5.17.26
Years ago, I heard AF Chief of Staff, General Mosely give a speech he called: Heritage to Horizon
He walked us through a hundred years of history regarding the men who flew, fought, led our nation’s Air Force…he spoke of how they took risks, innovated, sacrificed, were maligned, misunderstood, suffered…and yet they had a larger vision that allowed them to rise above it all.
Their efforts led to great blessings for our nation and other nations of the world…during times of threats and wars.
I was inspired and my mind was filled with images of these men living for purposes larger than themselves and the lengths to which they were willing to go for those purposes.
General Mosely was himself fired from his position as the chief of the Air Force…largely because his vision was at odds with those in authority over him.
But I could not help but think, as I heard him speak, of the fact that if these great leaders who had sacrificed so much…
…only lived for the larger secular purposes of our nation and the nations…security, freedom, prosperity…they had their sights set too low.
The vision was large, but not near large enough.
Of course, the purposes of security, and freedom and prosperity are good and worthy of full life devotion and sacrifice…but they are not near as large as the vision and the calling that God has given his church.
I’ve read biographies of military leaders who gave their all for great causes and I’ve read books of political and business leaders who built companies, and railroads, and empires…
Many of them came to the end of their lives and asked, “What was all that really for, what did I accomplish for all that sacrifice?”
These men had great vision… some of them world-wide and hundred-year visions…a vision to build railways that spanned the continent, and rockets that would go the moon.
But they often ended their lives in disillusionment…what was it all really for?
Because these are still too small a vision and too short a time horizon
We have purposes that go to the ends of the earth and beyond and to the ends of time and beyond.
This is not hyperbole; it is the truth of the gospel.
It can feel like hyperbole, exaggeration, unreality…when we sit here in this room, on yet another Sunday in Kansas…then go out into jobs, and we have yards to mow, and meals to cook and dishes to wash and diapers to change.
We have sick relatives and we have pain in our bodies, and we have to continually deal with relational issues.
It doesn’t seem like we are living some epic end of earth ends of time…vision.
Maybe the ones who go overseas do…the One Linkers, our overseas workers…they get to live the epic vision…at least for a summer
But no… truth is their lives are mostly going to be mundane, very un-epic.
On occasion God breaks through in unusual ways…like our team in Central Asia saw happen, or our friend who received a physical reprieve (all healings are reprieves, we all die)
But the team in Central Asia…they got sick, sore feet, lots of unspectacular moments.
All of life, even for the world renowned, the people who make history… is mostly mundane…great military campaigns in history…mostly involved boredom… sitting, marching, waiting, training, dying
Great empire builders…most of their lives were non-epic…mostly boring stuff
I’ve watched a biography of Jerry West, an NBA hero of my youth, who lost in the finals 8 times before finally winning.
In an interview over 50 years later, just months before his death, when asked about how it felt to finally win he said, “I thought to myself, is this it?”
We have to train to see the epic in the mundane…we must not be lulled to sleep by normal days or have our vision dimmed by suffering and setbacks.
We come together week after week…to train for faithfulness…to renew a vision that is large enough for our whole lives and beyond.
Paul is writing Timothy from his death cell…he will not survive this imprisonment.
His epic journeys around the empire are over and now he spends his days in chains.
Imagine Paul, sitting in the dirt of a 1st Century Roman jail…writing Timothy about a real “heritage to horizon” challenge.
Paul isn’t wondering if it was all worth it…he knows that it is…his conviction is not diminishing it is growing stronger as he nears the end.
I talk to people almost every week, including this past week…on two ends of the spectrum.
Young men who are struggling to find a vision large enough to propel them into the future, and then the old men who are struggling because they gave their lives for too small of a vision and now they have regrets…that’s it? they ask
I hope and I pray that we will give our lives for a vision that is big enough to carry us to the end without regret or without diminishing passion.
In 1 Timothy 1:13 Paul gives Timothy a heritage to horizon challenge…then some real time examples of men who had failed to be faithful and one man who had been faithful.
Then in Chapter 2 (remember, Paul didn’t have chapters or verses in his letter), he repeats the heritage to horizon theme with two charges and three examples.
I’ll read the entire passage, 2 Tim. 1:13 to 2:7, then we will zero in on the two charges and three examples.
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— 18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. 2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Did you see the Heritage to Horizon challenge?
Heritage:
1:13 Follow the pattern of sound words (sound words : the gospel and its application) that you heard from me.
2:2 The things you heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses
Horizon
1:14 By the Holy Spirit’s indwelling power, guard the good deposit entrusted to you…stay faithful to the end.
