Sermon Transcript
Just like today’s special day, right? Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day from me to all of the mothers and to those mothers you’re going to be celebrating today. I hope it’s a happy day for you. I hope it could be a day that you live on the sunny side of life.
Live on the sunny side of life. Are you familiar with that phrase? This is not a phrase that maybe in our generation we use that much, but it used to be a phrase that was filled with meaning. Now, when you think about the sunny side of life, hopefully you would think that it’s something easy to do in certain locations. You know, there’s a news report that came out today that Los Altos Hills is the most affluent place to live in all of California.
Did you know that? So just even to not live in Los Altos Hills but just live close by, hey, come on, if you can’t live on the sunny side of life around here, something is wrong. It’s a place that people, you know, pay to live in this weather situation here. You know, it’s so hard to live here. We basically say we pay for our weather.
Well, I think that’s true in a lot of ways. Any place that’s sunny, we should be able to live on the sunny side of life, you would say. When we lived in Phoenix, Arizona for 7 years, they call it the Valley of the Sun. I always kind of wondered when we lived there why they ever even gave weather reports there. Because it was essentially the same thing every time you watched the local newscaster.
You know, today we’re going to have sun. And then during the summer months they would add, it’s sun and hot, and, you know, that sort of thing. Bernice and I made the mistake when we lived there to have a car that the color of the car was dark. It was a dark-painted car, and so it absorbed the heat, which made things worse in the car. We also were in a home that faced the wrong direction so that the afternoon sun came into our home through the kitchen area and the living room area.
So, the home faced east, and basically those areas became this place that you wanted to avoid unless the window shutters were shut tight and closed and the air conditioning was on full blast, and you didn’t want to go in the car because it was too hot in the car. And so, In some ways, you would say it should be easy to live on the sunny side of life in Phoenix, but in reality, it was more difficult to live on the sunny side of life because there was just too much heat there, that sort of thing. Maybe you’ve heard of the phrase, keep on the sunny side of life, or live on the sunny side of life. It actually comes out of the 1800s. Near the end of the 1800s, a woman named Ada Blinkhorn coined the phrase in a song, a Christian song that she wrote, and she wrote this because of her disabled nephew that when she would push this nephew’s wheelchair, the nephew would often say, would you please push me on the sunny side of the street?
And she thought, wow, that’s kind of a nice description of the Christian life where the Christian life could be lived. And in this particular situation, he would prefer— the nephew would prefer to be chased on the in the— excuse me, be pushed on the warmth of the sun side of the street than in the cold or the chill of the shade on the other side of the street. Well, I mention that because this passage we come to this morning, 2 Timothy 2:8-13, gets you thinking about the conditions that Paul was in, and yet he’s living with a sunny disposition in the conditions that he was in. Paul was in prison. He was chained up.
It was a dark, damp prison cell that he was in. And yet, as you read this account, and especially this little passage we come to today, you see that he doesn’t have a dark disposition. There’s no dark disposition even though he’s not in a sunny cell. And I think about that as kind of it relates to our lives and some of the conditions that we face. For instance, on Friday, When I was hanging out around the home, in the space of an hour, the clothes dryer broke.
I tried to do some wash, and that gave me my excuse, but nonetheless, the clothes dryer broke, and then my glasses broke, and then I broke a dish. It just dropped out of my hands. And that all happened within an hour, and it was enough to move me from a bright disposition to a dark disposition. It doesn’t take a lot to find yourself kind of on the other side of the sunny side of life, and yet the Apostle Paul in this passage we’re going to look at this morning is speaking with a sunny disposition, with a bright outlook as he’s writing to Timothy who is faced with his own hardships, his own suffering as he was pastoring the church in Ephesus. And Paul sees that it could be to his undoing, and so he sends him some encouragement.
And the encouragement we’re going to find today for Timothy that’s found there can be applicable to any circumstance that we’re faced with right now where potentially we would be living with a dark rather than a bright disposition. So this is the passage found in 2 Timothy 2:8-13. If you have your Bible, you might want to turn there or pull out the message note sheet. But this is what it says. Remember— Paul writing to Timothy— remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David.
This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Here’s a trustworthy saying: if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us. If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Now, you look at those words, these are hardly the words of somebody who is downcast, you know, depressed, beaten up, a prisoner. These are the words of somebody who’s not losing it. This is not somebody who’s ready to kind of check out on God and check out on others.
