Jarek Berga - Spiritual Training

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Eric. I am one of the pastors here, Pastor Elders of Restore Temecula. I want to welcome you to our Sunday morning gathering. It's good to be with you. I am bringing the word today. I'm excited to do it. A little woo. Thank you. So this morning we've been in a series in the Gospel of Matthew forever. And part of the reason why we've been in it forever is because I do this. I'm gonna pause it to do something else. And I do this so often that it delays pushes the goalpost back. So we've been in it about three or four years. But today I'm gonna pause on this series in the Gospel of Matthew and I'm gonna share with you guys something that's been stirring in my heart for a little while. It actually started it was birthed in the prayer room. I was sitting there in the prayer room one day and I just had a bunch of thoughts that kind of came to me and I wrote them all down and, and I've just been sitting on them for a while. But I'm excited to share this stuff with you. Today we're going to be in First Timothy, which is a book of the Bible we have not been in in a while. And so I'm going to unpack what's going on in that book here in a second. But I'm going to invite you to join me and pray. Because nothing that I do right now, nothing that we do really matters unless God goes before us and unless he stirs some things in our own hearts, unless he moves within us. So I'm going to invite you to pray. Pray for me. Pray for this time so that God's purposes may be accomplished. So Father, thank you. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for this opportunity to be together as your people. Thank you for this gift of Jesus. And it's through him that we come to you. It's through him that we relate to you. It's through him that we know you and I thank you for that. And today, as we unpack and talk about following him, would you do something in us, a fresh work? Maybe we're coming in this week. I don't know where everybody's coming in from this week. Maybe it was really busy getting here, especially for those families that were in the bake sale. Maybe it was a sprint to even show up. Maybe there's people who are here who are excited. Maybe there's some that are hurting, some that are feeling lonely, some that feel lonely even in a big room like this. Maybe there are people that this is all new to them. They're just kind of curious and open. God, wherever we're at today, would you meet each one of us with an individualized gift? Jesus is the capital G gift. And know that we also have lowercase g gifts to give out to each of us in this room and in this space. And I pray that everybody would walk away with something today. A gift of grace from you for them. We love you, Father, and we thank you. It's your name we pray. Amen. I still remember this so well, like it was yesterday. It's been about 20 years, but I remember pulling out of my driveway, turning down, left on Dean street, turning, turn right on Highlands, left on Niguel Road, left, I think on Aliso Creek. And there was my gym when I was growing up in high school, believe it or not. Most of you will not believe this. I spent a lot of time there when I was younger. A lot of time. An unusual. The kind of time where it's like, what else? You have nothing else going on. That kind of time at the gym. And it was around the time that Flight Club came out in the turn of the century, roughly, more or less. And I think that played a role in my commitment to the gym. Part of it was because I wasn't good enough for any of the sports at the school. So I had to do something with my body. I had to get moving and put it into use in some form or fashion. But either way, the gym and me were a match made in heaven for about 18 glorious months. Short lived, but it was spectacular. I actually, and some of you, like, prove it. I can't. Well, actually, if I was to take off my shirt, you'd see these stretch marks. You'd see other things too, but you'd see stretch marks right here. That would prove just how hard I hit that bench press. For a while I overdid it on the bench press. That incline. Life was my fave at the time, I know that things have changed. Our understanding of working out has really changed. But back then it was all about those glam, what do they call them, show muscles. It was all about those shell muscles. And man, I had them. I guess I could prove it to you. I just don't have the picture. But my senior year picture in high school, I wore a white T shirt on purpose. And I probably did this too. But either way, either way, it was like that was my senior year pick. No one was impressed but me. I didn't care. And I spent so, so much time in high school straining. Straining on the bench press, straining on the incline, skipping leg day. That was my life. And I've had time to really think about this. And I've come to this kind of conclusion. I guess not conclusion. I guess like a. Just a point in my thinking where I'm like straining, but for what? Straining, but for what? Life, the way that life is designed, the way that God has designed the world is that we're moving towards something, aren't we? We're always moving towards some goal. Think about it. So let me give you the anti goal, which is just to veg out, let's say that has an end too, doesn't it? Ease, comfort, the lack of stress, does it not? If you're following, maybe give me one of these to make sure that. If not, just go like this. Some of you that are really honest, you're like, don't go down. No, it's not making sense. Straining. We're always straining towards some goal. Or relaxing into one possibly is another way to think about it. But no matter what, we are designed and built for something. This life, no matter what we do. And today I want to talk to you about God's end goal for your life. You have an end goal for your life. Did you know that? I want to talk to you about it. And we're going to use an interesting metaphor, the metaphor of an