The Pursuit of Godliness

Francis Chan recently in a sermon he entitled Think Hard Stay Humble told the following story about a man named Vaughn who radiated the love of Christ everybody around him. Here's his story. He says a few years ago a missionary came to our church and told the beautiful story about sharing the gospel with a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. At the end of the story this missionary said I should really give the credit to Vaughn, my former youth pastor who loved me and inspired me to live for Christ and share the gospel with others. The next week another guy came to our church and he challenged us to start sponsoring kids living in poverty. The second speaker also concluded by saying I'm involved in this ministry because of my youth pastor at a guy named Vaughn. I found out those guys were from the same youth group. Then the next week another speaker named Dan told us about his ministry at a rescue mission in the inner city of LA. After Dan's talk I casually mentioned it was so weird. The last two weeks both of our speakers mentioned how impact how much impact their youth pastor Vaughn had on them. Dan looked surprised and then he told me I know Vaughn. He's a pastor in San Diego now and he takes people into the dumps in Tijuana where kids are picking through the garbage. I was just with Vaughn in Tijuana. We would walk in the city and these kids would run up to him and he would show such deep love and affection for them. He'd hug them and have gifts and food for them. He'd figure out how to get them showers. Francis it was eerie the whole time I was walking with Vaughn I kept thinking if Jesus was on earth I think this is what it would feel like to walk with him. He just loved everyone he ran into and he would tell them about God. People were just drawn to his love and affection and then Dan said this the day I spent with Vaughn was the closest thing I've ever experienced to walking with Jesus and then Francis Chan made this application hearing this word made me think would anyone in their right mind say that about me would anyone say that about you as I thought about all this I prayed Lord that's what I want I don't want to be the best speaker in the world that doesn't matter I don't want to be the most intelligent person on the planet that's not what I want to be known for I want to be known for someone saying wow he's a lot like Jesus. Well I believe that is a great description and a great example of what the Bible calls godliness. In working our way through the book of First Timothy we come today to chapter four last week I told you that First Timothy four contains three warnings or Timothy but not just for Timothy as the pastor at the church at Ephesus also for all of those in his church because as we saw last week he was supposed to point these things out to the brothers and in verse 11 he was to command and teach these things and so these warnings are not for just Timothy they're also for everyone in Timothy's church. Now last week we looked at the first warning which is the warning about false doctrine. Today we look at the second which is a warning about godliness and it really comes in the form of a challenge to godliness. We'll see why it's such a warning later but it really comes as a challenge to godliness and Paul talks about that in this chapter he mentions it in verse eight right in the center of this passage verses six through eleven is our text for today but right in the middle in verse eight he says for physical training is of some value but godliness has value for all things so he mentions this concept of godliness interestingly enough this word translated in our English versions godliness appears fifteen times in the New Testament. 13 of those 15 are in the past moral epistles first and second Timothy and Titus. Nine of them are in first Timothy so this is a very important concept Paul he is serious about this concept of godliness so if he's so serious but so important to him I think it's important to us to understand what he means by godliness so let's take a moment before we dive into the text to figure out what he means the word godliness literally means a reverence toward god but let's let's go a little deeper with that it's not just a pious folding of the hands and closing of the eyes reverence toward god it means literally a right attitude toward god accompanied by a right response to god so godliness is a heart preoccupation with god which desires then to please him to become more like him so godliness is not just an inward piety that's expressed as we kind of glow in the presence of the Lord and so called that in that's not godliness godliness is a reverence and an all of god that motivates us to obey him and fuels us with a passion to be more like him and to serve those around us more like Jesus did if we are more like Jesus we will move out to serve others like he did I think one of the best biblical examples of godliness of this twofold concept of seeing god for who he is having an awe and respect for him that then motivates us to do something I think one of the best examples of that is Isaiah I say a describes an experience he had in Isaiah six where he is seeing the Lord high and lifted up on his throne in all of his holiness in fact the angels are around his throne crying holy holy holy the threefold threefold repetition for emphasis and passion that he is truly holy and you know what Isaiah's response was to that first response fall on his face before god in a recognition and awe and respect of his holiness so much so that the only thing he can cry out is I'm an unclean man