that the biggest construction project in the history of this church is standing before you today, and there are a lot of things that I would love to do differently and better. I’m so thankful for God’s grace and for His patient pursuit of me. I just feel like I’m at a wonderful place, and I’m thankful to be able to say that the thing that I’m going to teach now is one of the things that I have done all along. I don’t get up and preach sermons that I’m not working on. What I give to you on the weekend is not the only time that I’ve been in the Bible this week. I know that I have to keep my heart fed. I know that I have to keep my heart tender. Nothing is worse than listening to a preacher who’s feeding everybody else but isn’t feeding himself. I’m just telling you, I would not be here today if I had lived that life.
It is the nourishing of God’s Word in my own soul that has been the strength to persevere. So, if you don’t have this, I just want to say this to you: you can be out telling the world about Jesus but starving your own soul. And if your spiritual diet was put on the screen on your campus right now, this is what Sheila ate this week spiritually; this is what Bill got from God’s Word in the last 30 days. What would we be seeing right now? Because that is the condition of your soul! Loved ones, you’re like, „Yeah, but I come to church, James, and you feed me!“ Check, I do want to feed you, and I pray this is a feeding. All right? But you got to understand, I’m that guy at that—what’s that store? You got to have a membership card to get in, you know? Costco, right? Does that let you know how many times I’ve been there? But I have been there once or twice!
I love the part with the people with the little white things: „Try this!“ How many people like that? I mean, my wife has a membership card, and she drags me along. Normally, I’m not allowed to go shopping. I’ve told you this because I buy dumb stuff. But I get lost in there. I’m not scary. „There for her because he’ll just get lost over there.“ Just want another one of those, and that’s super great! And do you feel guilt if you take the sample but don’t buy any? I do not! I do not feel that at all! And so that’s me. That’s what I’m doing right now! I pray that our time together in God’s Word is enough of a sample for you, that it wets your appetite, and you’re like, „I want more of that myself this week! I can’t wait all the way till next weekend!“ Because I know that you being strong in the grace, you experiencing times of refreshing, this is only the impetus for that. This is not that.
And if you haven’t had enough cycles yet of being so fired up about Jesus at church as you leave and losing it before Monday at noon, if you haven’t had enough cycles of that yet, if you’re not ready for that to be different yet, I can’t get you there! But I’m going to try to get you there, and that’s what times of refreshing is all about. And maybe you’re brand new to this whole thing, and you’ve maybe you haven’t even given your life to Jesus yet? Well, I’m not fearful for you to be in God’s Word; He’ll meet you there! He’ll show you who He is! And maybe you need to come back to this because you haven’t been here for a very long time—drop this down: feed yourself first or face the fallout. Farmers know this: feed yourself first or face the fallout!
Exalt the Lord
A couple more things, just quickly, and we’ll close. So that’s the big one: be strong in the grace. Eliminate the drain! Here it is: exalt the Lord! Verse 8, He says three great words: remember Jesus Christ! If you find yourself kind of distant from the Lord this morning, remember Jesus Christ! It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? Get back to that cross! And then verse 9, I love this: anticipate the victory of His Word! He says, as risen from the dead, the offspring of David, which means Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne in God’s kingdom, as preached in my gospel. This is Paul’s message for which I am suffering. You don’t hear a lot of sermons on that: be faithful to the gospel so you can suffer! But truer words were never spoken, and all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Paul told Titus, as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.
This is the Apostle Paul we’re talking about here—like Numero Uno disciple after 2,000 years! And he’s in prison—chained—for following Jesus! If that doesn’t negate forever the notion that getting it right means life is easier, you’re not paying attention! Getting it right sometimes means suffering. He says, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. Underline this second part in the passage for you: but the Word of God is not bound! Isn’t that awesome? If what you really want is the message of the Word to go out, have no fear! Even when you’re suffering, sometimes the Word of God is going out through us more powerfully when we’re suffering.
And Martin Luther’s great hymn „A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, a bulwark never failing.“ And then this phrase: „The body they may kill, “ Luther said, „God’s truth abides still.“ See, you can’t stop the Word of God! A man named John Bunyan—you know who John Bunyan is? You know who he is? The author of what book? Tick-tock, tick-tock! Right! Pilgrim’s Progress! And Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford, England, with a little window at the top of his cell and a brick wall outside it. He would stand up as tall as he could in prison, and he would preach his heart out to the wall. And on the other side of the wall, crowds gathered and thousands were converted! And Bunyan said, „I am in prison, but the Word of God is not bound!“
And no matter what you’re facing or feeling, anticipate, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, and anticipate the victory of God’s Word! We’re going to win! Yo, we’re going to win! We’re going to win, we’re going to win! You came to church today to be reminded: we’re going to win! No weapon formed against you will prosper! What does it say in Psalm 25? No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame! That’s where all this is going!
Endure Hardship and Expect Accountability
So, to be strong in the grace: eliminate the drain, exalt the Lord! Here are the last two: endure the hardship and expect accountability! I’ll let you study 11 through 13 yourself. I’ll just read verse 10: „Endure hardship, expect accountability.“
Under „endure hardship, “ verse 10: „Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect.“ Just remember, this is for your children and grandchildren. This is for your extended family! This is for the people you love! You are enduring a lot, and you are absorbing a lot for the sake of the work of Christ in your family!
„I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.“ This is a saying that is trustworthy. This was actually a little hymn in the early church: „If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us.“ There’s the accountability! „If we are faithless, as we sometimes are, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.“ Amen.