How much do you find yourself dwelling on your future: what life might look like in 10/ 20 / 50 years; where you’ll be living; what you’ll ideally be doing; who you’ll be doing it with. 

Or maybe more than just dwelling on it: worrying about it.  Or else taking control of it in some way. 

Is that kind of focus on your future a major pre-occupation of your mind? 

• Are you a planner? 
• Are you ambitious? 
• Are you energetic and initiative-taking when it comes to the life of future you? 

That sort of future-gazing is a hazardous thing for a Christian. 

Remember what James says about making plans: 

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.’ (James 4:14).

Are you sure you want to obsess about mapping out every detail of your future? 

Recall what Paul says about ambition for advancement: 

‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition’. (Philippians 2:3)

Do you really want to be setting your sights on being that person, hankering after that life? 

Think back to how the book of Proverbs warns against throwing yourself at some project, and taking the initiative? 

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. (Proverbs 16:32)

Is it really wise to be going all in on this or that direction, that achievement, or whatever?

Loading up your head with all these thoughts about ‘future you’ is a dangerous thing to do for a Christian believer. 

It’s also, however – to some degree at least – an unavoidable thing. In fact, it’s the wise and godly thing to do. Or to put it the other way around, it’s unwise and ungodly not to do it. We simply need to do it with care.

• The same James who laid into people for obsessing over their detailed plans went on to say (just a couple of verses later) 

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (verse 15)

In other words, he’s not saying: ‘don’t make plans’. He’s saying: when you do make plans, don’t build too much on them. Make sure you’re prepared for God to throw them out the window if he sees fit.

• The same Paul who warned against selfish ambition made it clear that he was very happy to pursue spiritual ambition. 

My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard… (See his plans to make for Spain in Romans 15). 

So he does have dreams and aspirations – it’s just they’re not wrapped around his own reputation, but the reputation of Jesus. 

• And the same Proverbs which put those red flashing warning lights around grand initiatives are even more negative about those who just… let life happen to them. Again and again, the sluggard is just taken apart and mocked mercilessly.  

‘How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?’ 

It’s not energy and initiative that’s the problem. It’s impulsiveness and impatience. That’s not the same thing at all.

Thinking about our future – making plans, nurturing ambition, putting some welly into it, taking initiatives – it’s what godly people do. They just do it without thinking of themselves in the spotlight, but of Christ.

A large part of what this Maximise conference is about is to give space for thinking about our futures – it’s an opportunity for us to get in a better place to make godly plans and nurture godly ambitions and seize godly initiatives. And I hope that’s what you’ve found. I hope the mentoring session and other contacts with leaders here have helped with that.

And I trust these times in 2 Timothy – looking at these last words of Paul to his protégé Timothy – have been useful in that. 

As blokes get older and grizzlier, they have a tendency to think more about history and the past. You’ve probably seen that in people you know. (Or else maybe in the mirror.) 

We’ve certainly seen it here in 2 Timothy. 

• Paul harking back to Timothy’s grandma, and his Mum, and Timothy’s ordination day – back in ch1. 
• Some of the trials that Paul has been through – ch2. 

He’s been reopening the history books a bit.

But there’s also a tendency you may have spotted in men of that certain age to concern themselves with the issues of legacy and the future. Again we’ve seen it in Paul: 

• ‘Terrible times are coming’, he’s said, in chapter 3. 
• And that concern is focussed more here in chapter 4. Verse 3: ‘the time will come when…’ Or verse 4: ‘they will…’ 

The future in Ephesus, he’s saying, is precarious. But there is hope. And – here’s where the rubber hits the road – in many respects, that hope is bound up with Timothy. It’s a solid hope, but it does rely on him standing apart from what’s going on around him, and turning what he’s received from Paul into his own life’s work. 

Three times in chapters 3 and 4, we have a little expression repeated. Our English versions translate it differently every time, so it’s easy to miss. It’s the expression: ‘But as for you’. It’s there in 3v10, again in 3v14 and 4v5. 

God will do what God will do, of course. His purposes will stand. The bouncing balls of exponential gospel growth will keep bouncing! 

