Galen Call's Sermon Library
"A Christian's Priority" - December 30, 1984
Well, we come close now to the end of the year. The end of one year, the beginning of another reminds us that time is passing, and as time passes, so does life, for time is life. Roy Lauren, who for a number of years passed to the church, the open door in Los Angeles, said time is passing, and you are passing out of time. I believe that each of us needs to get a hold of that truth. Time is precious because it is our lives we're dealing with. So valuable is time that God gives only a moment of it at once, and He gives that moment but at once in all of eternity. Perhaps one of the best steps that we can take is to listen intently to the last words of others who have lived well, and who, from their sunset perspective on life, can share their insights regarding how to make the best use of time. We need to learn how to manage this greatest and most precious of our resources. A man that I would like to hear from is the Apostle Paul. I invite you to turn with me to the book of 2 Timothy, the last of his inspired letters. Second Timothy, chapter 4, the age of the Apostle is giving us some insights regarding life as he writes to Timothy, his son in the faith. He says beginning in verse 6 of the fourth chapter, "For I am ready, already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept to the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. A believer's priority must be to live wisely and thus to redeem His time. It seems to me that the Apostle Paul's transparency as he approached the end of his own life, instructs us in how to live wisely. He gives us at least four insights and lessons that follow from them. Right number one, his evaluation of life. He says, "I am already being poured out as a drink offering." The lesson that I see here is this, "Why is living means learning to sacrifice my life? Why is living means learning to sacrifice my life?" There may be many different ways to evaluate success or accomplishment in this world. An artist has his portfolio, a business person, his balance sheet, a soldier, the brass that he wears, student, their grades. His grades have their RBIs or their yards rushing. Politicians, the last election, educators, tenure, a salesperson, his volume of sales, and all of those are legitimate. But apart from vocation, how does a Christian, whatever his vocation, measure success in life? How do we know when we have lived as best we could for the glory of God? How do we measure what it means to live wisely? Well, I believe the Apostle Paul would answer that this way. He would say that a Christian lives wisely when his life has been poured out as a sacrifice. Now, the figure that the Apostle uses here is that of a libation or a drink offering. These were usually measures of wine, which were poured out around a burnt offering before it's being consumed with fire. One example, turn into the Old Testament to the book of Numbers in chapter 15. We'll begin reading in verse 4, Numbers 15, "And the one who presents his offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering of one tenth of an ether of fine flour mixed with one fourth of a hen of oil. And you shall prepare wine for the libation, one fourth of a hen with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice for each lamb." So we see that in this offering, this burnt offering of a lamb, one fourth of a hen or about two pints of wine was be poured out around the sacrifice as a drink offering. And then down in verse 7, it mentions what should be done here, "For the libation you shall offer one third of a hen of wine as a soothing aroma to the Lord." And again in verse 10, he says, "And you shall offer as the libation one half a hen of wine as an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the Lord." The idea seems to be that the larger the sacrifice that was to be burned, the more wine or drink offering that was to be used. These libations were always poured out entirely. There was nothing reserved either for the offeror or for the priest who offered the sacrifice for him. The libation was holy the lords. I would suggest to you that that is what Paul has in mind when he says that he is being poured out as a drink offering. He is saying, "I am entirely and wholly being given to the Lord for his ministry." And that application is for you and myself. We are encouraged to present ourselves as a sacrifice, as a drink offering in this text, given entirely and wholly for the Lord, reserving nothing for ourselves. And it said there in Numbers that this sacrifice of the libation was a soothing aroma to the Lord. That is an Old Testament way of saying that it well pleased the Lord. As he looked upon that sacrifice, he found delight and joy in receiving it. And I would follow through by saying that as you and I give ourselves as a sacrifice, that is well pleasing to the Lord as well. Only one other time did Paul talk in these same terms, and that's back in Philippians chapter 2. This was written a few years before the passage in 2 Timothy, and he says in verse 17 of Philippians 2, "But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all." Now there is a condition here because Paul is not sure to the extent to which he is going to be poured out at this point. When he writes 2 Timothy, he knows the death is close, but you see the figure is the same. He sees himself being poured out, his life being offered entirely and wholly to the Lord as