2:2 Entrust to faithful men, who be able to teach others
Then in between, those two heritage to horizon visions, Paul talks about a couple of guys, that they both knew who had not been faithful.
Then, one guy who had been faithful…he had not been ashamed.
Last week: Paul told Timothy don’t be ashamed of Jesus or of me in these chains, because I am not ashamed.
Here, he writes, “Timothy, consider Onesiphorus…because he was not ashamed.”
Everyone else turned away…but not him.
Prisoners like Paul relied on others to feed and clothe them…this guy stepped up and what did it look like?
Pretty mundane stuff…bringing a prisoner some food and clothes.
He was from Turkey(Ephesus) and he had traveled to Rome…a long and tedious trip…then he had to locate Paul, find somewhere to stay, locate food.
We read about him here in Wichita a couple of thousand years later…because he was faithful in those very small things.
Think of Paul in his cell, not epic…mostly sitting, waiting.
His faithful buddy, scrounging for food in a foreign city, not epic…just a lot of hassle.
But this is how God’s epic vision unfolds in our lives.
Let’s go to Paul’s Two charges and three examples as a part of his heritage to horizon challenge to Timothy and to us.
The two charges are:
Be strong in the grace of Jesus and give your life away for a multi-generational ministry.
The three examples are: Soldier, athlete, and farmer.
1. First Charge: You must be strong in the Grace of Jesus:
In chapter one he wrote: “Guard the deposit, by the Holy Spirit”
*YOU choose to Guard, BY the power of the Spirit.
Here: “Be strong in grace”
Grace is a one-word summary describing God’s unlimited and undeserved power.
It is God’s power to: Enable Timothy to do the work of the ministry, to carry him through dark and difficult times, and ultimately to make his labors fruitful…this is all grace.
We are to be found faithful…but God alone can make our work fruitful.
You and I do not have what it takes to stay faithful through the long, and tedious, and sometimes troubled work of ministry.
But Christ has all you need to be found faithful.
We must train to live faithfully in his grace.
-This is about proactively making hard choices to live faithfully trusting Christ and not ourselves.
This is not a contradiction…be strong/in grace…but it is a difficult balance that we must keep.
In all of Scripture’s required balances, and there are a lot of them, there are always two equal and opposite ways of falling into a ditch.
One ditch here, is self-reliance: “Be strong.”
The other ditch, is passivity: “I’ll wait for God’s grace to show up before I move.”
The balance is “Be strong, in Christ’s power.”
Active faithful trust.
I don’t feel ready or up to this…Okay, is it what I need to do?
Yes? Then I will move into faithful obedience anyway.
We don’t live foolishly; we don’t live fearfully…we live faithfully…be strong in the grace.
Until the mid-90’s the recommended treatment for back pain was largely bed rest.
Now, the treatment is movement, rest for a day or two, but movement is medicine.
My wife had terrible back pain, in the early 90’s…it was a very difficult time for us.
She took the recommended advice, and it made things much worse.
Eventually, she went against the then medical norm, and she had to move through more pain to get her life back.
If you sit in a chair and wait until your back feels better before you move, you will never get out of the chair.
There is a correlation in this physical reality to a spiritual reality.
Be strong in the Grace that is in Christ.
If you wait for God to pour his grace into you and strengthen you BEORE you take faithful and faith-filled action…you will never move.
Move into faithfulness and live by faith and as you do, you will experience Christ’s empowering grace in your life.
It’s not…
“God tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll decide if I think I can do it.”
No…move into faithfulness, and there you will experience grace.
This is not about a blind and irrational “leap of faith”…we don’t jump into dark places, that is dumb.
This is about looking at Christ, knowing his word…and then moving in obedience whether we feel up to the task or not.
First charge: Be strong in Christ’s grace
Second charge:
2. Be faithful to invest your life in a multi-generational ministry
*I want to remind you that even though Paul is writing to a pastor named Timothy.
That what pastors are to lead in, all of the church are to follow in.
These are not instructions for a few elite Christians; they are marching orders for his church as a whole.
“The things I taught (entrusted to you), verified by many others, you must entrust to faithful men, who will then be able to teach others.”
This is not about mere information transfer…brain on brain…it is about life-on-life gospel transformation.
-Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men, faithful men to others…multi-generations of single story followers of Christ.
We don’t get to just make stuff up…the content of our ministry is the gospel as given to us in Scripture.
We don’t get to be selfish…the focus of our ministry is on the good others…laboring to help others become mature in Christ.
