The Biggest Day

Well, folks, let me encourage you to grab a Bible if you have one,

or maybe there's one round about you, and turn to the letter of 1 Timothy

as we finish it this morning as a church.

It's on page 1194 of your pew Bibles.

So if you want to grab one of them, that would be fantastic.

But why don't we just pray as we come to God's words today.

Heavenly Father, it's our prayer that you would open our eyes

to behold wondrous things in your law, in your word.

Father, what we see not, would you help us see?

What we have not, you would give us, and what we are not, you would make us.

Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's help now in Jesus' wonderful name.

Amen.

Well, 1 Timothy chapter 6, in it verse 11.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

As you're turning there, let me ask you,

what is the biggest date that's coming up on the horizon of your life?

Have a think about it.

What's the biggest date that's coming up on the horizon of your life?

Remember one of our girls, when she was coming up for her second birthday,

every day the week before, she'd ask me,

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, is it my birthday today?

How many more days to my birthday?

And I would say, it's five days, sweetheart.

The next day, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, how many more days to my birthday?

Four days, sweetheart.

Next day, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, how many more days to my birthday?

Three days to your birthday.

And by the time we'd reached two days, it was fever pitch in our house.

We could hear on the monitor her singing happy birthday to herself through the monitor.

And after a while, we heard a pfft noise.

Freaked us out for a little bit.

Before a bit of investigation work, we realized she was practicing blowing out her candles.

But we all do it, don't we?

We orientate our lives around the biggest dates that are on the horizon of our lives, right?

Moving house, big day.

Big day.

Starting a new term at school or uni.

Big day.

Beginning a new job.

Big day.

The day that you retire.

Big day.

The day that you get married.

If you get married, big day.

Those days that are in our minds and we think about them for ages a long way off.

We cannot stop thinking about them.

And they naturally shape how we live our lives in the present.

And here's the thing that I think God would say to each one of us here today.

Whether you would call yourself a Christian, whether you would say you don't believe in this Jesus.

Whoever you are here today, here is the challenge that this passage makes to each and every one of us.

Is that there's one day that's coming for all of us.

One day that should be the biggest day on every single one of our radars.

And the greatest day which all the other days in our lives fall behind.

So we're going to read this passage now.

And I want you to think about, I want you to see if you can spot the day that Paul, who's writing this letter,

is telling Timothy to think about.

So we're in at verse 11.

We're just going to finish the letter this morning.

And what a passage for Joe on his baptism day.

That's why we picked it.

I thought it would be really great to think about.

So Paul writes this,

But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the sight of God who gives life to everything and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,

I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

which God will bring about in his own time.

God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and the Lord and Lord of lords,

who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light,

whom no one has ever seen or can see,

to him be honour and might forever.

Amen.

Command those who are rich in this present world,

not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth,

which is so uncertain,

but to put their hope in God,

who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good,

to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.

In this way,

they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age,

so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Timothy,

guard what has been entrusted to your care.

Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,

which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.

Grace be with you all.

Amen.

I'm sure God will bless the reading of his word.

So I wonder if you got the day.

Did you get the day?

Now here is,

speak to anybody who's a Christian,

and here is what they will tell you is true,

that they have come to see.

That the Bible,

this is what they've come to see.

The Bible is a story that makes sense of life.

It's God's word.

That's what we believe about the Bible.

It's the word of the God who created everything.

It's the story that makes sense of life,

because it is the story of the God who is and who gives life.

You see,

the Bible tells the story of this gloriously good God who created the world.

This God didn't create the world out of something.

This God created the world out of nothing.

The entire cosmos,

the work of his loving and his powerful word.

And as the pinnacle of creation,

God made human beings.

Every single human being,

men and women,

made in his image.

And why did he make them?

He made them to live in relationship with him

as creature,

loves and enjoys and worships the creator.

It's the reason,

whoever you are here today,

it's the reason that God created you.

It's the reason that you exist.

You have been bestowed with honor and glory,

because you are made in his image.

No matter how you are feeling here today,

that is true,

the Bible says.

And God gives Adam and Eve right there,

the task of,

of stewarding and cultivating and filling.

The world which God had made all for his glory.

As the Bible story goes on,

Eve makes the decision to eat the apple,

the fruit that God told Adam and Eve not to eat,

to show their love for him.

And sin enters the world.

All of a sudden in the Bible story,

you come across words like death,

and strife,

and anger,

and murder.

Words that weren't there in the opening two chapters

of the Bible,

because they weren't in the human heart.

And whether it's BC or whether it's AD,

we know that these words,

sin and its ripple effects in each of our lives,

in our world,

these words describe our world,

don't they?

