Please turn in your Bibles this morning to II Timothy chapter 2 as we look at staying focused because our focus, what we are focused upon, really does matter. It is so easy to become distracted, to lose our focus, to dispute over silly things as this story illustrates for us. We are told:
I was walking in San Francisco along the Golden Gate Bridge when I saw a man about to jump off. I tried to dissuade him from committing suicide and told him simply that God loved him. A tear came to his eye.
I then asked him, “Are you a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, or what?”
He said, “I’m a Christian.”
I said, “Me too, small world . . . Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me too, what denomination?”
He said, “Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too, Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Baptist.”
I said, Well, ME TOO, Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
I said, “Well, that’s amazing! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reformed Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.”
I said, “Remarkable! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
I said, “A miracle! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”
I said, “DIE HERETIC!” and pushed him over the rail.
- Source Unknown
Now that may be a little extreme, but it may not be! It is amazing how people fight over the silliest things, argue over things of no profit, divide over things that are personal and not Biblical. And I believe this is a warning to each of us because it is so easy to go down that path and lose the focus of what we are all about, what we need to do.
Now keep in mind that Paul is writing this letter to Timothy from the Mamertime prison in Rome, placed there by Caesar Nero for his faith in Christ. As far as we know, this is the last letter that Paul wrote before he was beheaded, martyred for his faith and thus, Paul is going to give to Timothy the best as he passes on the mantel of ministry to this young pastor, who is in his late 30’s or early 40’s. This, in a sense, is Paul’s last will and testament.
Keep in mind that Timothy was a timid man, not too bold, not very outgoing and Paul wanted to toughen him up some, strengthen him for the work that was ahead of him for Paul knew that times would only get tougher for Timothy and all Christians. You see, after Paul was released from his first imprisonment in Rome, one of the places Paul went to was Ephesus to see how the church was doing and when he got there he saw a church in disorder. The leadership was bad, some were teaching heresy, departing from the faith and taking others with them. So Paul started to get things in order and as he left he had Timothy stay behind and finish the work.
And so in the verses we will be looking at this morning, Paul is going to show Timothy the dos and don’ts of ministry in regards to staying focused, not being distracted by things. In II Timothy 2:14 Paul tells Timothy to KEEP FOCUSED – DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY UNPROFITABLE THINGS. In II Timothy 2:15 Paul tells Timothy to KEEP FOCUSED – PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN LIFE AND MINISTRY. In II Timothy 2:16-18 Paul will show Timothy THE PRICE OF NOT KEEPING OUR FOCUS – THE FAITH OF SOME IS OVERTHROWN. And lastly, in II Timothy 2:19 Paul shows Timothy THE REWARD OF STAYING FOCUSED – THE SOLID FOUNDATION OF GOD. So with that said, let’s begin reading in II Timothy chapter 2, starting in verse 14 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
Paul is instructing Timothy to keep the main thing the main thing, to continually remind people of what the main thing is. What is the main thing? Paul spoke of it in II Timothy 2:8 where he said, “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” In other words, it is the Gospel message, the Good News of Jesus Christ. Thus, Timothy is to keep teaching, keep reminding, keep speaking forth, building people up in the Gospel message, building them up in the faith.
As I have said earlier, our focus does matter and with the rest of our time this morning we are going to be looking at those four areas in regards to focus, the dos and don’ts. Because if we are not focused, what happened in Arnold Palmer’s life can happen in our own spiritual lives. We are told:
Golf immortal Arnold Palmer recalls a lesson about overconfidence: It was the final hole of the 1961 Masters tournament, and I had a one-stroke lead and had just hit a very satisfying tee shot. I felt I was in pretty good shape. As I approached my ball, I saw an old friend standing at the edge of the gallery. He motioned me over, stuck out his hand and said, “Congratulations.” I took his hand and shook it, but as soon as I did, I knew I had lost my focus.
