Well, folks, let me encourage you to grab a Bible if you have one,
or maybe there's one round about you, and turn to the letter of 1 Timothy
as we finish it this morning as a church.
It's on page 1194 of your pew Bibles.
So if you want to grab one of them, that would be fantastic.
But why don't we just pray as we come to God's words today.
Heavenly Father, it's our prayer that you would open our eyes
to behold wondrous things in your law, in your word.
Father, what we see not, would you help us see?
What we have not, you would give us, and what we are not, you would make us.
Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's help now in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
Well, 1 Timothy chapter 6, in it verse 11.
As you're turning there, let me ask you,
what is the biggest date that's coming up on the horizon of your life?
Have a think about it.
What's the biggest date that's coming up on the horizon of your life?
Remember one of our girls, when she was coming up for her second birthday,
every day the week before, she'd ask me,
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, is it my birthday today?
How many more days to my birthday?
And I would say, it's five days, sweetheart.
The next day, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, how many more days to my birthday?
Four days, sweetheart.
Next day, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, how many more days to my birthday?
Three days to your birthday.
And by the time we'd reached two days, it was fever pitch in our house.
We could hear on the monitor her singing happy birthday to herself through the monitor.
And after a while, we heard a pfft noise.
Freaked us out for a little bit.
Before a bit of investigation work, we realized she was practicing blowing out her candles.
But we all do it, don't we?
We orientate our lives around the biggest dates that are on the horizon of our lives, right?
Moving house, big day.
Big day.
Starting a new term at school or uni.
Big day.
Beginning a new job.
Big day.
The day that you retire.
Big day.
The day that you get married.
If you get married, big day.
Those days that are in our minds and we think about them for ages a long way off.
We cannot stop thinking about them.
And they naturally shape how we live our lives in the present.
And here's the thing that I think God would say to each one of us here today.
Whether you would call yourself a Christian, whether you would say you don't believe in this Jesus.
Whoever you are here today, here is the challenge that this passage makes to each and every one of us.
Is that there's one day that's coming for all of us.
One day that should be the biggest day on every single one of our radars.
And the greatest day which all the other days in our lives fall behind.
So we're going to read this passage now.
And I want you to think about, I want you to see if you can spot the day that Paul, who's writing this letter,
is telling Timothy to think about.
So we're in at verse 11.
We're just going to finish the letter this morning.
And what a passage for Joe on his baptism day.
That's why we picked it.
I thought it would be really great to think about.
So Paul writes this,
But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Fight the good fight of the faith.
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
In the sight of God who gives life to everything and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which God will bring about in his own time.
God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and the Lord and Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light,
whom no one has ever seen or can see,
to him be honour and might forever.
Amen.
Command those who are rich in this present world,
not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth,
which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God,
who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Command them to do good,
to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.
In this way,
they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age,
so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to your care.
Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,
which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.
Grace be with you all.
Amen.
I'm sure God will bless the reading of his word.
So I wonder if you got the day.
Did you get the day?
Now here is,
speak to anybody who's a Christian,
and here is what they will tell you is true,
that they have come to see.
That the Bible,
this is what they've come to see.
The Bible is a story that makes sense of life.
It's God's word.
That's what we believe about the Bible.
It's the word of the God who created everything.
It's the story that makes sense of life,
because it is the story of the God who is and who gives life.
You see,
the Bible tells the story of this gloriously good God who created the world.
This God didn't create the world out of something.
This God created the world out of nothing.
The entire cosmos,
the work of his loving and his powerful word.
And as the pinnacle of creation,
God made human beings.
Every single human being,
men and women,
made in his image.
And why did he make them?
He made them to live in relationship with him
as creature,
loves and enjoys and worships the creator.
It's the reason,
whoever you are here today,
it's the reason that God created you.
It's the reason that you exist.
You have been bestowed with honor and glory,
because you are made in his image.
No matter how you are feeling here today,
that is true,
the Bible says.
And God gives Adam and Eve right there,
the task of,
of stewarding and cultivating and filling.
The world which God had made all for his glory.
As the Bible story goes on,
Eve makes the decision to eat the apple,
the fruit that God told Adam and Eve not to eat,
to show their love for him.
And sin enters the world.
All of a sudden in the Bible story,
you come across words like death,
and strife,
and anger,
and murder.
Words that weren't there in the opening two chapters
of the Bible,
because they weren't in the human heart.
And whether it's BC or whether it's AD,
we know that these words,
sin and its ripple effects in each of our lives,
in our world,
these words describe our world,
don't they?
Because each of us have followed Adam and Eve's lead
in rebelling against our creator.
It's the essence of sin.