That’s the calling…pastors are to lead in this; the church is to follow that lead.
Train to stay plugged into the power (grace of Christ) in order to be faithful in a lifetime of multi-generational ministry.
This is the heritage to horizon vision that God has called us to.
It is something you can grab hold to if you are 18 and let it shape your life going forward…and it is not too late to grab it at age 88 and let it be how you finish your life.
We have men and women in our church who lead businesses, teach school, are retired, have kids at home, work with their hands…who are living this kind of life.
Please don’t think…”Its fine for people in ministry but not for me.”
The Great Commission is both your great responsibility and your great privilege.
You get to have a life full of purpose.
All that sounds epic and it is…but how it unfolds most often, doesn’t feel epic.
To that point Paul gives three examples to help Timothy and us understand what this Grace empowered, ends of the earth, ends of time ministry will look like.
Three examples, soldier, athlete, farmer
1. Endure hardship like a soldier, whose sole desire is to please his commander.
You will have civilian concerns, all soldiers do…but you must not let them take you from your duties…you are under authority.
This doesn’t mean you prioritize ministry over family…it does mean that Jesus has command authority in all of your life.
Pleasing him is your first priority.
That’s what it means for him to be Lord…he has command authority over every aspect of your life.
Paul has said a lot to Timothy about endurance, suffering, and hardship.
We talked about this at length last week, so I won’t belabor the point.
The epic life will involve hardship.
Soldiers endure hardship because they are under authority, their primary mission is to obey their commander…not to avoid difficulties.
The heart of this soldier illustration is: “God, the answer is yes, now what do you want, and I will do it?”
Years ago I was in the office of the Adjutant General of Kansas, he asked if I needed anything, I told him I was having trouble getting finances for a chaplain training I had planned.
He called out down the hall to his executive officer, Rodney Seaba in order to get him to come help me get what I needed.
Here’s how it went, “Rodney”
“Moving” came the reply.
That’s what this is supposed to look like.
Second example: Athlete
2. Train as an athlete, compete according to the rules: You must do God’s work, God’s way.
There is no reward for the athlete, who cheats, who does things his own way…who doesn’t compete according to the rules.
Timothy you may be tempted to take shortcuts, to do the convenient, to chase theological fads (and there were plenty then as there are now) and to seek to please people…you can’t ever do any of that.
It’s not always easy to discern what it means to “compete according to the rules” in every circumstance…but the starting point for that discernment is a prior commitment to faithfulness to God and to his revealed word.
No end ever justifies an unbiblical means.
In 1993, Faith Metro Church, then located in what is now the Wichita State Metropolitan complex just a mile and half down Oliver had a 10-million-dollar debt.
In 1996 the pastor was convicted of laundering what he believed to be Colombian drug money to pay for his church’s building debts.
In court he asked for leniency because he said he was under pressure to save his church…he went to prison.
I know it’s an extreme example, but the thinking that drives that kind of choice is not uncommon.
And all of us, can be tempted to do the wrong thing for what we are convinced is the right reason.
The heart of this illustration of the athlete is this: “God, I will do your work your way, never my own way.”
“If I see an easier way, a faster way, a more exciting way…but is not your way…I won’t do it…it will never end well if I do.”
Okay, his final illustration.
3. Work hard like the farmer.
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he described the pastor’s work ethic around 29 times.
Effective Ministry is hard work…it is the life of a farmer…sowing for a harvest in the lives of people.
If you have gaps in sowing, Paul wrote elsewhere, you will have gaps in harvesting…you must not become weary in doing good…you will reap a harvest…if you do not give up.
We see that grace and grit balance here again.
-Be strong in the Grace of Christ…be like a hardworking farmer.
Wise farmers pray for rain, pray for a good harvest, and then they thank God when or if it comes…but they don’t pray and ask God to plant the seed for them.
We can and we must rest, but we can never, ever…take a break from faithfulness to Christ and his calling in our lives.
Farming has its seasonal rhythms but there is never a season where the farmer is entirely off.
In chapter four Paul will tell Timothy to “preach the gospel, to be ready in season and out of season.” 2 Tim. 4:2
What he means is that Timothy must remain faithful to his calling to proclaim the gospel when circumstances are favorable and when they are not…when he feels like going out into the fields on nice days and when he doesn’t feel like it on blazing hot days.
The heart of the farmer is: I will trust, and I will work.
What do these three illustrations have in common?
Soldier, athlete, farmer?
All three have clear objectives.