On my next two shots, I hit the ball into a sand trap, then put it over the edge of the green. I missed a putt and lost the Masters. You don’t forget a mistake like that; you just learn from it and become determined that you will never do that again. I haven’t in the 30 years since.
- Carol Mann, The 19th Hole, quoted in Reader’s Digest
So let’s learn these lessons that God gave to Paul and Paul is sharing with Timothy, the pastor in Ephesus, and really with all of us – FOCUS MATTERS!
1.
KEEP FOCUSED – DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY UNPROFITABLE
THINGS
– II TIMOTHY 2:14
I can see the church moving quickly in this direction as it has become a social institution in some cases, a governmental institution in other cases, and an entertainment center in some other cases. And there is a battle for the truth against these unprofitable things. I know that people will argue that in some cases it draws people into the church, but these things don’t help our faith to grow. Paul tells us in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Our faith grows as we hear and apply God’s Word to our lives. Why is that important? Because when things get tough, and they will, are you going to put your trust in someone you don’t know? I doubt it! That is why we must keep the main thing the main thing- Jesus Christ!
Now folks, we may not agree on every point of Scripture, that has been true of believers throughout church history. And we can talk about it but let us not do battle over these things, that is wrong. We can do battle over styles of music and yet we are afraid to share our faith in Christ with others, and you can see how wrong that is. In our opening illustration you saw how foolish that kind of behavior is and how it doesn’t glorify God. Now we may not go to that extreme, but if we go down that path at all, it is wrong and it is foolish. It doesn’t build up the body, but weakens it.
I have also found over the years that arguing Scripture with people who don’t believe the Bible is the inerrant, authoritative Word of God is futile for the most part. If they add to the Scriptures to support their doctrine, it is also futile. I have spoken with Jehovah Witnesses before for long periods of time and I can show them in the Scriptures that Jesus is God and they refuse to see it. It is truly a spiritual battle but there does come a point when you need to move on.
And many of the cults, unbelievers love to take you down various roads that are not really important, a path that won’t bring a person to salvation, and it is easy to grab that bait and be taken in by their false doctrine. But Paul tells Timothy that these things are not only unprofitable but it can be the “ruin” or catastrophic for those who are hearing it and believing it.
You see, false doctrine will keep unbelievers away from the salvation of Jesus Christ. In his fictional but spiritually insightful book, The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis has an older demon give a junior demon named Wormwood the following advice about tempting a certain human being who has been assigned to him: “Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false,’ but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical.’ . . . Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.” (The Screwtape Letters, p. 8).
Isn’t it amazing the foolish things people believe and yet, when it comes to the Word of God, the Bible, they ignore it, distain it as foolish old wives tales. But when you listen to what they believe, which has no basis in reality, it is a fairy tale and they embrace it as truth. So these false doctrines that are being taught keep people from the truth of God, the salvation of God, it is a ruin to those who hear it.
Also, for believers that hear these false doctrines, they can bring confusion into their lives, they can begin to doubt God and His Word, they can become discouraged, it can even lead to disobedience! Remember the blasphemous book The Da Vinci Code, which is written as a fictional book but states in the very beginning that it is true, that the doctrine is true and what the author does is deny the deity of Jesus Christ, he says that Jesus was married to Mary, they had a child, that Mary was to carry on the ministry when He died, and-so-on with the lies that are not substantiated by historical evidence! Now, as some Christians read this book they became confused, they began to doubt God and His Word, they were discouraged thinking they were believing a lie all these years and-so-on. Why did this happen? Because they listened to things that were not profitable and it was bringing catastrophe, ruin into their Christian lives! Thus, KEEP FOCUSED – DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY UNPROFITABLE THINGS.
2.
KEEP FOCUSED – PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN LIFE AND
MINISTRY – II TIMOTHY 2:15
Paul tells Timothy to “be diligent” or SPOUDAZO (spoo-dad’-zo) in the Greek and the idea here is to be zealous, to be persistent to accomplish a certain task. In the context the believer is to put his maximum effort in bringing forth the truths of God’s Word. He is to be “rightly dividing the word of truth.”