I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips so he recognizes in the awesome holiness of god his own sinfulness but did you remember what his next response is when god says I'm looking for someone to take the message to people he says here am I send me so godliness is not just an inward piety that is all feeling touchy feely good about really respecting who god is it starts there but then it motivates us to be like him in action in service in moving out to touch the lives of others so with that idea understanding of godliness in our minds an awe of god that leads to action for god with that idea in our minds let's look at Paul's challenge to godliness and the first thing he does in verses six and seven is he describes the diet leading to godliness look at verse six he says if you point these things out to the brothers and sisters or brothers you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales rather train yourself to be godly now we're going to deal with the negative first which is in verse seven and then the positive which is in verse six we're going to flip those concepts because in in understanding what it means to have the kind of diet that leads to godliness the first thing Paul says is give up junk food I think you probably are guessing where I'm headed with that and there's some value in what you're guessing but we're not going to go there right now he's talking about giving up junk food spiritually and notice what he says there in verse seven have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales and what you're talking about there he's talking about a way of preaching and teaching understanding and communicating the Bible which he describes as godless myths and old wives tales what does he mean by godless myths the idea of myths reminds us if you remember way back a few weeks in chapter one and verse four when he started out the book by warning Timothy against false doctrine he described in chapter one and verse four he said these are people who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies now the endless genealogies was they would they would find obscure passages in the Old Testament I mean even the genealogies where there's just a list of names and they would kind of allegorize and find fantastic interpretations of each of those names and and take a name and weave these intricate spiritual lessons and stories and fables about these people and genealogies it was that style of communicating the word of god godless myths is this it is unusual interpretations of the Bible that no one has ever seen before me look I discovered this this unique interpretation of this obscure Old Testament passage that nobody seen till I wrote my book nobody in two thousand years of church history has ever seen this that's a red flag you better watch out for that to start with it's these unusual interpretations these fantastic legends that come out of secret meanings that are forced on the text of scripture it is a wild speculation of of things that are taught with only a passing nod to a verse of scripture not really digging into the text to find out what does the text say what does the Bible say but just kind of weaving my own thoughts and ideas with a passing nod to a verse of scripture to make it sound legitimate it is fables it's myths it doesn't lead to godliness it's junk food and Paul shows his distaste for this when he calls it old wives tales now you know what an old wives tale is Paul's really showing this with a sarcastic reference that he has a tremendous distaste for this kind of preaching teaching communication of the word supposedly communication of the word you know what an old wives tale is you grew up with them so did I an old wives tale is a supposed truth that is passed down through the generations it is really a superstition it's really kind of superstition with little if any truth to it but it's often designed to either while people impress people or scare people let me give you a few examples of old wives tales that maybe some of you grew up with or heard as you were growing up don't cross your eyes or they'll get stuck there you remember that one I remember hearing that I don't know if it was our parents Jan that told us that or not I don't think it was but I remember hearing that from people don't you dare cross your eyes they'll get stuck like that sometime man that scared me I didn't want to cross my eyes that was gonna happen you heard this one don't crack your knuckles it will give you arthritis or don't swallow your gum it will stay in your stomach for seven years I've never heard that one but saw it this week did you this is an old wives tale eating a crust of a sand which will make your hair curl or it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors but you could go on and on these are old wives tales these are these are supposed truths that are really superstitions that are passed down to either impress someone that you know something they don't know or to scare them into something and there is a lot of preaching and teaching like that a lot of wild speculation on scripture especially in the area of prophecy people know who the antichrist is or people know when Jesus is coming back and they take a little strand of scripture here and there and piece it together and weave some wild fanciful tale that's junk food that's not Bible that's junk food secret meanings of obscure texts that whole books are written about and those secret meanings or codes in the Bible that God had hidden in the Bible now wait a second wait a second stop right there wasn't God's word intended to be a revelation of himself not a code hiding stuff