athlete straining towards something. And this is what Paul the apostle comes up with. And he uses this over and over. If you read his letters. He loves athletic metaphors. He just loves it. It's all over the place. And so he wasn't down, he wasn't bagging on athletic metaphors. He doesn't like your body doesn't matter. Your body does matter. But there's actually a higher goal to which we are called. And I want to talk to you about that today. The reason I want to talk to you about that today is because if you get this, I think everything else in life falls into place. All your time, your schedule, the way that you use your money, the way that you use your body, what you put into your body, all of it comes, falls into place if we come to an understanding of what I'm going to talk about today. And so turn with me in your Bibles, if you have one, over to First Timothy, chapter four. First Timothy, chapter four. We're going to be looking at verses six to 11. First Timothy, chapter four, verses six to 11. Pull it up here in my Bible. I think we got him in the back. Yes, there it is. Okay, so I'm going to read these verses to you and then we'll unpack them, be reading them out of the csb, the Christian Standard Bible. And this is the Apostle Paul. He's writing to Timothy, his protege, and he says this and oh, just to give you a little bit of context. So this, that you guys know what these things that Paul is talking about are. The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy because Timothy has been left in a place to put some things into order that are out of order. There's some real issues in the church and Paul wants Timothy to address them. And so he wants Timothy to point out some really specific things that have gone astray or awry in the church. And so people to make it a complex topic, try it as simple as possible. They were teachers going around and they were trying to basically mislead people theologically. They were saying things that weren't true, and it came down to marriage and food. And they were saying they were basically forbidding certain foods and they were forbidding marriage, which is a real problem in life for various reasons. But they were making the teaching about Jesus so, so narrow and so restrictive that it missed the whole point. And so Paul wants Timothy to say, hey, marriage is a gift, food a gift. Don't call what is good bad and don't let anybody else do that. And so that's what Paul wants Timothy to do. So with that said, we're going to pick up here. We're not. That's not going to be the point of today's message. But I just want to give you an idea of what it is that Paul is writing into. So first Timothy 4, verse 6 says, if you point out these things to the brothers and sisters, to the church, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed, but have nothing to do with pointless, silly myths rather, and this is the key, if you've Got a pen? You've got your Bible. Underline it. Train yourself in godliness, for the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. For this reason, we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Okay, so that's our passage, our primary passage for today. And so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna talk about a few things, but ultimately we're gonna unpack this idea of being an athlete or training in the faith. So a quick historical context. I already mentioned this already, but just to put it in a nutshell, part of what was happening here that Paul is addressing, there was problems in this church in that they were turning God's good gifts into garbage to be avoided and to be thrown away or set aside. And that's always a problem in the church. So I think if. If you were to ask me what broadly, like, people that aren't a part of the church, maybe think about the church, there's a number of words that come up, hypocrisy and so on and so forth. But one of the things that probably comes up is that the church is, like, overly restrictive. Like, they're always saying no to things. And I think this passage actually is the exact opposite. It's like there's people that wanted to restrain or limit something good like marriage. Saying, like, you can't get married, or it's not good to get married or whatever. It's actually, no, it's a good thing. And certain foods. Food is a good thing. It's meant to be taken in with Thanksgiving because God has given us that gift. And you may think, like, well, bro, what's the big deal? Marriage and food? Like, why would I care about this? Well, we may not deal with that. Well, actually, we do. We deal with a lot of issues around sexuality that we have to teach and unpack. And we have done that. Actually, we're going to be doing that in a week. So this is very relevant because, as you probably know, if there's division around what constitutes marriage and sexuality, it brings division into the church, and it brings to all kinds of problems. Right. And so Paul was writing to Timothy because the churches that Timothy was instructing were divided. They were fighting and arguing. There was contention around these things, around food, around marriage. And so what's the impact when the church is fighting inwardly. Do you guys know what is the impact on our witness in the world if we're fighting inwardly? It's negative. It doesn't make the doctrine of the teaching of Jesus attractive. It makes it look pretty ugly to the world. And it gives the world a reason to be like, pfft, forget them. I've already got enough crazy in my family. I don't want to put your family, I don't want to join your family, you know, and so these are real problems that Timothy was dealing with. And as a church, you guys know this. We will always be dealing with trouble in this life. Stuff from the culture, getting into the church, problems in the church, seeping out into the culture that damages our witness, and so on and so forth. And Timothy is supposed to be really focused. And that's what Paul wants him to do. He wants him to be