a sacrifice. My point is this, why is living means learning to see life as a voluntary sacrifice, wholly giving oneself to the Lord as an act of worship, and why for the sake of others? If you and I could get a hold of that, it would change some of the marriages in our church, where both a husband and wife would view their role as that of sacrificing for the other. There are some brothers and sisters who would get along a whole lot better in the home. If only they would understand that as far as their life is concerned, it should be counted as a sacrifice for the sake of others, giving on their account. The same would be true of friendships, it would be a whole lot happier if the two people involved in that relationship would see their role as giving for the advance of the other person. And likewise, whatever ministry God gives to us will be more fulfilling if instead of trying to get as much as we can from it. We rather look upon it wholly as a sacrifice to Him. It is impossible for you and myself to offer ourselves as a sacrifice without it costing us something, perhaps even something dearly. There is no such thing as a comfortable sacrifice, a sacrifice means that I give and it hurts or it costs. The apostle Paul was in the midst of suffering. He was imprisoned in the Mamortine prison in Rome, a despicable, hideous place to keep someone. How long he was there we do not know, but he was not released from that suffering except through his own martyrdom and that was the end of his drink offering sacrifice. Wise living means learning to see life as a sacrifice for the sake of others. It is faithful service for their advancement, the giving of myself that they may be forwarded in their walk with God in their understanding of Jesus Christ. This flies in the face of the world's idea of success. The world says get and accumulate as much as possible in your life, but the Bible says that we are to give as much as possible in life. And even give our very lives themselves if necessary to the point of martyrdom for the cause of Jesus Christ and the sake of others. Do you want to listen to that kind of advice? Well that is what the aged apostle has to say if we want to live wisely. Now there is a second insight that he gives in his transparency. It is his anticipation and from this too we derive a lesson. His anticipation is found in the last part of verse 6 where he says the time of my departure has come. The lesson is this, wise living means knowing its limitation, knowing that life is limited. We are not permanent fixtures on the scene of history. We are mortal and limited to one lifetime and then we are gone. Life is limited in its duration. It does not go on and on and on. Paul recognized that soon he would depart from the world. The word that he uses there, departure is used only here in the Old New Testament. There is a special kind of word that literally means to lift up or to loosen. It was used in that day in commerce, especially by ships, when they were loosed from their moorings, the ropes that held them and allowed to go to sea. It was a word that was used in the military of that day by the soldiers striking their tents and moving on to a new location. It was a common euphemism even then for death. Paul says, "I am about to strike my earthly tent, my body, and to move on to my heavenly home." He says, "I am about to be loosed from those ropes that tie me to the earth and be allowed to depart and to be with Christ," which he says in the book of Philippians is far better. What kind of an impact did this knowledge have in Paul's life? Well, notice it did not create fear. He did not suddenly panic because he knew his departure was near. Rather it served to motivate him to live wisely. He anticipated the inevitable and he planned his life accordingly. You and I don't like to talk about death. In fact, in our society, we do everything we can to not face the fact of death. But death is inevitable unless the Lord comes first. A hundred years from now, all of us will be in a grave somewhere in the world if Christ doesn't return before then. As we said here a year ago before starting 1984, there were people who were sitting here who are now gone, who are gone to be with Christ. Death is inevitable. So what you and I are going to do for Jesus Christ, we had better do today because we're not guaranteed tomorrow. If there is some witness we intend to give, we'd better plan to give it soon. If there is some sacrifice we intend to make for the Lord's sake, we'd better do it now. If there is an apology and other person needs to receive from us, we'd better get on the phone and do it. If there is restitution that needs to be made with someone or an employer, now is the time to take care of that. Lies living means that I understand that life has its limits and that I'm not around here forever. I think it's important that as early as possible, each of us establish some life objectives to determine what we want to do in this world. It's not long as you grow up before you realize you're not going to be able to do everything. As a child you have the luxury of being able to say, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a cowboy." And then the next day say, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a doctor because it doesn't make any difference as a child." But you cannot do that when you grow up. You can't change your mind that often. I have a relative who tried to do it and he was in his mid-40s