These are the words of an individual who’s in prison. He’s in the midst of hardship and suffering. He’s having to endure the circumstances that he is in, and yet he’s living with a bright disposition. He’s living on the sunny side of life, you might say. Why?
Well, the first thing you see if you look closely is that he’s living a Christ-centric life. He’s modeling for Timothy what he’s writing to Timothy that Timothy needs to pay attention to. He’s remembering, notice at the beginning of verse 8, He’s remembering Jesus Christ. That word remember means to call to mind, to bring Jesus into your thoughts, make Jesus preeminent, to front and center in your thoughts and in your perspective, not just occasionally. The word remember here is found in an active tense, so it pictures not something that, you know, I did that once, I remember Jesus once, but this is bringing Jesus right now and to continue remembering or keep on remembering Jesus Christ.
Keep Jesus at the forefront of your mind. That’s what Paul was doing. So as he’s in this miserable place, yet he has a positive disposition because he is remembering Jesus Christ. He’s living Christ-centric. In fact, if you look closely at these 6 verses, 10 times in these verses he’s focusing on Jesus.
So you see in verse 8, Jesus Christ. In verse 10, Christ Jesus. In verse 11, he uses the personal masculine pronoun Him twice. In verse 12, he uses Him twice. He uses He one time.
In verse 13, he uses He twice, and then he uses himself again. And he’s focusing there not incidentally on Jesus, but he’s focusing on Jesus intentionally. He’s intentionally in the midst of his suffering, verse 9, And in the midst of his need to endure, verse 10, he’s intentionally putting Jesus foremost in his mind in the midst of the suffering that he’s going through, and therefore he’s living with a sunny disposition. And now that wasn’t just something for his day, for Paul in that moment in time, but that’s obviously something that could be translated into Timothy’s experience, whom Paul is writing to, and it could be translated into our experience. Now you say, how can that help me right now?
Well, let me just give you 4 matters to think about that really kept Christ in the center of Paul’s life and can keep Christ in the center of our life regardless of whatever hardship or suffering or whatever it is that we’re facing right now. First of all, he’s focused on his Savior, my Savior actually. He calls the gospel of Jesus My gospel. You see that in verse 8? My gospel.
A gospel that’s focused on Jesus Christ. And if you just focus on Jesus, just the name Jesus Christ brings into focus the Savior. You remember the angel told Joseph that he was to name that baby that Mary was going to birth Jesus. And the reason she was to name him Jesus, or he was to name him Jesus, was because Jesus will save his people from their sins. So the name Jesus means to save.
And the name Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, which means anointed or chosen one. Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word for Messiah. So when you put Jesus Christ together, you have the Savior, you have the Messiah, and Paul here validates his claim as the Messiah by looking at his lineage, verse 8, a lineage that goes all the way back to David. Jesus was a descendant of David as promised by God himself. And you have the resurrection.
The resurrection confirmed Jesus is the Savior, that Jesus is the Messiah. And those 2 facts were enough to convince Paul of the gospel that now he has embraced even to the degree He calls the gospel his gospel. So this is not something that, you know, is like out there. This is something that was transforming Paul in the circumstances that he was faced with. So he comes back to this whole focus on Jesus, Jesus the one who came to earth, he was born, and the one who was resurrected.
So that’s in essence to say he’s focusing on Jesus’ life in its entirety. Born into the line of David, fully God, fully man, raised from the dead. Jesus was making all the difference in the well-being of the Apostle Paul. So let me make it very practical. Do you ever look to somebody to help you with your disposition?
Do you ever look to somebody in your time of need to maybe come alongside you and give you some support and some encouragement? You know, Paul is looking in chapter 4 at Timothy, and he’s telling Timothy in chapter 4, verse 9, Timothy, would you do your best to come to me quickly? You see, he says, everybody has deserted me except for Luke. Luke’s the only buddy, only person who’s with me right now. And Timothy, I would really like you to be here.
But besides the fact in that moment that besides Timothy, though Timothy wasn’t there with Paul in that moment, Yet Paul was still encouraged. And the reason why he was encouraged was because he was able to focus on the Lord, on the Lord. In fact, he mentions it in chapter 4, verse 17, where he said, the Lord stood at his side. The Lord stood at his side when he was charged, unlawfully charged. The Lord stood at his side and gave him strength.