but the book the Bible code for instance says there was all these codes we even throughout the Bible that this person figured out on a computer that talk all about modern conspiracies and political agendas and political figures that's junk food friends that's not the Bible that's junk food or it may come in the form of shallow feel good talks about reaching your potential from smiley to field preachers or self help psychology I'm telling you that's junk food there's nothing about that that we should have anything to do with Paul says don't have anything to do with those godless myths those kind of wild fanciful interpretations that do not promote true godliness and he says I'll tell you how I feel about them their old wives tales is what they are and that was used in the first century of a sarcastic comment about political and philosophical things so Paul's telling how he feels about that kind of communication of the word if you're going to be godly you got to get off junk food you got to get off that stuff stop reading those books and what do you feed on you feed on the word verse six you feed on the word he says if you point these things out speaking of the warnings he'd given in the first five verses to the brothers you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus now here's my point for this message today verse the end of the verse nourished who's a good minister of Christ Jesus nourished you may have a translation that says brought up on but the word for brought up is literally a word which means you bring someone up by nourishing them by giving them a proper diet the proper food so nourished on what Paul nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed in other words you know you know the truth I'm talking about Timothy the basic truths of scripture the word of God I taught you those things you feed on that you nourish yourself on that truth of the faith and good teaching notice how he talks about both teaching others those things and nourishing himself on those things he's talking about a beautiful balance between Timothy's private study and his public ministry nourish yourself on those truths and then tell them to the brothers tell them to the church there's a beautiful balance there those two things are inseparably linked in the heart and life of what Paul calls a good minister a good pastor and that is a wedding an inseparable link of nourishing yourself on the word of God and then communicating that to the church now since Paul was directing his comments to a young pastor I want to direct first of all the application of this passage to Dan rest of you listening to you want to they answer you and me here know also Jim and and James and Jim not so you're all of us pastors to the degree that we are responsible for communicating the word of God and teaching the word of God to others Paul again and I say again we find over and over and over again in first Timothy second Timothy Titus these pastoral epistles time and time again he makes it clear that your primary responsibility as a pastor is first of all to feed on the word nourish your soul in the word so that you can then preach and teach the word to others this is only one of about fifteen or sixteen places in these books he stresses this with this young pastor preach teach feed on the word of God that balance is critical it's it's important for the pastor to feed on the scripture so that he can give good solid food to the block and not junk food that is so important to remember because there are so many responsibilities for a pastor these days and it has become increasingly complex as the church and culture becomes so much more needy and so much more complex there are so many pastoral duties in shepherding a flock and I just want to say I'm so grateful that eighteen years ago the church saw fit to add a staff member pastor Jim Simmons to help with some of that pastoral care which was becoming as our church was growing was becoming almost unbearable to keep up with all the counseling sessions and all the visitation and that was getting to be where it was about all i could get it get done and and and to still try to get in the word and be in the word and take care of other things in the church i'm so grateful that you saw the wisdom and giving us a good man who cares for the flock and helps me out tremendously but there's so many pastoral duties so many administrative responsibilities in the church and I'm grateful for Jim Lopsinger and the fact that I don't have to worry about the financial side of thing and telling with all the bills that come in and and all the structuring of the financial reports and all of that if I had to do that I'd pull my hair out I would have retired ten years ago if I'd had to do all that kind of stuff that is a backbreaker and just the managing of a facility that is used every day there's hardly an hour of the day or night this facility is not in use and he manages all of that so beautifully I'm grateful for his help but there are still a lot of administrative responsibilities for all of the pastors and meetings meetings meetings emails crying out for an immediate response please pastor help me with this this this this some of that becomes so overwhelming at times that the first thing you're tempted to let go is nourishing yourself in the words so that you can feed the flock and that cannot happen especially for a senior pastor I love what John Stott says I quoted him several times in his excellent commentary on first Timothy but this quote comes from another one of his books called between two worlds I still think it's one of the top two or three texts on preaching