focused. And he uses this word gymnasium. It's in the Greek gymnasium. And it's that word that Paul talks about when he says training yourself for godliness. It's like, get in the gym and train Paul. That's his solution. Get in the gym and train Timothy. That's his solution. So I'm going to read something to you guys real quick that I found helpful. You guys don't have this in the back. So here's what's going on. When Paul tells Timothy to train yourself to be godly, his readers would have immediately pictured the Greek gymnasium, which was actually the heart of civic life in many hellenized towns. Now what's interesting about that word, the gymnasium, that comes from the kind of, the root word has to do with getting naked, which I think is a pretty strange thing. That's just some strange looks like that. Yes, yes, you get it. It's weird. And here's why. It was back then it was athletes that would strip down to prepare for rigorous physical training. So they thought that clothes would get in the way. So it's like, here it is. That was life back then. So why would Paul use a fairly strange metaphor like that? Because people instantly knew what he was talking about. It wasn't random. In Paul's world, physical training was a well known metaphor. And actually philosophers and moral teachers that had quite a bit of following in that time, they would use that to describe the pursuit of virtue and of self mastery. So Paul borrows a familiar picture from the culture, but he redirects it, he repurposes it. So he's not dismissing physical exercise. It has some value. And in fact, I think if we had seen Paul in his heyday, dude would have been, he would have been trim. Okay, the dude walked like 10,000 miles or something or he covered 10,000 miles and no cars. Dude would have been fit. So he wasn't anti exercise, he wasn't anti using your body. He's not dismissing it. It has some value, he says. But here's the thing though. He wants believers to see that spiritual training matters a lot more. A lot more. Just as athletes discipline their bodies for temporary glory, those show muscles that I was talking to you guys about. Followers of Jesus are called to discipline their hearts for eternal life. I'm going to say that again. Followers of Jesus are called to discipline their hearts for eternal life. So Jewish teachers of the time, they said that study of the law was profitable for this age and for the age to come. So he's borrowing some of the well known understood concepts from the Jewish culture around and from the Greek culture around and he's blending it all together. And here's what he's saying. He's saying that when you train your soul to love, trust and obey God, that is true life. There's no purpose in arguing and dividing over issues that the scriptures do not tell us. Let me go back. There's no point or purpose. He's telling Timothy, in arguing about myths and kind of stupid stuff that doesn't really have any grounding in scripture, he does want Timothy to train. How? How? Did you guys notice the word nourish in this passage? And did you guys notice the word training? Put those together, what do you get? Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. Paul wants Timothy to take his spiritual diet and exercise seriously. His spiritual diet and exercise. What's he calling him to? There are issues, there's misunderstanding in this church that were coming from a poor Bible teaching or mistaken Bible teaching. And he's like, the antidote is to teach the Bible properly. Get into the Word and you'll see it. We're not going to get into it right now, but if you were to read Timothy, these letters to Timothy, you'd see like preach the word, get into it in season, out of season, at all times, get into the Word. He called people to be a part of the public reading of scripture. I know that we, in our kind of, in our day we have, you know, 10 Bibles in our house. They didn't, you had to be kind of wealthy to actually have some of the scrolls in your house. And so what did they do? They got together to listen to somebody read them the scriptures. And so it's sort of like get into the habit of sitting under the word together. I mean, Paul calls them to get to work. Get to work. I think that's what Paul is saying to Timothy. And as I've been chewing on this passage and thinking about it, I've had a similar sense that God is putting like work in front of us, certainly in front of me. And I'm gonna invite you too to consider what this might mean for your life. There's simply too much on the line to drift. There's simply too much on the line to get around to it when I have time. And I know that this could be really uncomfortable. In fact, for some of you, what I'm saying has got your flag. Not your flag, your dashboard. There's like warning lights going off. There's warning lights. And that warning light is legalism. Legalism alert. Right, Legalism alert. Some of you have been in environments where you have been pushed to the breaking point. Point you went past straining, straining to you tore something, spiritually speaking, like you tore muscles and you injured yourself. If you ever got injured in the gym, you know that you have to pause and you have to recover and you have to get well. And I know for a. Well, I can't say I know this for a fact, but I'm going to take a guess here and say that some of you, when you hear me say hard work and I start talking about discipline and training and straining, you're probably going to have a bad reaction to this. So I want to make sure that I address that. And I'm going to actually have some guys that are smarter than I address it. I've got a quote from R. Kent Hughes, if you guys could throw that one up. That I thought was really, really helpful. A couple of guys that know the Bible really well wrote this commentary and they said this discipline sounds so much like legalism, but that such thinking is mistaken. Legalism is self centered, but discipline is God centered. The legalistic heart says I will do this