Remember,
growing up,
this is how they taught us how to remember it.
Our Sunday school teachers,
sorry God,
I'm in charge,
no to your rules.
It's the heart of it,
isn't it?
It's this rebellion that we have,
that we don't want God,
we want to be on the throne of our lives.
But right there,
as sin enters the Bible story,
God makes a promise
that he is going to act
to save us from sin's eternal consequences,
culminating in Jesus.
Emmanuel,
that name that just means God with us,
his first appearing at Christmas time.
We're going to start thinking about it.
In fact,
today's the first day of Advent,
isn't it?
Jesus came,
Jesus lived,
Jesus loved perfectly,
Jesus died on the cross.
He took the punishment that we deserve on himself,
the eternal separation and punishment from God
that we all deserve by very nature,
and that hangs over us,
out with Jesus.
Jesus makes it his own,
meaning that all those who put their faith in him
can know forgiveness
and the joy of being right with our creator.
And on the third day,
Jesus rises from the dead.
Jesus ascends to heaven.
That's where he is right now.
What is he doing?
He's not twiddling his thumbs,
if I can put it like that reverently.
What is he doing?
He is praying for his people.
No matter how you're doing today,
if your faith is in him,
he is right there in the place of all power,
interceding for you,
pleading your name,
right there before God the Father.
And the Holy Spirit descends,
takes up residence in the hearts of believers,
and ushers in this age of mission
in which we are now living,
the age in which we are commanded
commanded by the power of the Spirit
to take the message of the risen Jesus,
who he is,
what he's done,
and what is coming,
take that message to the ends of the earth
so that every human being
would have the opportunity
to respond to who Jesus is
and have life in his name.
And so the last thing to happen in the story
is that Jesus will return.
And he will settle everyone's destinies
according to how they have responded to him.
Right at the end of the Bible story,
he will destroy death.
He will wipe away tears.
He will usher in this new creation
where he rules as king
in God's kingdom of light.
And everything we've seen
in our news screens this week,
and we're going to be praying for this tonight,
particularly thinking about those
who are trying to make dangerous crossings
at the minute,
those who are in our world
who are suffering incredibly,
this Jesus will usher in a kingdom
where sin and death are no more.
A place where, as Sam said to Frodo,
a place where everything sad
will come untrue.
And that's the biggest day.
Did you get it in the reading?
That's the biggest day
that God is telling us
that every single one of us
should be orientating our lives around.
And it's the day that Paul,
in this passage today,
is telling Timothy,
this young church leader in Ephesus,
he's telling him to live in light of.
What he calls verse 14,
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, I don't know,
this is what I was thinking about this week.
What is Paul trying to do?
Something I learned this week,
I don't know if you've ever seen a horse race.
Last time you saw a horse race.
But if you have,
you'll know what is common for jockeys to do
is to put blinkers on the sides
of the eyes of the horse.
Never knew this was a thing
until I looked it up this week.
Blinkers, and they're called blinkers,
blinkers on the side of the horse's eyes.
What's the thinking behind it?
The thinking behind it
is they want to cut out everything
that's going to distract the horse.
And focus it solely on what's ahead.
And I think that's exactly what Paul is doing here
in this passage.
Got to focus on what's ahead.
And here's the challenge for all of us, I think.
The challenge is,
are we living in light of this king's return?
Are we living our lives
in the knowledge that Jesus one day is coming back?
And so in the time we have remaining,
this will just be 10 or so minutes,
I just want this passage, God and his word,
to ask us two questions about our lives.
And here's the first question.
The question is,
are we pursuing the right things?
Are we pursuing the right things?
If you come with me to verse 11,
Timothy is told, man of God,
you are to flee from all this.
Now, all this is the envy,
the controversies,
the malicious talk,
the suspicions between people,
the greediness,
the discontent,
all the stuff that Paul has listed just before
at verse four.
This is what's going on,
the false teachers who are in Ephesus.
This is the byproduct of their lives.
This is what is happening.
And Timothy has got to flee from all that.
Not get caught up in it.
He's not to fight fire with fire.
I love that,
that all this stuff's going on in the background.
And Paul doesn't say,
see if you,
how about if there's a smear campaign going on
in the church and in the city,
how about you start your own little smear campaign
to see if you can out them?
He doesn't say that, does he?
He's not to fight fire with fire.
This is not how the kingdom of God works.
This is not what it is to follow Jesus.
The answer,
the commission that Timothy has given
to guard the truth,
to stand for the truth of the gospel,
to put this church back in order
so that it is relationally working.
The armor that Timothy has to put on,
the weapons that he brings to the fight
are righteousness
and godliness
and faith
and love,
endurance
and gentleness.