he says this about preaching he says when a pastor does not study and this scares me when a pastor does not study he will by midlife become a sentimentalist in preaching what does he mean by that he explains it depending primarily on a repertoire of clichés and sappy stories that tug at the heartstrings I've heard that kind of preaching I've probably done some of it where you get dependence on just pet phrases and clichés that you know are good to draw in amen and you can preach this over and over and over again that doesn't matter what texture and you can say those things over and over again and if the crowd's getting a little sleepy you can pop one of those in and you'll be sure you get an amen and you become dependent on those kind of pet favorite clichés and and sappy stories to tug at the heart now I believe in illustrations I try to use them I'm not real good at it but I try to use them because I think they are the windows that let the light of the truth into our hearts but if all you get is a string of sentimental stories woven together with a few pet clichés there's a lot of preaching like that out there today you can find it in a lot of places that scares me to death I will I will stand before God someday an answer for this passage of scripture feed yourself Timothy on the word that has to be a priority but remember Timothy is saying or Paul saying it's not only for Timothy's sake not only for my sake and Dan's sake and Jim's sake and James he's not saying it just for us pastors he's saying it also for all the church because Timothy is to communicate these things to his church and so what Timothy is saying it is only a steady diet of the word that will marry you to the point that you will become godly you can't grow on junk food you only grow to be godly on a bible diet a bible diet feed on the word that is the diet leading to godliness but he goes on to describe the discipline leading to godliness in verses seven and eight he says have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales rather train yourself to be godly there's the call to training and it's an interesting word the verb to train is is and I want to give you the Greek word not to try to impress you with the fact that I had to look up the Greek word this week but not to impress you with that but the fact that it's so close to our English word you'll catch the connection the verb is gumnazzo and in verse eight when he says training it's the name gumnazia you don't have to low any Greek to know what that means the word we get from that gymnasium gymnastics the word communicates this word training sometimes some translations translated exercise yourself into godliness or discipline yourself unto godliness the word literally means a discipline of a good workout a sweat-filled workout that produces results now we understand that when it comes to athletics the actual gymnasium we understand the discipline effort practice repetition or at least some of us have heard about it that it takes to become a good athlete we we heard about we know about that but to become godly that same kind of exercise discipline sweat it out kind of thing to be godly that sounds like human effort that sounds like I sound like self-everd you may be thinking I thought godliness was you know you pray and fold your hands and certainly close your eyes and and god just drops it in you and you become godly well I'm not going to discount prayer we're going to get to the actual ways that we've become godly in just a moment and that's included but there is human effort and responsibility needed that's the very reason why Paul says train yourself discipline yourself exercise yourself unto godliness and he uses that word from the gym of sweating it out why to be godly because there is effort required there is human responsibility required there are certain spiritual disciplines that you must with a dog and determination decide you will make a part of the practice of your life or you will not be godly because the devil will fight you every step of the way your flesh your simple nature in mind will fight us every step of the way so what Paul is talking about here is pursuing some disciplines that lead to godliness and that will require a dog in determination the same kind of dog in determination that the athlete displays in the gym day in day out over and over and over and over and over again sweating to learn the discipline of an athletic endeavor that's the call to training and then Paul admits you know I've used that word gymnasium and gymnastics and so he admits there is value to physical training notice the value to physical training in verse eight he says for physical training is of some value it is of some boundaries he's going to compare that and contrast that with spiritual training which he says is far more valuable but he says hey let's admit it there is value to physical training physical exercise and training and discipline does have some value the value of better health increased energy focus strength and I know what you're thinking here's this overweight preacher up there telling me that I'm supposed to exercise yeah so let me take a little bit of hypocrisy factor out okay if I can I'm quite frankly admitting to you this morning I have all my adult life struggled with with my weight and I've gone on all kinds of you know tree bark and bird seed kind of regimens to try to do something about it and I've done this and that and the other and and even worked out some after I got to the age where I couldn't play sports anymore and I've just struggled and recently in recent months my doctor has warned me and and I have I