thing to gain merit with God. The disciplined heart says I will do this thing because I love God and I want to please him. Paul knew this difference well. So check this out. Here's how he responds to the legalist. He doesn't give them an inch, ever. At the same time, he challenges Christians to train yourself to be godly. There's a tension in that. If you can see it and sense it. Some of you because of your life experience have gotten burned out in the church that you have stressed and pushed to the point of breaking. It's One thing, when you break down your muscles in order that they might be rebuilt in a kind of controlled way, it's working out. It's another thing to again, break or break down. So I want to be really sensitive to this, and I'm going to camp out here for a minute. And as I was thinking about this, I came across this analogy that made so much sense to me. I was in Spain back in the mid 2000s. I went abroad. I've talked about this before. Some of you are like, oh, no. Soccer talk. Yes. Not right now, though. That's later in the message. Here's what happened to me that was really memorable in Spain. Well, many things actually happened to me in Spain that were memorable, but one of them was that I was there during the spring season. So we landed in January, we left in May. It was a spring semester, and towards late April and into May, I experienced the worst allergies of my life in Spain. I don't know if it was tree pollen or what it was, but it was horrendous to the point where I had a hard time going outside. It was so, so bad. I would kind of. I'd go outside and I'd start. I don't know if wheezing is the right term, but it was sort of like I would start. I don't know if it was partially physical, partially psychological, but it was almost like I'd start hyperventilating when I'd go outside. Like, I can't catch my. I can't breathe when I'm out here. My allergies were so, so bad. My eyes were swollen like it was. It was awful. And naturally, being out there rather than being here, I don't have access to the healthcare, my doctor, all that stuff. So it was scary for me. And what is an allergic reaction? An allergic reaction happens when your body panics over something harmless like pollen or peanuts. It sounds the alarm, it floods your system with chemicals, and before you know it, you're sneezing, you're itching, you're miserable, or sometimes worse, depending on what it is. The problem, though, it's not the peanut. It's not the tree pollen, it's the overreaction. And I think that's what can happen sometimes. In the church, we've seen legalism up close and personal. We've seen people sometimes under guilt, under shame, under manipulation, come to the point where they break as disciples. And so now, naturally, as a response, anything that smells like effort or discipline feels dangerous. And we might flinch at the term training or Hard work or labor. But these are words that the Bible uses. This is stuff that Paul said himself, Hughes in chapel. They reminded us that legalism says, I'll do this to earn God's approval, but discipline says, I'll do this because I love him. Those are two different things. One is self centered, sometimes self protective, and often with good reason. Because we've been hurt or we've seen people hurt. That's one response. The other one though is God centered. We just want to see. We want to see and experience and know and share who God is with people. One is a reaction, the other one is a response. I don't know about you. Some of the worst moments in my life have been reactions against something. It's when I feel stressed, I feel threatened, I feel unsafe, and then quickly I'll respond in some way. That's usually when I introduce responses of shame into my life that I then regret. Typically, though, when I have time to respond to something, which means, like, I'm thinking about it, I'm reflecting on it, I'm aware of what's going on inside. Never perfectly, but more so, way more so than when I'm just reacting. Things go very differently for me. And I think for some of you guys, and I do think this is like God's love and care for you. I think he's inviting you to respond, not react to this idea of hard work. I'm not advocating for legalism of like, do more, try harder. But I'm also not advocating for the exact opposite response, which is license, don't do anything, Just chill. And again, both of these responses make a lot of sense. When I was in Spain, another thing. Talk a lot about Spain today. Something else that really stood out to me, the tree pollen was legendary. So was the nightlife. It was also legendary. It was out of this world. And I'm not advocating for it. I'm just telling you, reporting the facts. It was. And I will limit the facts that I report. Okay, I will just say this. When I went abroad, I went to Ireland for a weekend. This little town called Cork, the Blarney Stone. We visited it, I kissed it. Don't do that. The locals have fun with that. But one of the things I noticed, they pee on it. Okay, don't kiss it. Don't kiss the Blarney Stone. It's a true story. There's a point to this. I was in College. I was 22 years, 21 years old. I was having the time of my life at that point. So we went, I got used to the Spanish culture, which meant that I would take a nap around 11pm before we would head out for the evening. Not an exaggeration, I know it sounds impossible. Probably more impossible than the fact that I was fit in college, in high school is that I would go out, you would see me on the metro at 6am Coming home as business people were going to work. This happened. This was crazy. This was Spain. I went to Ireland and the Irish people were more like Temecula, where it was like everything shuts down at 9. It's like last call at 8:30. Cool. I was like, what is this? I'm ready for my nap. Going back to it though. Why did the Spanish culture, why was it so wild? Do you guys know anybody, like a Spain enthusiast or a buff? It's cool, it's just one of me. Spain was for decades