Because each of us have followed Adam and Eve's lead

in rebelling against our creator.

It's the essence of sin.

Remember,

growing up,

this is how they taught us how to remember it.

Our Sunday school teachers,

sorry God,

I'm in charge,

no to your rules.

It's the heart of it,

isn't it?

It's this rebellion that we have,

that we don't want God,

we want to be on the throne of our lives.

But right there,

as sin enters the Bible story,

God makes a promise

that he is going to act

to save us from sin's eternal consequences,

culminating in Jesus.

Emmanuel,

that name that just means God with us,

his first appearing at Christmas time.

We're going to start thinking about it.

In fact,

today's the first day of Advent,

isn't it?

Jesus came,

Jesus lived,

Jesus loved perfectly,

Jesus died on the cross.

He took the punishment that we deserve on himself,

the eternal separation and punishment from God

that we all deserve by very nature,

and that hangs over us,

out with Jesus.

Jesus makes it his own,

meaning that all those who put their faith in him

can know forgiveness

and the joy of being right with our creator.

And on the third day,

Jesus rises from the dead.

Jesus ascends to heaven.

That's where he is right now.

What is he doing?

He's not twiddling his thumbs,

if I can put it like that reverently.

What is he doing?

He is praying for his people.

No matter how you're doing today,

if your faith is in him,

he is right there in the place of all power,

interceding for you,

pleading your name,

right there before God the Father.

And the Holy Spirit descends,

takes up residence in the hearts of believers,

and ushers in this age of mission

in which we are now living,

the age in which we are commanded

commanded by the power of the Spirit

to take the message of the risen Jesus,

who he is,

what he's done,

and what is coming,

take that message to the ends of the earth

so that every human being

would have the opportunity

to respond to who Jesus is

and have life in his name.

And so the last thing to happen in the story

is that Jesus will return.

And he will settle everyone's destinies

according to how they have responded to him.

Right at the end of the Bible story,

he will destroy death.

He will wipe away tears.

He will usher in this new creation

where he rules as king

in God's kingdom of light.

And everything we've seen

in our news screens this week,

and we're going to be praying for this tonight,

particularly thinking about those

who are trying to make dangerous crossings

at the minute,

those who are in our world

who are suffering incredibly,

this Jesus will usher in a kingdom

where sin and death are no more.

A place where, as Sam said to Frodo,

a place where everything sad

will come untrue.

And that's the biggest day.

Did you get it in the reading?

That's the biggest day

that God is telling us

that every single one of us

should be orientating our lives around.

And it's the day that Paul,

in this passage today,

is telling Timothy,

this young church leader in Ephesus,

he's telling him to live in light of.

What he calls verse 14,

the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, I don't know,

this is what I was thinking about this week.

What is Paul trying to do?

Something I learned this week,

I don't know if you've ever seen a horse race.

Last time you saw a horse race.

But if you have,

you'll know what is common for jockeys to do

is to put blinkers on the sides

of the eyes of the horse.

Never knew this was a thing

until I looked it up this week.

Blinkers, and they're called blinkers,

blinkers on the side of the horse's eyes.

What's the thinking behind it?

The thinking behind it

is they want to cut out everything

that's going to distract the horse.

And focus it solely on what's ahead.

And I think that's exactly what Paul is doing here

in this passage.

Got to focus on what's ahead.

And here's the challenge for all of us, I think.

The challenge is,

are we living in light of this king's return?

Are we living our lives

in the knowledge that Jesus one day is coming back?

And so in the time we have remaining,

this will just be 10 or so minutes,

I just want this passage, God and his word,

to ask us two questions about our lives.

And here's the first question.

The question is,

are we pursuing the right things?

Are we pursuing the right things?

If you come with me to verse 11,

Timothy is told, man of God,

you are to flee from all this.

Now, all this is the envy,

the controversies,

the malicious talk,

the suspicions between people,

the greediness,

the discontent,

all the stuff that Paul has listed just before

at verse four.

This is what's going on,

the false teachers who are in Ephesus.

This is the byproduct of their lives.

This is what is happening.

And Timothy has got to flee from all that.

Not get caught up in it.

He's not to fight fire with fire.

I love that,

that all this stuff's going on in the background.

And Paul doesn't say,

see if you,

how about if there's a smear campaign going on

in the church and in the city,

how about you start your own little smear campaign

to see if you can out them?

He doesn't say that, does he?

He's not to fight fire with fire.

This is not how the kingdom of God works.

This is not what it is to follow Jesus.

The answer,

the commission that Timothy has given

to guard the truth,

to stand for the truth of the gospel,

to put this church back in order

so that it is relationally working.