don't think conviction is too strong a word I think God's dealt with my heart and so I'm going to make myself accountable to you this is not Rick Warren introducing the Daniel plan to his church but but I do I do want to ask your prayer because I am making since the first of the year some genuine efforts to shed this overweight body of 55 pounds and so I asked for your prayer in that regard so having said that there is value to physical training and I'm learning that again now there's value to that but Paul quickly moves on to the superior value of spiritual training look at it verse 8 he says for physical training is of some value but Godliness has value for all things holding promise for both the present life and the life to come notice the the unlimited benefit of spiritual training this is why it's so much better than physical training or so much more value to a believer because physical training only affects this life and and your your physical health and strength and focus and energy and so forth and that's good that's important but the unlimited value of spiritual training is that it affects both this life and eternity spiritual disciplines spiritual growth leading to Christ's likeness obviously has eternal benefits that's the part we get we understand that it has eternal benefits we know that if we are godly then we'll be more pleasing to the Lord and he'll be pleased with us and and that will be a good thing spiritually and it will also pay dividends at the judgements see of Christ when we've lived our lives for Christ will be rewarded there we understand that eternal benefit but I want to take for just a moment the other side of it that we don't often think of I have a tendency we think of this this way physical exercise or training has benefit for this life and spiritual exercise has benefit for the next life or eternal life and that's not what Paul says he says yes it does spiritual exercise and training has benefit for the next life but it also has benefit in this life you see this is the practical application of godliness if you discipline and train yourself to be godly you'll be a better wife a better husband you'll be a better parent you'll be a better child you'll be a better employee you'll be a better employer if you live a godly life you'll be a better student then that's what I mean you're great to go but you'll be a better student if if you are a godly person you'll be a better friend it will impact you as a neighbor you will be a better neighbor more concerned about your neighborhood if you are a godly person you see godliness has an impact on where we live right now has godly that impact on this life the present life so it would mean for instance that our neighborhoods that we're reaching out to our neighbors we're taking bread to them when they have a need or when when they're sick or when there's a death in the family or we're taking cookies to them at Christmas time with a card that explains what the true meaning of Christmas is or we're having a block party in the backyard that invites everybody over and and takes that opportunity to communicate in through prayer the gospel of Christ or we're having them in our home for a meal or inviting them to immense breakfast or a ladies Bible study all of those things genius I've done with our neighbors and other things not not to boast there's a lot more we should be doing but it has had an impact on our neighbors we have two unsaved neighbors one of whom has come to a ladies Bible study with Gideon and and we still they move now to another neighborhood but we still go over to their house they invite us over we take the sweet rolls and they fix the coffee and we spend time together talking about the Lord and another neighbor that that came to my mother's funeral first time she'd ever been a Protestant church and heard the gospel and that's opened up more doors now there's a lot more we could do but let me let me ask you to imagine this vision you see if you want if you want to follow Christ it means you you do something in your neighborhood can can you imagine what this church would be like if if we were gathered in neighborhood groups in our homes or or even personally we're really intentional about reaching out to our neighbors and having them in our home or getting into their homes and not just waiting at them from the front porch when we see them but getting to know them so that we can have an open door to impact them with the gospel wouldn't it be great if our whole church was doing that if our whole church was built it my friend that is godliness godliness has been if it not only for the life to come but for the life right near the present life your life at work and in your home and in your neighborhood that's where godliness is flashed out that's where it's lived out that's the superior value of godliness i love the article i just became aware of this week in the New York Times and a column this for the New York Times by the name of Nicholas Christoff wrote a column in March of 2015 entitled in the New York Times entitled a little respect for dr. Foster you find out who dr. Foster isn't just a moment but Christoff who wrote the article makes it very clear at the beginning i'm not a believer i'm not a Christian i have no interest in evangelical Christianity but he says this but i've been truly awed by those i've seen in so many remote places combating illiteracy illiteracy and war lords famine and disease humbly struggling to do the lords work as they see it and then he focuses on this one guy dr. Stephen Foster 865 of white haired missionary surgeon who's been who's lived in angola for 37 years