under this guy named Franco. There was an authoritarian regime in place, controlled every aspect of life, even people's names. You go to Spain, you're going to meet a lot of Jose Marias. Why? It was on the approved list of names. I mean, it was wacky just how much control was exercised in the country of Spain over decades. I think it was close to 40 years or something like that. And so can you imagine what happened when Franco died? We're free, baby Libre. And they are still not everybody, not every person. I don't want to generalize too much, but the culture is still like casting off restraint because for so long we were under this tight control and it gave rise to a lack of control. You go out at night and Spain, it is chaos, It's a lack of control. And so sometimes in response to an over control, it's natural to respond with a life that's out of control. And so I'm not advocating for that either. Some of you grew up maybe in environments where it was like tight control over you and you're kind of. Anything that feels like telling you what to do feels like legalism, danger, warning signs going off in the dashboard. Jai, if that's you, man, like, I'm sorry, that's not okay. That's not what God is like. And your view of God as father's probably being impacted more than you know. But the truth is the proper response to control isn't to live a life that's out of control. This passage tells us it's self control. It's actually coming under a new ruler, it's coming under a new authority, it's coming under Jesus. So I'm not advocating for legalism. I'M also not advocating for license. What I'm advocating for today is love. It's love. And I'll take it even a point further because some of you are really sharp and you're like, well, love is just more. Just giving me more stuff to do. Now I gotta love. And you have a good sense of how hard that actually is. I'm with you. I'm tracking with you. First. John 4:19 says, we love because he loved us first. You can say it loud. We love because he loved us first. Yes. Yes. This is a life lived in response to something that's been done. And God is not a God who wants to control you. He wants to help you conform to the image of Jesus. To become who you were always meant to be. A son, a daughter, one of his own children. And so Jesus, he points us to Jesus. Do you guys have a feel for Jesus spiritual life? Luke was highly disciplined. I don't know if you guys ever read those passages that talk about his prayer life. Oh my gosh. How would you feel about getting up at 3:30 in the morning and finding your nearest mountain, climbing it so that you can be alone with God? Because that's what you have to do to get away from people. Not people because you hate people, but because you need to be alone in order to hear the voice of the One who has sent you. I'm not saying that he did that every day, but I'm saying that was in his toolkit early mornings. It says, before the sun rose, he was up. He was up. It talks about his if you've ever watched the Chosen, actually, you'll get a feel for this. And it's not the show itself. It's inspired by the scripture. It's a dramatization. But could you imagine what it would have been like to minister to thousands of people, hundreds of people? I minister to a couple of people on a Sunday. I'm like, I need a nap. Give me two aspirin. My back hurts. It's like you didn't lift anything. It still hurts. Give me four hours. Jesus ministered continually. It's an outpouring. You can only do that if you're really fit. You're really spiritually fit. Jesus fitness was off the charts. Also, if you were to see Jesus fun, just a fun aside. Dude was probably ripped. He worked with his hands. He walked everywhere. Jesus was probably ripped. Why am I telling you that? It has no bearing on this message other than to say being fit physically isn't bad by any means. But in the grand scheme of things. Which is more important? One has a limited value, according to this passage. And we know this because no matter how strong you are, at a certain point you're just trying to stave off loss. You're just trying to reverse it or slow down some of the effects of aging. And there comes a point at which you can no longer do that effectively. You just can't. I'm not saying that we shouldn't give it a go. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying you're all going to die. Thanks. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I'm trying to be realistic. All right, so check this out. Some of you have seen this before. This is a clear cup. This is a bag of tea leaves. I'm going to leave this here. What's going to happen when I drop this in? One at a time, raise your hand. Yes, Ethan. Seeping, steeping. Okay. I wouldn't have known the difference. English is my second language. I don't know. All right, this. Does this work with cold water? Are you serious? So here's what's going to happen. Nothing. It will work. Who's telling the truth here? It won't work. No, no, no, no. This is better. Is it really? Keep an eye on this. It's gonna be good. Check back with me at 1:15. Look, this is actually perfect. Let me explain why. We're talking about training, the value of it. And one of the things that's going to get in our way if we're not careful is expecting fast results. Okay, just hold that hot water for a second. Don't burn yourself. This is making my point. And we'll switch it. And yesterday, inspired by this amazing sermon, I went and worked out. I did it. Thanks, Erica. I did it. And I just. Part of it was because my son was getting a little stir crazy. And I was like, we gotta do something. So I was like, why don't we. Why don't we do something together that challenges our bodies together? And so we did. We did a lot of squats. We did some push ups. I'm not going to tell you what kind I did. Girl, push ups. I'm not sure if that's the preferred nomenclature now. Probably not. This isn't in my notes. You're getting very uncomfortable right now. If you know us, you know we love women and