The armor that Timothy has to put on,

the weapons that he brings to the fight

are righteousness

and godliness

and faith

and love,

endurance

and gentleness.

The way of the kingdom of God

is the polar opposite

to the way of the kingdom of the world.

Do you see that?

When was the last time you heard about

someone going in to fight with gentleness?

But that's exactly how it works

in the kingdom of God.

This is how grace works.

And as we look at the list of these things,

friends, we need to ask ourselves,

are we pursuing

these things?

Are we growing

in godliness?

Are we pursuing

endurance?

Why does Timothy need to be told to endure?

Because this is going to be tough

and he's got to go the distance.

Are we growing in these things?

I had heard somebody recently say

that the things from verse 4,

the envy and strife,

the malicious talk,

they're the things

that will make the news feeds

on our phones,

won't they?

But we've got to understand

that gentleness and godliness,

those are the things

that are going to pop up,

if I can put it like this,

on the news feed of heaven.

Listen,

this is the fruit of the spirit.

You don't want to see more of it

in your life?

I find gentle people

the most encouraging people

to be around,

people who just ooze

Jesus.

And it raises the question,

doesn't it,

how do we run after these things?

How do you run after gentleness?

How does that work?

I presume that it works

as you run after these things,

as you pursue,

as we pursue Jesus.

Grow as we spend time

each day in our Bibles,

as we grow in the knowledge

of who our God is,

as we care about the truth,

as we care and love one another,

as we spend time in prayer.

And we must understand

there's a difference

between legalism and discipline.

Legalism,

just doing these things

because we want to put on the show,

we think it's the right thing to do,

but as of in and of themselves,

they are the kind of end goal,

if you like.

But discipline says,

I do these things

because I want to get

to know God more

and who he is.

And that's worth

the best of my attention.

See, there's a difference

between legalism and discipline.

Timothy is to run after these things.

And so Paul says,

fight the good fight of the faith,

as in this is going to be hard.

I love it that you never hear

Jesus talking in the Gospels

as if following him

is going to be easy.

And I remember recently,

or was it an email I got?

I can't remember.

The email just said,

super fast broadband

coming to your area.

And I thought,

great, join the party.

Let's go.

It said on the email,

it said,

join the super fast revolution

for as little as $15.99 a month.

And that's a pretty good deal,

$15.99 a month.

And then you notice

the little asterisk

next to the $15.99,

don't you?

And you kind of follow

the rabbit trail down

where it goes,

and you follow it down

and it says,

asterisk,

in addition to the line rental

of $15.99 a month.

You think,

all right,

so it's not actually $15.99 a month.

What I love about Jesus

is that when he talks

about what it is to follow him,

there are no asterisks.

He never hides the small print.

He talks about the narrow way.

He talks about denying self.

He talks about taking up cross.

He talks about his disciples

being sent out like lambs

in the midst of wolves.

It's going to be hard

to follow Jesus.

But in the same way

that Jesus made the good confession

in front of Pontius Pilate,

Timothy,

this is going to be hard,

but verse 15,

you have got to fight

the same fight of the faith

because the,

why did Jesus do that?

What's the Bible say?

For the glory that was set before him,

he endured the cross.

In other words,

he had the eye on who God is

and what was ahead of him.

Timothy used to do exactly the same.

And that's why,

Joe,

this is such a good passage

for you this morning.

O man of God,

pursue the things

of the kingdom of heaven.

You know,

Timothy is reminded,

verse 12,

of his public confession

of his love for Jesus

and his desire to follow him

that he made

in the sight of many witnesses.

You read around it,

it's just very likely

that this would have just been

his baptism

that Paul's talking about here.

The public confession

that Timothy made.

And it's as if Paul is saying

that that love for Jesus,

that desire to run hard after him

that was so evident on that day,

that came from your lips,

that was so clear

for everyone to see.

Don't drop the pace

as life goes on.

Don't get distracted

by all the things

that come at you.

Do you know what?

My greatest fear in life

is that I will just go cold

in my love for Jesus.

Just get bogged down

by the cares and worries

of just get distracted.

And Paul says,

keep your eye on what's ahead.

Don't drop the pace,

up the pace.

Don't grow cold.

Fan into flame

your love for him

and your desire to serve him.

And take hold

of the eternal life

which is ahead of you

in Christ Jesus.

You know,

I read a stat this week

that we take hold

of our phone

something like 2,617 times.

Have you ever done it?

Great thing I tried

to do this week

was take a little post-it note

and put it on the top

of my phone

covering the camera

that just said eternal life.

Every time I picked up my phone,

take hold of the eternal life.

Are we taking hold

of the eternal life?

That's what's ahead of us.

Friends,

are we pursuing

the right things?