We love it when other people are at our side, but when they can’t be at our side, in this case Timothy, when Timothy couldn’t be at his side, we can always still remember that the Lord is with me. And so in essence, Paul is essentially saying, you know what, the Lord saved me when he brought me into his family, but the Lord is saving me right now. His focus is on the Lord and the circumstances that he is faced with, and therefore it is giving him a positive outlook on life. Can you learn from that? Boy, I can learn from that.
Do you have anything happen this week or even right now that’s got you down? Is it possible that just a little time spent thinking about the Savior, thinking about my Savior, the gospel and how it’s come to me and I’ve come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, how that changes everything? Paul also was focused on the Scriptures, God’s Word. The last part of verse 8 there, he says, this is my gospel for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal, but God’s Word is not chained. Can’t you just see this?
Paul is chained, unfairly chained as a criminal, which he’s not. He wasn’t a robber. He wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t a traitor. He wasn’t a thief.
Even by the standards of Roman law, he was wrongly incarcerated as a criminal there in Rome awaiting death. There he was suffering, verse 9, which could mean physically, emotionally, mentally, so in every way. And yet he says, but God’s Word was not chained. He’s still free to do the work that God has for him to do even right there, which is to hold on to the Word of God personally, to allow the Word of God to transform his thoughts, his thinking, but also to be a person through whom the Word of God is heard. So you got to think about the guards, that would watch over Paul, no doubt.
They heard about God, Jesus, through the unchained— I love that picture— through the unchained, liberating, life-changing Word of God. Ancient Rome in the 2nd to 5th centuries, they built miles and miles of catacombs under the city. And the catacombs were this place of secret meeting and also burial places for millions of Christians. One of the common inscriptions on the walls of the catacombs that people have found are these words: The Word of God is not bound. It’s not bound.
It’s free. It’s unchained to do its work. Even if people lock people up for it, it’s still unchained to do its work, even in the face of death or death-like circumstances. In fact, many of you know this. You’ve opened up the Bible before and you’ve started reading, and you came to a passage that was perfect for you and the condition that you were in when you were reading the Scriptures.
And it was almost like as you read these Scriptures, it brought you back from the dead. That’s what Paul’s focusing on here. I heard a pastor tell this week of a story that hit him here in the last couple of years where he got to rock bottom, and he went to the Scriptures and he found this passage in John chapter 8. And really it was one verse, one main verse that caught him. It was this one, John chapter 8, verse 29, where it’s focused on Jesus and Jesus’ come under criticism by the religious leaders of that day, and they’ve invalidated his ministry.
They don’t believe he was who he was claiming to be. And Jesus said, the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. And when this pastor read that verse, he said, that’s what I needed to hear right now. I needed somebody to say that God is with me right now.
I need somebody to say that the work that I’m doing right now is a calling from God and that he is with me and I’m in this calling and in that I can have the courage to stand strong in the Lord even when there’s this fear that comes along that wants to do me in. Even if the circumstances haven’t changed, my perspective can be changed in my circumstances by the Scriptures. Paul is saying, the Word of God is unchained and it’s doing a work in me. And so, the work is being done in such a way the guy’s still got a positive disposition there in prison.
He’s focused on the Savior. He’s focused on the Scriptures. And then you get this in verse 10, therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. With eternal glory. Here’s another perspective changer, the possibility of others’ salvation, the possibility of others’ salvation.
We may not be keen, as Paul is talking about here, about the need to endure in life, but he’s enduring. And we may be in situations that we need to endure. It could be a prison-like experience, a bad job, schoolwork, a broken relationship. A financial crisis, a health crisis, misbehaving children. There are any number of things that we may find ourselves needing to endure.
A lot of hardships can come our way and they can make life miserable, but our disposition can change by focusing on the greater good. And what Paul is focused on here is the greater good. What’s the greater good? The possibility of seeing lost people come to salvation through his life. And through his witness.
And so, his focus turns to remembering that God has chosen, that God has elected people to come into His family. You see that word that’s used there? How does that sound to you, that God has elected or chosen people to come into His family? That ought to come, quite frankly, as good news that God, first of all, would choose anyone to be among those that he saves. I mean, especially us.