just whatever. I was born in the 90s. I was born in the 80s. I'm a 90s kid. I don't have sensitivities, which I do. That's why I'm talking about it. Just realized I'm being a little undisciplined here. Love you, Tom. Tom's in Denver. He sends his love to everyone. Okay. So my son, we work out. We do like a family hit workout. H I I T. High intensity something. Thank you. Interval training. We did one, it was 20 minutes long. I was like, we can keep going. We did another one. By the end of that one, I was feeling differently about things. My son walks off after we're done. He's like, I don't have a six pack yet. It takes time. It's changing. You can see it's happening. But it takes time for this stuff to make an impact. So this is. Not only is this opposed to earning, but this is really opposed to, like, spurts. I'm not talking about life in the spiritual world. In the spiritual realm. Let me say that again. Life of spiritual formation. I'm not calling you to fly with the angels or whatever. That is the spiritual realm. That two of you get that joke. There's like two Michael Heiser fans that are like, yeah. Everyone else is like, bro, you're struggling up here. Spiritual formation. Spiritual formation isn't fast. It's not. And so part of what I want to put in front of you guys is this idea that I think Paul is making to Timothy. He makes it a lot more succinctly than I do, but here it is. How you live today matters. How you live today matters. There it is. Write that down. How you live today matters. What are you training for? What is your life ultimately about? What goals are you pursuing? Man, athletes are clear, aren't they? If you're a high level athlete, why are you in it? So maybe it's not that clear. Let's take money out of the equation and let's just talk a bit more generally. Why are you a disciplined athlete? What's the point? What are you after? The prize. Yes, to win the prize. What's your prize in life? What's the end to which all of your efforts, all of your straining are directed? Have you ever thought through that question? When was the last time you thought about it? It's possible to be on autopilot in life. It really is. It's possible to do things without knowing why. Like me, every morning or afternoon, driving down Dean street, making a right on Highland, turning left, whatever that street was, and then left on Aliso Creek. Niguel Road. Why was I going to the gym? I have no idea. Appearances apparently show muscles. I didn't realize how quickly they went away. It took like three weeks after I stopped working out for it to just turn to blanch. What do I have now? Stretch marks. You can't see them. I won't show you, but that's what I got left. Do you know why you're doing what you're doing? Seriously? Seriously. Do you have a vision for your life? The Apostle Paul was so, so clear, and he was so clear with Timothy. I want to take you back into the passage. Listen to this. Verse 10, first Timothy, chapter 4, verse 10. For this reason we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Wow, you can get into a living, long theological discussion about this one. What is he saying? Is he saying everyone saved? What is he talking about? Okay, I'm going To quote the Reverend N.T. wright, who explains this more succinctly than I can. He says, with respect to that title, Savior. Did you guys catch that? The Savior of all people. This is what he means. Paul is making a claim that this God and this Jesus, because he calls Jesus the Savior in second Timothy. He calls God the Savior in first Timothy. Either way, this God and this Jesus are the true Savior in the sense that through them. Through them, the whole world will be rescued from decay and injustice. Through them, the whole world will be rescued from decay and injustice. Paul pulled this title of honor from Caesar, who was the Roman emperor at the time. And in using it here, he repurposes and says, it's not through Caesar. It's not the peace that Rome brings through violence. It's the peace that was made on the cross of Christ that will bring and rescue everything from decay and injustice. And there's a sense in which the entire world is better off for it. However, and listen to this. This is important. The whole world is better off as a result of the saving work of God through Jesus. But since humans retain the right and dignity to refuse God's ultimate offer, it is only believers who appropriate that salvation fully. What was Paul's goal? He wanted as many people as possible to come under the Savior and to experience his deliverance and his salvation. That's what he wanted Timothy to do. On the surface, it's marriage and food and theology, but in reality, it's King Jesus. And to the degree to which King Jesus is veiled from people or distorted from people through improper teaching, Paul was having none of it. And he was telling Timothy, get to work. Work in our world today. I don't know if you know this, there are distortions of all kinds, including human sexuality as one example. Again, we'll get into it more next week. There are distortions of all kinds with marriage for children in the business world. There's distortions in school. There's distortions of all kinds and issues and problems everywhere. When the apostle Paul wants Timothy, and by extension those under his care, because he says at the end, command and teach these things, this isn't just for you, Timothy. This training is for all y'. All. So that all y' all could actually be the kind of people in the world that point to the Savior and call everyone to him and live a life that matters. These show muscles, they will go into the grave, most likely not in the same condition as your people, almost certainly. But this, this living God, this living hope, the Savior of all people, it's going to transcend this life and it's going to be the truth for the next life as well, that Jesus is our Savior, he's our Lord. Did you know that your training is a part of other people's and the world's transformation? The