much of that in a period when the angolan regime was marxist and hostile to christians and he quotes he quotes dr. Foster saying we were granted visas by the very people who would tell us publicly your churches are going to disappear in 20 years but privately they would call us aside and say you're the only ones we know willing to serve in the midst of the fire Christoff goes on the right foster told him one of our sons contracted polio one of our daughters barely survived cerebral malaria and the family nearly starved when the area was besieged during the war and dr. Foster insisted on sharing the family rations with a hundred famished villagers and so this is what Christoff concludes and this is my point he says in this New York Times editorial the next time you hear someone at a cocktail party mock evangelicals think of dr. Foster and those like him these are folks who don't do much don't so much proclaim the gospel as live it they deserve better now he does proclaim the gospel in fact dr. Foster's website called hope for angola says our hope for angola is through health care agriculture education and the gospel of Jesus Christ but i love that this unbelieving atheist editorial writer said the people out there doing the things that need to be done and we would translate into saying being like Christ to a hurting world are the believers some of you went to the flood relief at rupert and right now how many other religions did you see up there i'm not being critical here i'm just being factual i don't know that we saw anybody else there were a lot of churches represented up there who springs into action when people are hurting and people have needs it's believers and that's the way it ought to be the church that's the way it ought to be because godliness is not just some buying by pie in the sky looking forward to heaven godliness is living out our faith right now in our neighborhoods and in our places that need need help that need that have hurting people that's godliness and that's why Paul says godliness has great value not only in the life to come but also in the present life godliness has great value for both so it's far more important that an athlete accomplishing various things and getting all the trophies to show for it it's more important than the sweat in the gym to put the same kind of focus and energy and time and discipline training into spiritual growth so that we might become more like Christ which will lead us to do what Jesus did to reach out to hurting people around us that's the superior value of spiritual training which is okay all right i'm sold what do i do how do i get godly how do i move forward godliness at least well let's talk a little bit about the methods of spiritual training real quick the methods of spiritual training what what is the sweat what is the workout okay you know if someone if someone tells me you need to start working out i want to know exactly what they're talking about how many pushups do i have to do you know i want to know exactly what they're talking about all right so exactly what is it what what are what are the spiritual exercises spiritual disciplines that are needed to train ourself for godliness well obviously in the context he's talking about first of all the nourishment of god's word right so reading your reading your Bible studying your Bible understanding your Bible meditating on your Bible applying your Bible to your life that's that's obviously part of the training but there's more than that another spiritual exercise is prayer and another is self examination and confession and another is sacrificial giving there's something that really stretches us when we do the Romans 12 one thing on a continual basis where we we respond to god's abundant mercies to us by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice we lay ourselves on that author holy that means devoted to him acceptable giving him something that is is clean and free from sin as far as we can tell holy acceptable to god which is our reasonable service that that's to be expected there's something about sacrificial giving of ourselves and that will that will lead to other kinds of sacrificial giving but giving of ourselves that will lead to the giving of our time and our resources to others that's a spiritual discipline serving is a spiritual discipline fellowship with others is a spiritual discipline because that's the only way we can practice the one and others praying for one another serving one another loving one another all the 15 16 one another's in the New Testament so it's important to fellowship to be involved in the lives of other believers it's a spiritual discipline sharing our lives with others sharing the gospel with others is a spiritual discipline and sometimes you have to push yourself sweat a little bit to share the gospel with somebody all of these things and others are the kinds of spiritual disciplines that together comprise a workout that you sweat a little bit you give yourself diligently to so that the end result is you become more like Christ you see god in all of his glory become more like him and move out to be like him in your lifestyle that's godliness the discipline that leads to godliness but quickly I want to want us to see the devotion that results from godliness in verses 9 and 10 there is a devotion a benefit of blessing that comes to this and the blessing is not to me the blessing is I become more devoted to the Lord but it has a tremendous impact on my life let's look at how this works the devotion resulting from godness verse 9 this is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance that is why we