But… there’s a very real sense in which the future of the gospel in Ephesus, the legacy of Paul there, rests on Timothy…  and on one particular question that’s just kind hanging in the air: will he just blend in and go with the flow. Or will he hear that challenge ‘but as for you’? Will he deliberately, intentionally, consistently make maintaining Paul’s gospel legacy… his own life’s work.

That’s the question hanging there for Timothy in Ephesus. And I wonder if it’s hanging thing for you and me too in Bedford or Norwich or Croydon or Derby or wherever it is. ‘But as for you…’ 

As we look to our futures, will we be those who stand apart?

What might that standing apart involve? 3 things, says Paul. 3 steers from a dying man to the one who must take up the baton and play his part for the next generation.

First, get vocal about your convictions.

The guts of this final chapter, the heart of what’s involved in making Paul’s legacy your life’s work, is there in verse 2. 

‘Preach the word’. 

It’s a call to speak. To communicate. That’s what Timothy is to do. He’s to take the teachings he’s heard from Paul and which have become his own convictions – the ‘good deposit’ as it’s called in chapter 1, the things that Timothy – in 3:14 – has ‘learned and become convinced of’ – to take that and get it out there. Broadcast it. Bring it into the lives of those others around him who desperately need to hear it. 

That is how you do it. How you guard the good deposit. You put it to work.

If someone asks you to look after their car for a while, it’s no good just leaving it locked up in your garage, and just making sure it’s not stolen or damaged. That’s not enough. You’ve got to take it for a drive from time to time. It’s part of the deal. 

(We left our car with some friends while we went to Australia for 4 months. Came home. Battery totally dead. We had to spend £120 on a new one. Why? Because I’d failed to ask them to take it out once in a while! So they hadn’t put it to use. That’s what happens with lack of use. It dies.) 

You don’t guard the guard deposit by locking it up in doctrinal statements, confessions and systematic theologies. That’s not enough. It needs to be used, communicated, spoken, taught, applied to individual lives or real people – or else it dies. 

When is he to get vocal about those convictions? Second part of the verse: ‘be prepared in season and out of season’. That is: at the times you feel like it, or the ministry is going well, or the seed is falling on fertile soil. But also when it’s the last thing you feel like, when things are falling apart, when nobody seems to be responding. 

In season and out of season! 

Ministry has its highs and lows. That’s certainly been my experience. But a low patch is not a free pass to keep our mouths zipped shut. 

That’s the what and the when. 

But how is Timothy to get vocal? What does it look like? Well, effectively it looks like just letting God’s word do what it’s designed to do. You remember yesterday, we saw in 3:16 how Scripture is useful for teaching and rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness. It’s no surprise, then, that Timothy is told simply to correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. It’s very similar language. 

• Some will have wrong thinking that needs to be corrected by the word. 
• Some will have made poor decisions and need to be rebuked by the word. 
• Some will just be tired and pressured and struggling and need to be encouraged by the word. 
• But they all need to hear the word somehow. They need it desperately. Their future depends on it.

And the question to us, I suppose is: do we actually believe that? How serious are we about the world’s need for the the word of God? And if we do say we believe that, are we prepared to put our money where our mouth is, as it were, as we think about our futures?  

Come back to verse 1, and see how Paul introduces his instruction. Feel the tone he’s trying to set here, how he amps up the whole intensity of what he’s saying. 

Verse 1:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² preach the word

It’s one thing to get a WhatsApp message from your brother or your sister saying ‘Ring Mum’. You’d probably put it on your ‘to do’ list for when you’ve got a spare moment. But imagine a follow up message an hour later:

‘Given that Mum carried you in her womb for 9 months, and that her body still bears the scars of birthing you, and that she gave up her beloved career to bring you up, that she’s prayed for you every day of your life and that she won’t be around for ever, and also bearing in mind that she and Dad are just drawing up their wills and deciding what you might or might not inherit… ring Mum’.

It’s a bit different, isn’t it? There’s a rather greater urgency injected into the message! 

And that’s what Paul is doing here I think. Injecting urgency into his message.  

Jesus is coming back. Judgment is coming!