before he ever settled down to an occupation and stuck with it. It went from one thing to the next to another, then another, and it took a toll on him and his family. You and I need to establish what we, before God, wish to accomplish in this world, and do that as early as we can in our lives. Those may not be fixed and cement 10 years from now we may feel differently about them and adjust those objectives, but somewhere we need to decide what we're going to do in the next 20 years or 40 years should the Lord Terry in our lives last that long. And once we have those objectives set, then we can start making goals, goals that will get us eventually to our objectives so that we can achieve as many of them as possible and not waste time, because when we waste time we're wasting our lives and we cannot reclaim that. Wise living means knowing its limitation, knowing that it's a brief at best in whatever we're going to do in this world we'd better get at it. Not in a panic, not in fear, but simply facing the reality that we're only going to be here for a short period of time. Now if we're going to live wisely as we enter the new year, we need to look at the third insight that Paul shares with us in his transparency, it's in verse 7, his reflection. The apostle reflects here upon his life and he says, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith." Here's the lesson that I see from this insight. It is that wise living means discerning its nature, understanding what life really is. From his aged perspective, the apostle Paul sees life in three different roles in verse 7. He sees the first in the role of a soldier, then he sees it in the role of an athlete and finally as a steward. As a soldier he says, "The good struggle I have struggled." That word for fight or struggle is the root of our word for agony. He's talking here about something that was painful. There was hardship involved or conflict. Some people have the idea that the Christian life is supposed to be a bed of ease, a garden of roses that we walk through, hardly. The apostle Paul understands an important perspective on life that we need to get a hold of and that is that the Christian life is a battle, my friend, and we are soldiers in it. The apostle does not limit this metaphor to his last few words. Go back again to Philippians chapter 1 and notice verses 29 and 30. He says to these Philippians, "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." What does he mean by suffering? He goes on to explain in verse 30, "experiencing the same conflict," there's the same word. The same struggle, the same agony which you saw in me and now here to be in me. At this time, Paul was imprisoned in Rome as well, in an earlier imprisonment than when he wrote Second Timothy. He says, "You are going to experience agony and struggle and conflicts." We certainly err when we tell new converts that if they accept Christ, their life is going to be alright from then on. Certainly in some respects that is true. But in another respect it is not true because when one accepts Jesus Christ, he begins to walk then counter to the direction of the world and he places himself in the enemy's camp as far as Satan is then concerned and the battle is on. That is why the apostle says, again to his beloved son in the First Timothy, chapter 1 and verse 18, "This command I entrust to you Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might fight the good fight." And then again in chapter 6 and verse 12 of this same book, he says, "Fight the good fight of faith. All my friend do not be naive about the Christian life. Do not expect that it is going to go well every day that you are out there in the work world. Do not expect that all people are going to stand up and applaud when you attempt to live for Jesus Christ. Indeed, expect just the opposite. Do not expect them to understand, to appreciate or to love you. The Christian life is a battlefield. This last week I saw a shepherd boy on one of the news programs. This boy was shepherding some sheep in his homeland of Afghanistan when he picked up what looked like a stone but was actually a butterfly bomb which has been dropped by the Russians, these bombs have been strewn throughout the hills of Afghanistan. They look innocent enough that when one picks them up they explode in the hand. They are not intended to kill, only to seriously mane, and they worked well in the shepherd boy as his hand was swollen and gashed, and he walked ten days to find a doctor to give him some treatment. It was an awful injury. Do not think that as you walk out there in the world that everything is wonderful and that there is no battle. Quite the opposite. There are hidden devices out there of the enemy to trip you up, to maim you, to injure you, to make you ineffective in your Christian walk. There are some Christians who are skipping through life, naively not recognizing that the world is an enemy, we are not in a game. The world is an enemy, and while we love the world for Christ's sake, even as God has loved the world and given his son, at the same time he recognized that that world system which holds in his capture the world population, that world system is our enemy and we are at war. That is an important perspective to gain on life, if you are going to live wisely. But then the apostle sees life also as an athlete. He says, "The course I have finished," or literally, "the foot race I have completed." He says, "I have arrived at the