I mean, come on, think about it for a minute. It’s not like we’re so lovable, you know, that God just looked down and said, oh, I just think you love me so much. It’s not that we’re so much in love with God, and yet he chooses to save children into his family. But the scriptures also teach that we have the opportunity to choose God. So that’s the interesting paradox in this is that God chooses and yet we can choose him, that whoever— the Bible says that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
And so Paul, in understanding this, and he’s written about both sides of this apparent paradox, he’s written about it in understanding that God’s gonna choose and yet people have to choose. He knows that he has a part in this, just like all of us have a part In helping others come to hear and to know the call of God to salvation through Jesus Christ, the one who lived and died and was resurrected from the tomb, and our privileges of getting the gospel out even if it means suffering, even if we’re rejected, even if we take flak over it, because others’ salvation is for the greater good. And Paul’s hanging on to that. He’s thinking about how, you know what, it’s okay. It’s okay that I’m here in prison because this is for their salvation, that they might hear the call of God.
They might hear the message of the gospel, come to salvation in Jesus Christ. He’s trying to help Timothy get this. And really, it’s not just Timothy who needs to get this. I think we all need to get this. Because when it came to the matter of witnessing, Timothy was timid.
He was timid. He was ashamed. In fact, in chapter 1 and verse 8, Paul— we’ve already seen this— he says to Timothy, don’t be ashamed. Don’t be ashamed to testify for the Lord. Sometimes that’s what we are, isn’t it?
We’re ashamed. And in chapter 4, this is fascinating to see how he makes the same connection here in chapter 2 regarding evangelism. He makes the same connection in chapter 4, verse 5, where he says to Timothy, but you keep your head in all situations. Endure hardship. Endure hardships.
You say, okay, what kind of hardships is he talking about? And then he says this, do the work of an evangelist. Even if it causes hardship in your life, do the work of an evangelist. Discharge all the duties of your ministry. In other words, if you miss out on this duty, this duty of evangelism or witnessing, you can’t fulfill your ministry, your life, and your testimony, and your words, and your sacrifice.
You need to go and help others come to faith in Jesus. That’s for the greater good. And this is the greater good that Paul was living for.
And changed how he viewed his prison experience. You ever wondered why a mom wants to be a mom? You ever wondered that? You ever asked yourself, do these women ever, you know, stop and think, you know, if I become a mom, this is going to come with pain. I mean, it’s going to begin with pain, and there’s going to have more pain as I raise these children.
I haven’t ever done this, but at times I’ve thought of asking, you know, a woman who’s thinking about becoming a mom, what are you thinking? You know, don’t you know it’s painful? It’s painful. I mean, like, I don’t know this from personal experience, but from, you know, an arm’s length at least, I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen this in Bernice and others.
Anyway, I’ve seen this is really painful. Really painful to have babies. I’ve seen the pain of that up close and personal. I haven’t been in pain, but I’ve seen others who’ve been in pain, which is why I’m not on board, you know, of telling other people. We never— I never said this when Bernice was pregnant.
I never said, we’re pregnant. Are you kidding? We’re pregnant? She’s pregnant. I’m not pregnant.
We’re having a baby. You know, they say that too. I don’t think you really can say that unless you’re the person going through the pain. You know, if you’re going through the pain, fine. I’m pregnant, but we’re pregnant?
I don’t think so, you know. The pain— until you do the pain part, I think you gotta answer that matter, or you gotta talk to people differently about that. But why, why would Bernice or any other person who wants to be a mom, why would they go through the pain? Why would they be like totally into it? Because they believe in the possibility of the greater good.
And that’s where Paul was. Paul is thinking about the greater good, and he’s thinking about the possible impact that could come through Timothy as he’s living in Ephesus, and Timothy not any longer being timid but being bold about teaching others the gospel of Jesus Christ and living full out, getting on board with that, because through your life other people can be born again, born into the family of God. And that was part of what kept Paul on the sunny side of life. My Savior, the Scriptures, other salvation. And then there’s one more matter he brought into focus in verse 11.
Here’s a trustworthy saying: if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. You know what that is? What does Paul call it? You see it? He calls it a saying.
Here’s a trustworthy saying, a saying or a song. He’s calling to mind a saying or a song. We might call it a doxology, a chorus, a refrain, a praise song, a rallying cry, a boost, a lifter, a perspective changer. But the song is focused, the saying is focused on Jesus. It’s Jesus-centric.
So he says, if we— and he’s including Timothy, he’s trying to get Timothy to think this way— if we died with Christ, we will live with Christ. Now that could be taken literally and it could be taken figuratively. If it’s literal, then if we die as a martyr, so be it for the faith. Or if we figuratively die daily by taking up Jesus’ cross daily, denying ourselves for the purposes and priorities of Jesus, it will be worth it because on the other side of this life, of this life of self-denial, is living with Christ. And if we endure, we will also reign with Jesus.