The way of the kingdom of God
is the polar opposite
to the way of the kingdom of the world.
Do you see that?
When was the last time you heard about
someone going in to fight with gentleness?
But that's exactly how it works
in the kingdom of God.
This is how grace works.
And as we look at the list of these things,
friends, we need to ask ourselves,
are we pursuing
these things?
Are we growing
in godliness?
Are we pursuing
endurance?
Why does Timothy need to be told to endure?
Because this is going to be tough
and he's got to go the distance.
Are we growing in these things?
I had heard somebody recently say
that the things from verse 4,
the envy and strife,
the malicious talk,
they're the things
that will make the news feeds
on our phones,
won't they?
But we've got to understand
that gentleness and godliness,
those are the things
that are going to pop up,
if I can put it like this,
on the news feed of heaven.
Listen,
this is the fruit of the spirit.
You don't want to see more of it
in your life?
I find gentle people
the most encouraging people
to be around,
people who just ooze
Jesus.
And it raises the question,
doesn't it,
how do we run after these things?
How do you run after gentleness?
How does that work?
I presume that it works
as you run after these things,
as you pursue,
as we pursue Jesus.
Grow as we spend time
each day in our Bibles,
as we grow in the knowledge
of who our God is,
as we care about the truth,
as we care and love one another,
as we spend time in prayer.
And we must understand
there's a difference
between legalism and discipline.
Legalism,
just doing these things
because we want to put on the show,
we think it's the right thing to do,
but as of in and of themselves,
they are the kind of end goal,
if you like.
But discipline says,
I do these things
because I want to get
to know God more
and who he is.
And that's worth
the best of my attention.
See, there's a difference
between legalism and discipline.
Timothy is to run after these things.
And so Paul says,
fight the good fight of the faith,
as in this is going to be hard.
I love it that you never hear
Jesus talking in the Gospels
as if following him
is going to be easy.
And I remember recently,
or was it an email I got?
I can't remember.
The email just said,
super fast broadband
coming to your area.
And I thought,
great, join the party.
Let's go.
It said on the email,
it said,
join the super fast revolution
for as little as $15.99 a month.
And that's a pretty good deal,
$15.99 a month.
And then you notice
the little asterisk
next to the $15.99,
don't you?
And you kind of follow
the rabbit trail down
where it goes,
and you follow it down
and it says,
asterisk,
in addition to the line rental
of $15.99 a month.
You think,
all right,
so it's not actually $15.99 a month.
What I love about Jesus
is that when he talks
about what it is to follow him,
there are no asterisks.
He never hides the small print.
He talks about the narrow way.
He talks about denying self.
He talks about taking up cross.
He talks about his disciples
being sent out like lambs
in the midst of wolves.
It's going to be hard
to follow Jesus.
But in the same way
that Jesus made the good confession
in front of Pontius Pilate,
Timothy,
this is going to be hard,
but verse 15,
you have got to fight
the same fight of the faith
because the,
why did Jesus do that?
What's the Bible say?
For the glory that was set before him,
he endured the cross.
In other words,
he had the eye on who God is
and what was ahead of him.
Timothy used to do exactly the same.
And that's why,
Joe,
this is such a good passage
for you this morning.
O man of God,
pursue the things
of the kingdom of heaven.
You know,
Timothy is reminded,
verse 12,
of his public confession
of his love for Jesus
and his desire to follow him
that he made
in the sight of many witnesses.
You read around it,
it's just very likely
that this would have just been
his baptism
that Paul's talking about here.
The public confession
that Timothy made.
And it's as if Paul is saying
that that love for Jesus,
that desire to run hard after him
that was so evident on that day,
that came from your lips,
that was so clear
for everyone to see.
Don't drop the pace
as life goes on.
Don't get distracted
by all the things
that come at you.
Do you know what?
My greatest fear in life
is that I will just go cold
in my love for Jesus.
Just get bogged down
by the cares and worries
of just get distracted.
And Paul says,
keep your eye on what's ahead.
Don't drop the pace,
up the pace.
Don't grow cold.
Fan into flame
your love for him
and your desire to serve him.
And take hold
of the eternal life
which is ahead of you
in Christ Jesus.
You know,
I read a stat this week
that we take hold
of our phone
something like 2,617 times.
Have you ever done it?
Great thing I tried
to do this week
was take a little post-it note
and put it on the top
of my phone
covering the camera
that just said eternal life.
Every time I picked up my phone,
take hold of the eternal life.
Are we taking hold
of the eternal life?
That's what's ahead of us.
Friends,
are we pursuing
the right things?
And really quickly,
secondly,
are we investing
in the right places?