labor and strive and here's the key the central thought because we have put our hope in the living god who is the savior of all people and especially those who believe the focus of this devotion is hope what is driving toward the main thrust of these two verses is hope and oh we have such a shallow view of hope a lot of it's because of our English word you know we use the English word hope to speak of something that we wish for in the future but it's very uncertain like I hope the weather is going to change and be nicer tomorrow you know the way our winter is gone that's very uncertain we kind of wish for that but it is very uncertain we don't know from one day to the next let's me up or down up or down our sideways it's that's very uncertain that's why we use the word hope that's not the Bible concept at all that's not the way the Bible uses the I like to define the biblical word hope this way a confident looking forward to that which god has promised there's no uncertainty there god has promised us certain things about our future particularly about heaven and we confidently look forward to those things so the focus of hope is on eternity but please please that doesn't mean that hope leads us to a detachment from real life you've probably heard the expression that person they're so heavenly mind that they're no earthly good did you know that if you have a biblical concept of being heavenly mind that that's not true that's not possible because true Bible hope doesn't just sit here and be moan everything that's happening here and say I can't wait to heaven now there's a part of hope that looks forward to heaven yes but dig a little deeper and you'll see that the Bible concept of hope is not only believing that we have stuff waiting for us but reaching up into that promise future grasping it and bringing it down here to where we live now that's a part of our hope so hope means that we bring that eternal perspective to all of this life my hope for what lies ahead in heaven brings significant impact to the way I live today because if I have hope if I really have my focus on eternity that means that I see I should I should see everyone to come in contact with as an eternal soul that will live somewhere and that eternal perspective will change the way I look at people even irritating that person in your job place that irritates the life out of you did you know that sometimes they're going to spend eternity somewhere in heaven or in hell and the hope reaches into the future of what we have promised for us and grabs a hold of it and says that ought to change the way I look at my neighbor and my coworker that's hope see hope is not just saying a radio person I can't wait to get out of here and get to heaven that's not hope that's escapism hope says I want to bring eternity to now and make it change the way I live hope means that I have an eternal perspective to all of this life that I see all of life as an opportunity to serve God whether you're in the classroom as a teacher in the office as a homemaker at home whatever you're doing in the factory at work or whatever you're doing it means that you see every opportunity God's given you has an opportunity to serve him and so there's no secular employment in God's eyes like Paul says in Colossians 3 when he's talking to slaves he says for we serve the Lord Christ see we we serve in whatever capacity we work in we serve Christ that's eternal perspective hope means that I see every event in my life as having an eternal purpose hope means that I see every moment as having an eternal consequence and I better grab that moment and use it for God's glory now I'll be the first to admit I don't always do that but I long for that perspective of hope that eternal perspective that grabs a whole of the hope promised to me and says I wanted to impact the way I live right now I'm not just waiting for heaven I want to live in hope now that's the focus of this devotion to Christ but notice the passion of this devotion Paul's passionate about this he says in verse 9 this is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance and he is talking about what he's just said in verse 8 about godliness but but this is like a gate verse you know gate swings both ways at least a lot of them do the swing one way and then swing another way verse the first part of verse 9 swings back to verse 8 but it also swings forward to verse 10 and so this faithful saying trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance remember I've told you that that occurs that that phrase occurs five times in the past world epistles and it always means Paul's jerkiness by the collar saying come on wake up sit up this is important you gotta hear this this is a faithful saying and word it deserves all full acceptance and then he says in verse 10 that is why we labor and strive interesting the word strive is the word we get our word agonize from it's again another athletic term an athlete sweating out in the gym agonizing pushing himself further than he or she thinks they can go for excellence and their best effort he says we do this the spiritual discipline that produces godliness so that we may live out this hope that's the whole point and he's passionate about it but notice the person of this devotion we put our hope in the living god friend a hope filled lifestyle a godly lifestyle that produces that devotion characterized by hope that is all god centered not self centered and here's the way it works is the way it looks to me it means that the motivation for godliness is to please him and honor him not to make ourselves look holy if we're if we're wanting godliness so