goal, earlier as the apostle spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, he used a similar phrase, except there of course he put it differently because he was still quite involved in ministry. He says, "I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself in order that I may finish my foot race, my course." But now as he writes this letter to Timothy, he has finished that course. His foot race is over. The apostle sees life here as a contest. You see, competition invigorates and stimulates us. Only don't misunderstand him. He is not saying that you and I are in a contest against other people in our Christian walk. That is not the idea. Rather we are in a contest to accomplish the will of God for our own lives. And I cannot know personal fulfillment unless we know the will of God in our lives. And the apostle is saying here, "I have fought, I rather I have run the foot race. I have arrived at the goal. I have experienced the course laid out for me by the will of God." The writer to Hebrews puts it just a little differently, and yet certainly within the same metaphor, when he says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us," that is those in chapter 11 who live by faith, "let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Putting our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, what does he mean fixing our eyes on Jesus? Where is Jesus? Jesus is standing at the goal line. He is down there where we are to finish, where the foot race ends. And he says, "I fix my eyes on him down there, and I run with endurance, and I lay aside the weights, and the sins which encumber so that I can run successfully." Do you see life that way? Are you walking in the will of God for you? Are you on the course? Are your eyes fixed on Jesus at the end of your race? And finally, he sees life from the standpoint of a steward. He says, "The faith I am keeping," he actually changes the tense here. He says, "I am keeping it." I mean, even to this point, he's doing that. He is remaining faithful and true to the faith, that is the truth, about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, "I see life as a steward. I have been given a responsibility to fulfill," and he says, "I am doing that." It's as though he sees life as a contract between himself and his Lord. And that contract calls for him, Paul, to do certain things, including preserving, keeping, guarding the faith, keeping it free from apostasy and from error. And he says, "I have kept, I am keeping the faith." Do you see life as a stewardship? Do you see the responsibilities God has given to you, the spiritual gifts he's entrusted to you, and are you in light of that, then, being a faithful steward? If you and I are going to live wisely, we have to discern life's true nature. It's not an opportunity to live as we please, to accumulate personal wealth or fame or power. It is a conflict in which we are assigned as soldiers in God's army. It is a contest in which we are the participants and can gain eternal awards to glorify Christ. It is a contract in which we are charged stewards with a definite responsibility to keep and spiritual abilities to develop and to invest. It is not a few meaningless years that are wrapped up between two dates on a gravestone. But life is a span of time during which we can live for the glory of God and make a difference in the lives of others. And in another sense, it is a period of preparation for our eternal destiny. So if you and I are going to live wisely, as I trust we want to do in coming into the new year, let's learn this lesson from Paul and discern what life really is all about. And then finally we see this insight from Paul's transparency in verse 8. He says, "In the future there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing." Here he gives us the insight of his expectation. And the lesson is this, that why is living means focusing on the future. Now there are several options that people can take at this point. We can focus, for example, on nothing and live life. And in doing that we waste it. We drift through it without purpose and consequently without fulfillment. We can focus on the past, but that too is a waste. It results in our living in a dream world wishing for the good old days, which we're probably not so good anyway. We can focus on the present, but it seems to me that leads to short-sighted decisions. It makes us a part of the now generation looking for quick schemes to be happy, get rich and have fun, living as though there's no tomorrow. Or we can focus on the future as it seems to me the apostle is doing. Now that can be dangerous too, if one doesn't adequately deal with the present. It seems to me that the best of the options is to live in the present with a focus on the future. Now what did Paul see in his future? Well he says in the future something's going to happen. He said there's a day, what day is it, a particular day, the day of the rapture, the day when he has to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. He says in that day, "The Lord will award me." In other words, the Lord would examine his life how wisely he had lived and would give him commensurate reward. Wise living folks involves the long distance vision and perspective on life's opportunities, its problems, its disappointments and its successes. If I focus on the disappointment of today without taking in mind the longer focus of things that I'm going to be miserable, if I live only in