To “rightly divide” God’s Word or “to cut straight” comes from the Greek word ORTHOTOMEO (or-thot-om-eh’o) and it was a word that was used of a craftsman who is cutting a straight line, or a farmer plowing a straight furrow, or a mason setting a straight line of bricks. In other words, there is a right way to share God’s Word and a wrong way to share it. Peter put it this way in II Peter 1:19-21, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
You see, you can’t approach God’s Word with your own pre-conceived ideas and then look for verses to support what you believe. I can show you in the Scriptures that if you are bald, you are clean! I notice I got the attention of some of you on that one. But in Leviticus 13:40 we are told, “As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean.” You see, I told you so! But that is not rightly dividing the Word of God. The context in Leviticus is diseases and how to tell if a person has leprosy and-so-on. And the point that Moses is making is that just because you are bald doesn’t mean you have a disease, you are unclean!
I also believe that Paul is not only speaking of presenting God’s Word as we speak, but also as we live. That people see that our faith is real by our actions because words can be empty. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Put your faith into action.
Also, we can be rightly dividing the Word of truth and be doing something that can disqualify us from service. Thus, we need to be on guard as Paul was. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 9:24-27, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Don’t put yourself in a position that will disqualify you from service, put you on a shelf, a vessel of dishonor!
Listen to this illustration and I will show you what I mean. We are told:
A former police officer tells of the tactics of roving bands of thieves: “They enter the store as a group. One or two separate themselves from the group, and the others start a loud commotion in another section of the store. This grabs the attention of the clerks and customers. As all eyes are turned to the disturbance, the accomplices fill their pockets with merchandise and cash, leaving before anyone suspects. Hours – sometimes even days – later, the victimized merchant realizes things are missing and calls the police. Too late.” How often this effective strategy is used by the Evil One! We are seduced into paying attention to the distractions, while evil agents ransack our lives. In times when well-publicized sins have captured our attention, we do well to check our own moral pockets to see if we have anything left.
- Source Unknown
So as Christians we are to know what we believe, we need to be in the Word of God, we need to rightly divide the Word of God and we need to apply those things of God that we have learned to our lives, not for the approval of man, but of God! Thus, KEEP FOCUSED – PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN LIFE AND MINISTRY!
3.
THE PRICE OF NOT KEEPING OUR FOCUS – THE FAITH
OF SOME IS
OVERTHROWN – II TIMOTHY 2:16-18
Maybe you heard of the pilot flying a commercial airliner at some 30,000 feet, who got on the intercom and said to all the passengers, “Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please. Our guidance system is broken and I don’t have a clue where we are at right now, but I do have good news. No I didn’t save a bunch of money on my car insurance, but the good news is we are making great time!”
Paul is warning Timothy of profane babblings, not dirty words but anything that departs from the Holy Scriptures is profane, they are idle words, empty words, words with no profit to them and they will spread as quickly as cancer does in the human body!
Now Paul is not saying that they lost their salvation, some may have never come to the truth and have succumbed to the lies of these heresy’s that are being promoted. We see all kinds of garbage out there today like the Jesus Only people who believe that Jesus is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – it is only Jesus!
Now that truly negates what the Scriptures tell us and it makes Matthew 3:13-17 very bizarre. We are told in Matthew, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
Why would Jesus have the Holy Spirit come down upon Him like a dove if He is the only God? Why would He speak from heaven in another voice, like the Father, if He alone is God? But again, this is a destructive heresy that spreads quickly, denying the Trinity!