On the other side of enduring hardship is the promise of reigning or ruling with Jesus for eternity. Whatever pain that we endure now for the cause of Christ is going to be worth it when we get to heaven and experience all the joys and all the privileges that await us there, including And I don’t even get this, reigning with the Lord. Think about that. But then he says, if we disown the Lord, the Lord will also disown us. Now, what’s he thinking about there?
He’s actually thinking about somebody who permanently rejects Jesus Christ. They disown Jesus Christ for good. We’re not talking about a very bad day, Peter-like denial day, where Peter denied the Lord 3 times. That’s not what Paul’s focusing on here. He’s focusing on a person who, whether they’ve ever professed faith to be a believer or not, this is a person who decides that they want nothing to do with Christ.
They want nothing to do with Christ now or forever. The Lord is going to give that person what they want. He’s going to give them autonomy and freedom now and forever. If we disown the Lord, the Lord will also disown us. And if we are faithless, Jesus will remain faithful, for Christ cannot disown himself.
Believers, he’s saying, don’t always live by faith. Isn’t that true? We aren’t always faithful to the one who’s faithful to us. We often trust our hearts more than we trust God’s heart, God’s word. We can reject God’s wisdom and we can insert our wisdom above God’s wisdom.
We can act like we know better when we actually have no clue. Those kinds of things, when they happen, when we live faithless lives, Paul is saying Jesus’ love for us is not going to take a nosedive. The Lord won’t say, you know what, since you’re faithless, I’m done with you. He’s not going to do that. He’s not going to walk out on us.
He’s going to remain faithful just like he was faithful countless of times with the promised children, the Jews, when they turned their back on God. He loved them with an everlasting love. Why? Because it’s in the Lord’s nature. It’s who the Lord is, a nature that he cannot and he will not disown his children.
Have your spirits ever been boosted by a song? I’ll bet they have. This is one of the reasons why around the gym people are constantly listening to music. They’re trying to get, you know, some kind of encouragement or something in there that’s going to help them keep on going strong.
Well, what you’ve got here is a song. You’ve got a saying, a saying that’s hopefully bringing Timothy and perhaps us too back to a better place in the circumstances that we might find ourselves in right now. If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he cannot disown himself. What is he doing? What’s Paul doing? Well, he’s basically calling Timothy out, isn’t he?
Saying, Timothy, you got to get this.
This is a time to stay strong in Jesus, to stay focused on Jesus. While I was working on this message, a friend found out about my recently diagnosed health condition, and he took some time to send me an email and just express his love and concern. Part of the email, he wrote this, I hear from Bernice via Denise— Denise is this guy’s wife— that you’re facing some health issues. As you know, he wrote, I’ve been down that road. He’s had brain cancer.
Health issues, he wrote, enable you to see what is true all the time, that we are dependent upon God, the Maker of heaven and earth. For me, the greatest comfort other than God himself came from reflections on question 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism that asks, what is your only comfort in life and death? And the answer, that I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Now what is that? That’s a Christ-centric focus, isn’t it?
It was a Christ-centric focus that helped my friend.
The catechism goes on to say, He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. What was it that at this moment in time when my friend needed some encouragement, what was it that gave him that encouragement?
It was Jesus. It was a focus on Jesus Christ. And that essentially is what Paul is calling out of Timothy. He’s calling out of Timothy a greater commitment to Jesus Christ, to keep his focus on Jesus Christ when the hardship comes, to not let the hardship or the suffering get you down, to not let the hardship suck you dry and make you ineffective in the race that God has you in right now. You know, I really believe all of us can benefit by a little bit of coaching, a little bit of instruction, encouragement from other people who might step into our life and they might help us get the focus back where the focus needs to be.
And essentially, hopefully what they’re doing is they’re calling out the best, the best in our relationship with God. They’re calling out the best for the greater good. Many of you saw The Greatest Showman, the movie The Greatest Showman. When the movie was pitched to some people who had money to get the movie made, there was this recording session where a group of singers gathered and they sang through some of the songs for these potential investors that were in the room. What happened in this session was absolutely amazing, and what I want you to see in just a moment is I want you to see the video that was recorded of that session, just a part of the session.
But let me give you something to be looking for. As you watch this clip, I want you to pay attention to the woman who is singing. This actually turns out to be the song she’s going to sing in the movie, but as you’re going to see at the beginning, as she starts, she is very insecure about singing for these people. And what I want you to watch is how tentative she is. It’s real.