degree to which you give yourself over to it is the degree to which you'll see it coming breaking in. Some of you know about this. All of you to some degree, know about this. By the way, everything I'm saying, I'm not saying this because, like, this stuff is absent from our church. Quite the contrary. I think we have a dedicated, faithful church. But if the Apostle Paul feels the need to tell Timothy, his protege, and these early churches to deal with this stuff and to how much more do we need it in this world 2000 years later? Some of you have prayed for people for years and seen them come to faith. You have given yourself to the discipline and the practice of prayer and you have literally seen men, women, young people, children come to believe in Jesus. For those of you who haven't experienced that yet, do you want to. This isn't like a promise when you pray for people. I'm not saying they're gonna. They could take a really long time and it may not happen. I don't know. I'm not the Savior. God is. There comes a point at which we have to put our trust in Him. He's the one who saves people. But I'm asking, have you seen the fruit of your labor in this way, training people coming to believe in Jesus lives touched and transformed, people's pain healed as you are the hands and feet of Jesus in their life together. We're the hands and feet of Jesus in people's lives. This place has become a place of healing and transformation for many. So, yes, we've all seen it to a degree or another. But I'm just letting you guys know that doesn't mean we can coast or cruise. It actually means more than ever that he's calling us to a higher commitment because he really cares about people deeply. One more thing. This is important because on a preach like this, you have to thread a needle. Some of you are injured. Let's go back to the athlete metaphor. Some of you are just injured. I remember. And this is hard because my trading was so limited that I. That I didn't injure myself that much. Some of you as athletes, you got injured big time. And so I'm stretching a little bit here, but I remember one time I was at the gym and I dropped a barbell. Is that what you call it? With two big plates on the side on my head. Anybody ever had that one happen before? You need a spot spotter. This is why you need help. Let me tell you, I didn't pass out by sheer willpower. I was stumbling. Nobody had to help me, like put the thing back up. And let's just say I didn't finish that exercise. There was pain, there was hurt. I got out of there. I was ashamed. I got out of there quick. Okay, that was a small one. A small example. Sometimes we make mistakes and we get injured. Sometimes, though, some of you will get this. You're an athlete and through overuse, you get injured because of coaching or whatever situation that you find yourself in, you get injured. And what happens if you keep playing and pushing and straining when you're injured? Anybody? It's worse. Yeah, yeah. I'm a big Real Madrid fan. I think I'm the only one in this room. It's fine. They had a player last year. His name's Antonio Rudiger. He is a monster. He's a center back. He's big, strong guy and nobody messes with him. He's kind of scary, actually. He's one of these guys where you're like, oh, I'm. I'm glad he's on my team. You know, what kind of guy? You ever play with a guy like that? No. Okay, just imagine it then. The team was so banged up and injured that he kept playing through injury. And now he hasn't been the same. He hasn't been the same since. He's currently out right now. He was out earlier this year. He came back, he got re injured. If you push through the pain, there may come A point at which you can no longer play. And some of you are in that spot right now. And I just want you to know I think God sees that. I don't think he's calling you to make your terror worse. There is a legitimate time to heal and to rest, but you do it as part of a team. You don't take the jersey off. You don't stop showing up. You just move into the. Who's the guy that helps you when you're injured guy. What's his name? The physio? This is my lack, I tell you. I spent a lot of time at 24 Hour Fitness and didn't do much else. The trainer, you spend time with the trainer, you spend time with the doctor or whatever, but you're still on the team. But you need time to heal, and that's okay. But ultimately, why do athletes heal? To get back on the field. Right? And I think that's a part of this journey as well. If you're injured right now, I want you to know, like, we want to help you get well, but ultimately it's not to use you. It's to free you so that you can run your race, you can finish well. There's a guy. His name. There's a guy who was an Olympian in the 1920s in fellow 30s. His name is Eric Liddell. Anybody know his story, Chariots of Fire? Yeah. Yeah. Mark in the Prayer Room plays. You ever heard him do that? That's from Chariots of Fire. Vangalis, I think, was the name of the band. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Others of you are like, I don't know what you're saying. I'm not sure why you're still talking, but I'm going to keep doing it. So there's this great movie. I think it won an Academy Award. I'm pretty sure it won Best Picture. And Eric Liddell was this. And there's this famous scene where he's running on the beach in slow motion. You guys know what I'm talking about? Yes. Oh, man. Cultural. The age divide is showing right now. So this is a famous scene where these guys running in slow motion on the beach. And there's this music set over it. And it is legendary in music, in film and music. And so that's the Eric Liddell story. If you don't know who Eric Liddell was, he was an Olympian. He was an incredible athlete. And he also loved Jesus, like, in the most incredible way. He actually. He was so committed to putting Jesus first, even as an athlete, that he opted out of an Olympic event, like a gold medal, which he could have one, because he didn't want to race on the Lord's