Right now the world is preparing for Donald Trump to come back to the White House after a time in his paradise in Florida. It’s 10 days away and people are braced, because they know the whole world order could change.

Well, this is an even bigger deal. Jesus is coming back from his paradise in heaven. And there’s going to be a reckoning. It’s a matter of life and death for every individual who’s on the planet – or who has been on the planet: the ‘living and the dead’. It’s a matter of life and death. Eternal life and eternal death. People’s destinies hang on their response to God’s call on them. 

So with that in mind, says Paul… 

Preach the word.

So let me ask you the question again. Do you believe that the Word of God is the thing that will make the difference?

And are you prepared to rethink your future on the basis of that belief?

I don’t know if my own experience may be of interest here. When I was about 19, I met an older missionary couple who’d been in a jungle community for most of their adult lives. And they told me about their life’s work

• They’d heard of a tribe that had not yet had any engagement with the gospel
• A succession of missionaries had tried to go into the tribe and win their trust, but they’d all been killed
• This couple went anyway. And 3 times they almost were killed themselves: when bad things had happened to the community, it was believed that they had brought disaster to the tribe by their presence and so needed to be sacrificed.
• Somehow they survived, and built a house and made a life among this community
• They learned the language. And in fact then developed a system of writing the language down.
• They translated the New Testament into that language
• And they got it printed. I’ve got a copy of it here. The Ayore New Testament. 
• Meanwhile they’d been teaching the tribespeople to read.
• And now that they could read the New Testament and learn about Jesus, people started to become Christians.
• And they were able to establish a church there which had gradually grown and become very much part of the community life.
• The whole project had taken this couple 25 years. It had been their life’s great work.
• I was 19 at this point and a young Christian. And I was virtually dumbstruck. It was a real moment for me. As I looked ahead, I found I could not think of a better way of using the years God might give me. 
• I think I knew there and then that I would be giving my life to bringing God’s word to those who desperately needed it. That would be my life’s work. I assumed at that point it would be in tribal work, but it’s ended up in pastoral work in this country. But it’s still what I’m seeking to do, and what many others in this room are seeking to do in different ways, and different contexts – preaching the word, in season and out of season, correcting, rebuking, encouraging – with great patience and careful instruction.

So what about you? What will be your life’s work? And where does preaching the word fit into it?

Get vocal about your convictions, says Paul.

Second, get focused in your ambitions.

I wonder what you’d say are the spiritual dangers facing those in ministry life. There are a few here in this room who’ve been living that life for decades, and many of you will work with people with that sort of experience too. if you did a survey of them, I’m guessing there’d be a number of things that came up again and again. Temptations in ministry. Like…

• Freedom and self-expression, perhaps. I want to spend my time and energy on things that interest me and appeal to me. I want to say what I think, not have to bite my lip. I want to go where the wind takes me, even if that means going off the reservation a bit sometimes. Freedom. And self-expression.
• Or maybe comfort and convenience. I want life to be just a little bit easier than it is. And I’m happy to modify what I do and say to achieve that.
• Or compartmentalisation. I don’t mind doing my bit at church and working hard with people and tasks, as long as I can come home and shut the door and watch Strictly and not have to think about people or church or ministry. A compartmentalised life.
• Maybe laziness. Not so much in terms of how many hours they work, but during those hours choosing to do the things they find easier or more rewarding, rather than the things that are actually the most important in loving and serving others well.

What do you think? 

What’s interesting is how Paul calls Timothy to be alert to each of those four temptations. It’s there in that mini-job description in verse 5.

As for you: keep your head in all situations.

In other words: keep at it! Keep the main thing the main thing. Be disciplined about your ministry, whatever the provocations or the options before you. No going off the reservation. ‘Freedom and self expression’? How about focus and self-restraint. 

As for you…. endure hardship. That is, expect ministry in a world that doesn’t want to hear it… to bring you a bit of grief here and there. And that life will therefore not be ‘comfortable and convenient’. That’s just Christian discipleship 101, isn’t it?  