She’s a little weak, she’s nervous, but then something happens, and you’re going to see she’s going to turn her head to this— And look over here, and she’s going to look in the direction of the pianist, but she’s not looking past the pianist. If you look at her eyes, if you can barely pick it out, she’s actually looking over the pianist to somebody else that’s past the pianist, somebody who over there is giving her the courage to go for it, to not worry about what other people are thinking, but to put her heart and soul into the song because this song is her song, and that’s when things really get. Get good. Watch this.
Break me down because I know that there’s a place for us. For we are glorious.
When the sharpest words want to cut me down, when the sin that want to drown me out, I am brave, I am proof, I am who I’m meant to be. This This is me. Look out, ’cause here I come. And I want you know to defeat our trouble. I’m not scared to be seen.
I make no apologies. This is me.
Another round of bullets hits my skin, but fire away, ’cause today I won’t let them break me. We are going to the land where we can call the stars. We are warriors. Yeah, that’s what we are. Yeah, that’s what we are.
I won’t let them break me down, ’cause I know that there’s a place for me. Oh, we are warriors.
Wanna cut me down. Wanna send the flood, wanna drown the vine. I am brave, I am bruised, I am proof of victory. This is me, look out, ’cause here I come.
And I’m on it all to the beat I go. I’m not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me.
Sharp.
Words want to cut me down, but I send a flood to drown them out. This is great, this is proof, this is who the Lord meant to be. This is me. Look out, it’s here after the rain. This is me.
You say, why in the world would you show that, Dave? What’s the point? There is a point, you know. In fact, I wish I could pass out purple hoodies for everybody here this morning so that you could be the purple hoodie that was there in that room that encouraged that woman on. He was the one behind the scenes— we confirmed this— behind the scenes that was coaching her to give it everything that she had.
And essentially, that’s what I see the Apostle Paul doing here. He’s speaking to a guy who’s living a timid life, who’s ashamed, who’s not giving it everything that he’s got, who’s potentially going to back off from the ministry role that God has given him in Ephesus. He’s lost sight of the message. Do you think that they were singing that with any meaning at all? Absolutely.
It wasn’t their song. The song was written by the pianist. But they made it their own. And essentially, that’s the picture here. Paul is writing to Timothy, and in writing to Timothy, God is giving it to us as well.
We are people that he has called into a ministry, a ministry that, yes, is going to include hardship, and yes, it is going to include suffering, and we could easily give up somewhere along the way. We could just cash it in and say, I am done. And what Paul is saying, no, you’re not done. Put your heart into this. Give it everything you’ve got.
Worship the one who has called you into his family. And when you sing, sing as if you mean it. Do you mean it or not? Are you living in such a way that you’re living with that genuine meaning bleeding out, coming out through your life in a way that is making a difference in you, but it’s making a difference in others in the world?
So let’s call it out of each other. Let’s be people who wear purple hoodies if that’s what it takes. But let’s help each other live this life, not halfway. Let’s, let’s help each other live this life to its fullest, become the people that God wants us to be, have an impact in the world that God’s placed us for his abundant good. Then really our life becomes a worship experience, doesn’t it?
A worship experience because we have a sunny outlook on life. Let’s pray. Lord, it’s pretty exciting to just consider life from a whole different perspective than the perspective that we might find in and of ourselves. Life is difficult.
It scares us to death at times. Uncertainty stares us in the face. We often don’t know how things are going to turn out. We want to quit. And all the more we need then to look to Jesus, to follow his lead, to not give in to timidity, to give this life our best shot, to put our heart into it, to go for it, to not retreat, to step into the opportunities before us.
There’s just too much at stake for us to timidly go through the motions.
And so, Lord, I pray that you would help each one of us step into this life that is found in Jesus Christ. And if there’s anybody here that isn’t yet in the family, Lord, I pray that they would say yes to the call to salvation, that they would believe in Christ and receive him as their Savior, be born again into your family, and it would be the beginning of a new life for them and for others of us who, who it’s just been really hard, Lord. Life’s been beating us down. May we go from this place with a new perspective, a perspective that’s given by you, that’s found in the Savior, that’s found in the scriptures, that’s found in a greater good, helping others come to faith in you. It’s found in songs, even sayings.
That just resonate in our mind truth. So we pray that because we’ve been together today, there will be changes in such a way that it absolutely honors and glorifies you. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