that people look at us and say whoa look at that I think I see a glow you know if that's the reason we're doing it that's junk the only motivation is to please and honor him the strength for the spiritual disciplines to become godly comes from him not from self will not from self effort the strength to do that comes from him and then the result is all about eternal glory to him not praise for ourselves and why wouldn't we want that look at what he's done for us Paul reminds us this living god is our savior he's our savior he loved all of us so much that he sent his son Jesus to take our place on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin and your sin he loved us so much he didn't want us to be punished in hell forever for our own sin but he wanted us to come live with him in heaven and be a part of his family and so he did that through Christ he's our savior and I love how Paul says it he's the savior of all people and especially of those who believe now that's not teaching universalism it's not saying everybody's going to be saved so he's the savior of all people in the fact that everybody's going to be in heaven robbell used those kind of verses in his book to deny hell that there was no eternal hell because god's going to save all people eventually that's not what this is teaching you also cannot water down that word savior as some commentators do to mean well this is talking about some kind of physical blessings of god but especially true salvation comes to those who believe now this just take it face value this simply it's what the verse is saying is that in some sense god is the savior of all people in the sense that the provision of Christ's death was magnificent enough white enough broad enough sufficient enough to save anybody all people you can't limit the power the sufficiency of Christ's death it wasn't the meek little weak death it was a death capable of saving all people but it is only applied to those who believe and we could argue from the outer kingdom come about who are those who believe that's not the point of this verse the point of this verse is that salvation is powerful enough for anybody but it is only effective for those who believe but he's our savior why wouldn't we want to give him everything i want to ask in closing this morning where is the focus of your life really where is the focus of your life are you feasting on junk food or you feasting on the word you'll never become godly on junk food wrong diet where's the focus of your life is it on this life only physical things maybe even physical training exercise being buff all that looking good or on material accomplishments is that where your focus is or is it on eternity a focus that drives you to train yourself for godliness where's the focus of your life where's the focus of your life is is it on a hope that makes all the difference now in this world as to how you live is that the focus most of you will recognize the name johnny ariksontata johnny ariksontata some 45 years ago dove into a bay as a 17-year-old kid dove into a bay near baltimore hit her head on the bottom injured her spinal cord to the point that she became a quadriplee paralyzed from the neck down most of you probably know her as a great bible teacher speaker radio host singer painter the leader of johnny and friends ministry to disabled people wonderful godly testimony but she reflects on that diving accident that changed her life one of her books and she says this she says a 14-year-old she had embraced Jesus as her savior but in her words she says I had confused the abundant Christian life with the great american dream and I quote her she says I was a Christian and would lose weight get good grades get voted captain of the hockey team go to college marry a wonderful man who made $250,000 a year and we'd have 2.5 kids it was me focused what can god do for me I almost thought I'd done god a great big favor by accepting Jesus and meanwhile my boyfriend and I were doing some things together that we knew were wrong she's 17 years old now she says in april 1967 I came home from a sordid friday night date and cried oh god I'm staining your reputation by saying I'm a Christian yet doing one thing friday night and another Sunday morning I'm a hypocrite I want you to change my life please do something in my life that will jerk it right side up because I'm making a mess of the Christian faith in my life and I don't want to do that I want to glorify you then I had the diving accident about three months later now if you've read her books you know that that did not immediately change her outlook on things in fact she became very angry at god after her accident she prayed to die she said she told god you'll never be trusted with another of my prayers but after struggling with all that anguish and anger she said this and I quote I prayed one short prayer that changed my life oh god if I can't die show me how to live if Paul's telling us how to live both for this life and the life to come godliness and awe and reverence of who he is that leads us to a confession of our own unworthiness and sinfulness and it motivates us to be like Jesus in our lives to bring that hope of eternity down for right now and live out our faith in front of other people and two other people to reach out to our neighbors our community our world to take the gospel and the hope of Christ to them that is the way father help us to live that way oh god how far short I fall of that so much so often so help me to take Paul's words to heart deep to my heart and I pray that all of us in this room would take his words deep to heart we ask in Jesus name Amen