To win in battle (please his commander)
To win the prize (by competing according to the rules)
To win a harvest (by working hard)
All three have a fair amount of grind, tedium to them
Soldiers train, they march, they wait…a lot
Athletes put in a ton of tedious training to prepare for a race.
Ussian Bolt put in about 2,000 hours of training for every second he was on the track when he won his first 100-meter Olympic gold medal.
Farmers work and wait…then work and wait…always working always waiting.
All three have to operate under authority, they don’t get to do things their own way
Soldiers have commanders
Athletes have rules
Farmers have natural laws they must obey
I don’t want to read into this what is not there, but I am trying to do what Paul told Timothy to do…
V. 7. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.
Paul chose these three examples for a reasons.
They are not obscure first century idioms…we all understand, to a degree, soldiers, athletes and farmers.
Bottom line in all this: Our lives are wrought with meaning.
Everything we do matters, everything is filled with purpose…when we live in line with the purposes of God.
Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise and don’t give your life for any lesser purpose than the purposes of God.
Don’t miss the epic in the mundane.
You don’t have to get to the end and say, “That’s it? That all there is?”
You can live with enduring purpose; you can die without regret.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a 1942 essay written by French philosopher Camus that introduces his “philosophy of the Absurd”…that’s his name for it, not mine…though I would agree.
The essay, written when he was 29, reads to me like a young man who believes he has profound and unique thoughts…but he really doesn’t.
We must judge his ideas, because they are false…but I don’t judge the man, I pity him and his empty conclusions
He uses the Greek myth of Sisyphus whose punishment for angering the gods is he has to eternally roll a large stone up a hill only to have it roll back down again.
He begins his essay by warning against physical suicide.
He does that, because it is a rational and not uncommon response to his philosophy, it was and is a real danger for those who embrace it.
He goes to length to explain why we should not kill ourselves even though everything is absurd (life is meaningless)
He also warns against what he calls philosophical suicide, like finding false hope in something like the Christian faith.
So, we are to somehow learn to embrace the absurdity of our existence and the reality of our meaningless lives and deaths…but not to bring about our own death at our own hand.
For Camus, the “absurd” is the collision between our desperate desire for meaning (where does he think that came from?) and the cold, unyielding silence of an impersonal and indifferent universe.
You want and you need purpose…too bad…there is none to be had…none of this matters, none of it.
Now, just embrace the absurd…by finding meaning in yourself and in the struggle.
He ends the book saying, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Come on Camus, that is a stretch…a wretched creature confined to the deepest, darkest part of the underworld…hell.
He is given a task that can never be completed and an existence without any meaning…but “hey, imagine him happy about it.”
I don’t have that much imagination, no one does.
Camus didn’t, because he couldn’t, live consistently with his own worldview…he lived as if he believed in morality and meaning without any reason for those beliefs.
I use him here as an example because I have found that many have come to his conclusion.
Life is absurd…so I must find my own meaning.
The problem is, when life becomes hard, tedious, or near its end.
If you made up your own meaning…you know you made it up.
You know it’s a fabrication…and in that moment, lying to yourself doesn’t work anymore.
Our desire for meaning is not an evolutionary flaw, is a part of us being made in the image of God.
The soldier, the Athlete, the farmer can all feel like Sisyphus…life can feel that way for all us sometimes.
We get up, we brush our teeth, we drive to work, we go home, we sleep…we do it again.
The sun rises and the sun sets, the seasons come and go, years pass by, we get sick, then we die.
But we are not Sisyphus, we are not stuck in meaningless cycles.
The soldier…can please his commander…it’s not impossible and it is a joy to serve.
The athlete can win the prize, and he can compete according to the rules…because he can be strong in the grace.
The hardworking farmer can and will see a harvest…live on life-on-life impact…to the ends of the earth, to the ends of time…if he stays faithful.
Camus has his happy Sisyphus…which we all know is a lie…Sisyphus was miserable.
We have our joyful Paul…who lived and died with gospel purpose.
Because he looked to Christ…who for the joy set before endured the cross.
Life is not absurd…it is filled with purpose
Here is the real heritage to horizon, large enough and long enough to capture our hearts for time and eternity…through the epic and the mundane.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart
Hebrews 12:1-3
Your life in Christ is in fact epic…and it will unfold in mostly mundane ways…in ways that will make you weary and tempt you to lose heart…but you must not…you must run with endurance the race that he has marked out for you.
And you can do this, only if you fix your eyes on Jesus…don’t be fooled by the mundane or the hard.
Don’t miss God’s epic work in and around you in the day of small things.