As for you… do the work of an evangelist. Which by the way doesn’t just mean make sure you have a gospel conversation with the checkout operator once a week. It means let the work of gospel-announcing define your life and ministry. Don’t ‘compartmentalise’. Be a gospeller to Christians and non-Christians alike – both need it. Do it when you’re on duty or off-duty. It’s not just a 40-hour a week job. A gospeller is what you are; it’s not just one activity among many.

And then again, as for you… discharge all the duties of your ministry.  Don’t be lazy and just prioritise the things that come easily to you. Or the things that will lead to most appreciation. Do it all.

That verse is not a bad summary of the whole letter in many ways. It’s pretty basic stuff. It’s quite brief as job descriptions go, but it needs to be said. Why?

It seems there are a number of things motivating Paul to spell it out.

Just in his lead up to that verse, he’s been bemoaning the likely expectations of the world around. 

Verse 3: 

the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine (that is, healthy teaching). Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Paul is not very complimentary about the people Timothy will find around him, is he? But maybe he’s just being realistic. 

It’s fascinating watching the Traitors on iPlayer at this time of year. Fascinating, but also infuriating. Again and again, particularly in these early episodes of the series, you see this ridiculous logic. One of the contestants doesn’t particularly warm to another of them. So they’ll latch onto any ridiculous theory about why that contestant is probably a baddie, a traitor. But if another contestant is nice, they’ll refuse to believe they could be a traitor. 

They’ll only listen to what their itching ears want to hear. The Traitors is a parable for society, and to some extent even church!

What will these people Paul refers to want to hear?

• Maybe they’ll want to hear how they can them prosper materially – be more wealthy and healthy. So they’ll latch on to a prosperity gospel teacher who gives them that.
• Maybe they’ll want to hear how they find a greater sense of fulfilment and centredness in life. So they’ll love it when a therapeutic gospel teacher comes along.
• Maybe they’ll want just some handy tips for living life. So they’ll be all over someone who will just bring them some good moralism. 

They don’t care that it’s not true. They’ll just want to hear what they want to hear.

Verse 4:

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths

But not you, says Paul. You… stay focused!

But there’s more. There’s a particular… moment here. There’s a generational thing going on. The baton is being passed from one generation to the next. And Paul is keen that Timothy, who’s part of the new generation, draws inspiration from that previous generation, ie him.

Do you see that in verse 6? How Paul describes his stage of life. He doesn’t just say ‘I’m dying’. He says ‘I’m being poured out like a drink offering’. That is, his whole life has been a sacrifice before God’s altar. Timothy, learn from that focus. 

And see how he describes his life’s work in verse 7. There’s such a drive, a resolve, a dedication to the shape of his life:  

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Look at the life of the one passing you the baton, Timothy. Learn from that focus.

And of course, don’t just look around at the world, and back at Paul. Look forward to prize-giving day, when Jesus returns.

Verse 8.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me (Timothy), but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Timothy, keep your eyes on the prize. Stay focused.

But that’s so hard, isn’t it? For us, I mean. It’s hard to focus our ambitions on one thing. When there are so many good and useful things out there. So unless we’re deliberate about it, it’s unlikely to just happen. Which is why Paul is so keen to rub our noses in what’s really important. Bring as back to the central things.

Here’s the thing. 

These days we’re used to different people’s minds being wired in slightly different ways. Aren’t we? 

There are some people who struggle to complete projects or get to the end of anything really, because their mind is like a browser with about 27 different tabs open at any one time. And they can’t go more than a few minutes on one task, without needing to flip across and open another tab. There’s so much noise and movement and activity going on up here. It’s an Olympic task to get anything done at all. 

You know what I’m talking about, right? 

What do they need to do? Well, they need to learn how to close some of those tabs, don’t they? Maybe medication will help. Maybe strategies. But it’s got to be something. Somehow they’ve got to close some tabs. Or they’ll struggle through life. 

There’s a ministry equivalent to that, isn’t there? 

Many of us live our ministry lives with any number of tabs open. We’re trying to engage with the culture, and serve the community and save the denomination and read up on the issues and clean up the building and work on our social media presence and advocate for our chosen cause, and liaise with local church leaders and keep up with the cricket score and be up to date with the news and rearrange our bookshelves colour order this time – and on and on. It’s too much.

