Sermon Tone Analysis

Whatever it Takes

Gone back to your high school reunion?

Interesting to see how ppl turned out 40 or 50 years later.

Star QB, head cheerleader, soloist in the musical, valedictorian.

These ppl who were highly successful in high school, often times are not so successful as adults.

When things come easy to us early we aren’t so prepared for the hard things that inevitably come along later.

My glory days are long since gone.

I am the has been’s has been.

My highest achievements were on the high school baseball team.

I was fortunate to play w/ some talented guys.

6 of our starting 10 rec’d full ride scholarships, 3 were drafted into professional baseball.

The team was successful. 2 state championships.

Accolades and awards.

I was place-holder.

One of the other guys.

I didn’t get the individual recognition that my teammates got.

Pressure on all of us, just different.

The stars had to perform.

I just had to do my job and let the other guys carry the team.

The stars had the pressure to carry the team.

Perform in a big way.

When I stepped into the batter’s box I had to perform and not hold them back by making a dumb out.

I had to field the ground balls that came to me so they could get where baseball was going to take them.

The season, practice began in late February and it all ended in late May.

For 3 months we had to stay after it.

We had to maintain a high level of performance.

Not just on the baseball field, too.

I had to maintain grades.

I was busier.

We all had to make sacrifices.

We had to make grades first.

We’d get deep into the season and wonder if we could maintain that level of performance.

I had a friend who was in music and drama.

That same spring he was preparing for the spring musical.

We didn’t see much of each other.

Same deal.

They started about the same time baseball did with their practices and when the curtain went up they had to be ready to perform and maintain a high level throughout the season.

My smart friends, senior year, competing for valedictorian.

Same deal.

Sacrifices had to be made b/c they were all competing for that top spot.

We came thru high school when no body got participation trophies.

There was a winner.

Everybody else lost.

Thanks for playing.

That was high school.

At the time, it was everything.

It was stressful and the hardest thing I had ever done.

Then, I grew up and did things ever get harder!

It didn’t matter if it was athletics, music, academics.

Just like it doesn’t matter what your career is/was, parenthood, ministry, marriage, any of life’s big endeavors.

They all require a certain level of ability, self-discipline, sacrifice, endurance, commitment, dedication, motivation, and the courage to try and use whatever is available to you.

Beyond high school, where does the stuff come from to be able to perform, the right actions, the right words, the right attitudes, where does it come from to be able to maintain a high level of performance for an extended time to get the important things done well?

Today, we’re in 2 Timothy ch.2 where Paul is encouraging Timothy and the Christians in Ephesus to stay committed and dedicated to doing the important things even though it’s gotten very hard.

He uses some illustrations we can relate to today and reminds them that the ppl around them need this because life is hard and doing the right things can bring more trouble and struggle into your life.

Based on what Jesus was able to do, we can be confident that if we need it, God will provide it, so we can do it.

Whatever it is that God is calling us to do.

2 Timothy ch.2 starts out w/ 3 commands and 3 illustrations that lay the foundation to what God wants us to get today.

And, Pauls says, God will give each of us our own applications to this lesson as we reflect on what God’s Word says here.

Reflection

2 Timothy 2:1-

There are 3 commands followed by 3 illustrations.

The 1st command: Be Strong!

Accessing the power of God is a pre-requisite to performing the next 2 commands.

It’s passive in its construction.

IOW, what Paul means is “surrender yourself to God’s power.”

Don’t try this on your own, you’ll fail.

Seek the power that God makes available to you t/b able to do what you need to do.

There is a connection between power and grace.

Paul’s emphasis is on the gracious nature of God.

That is, God is gracious, undeservingly generous, to not shut off the power supply every time we mess it up.

Which, God has every right to do, but He doesn’t.

We come off one really bad episode in our lives and the power to be able to do the next big thing right is still there.

“in Christ Jesus.”

Faith in Who He is and a close walk w/ Him is where the power and grace are found.

The general rule is, a believer who is in close fellowship w/ Christ most all the time, w/ the occasional mess up in fits of selfishness will not cause God to cut off the power supply.

Therefore, we will always have the strength available to us to be strong when God calls us to hard things.

The 2nd command: Entrust what you’ve learned about God to reliable people.

Share what you’ve learned.

Talk about your experiences w/ the power of God to ppl who need the power of God.

One main reason why I taught thru the names of God this summer so we would all come to know God better and know what to expect of HIm.

What does He promise us and what hasn’t he promised that we might inappropriately expect of Him anyway?

I entrust them to you.

You, in turn can entrust them to those who weren’t here but who need to know they may be expecting the wrong things from God.

As these messages get out, passed on from believer to believer, eventually, those who don’t know Jesus will hear and hopefully have a better idea of what God will do for them if they would believe and receive Jesus as their Savior.

Paul’s emphasis here is more about the reliable ppl than it is about entrusting anything to them.

So, yes, he wrote this to Timothy, the pastor.

And, fully expected him to read it to the church.

They would know what was expected of them.

Command 2b is: be reliable.

Is your car reliable?

It has to work and do what you expect it to do when you need it to do it.

Nothing messes my day up more than going out to start my car in the morning and have it not start.

Sara was driving up from the valley a couple of weeks ago and got to the top of plateau about 10 mi south of here and all kinds of bells and buzzers were going off in her car that her transmission was over-heating.

Apparently, cruise control on a very hot day w/ a smaller engine can cause the transmission to overheat.

She pulls over and calls me.

Talk about messing my day up.

I’m worried about my wife making it home and what will the eventual repair cost me.

I need for my wife to have a reliable car for when she drives to the valley to see our kids or to Tucson to visit her parents.

We need t/b able to rely on women’s ministry leadership team to do things like their annual retreat, monthly fellowship gatherings, and weekly bible study.

We need t/b able to rely on the men to do similarly.