Because many in this church
in Ephesus
were being dazzled
by money,
just being distracted
by it.
And pay careful attention
to the text.
It's not having the money
that's the issue.
It's the hope
that people are putting in it
that's the issue.
And Paul says so lovingly,
you've got to love
the people in your church family
by helping them see
that it's so uncertain.
That's the word he uses,
uncertain.
I mean,
know the truth of that,
don't we?
In our lives right now,
energy companies
disappearing overnight.
Mine just went.
Just went.
Petrol prices
going up and down.
I remember the days
when it was 80 pence
to fill up your car.
Now it's what,
142?
I don't know what it is.
Petrol prices up and down.
Found myself walking
along Princes Street
the other day.
Couldn't believe
the number of stores
which are boarded up.
It's so uncertain.
And that's what he's saying.
To build your life on money,
to put your hope in it,
you've got to understand
it is to build your life
on a pack of cards.
But what is God calling
the Christian to know?
That to build your life
on God and who he is,
is a firm foundation
of your life.
Firm foundation
of your life.
Okay,
so many people,
we did this this week,
came to Friday night
with those storms.
We had to run out
to the garden
and pin the trampoline
to the ground.
Hold it down,
firm foundation.
And that's what he's saying.
Is your life
pinned on something
that it's going to hold
when the storms
come against it?
And he's saying,
put your hope in God.
And this God
richly provides.
And this God
provides everything
for our enjoyment.
Do you see it?
I take it that's a direct shot
at the false teachers
in Ephesus
who are claiming otherwise.
No, no, no.
Paul is saying,
this is no stingy God.
He didn't create the world
in black and white.
He created it in color.
He didn't create
one type of flower
or food or star.
He created many
because this is the God.
He is the source
of all true joy.
And the call is to use
what he has given us
and invest it,
verse 19,
in the coming age.
What does that mean?
It just means invest it
in the gospel.
Invest it in the work
of Jesus.
And what would our
bank balances show
as the primary places
where we're investing?
What would our diaries say
about the things
that are most important
to us?
Think about it.
Just what do you have?
What has God entrusted
to you?
What opportunities
are in front of you?
Who can you serve?
What can you do?
Do you not long
that Brunswick
would be a community
that's described here
that would be rich
in good deeds?
That we'd be known
in our community here
as a people
who are generous
and willing to share.
And that generosity
just comes,
doesn't it,
from the heart
of our generous God.
Who he is,
what he's done
in sending his son
for us.
And so are we investing
in the right places?
And just as we come
into land today,
you know,
I came across
a discussion thread
this week
on Quora.com.
And the question
simply said,
what are the best words
that you've heard
in life?
What are the best words
that you could hope
to hear in life?
The answer's from people,
I'm sure you can understand them.
I'm proud of you.
You're hired.
I love you.
You can do it.
Words full of meaning.
Life is full of wonderful words,
but I wonder
what you would answer.
In the Bible,
for the Christian,
Jesus has given us
much greater words
to live for.
Much greater words
to live for.
We get them at the end
of Matthew's Gospel.
Jesus is telling this parable
to his disciples,
teaching them
how they should live
in light of his return.
And he tells this parable
about some servants
and about how their master
gave them stuff
to invest
while he went away
on business.
And he returns
and he finds out
that one servant
has just squandered
what his master
has given him.
He's hid it in a hole.
He hasn't done anything
with it.
But the other two
invest it really well.
And when the master returns,
they're greeted
with those words,
well done,
good and faithful servant.
Come and enter
your master's joy.
Who is the master?
This God,
the blessed and only ruler
as he's described here,
the King of kings,
the Lord of lords,
the God who is immortal,
the God who dwells
in unapproachable light,
yet the God who in Jesus
we can approach
confidently
and know him
as Father.
Jesus says to his disciples,
those are the words
I want you to live for.
Well done,
good and faithful servant.
the best words
on the biggest day.
Folks,
as we close,
are we living
our lives
in light of Jesus'
return?
Let's pray,
shall we?
So Heavenly Father,
I ask that your spirit
would be at work
amongst us now,
Lord.
Father,
we long to be a people
who live for your glory
and I pray for those,
Father,
here today
who perhaps don't know
your son,
the Lord Jesus.
Oh Father,
may today be the day
when they put their trust
and their faith
in him
as their saviour
and their king.
Father,
thank you.
Help us to be mindful
of that day
when Jesus will return.
Father,
may we live our lives
in light of
who he is.
Help us
have those words
in our minds.
Well done,
good and faithful servant.
Father,
thank you that you love us
and we pray these things
in Jesus'
worthy name.
Amen.