And really quickly,

secondly,

are we investing

in the right places?

Because many in this church

in Ephesus

were being dazzled

by money,

just being distracted

by it.

And pay careful attention

to the text.

It's not having the money

that's the issue.

It's the hope

that people are putting in it

that's the issue.

And Paul says so lovingly,

you've got to love

the people in your church family

by helping them see

that it's so uncertain.

That's the word he uses,

uncertain.

I mean,

know the truth of that,

don't we?

In our lives right now,

energy companies

disappearing overnight.

Mine just went.

Just went.

Petrol prices

going up and down.

I remember the days

when it was 80 pence

to fill up your car.

Now it's what,

142?

I don't know what it is.

Petrol prices up and down.

Found myself walking

along Princes Street

the other day.

Couldn't believe

the number of stores

which are boarded up.

It's so uncertain.

And that's what he's saying.

To build your life on money,

to put your hope in it,

you've got to understand

it is to build your life

on a pack of cards.

But what is God calling

the Christian to know?

That to build your life

on God and who he is,

is a firm foundation

of your life.

Firm foundation

of your life.

Okay,

so many people,

we did this this week,

came to Friday night

with those storms.

We had to run out

to the garden

and pin the trampoline

to the ground.

Hold it down,

firm foundation.

And that's what he's saying.

Is your life

pinned on something

that it's going to hold

when the storms

come against it?

And he's saying,

put your hope in God.

And this God

richly provides.

And this God

provides everything

for our enjoyment.

Do you see it?

I take it that's a direct shot

at the false teachers

in Ephesus

who are claiming otherwise.

No, no, no.

Paul is saying,

this is no stingy God.

He didn't create the world

in black and white.

He created it in color.

He didn't create

one type of flower

or food or star.

He created many

because this is the God.

He is the source

of all true joy.

And the call is to use

what he has given us

and invest it,

verse 19,

in the coming age.

What does that mean?

It just means invest it

in the gospel.

Invest it in the work

of Jesus.

And what would our

bank balances show

as the primary places

where we're investing?

What would our diaries say

about the things

that are most important

to us?

Think about it.

Just what do you have?

What has God entrusted

to you?

What opportunities

are in front of you?

Who can you serve?

What can you do?

Do you not long

that Brunswick

would be a community

that's described here

that would be rich

in good deeds?

That we'd be known

in our community here

as a people

who are generous

and willing to share.

And that generosity

just comes,

doesn't it,

from the heart

of our generous God.

Who he is,

what he's done

in sending his son

for us.

And so are we investing

in the right places?

And just as we come

into land today,

you know,

I came across

a discussion thread

this week

on Quora.com.

And the question

simply said,

what are the best words

that you've heard

in life?

What are the best words

that you could hope

to hear in life?

The answer's from people,

I'm sure you can understand them.

I'm proud of you.

You're hired.

I love you.

You can do it.

Words full of meaning.

Life is full of wonderful words,

but I wonder

what you would answer.

In the Bible,

for the Christian,

Jesus has given us

much greater words

to live for.

Much greater words

to live for.

We get them at the end

of Matthew's Gospel.

Jesus is telling this parable

to his disciples,

teaching them

how they should live

in light of his return.

And he tells this parable

about some servants

and about how their master

gave them stuff

to invest

while he went away

on business.

And he returns

and he finds out

that one servant

has just squandered

what his master

has given him.

He's hid it in a hole.

He hasn't done anything

with it.

But the other two

invest it really well.

And when the master returns,

they're greeted

with those words,

well done,

good and faithful servant.

Come and enter

your master's joy.

Who is the master?

This God,

the blessed and only ruler

as he's described here,

the King of kings,

the Lord of lords,

the God who is immortal,

the God who dwells

in unapproachable light,

yet the God who in Jesus

we can approach

confidently

and know him

as Father.

Jesus says to his disciples,

those are the words

I want you to live for.

Well done,

good and faithful servant.

the best words

on the biggest day.

Folks,

as we close,

are we living

our lives

in light of Jesus'

return?

Let's pray,

shall we?

So Heavenly Father,

I ask that your spirit

would be at work

amongst us now,

Lord.

Father,

we long to be a people

who live for your glory

and I pray for those,

Father,

here today

who perhaps don't know

your son,

the Lord Jesus.

Oh Father,

may today be the day

when they put their trust

and their faith

in him

as their saviour

and their king.

Father,

thank you.

Help us to be mindful

of that day

when Jesus will return.

Father,

may we live our lives

in light of

who he is.

Help us

have those words

in our minds.

Well done,

good and faithful servant.

Father,

thank you that you love us

and we pray these things

in Jesus'

worthy name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.