And folks, these heresies don’t lead a person to godliness, but ungodliness, why? Because they are moving away from God which leads them into ungodly behavior, things that are not accepted by God. Let me give you this example. We are told:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was Professor of theology at the University of Berlin in Germany in [the] 1930’s. At this time German Christians were divided over Hitler. One group allied themselves with Hitler, they wanted a ‘pure’ German nation. They formed an official German church which supported Hitler and banned Jews from holding official positions in the Church. Bonhoeffer was among those who could not go along with Hitler’s anti-Jewish, radically German vision. With others he set up an underground church which explicitly refused to ally itself to Hitler’s Third Reich vision. It was dangerous. In 1937 Bonhoeffer was sacked. He flees to London. Two years later Bonhoeffer’s faced with a choice. He’s been offered one of the most prestigious theology appointments in the world – lecturing at Union Seminary in New York or returning to head up an illegal, underground seminary for the churches who refuse to go along with Hitler. He decides his faith is meaningless if he takes the easy option. He heads back to Germany and finds Hitler so evil that he abandons his commitment to non violence and gets involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot fails and in 1943 Bonhoeffer’s arrested. In prison he leads worship services for his fellow prisoners, until the fateful day April 9, 1945 when he’s executed by the Nazis.
Through all this what distressed Bonhoeffer was the way so many Christians could sell out to Hitler’s evil vision. How could people who owned the name of Christ so betray Christ? How could they pray in a church which banned Jews from holding office? It convinced Bonhoeffer that religiosity in and of itself was worthless. It didn’t matter how fervently a person believed in Jesus, how many times each day they prayed, how earnestly and sincerely the sang hymns on Sundays. In the end the measure of spirituality is not how we are in the church but how we are in the whole of life. In the end the measure of spirituality is to live in the world as a man or woman who is for others.
- Scott Higgins
We must stand strong for what we believe and not give into those destructive heresies because they will only weaken our faith, lead us into ungodly behavior as we saw and they will keep others from the faith! Thus, THE PRICE OF NOT KEEPING OUR FOCUS – THE FAITH OF SOME IS OVERTHROWN!
4.
THE REWARD OF STAYING FOCUSED – THE SOLID FOUNDATION
OF
GOD – II TIMOTHY 2:19
Yes, we are in a battle, and at times it may seem overwhelming, but notice what Paul says, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands.” You see, we can have the victory in Him as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10-11, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” You see, our strength comes from the Lord and we are guided in all truth by His Word!
You see, God knows we are His, and we know because Paul reminds us in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Because of that we are to live lives that are pleasing to Him. We are to depart from iniquity, flee from it and cleave to God!
Now, because we are standing up for truth, because we are unwilling to compromise our faith to fit in with the world, we are going to face persecution. Paul warned Timothy, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” II Timothy 3:12. Let me give you an example of this persecution from Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and a creationist who refuses to back down because he believes in 6 literal days God created the heavens and the earth, life was by design and not by random chance happenings, through mutations and evolution over billions of years, and so do I. But listen to this letter he received:
Ken, needless to say, you are insane. People like you need to be exterminated.
I hope some group or individual does their part to rid people like you from society. It may take one year, two years, five years, or ten years, but hopefully something awful will happen to you and your family.
You could do everyone in the USA a favor and hop in your car, (heck, bring your family too), head down to the nearest river, lock the door, leave the windows open halfway, drive into the river, rest on the bottom, and stay there for a few hours.
I find that very interesting when kids in school are being arrested for drawing violent pictures and yet look at what this man is saying. And yes, I can understand this from the world, but listen to how the church is responding to this issue of creation and evolution! Ken tells us:
What should we do? “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands.” God’s Word has stood the test of time and it will continue to stand the test of time. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Place your feet upon God and His Word and you won’t be moved no matter who is coming against you, no matter how strong the winds are blowing! Thus, THE REWARD OF STAYING FOCUSED – THE SOLID FOUNDATION OF GOD!
As I close this morning, remember, keep Jesus the main thing, and steady the course. Keep your eyes focused and if you do you will never have your faith overthrown!