We’ve got to learn to focus. Our energy is finite. Our time is finite. The bandwidth in our brains is finite. And that means: every tab we leave open means our focus is diluted. And discharging the duties of our ministry gets harder.  

We’ve got to find a way to close some tabs. Get back to the simplicity of verse 5. Strip back what we’re seeking to do. Get clear on what our life’s work is, and what it isn’t. What we’re prioritising, and what can wait. 

For the gospel’s sake, close some tabs. Get focussed in your ambitions.

That may be a useful thing to take into the rest of your traineeship year. Or indeed your ministry longer term. It might also be a useful thing to take into your prayers for ministry staff in your church, or your encouragements to them along the way.

Get focused.  

Let’s look just briefly at the remainder of the chapter. At first glance, it all looks a bit random. Various comments about individuals – some positive, some less than positive – the odd practical request and arrangement. As I say, a bit random-looking. 

But if you look at the message behind the message, it seems like Paul is still trying to subtly encourage not just Timothy but other readers too, like us. And the message I think is: get wise to your resources. 

Ministry’s hard. We heard about some of the challenges in the Q&A last night. I think the most discouraging thing is when people you’ve put time into and loved and taught and been encouraged by… end up walking away. 

• People like Demas in verse 9. Because he’s loved this world, he’s deserted me. He’s mentioned in Colossians and Philemon. He was clearly part of Paul’s inner circle. But as things have turned out, he’s like the seed sown among thorns and thistles. He’s been choked by the love of money and pleasure. 
• Or like Alexander the metalworker in verse 14. He did me a great deal of harm; he strongly opposed our message. We don’t know the details, but he’s obviously caused Paul real heartache. Maybe he too just wasn’t what he seemed. 
• Others have scattered in different directions too. Verse 10: Crescens and Titus. Verse 12: Tychicus. 

But even so, Paul is not alone. He has Luke – verse 11. He has that crew in verse 21 – Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and a bunch of others. And most thrilling of all, he has confidence that he’ll soon have Timothy and Mark at his side. 

• Verse 9: Do your best to come to me quickly
• Verse 11: Get Mark and bring him with you. 

Which is no small thing. All journeys were dangerous, and this one from Ephesus to Rome would take several months. And yet still Paul is confident he’ll do it.

It’s wonderful to have people you can rely on in ministry. 

Real partners. People in church. People outside church. I mentioned last night that group of ministry colleagues I’ve been meeting with regularly for more than 2 decades. They’re my people. We’re a band of brothers. We’ve walked with each other through thick and thin. Just knowing they’ve got my back is such an encouragement as each of us seeks to keep going in this ministry that we’ve sought to make our life’s work. And as I say, I’d commend it to you find people like that.

Partners to accompany you. What a resource!

And then: strength to empower you. 

Even when Paul was feeling most alone, there was one who never left him. Verse 17: 

(Others may have left me in the lurch…) 

‘But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and the all the Gentiles might hear it.’

He couldn’t do that work alone. None of us can. But he didn’t need to. He had Jesus standing next time to him all the way and he was able to labour in his strength.

And then one more resource: hope to carry you.

End of verse 17 Paul is looking back presumably to some legal vindication: 

‘I was delivered from the lion’s mouth’. 

But then straight away he’s looking forward again, with confidence. And hope:

‘The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen’.

That’s the thing about labouring in enemy territory for the king of kings. If the worst the world can do to you is kill you, and death is just a fast track to glory, then what grounds for despair can there be? There’s only hope.

But that hope has served to see many a servant of Christ through testing times. 

It’s made it possible for them not just to make the work of ministry their life’s work. But to keep it their life’s work to the end. 

So what is in store for future you? What will you and I make our life’s work?

And whatever it is…

• Will we get vocal – preach the word in whatever contexts the Lord may lead us into?
• Will we get focused – close some of those open tabs and discharge the duties of our ministry?
• Will we get wise – make use of the resources our loving God so kindly provides so that we’re able to keep going to the end? 

Preach the word!