the success of the moment and revel in it without taking the longer distant view that I'm going to waste that opportunity of success. I'd like you again to turn into the book of Hebrews, this time to chapter 11. As we read through just some verses in the chapter, I want you to keep in mind what we're talking about, the wise living means focusing on the future, and notice how many of these people listed in Hebrews 11 did exactly that. We'll begin in verse 7 with Noah, "By faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared in ark." What did they do? He looked into the future to see what was coming and in light of that judgment, he did what God told him to do, prepared the ark. Verse 8, "By faith Abraham when he was called obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive, for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, where he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Down to verse 13, "All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them, and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own, and indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared the city for them." Now what about these patriarchs that are mentioned the previous verses? They died without receiving, tangibly what they had been promised. Abraham had been given that land, but he lived there like an exile, not the owner. He lived in tents, not a house, but what about Abraham? He had the long distance vision. He looked into the future. He saw the fulfillment of the promises, and therefore God was not ashamed to be called his God because he had that vision. He was focused on the future. Going down to verse 20, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding what, things to come." Do you see Isaac with that same focus? Verse 22, "By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel." What exodus, the one to happen hundreds of years later, and he gave orders concerning his bones. What about his bones? He said, "Don't you leave them in Egypt." He says, "I want you to take me up there and bury me in Cain, and why? Because he knew in the future that was going to be the place of blessing." You see he was focused on the future when he died. Going down to verse 24, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin." He wasn't focused on what he could have just then, the now generation, considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. And finally down to verse 35, "Women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection." So what about those who were tortured and died in that torture? When they could have been released, if only they would have recanted, and tomorrow night in the film of John Huss, you will see an example of a man who lived 600 years ago, and was faithful even at the stake where he was burned to death, and his same thing was in mind he could have recanted, been released, but rather he looked to the future and had the same thought in mind as did these, he might obtain a better resurrection. Ladies and gentlemen, I think the point is clear that if you and I are going to live wisely, it means that we live in the present for sure, but our focus is the future. The future, we can say it a different way. We live in the present, and we live by faith. For living by faith means focusing on the promises of God and the future. Apostle Paul says, "I'm looking forward to that." That was his expectation. He expected a Stephanos of righteousness. That was a victor's crown, a garland of pine or wild olive which was placed upon the heads of those who won the Greek games. Paul uses that figure and he says, "I'm going to receive a crown of righteousness because I have expected the coming of Christ and have lived focused on the future. Our suffering and sacrifice, our hard work, our faithfulness, the reproach that we may bear, all of that is worthwhile because we focus on the future by faith. That's wise living." Now if in fact you desire to live wisely and not as a fool, learn the lessons that the Apostle shares with us from his perspective on life. What changes do you need to affect in your life as you enter 1985? I care not how you may have lived the past, that's in the past. You can't be focused on that. If there have been accomplishments in the past, praise God. If there have been failures in the past, then thank God, dear past those that recognize that tomorrow is here. It is a new page for you and now today is the opportunity for you to say, "I am going to live wisely. I may have a day, I may have twenty years, I may have fifty years, but whatever I have in the will of God, I want to live it as best I can, I want to live wisely." Now what do you need to do to make that true? What changes do you need to affect in the decisions that you make and the things that you do, the habits that you have, the way that you give, in the company you keep, in your commitments, what changes do you need to affect to live wisely in 1985? Let's bow together. Father, we today would learn from the Apostle Paul, and I trust that we will not be hearers of his counsel but doers of it, that we might be those who would live wisely as we enter the New Year, and whatever changes need to be made, whatever decisions need to be made, I pray that you will show those to us right now in the sanctuary of our own hearts. And may we have the humility and the faith and the obedience to follow through with what you say to us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. the Lord.