day. There were races that were on Sunday. And now again, to some of you, that's going to sound like crazy legalism. Like, what the heck? To him, it was worship. It was his conviction. It's not something. He didn't impose that on anyone. It was just like, this is how I honor my Lord. Like, I just. I don't. I don't want a race on Sunday. Like, I want that to be the Lord's day. I want to. That's how I worship him. And then he ended up winning a bunch of gold medals anyway on other days of the week. And he came under fire, as you can imagine. If you are a country and you're developing athletes to do what? Win medals, and then your Olympian says, not on Sunday, what is that going to generate in you? Gratitude? Appreciation? How about wrath? How about. Are you kidding me? Slander. Horrible things said about him and his character. Okay, but do you know why he did what he did? They quote this in the movie. I can't believe this movie won an Academy Award. If you think, like, where we are today, this movie, I think, won the best picture in 1981 or something like that. The punchline of the whole movie was this. When I run, I feel his pleasure. Capital H, his pleasure. He did it because he loved God and wanted to please him. It wasn't earning. It wasn't legalism. It wasn't licensed, obviously, either. It was like, I've got one thing on my mind. I want to love you. The one who saved me, the one who rescued me. And that's what he did. That's how he did it, is he ran. And so some of you, you need to know, like, competing in athletics is a way that you genuinely glorify God because you're an athletic person. This is how he made you. Is that the end to which you run your race? Is that the end to which you compete? If it's not, that's okay. But I just want to put this in front of you. Like, God may be wanting to do, like, something in this area today. Because those crowns, those trophies, those titles, those rings, those medals, what happens to them in time? You got it long enough, they start to decay. They start to decay. But you're competing, as it were, to receive a crown that will never decay. Which one do you want to prioritize? Doesn't mean that you can't again Eric Liddell. When I run, I feel his pleasure. But he had very clear. He was very clear on what he was doing. In fact, so much so that if I remember his story correctly, I think he died in a prison camp for his faith. And he was ministering to those people in the prison camp while he was there. And his life was incredible. And by the way, he allowed them to compete on Sunday. He wasn't rigid or dogmatic. He was like, this is just how I love God. I don't race on Sundays, but I don't tell people that you're bad if you do. You know, it's just there was this freedom and this love and this desire to love and please God. That's what it's all about. And so, friends, we are called to train. I'm going to invite you to stand. We are called to train. I'm going to invite the band to the front. We are invited to train not to earn God's love, but from a place of being loved, from wanting to respond to his love for us. Jesus agonized in the garden. You've heard this story before if you've been in church for a while, if you haven't. On the night before he died, Jesus agonized in the garden. And Paul actually uses the language of agonizing, competing in the athletic world as an analogy of, like, how he lived his life. Jesus agonized to do the will of God. Did you know that Jesus trained himself, disciplined himself, gave himself fully to the pleasure of his father, to the point of death. [00:55:57] Speaker B: Why? [00:55:57] Speaker A: So he could taste death for all of us. So that we could be forgiven of our sins. So we could be restored to our relationship with our Father, whose life here has been changed by what Jesus did. I mean, a lot of hands in this room if you haven't yet. That's in front of you, and that's yours to take and grab hold of whenever you want. It's yours. He offered himself, he agonized, he strained for love so that you could have a place in his family, so you could have a place on his team, so you could put that jersey on and run for him. That's what he did. And so I want to ask the question, like, what crown are you living for? What's your crown if it's not King Jesus's? The crown that you're going to throw. Scott. He's here somewhere. We'll find him. He's up in the third heaven. Oh, there he is. Hey. He got caught up in a heavenly vision. And thanks for thank you, Lord, for bringing him back. Scott started this morning with this passage from Revelation. Do you guys notice what people were throwing their crowns? It's. It's praise and worship. It's like, that's the end to which you are called to live, which is to do everything in your power within your. With his power helping you to make it to the end, to so that you can bring him glory and honor and say you are worth it. Say you are worth it. You are worth the hours at the gym. You are worth getting up early for. You are worth sacrificing for. You are worth going to bed early for. You are worth saying no to certain things for. And over time, that grows, and you become more and more. You steep in his love as you do, and you become more and more like him. And so I'm going to invite the prayer team to the front. From the prayer team, come on up. Is there anything that's getting in the way of your training? Maybe you're here and you're. You just need to heal. Like, you're just. You're banged up, you're bruised, you've torn stuff. Maybe even working really hard for Jesus, or maybe it's other kinds of pursuits that have left you broken. Maybe you've given your life to your work and it hasn't worked out. Maybe you've given your life to your family and your family's falling apart. I don't know. Maybe you just feel adrift. Maybe you just feel like, I don't have clear line of sight, I don't have vision from my life, or maybe literally nothing I said resonated with you, and you just need prayer for something else, and that is okay. If you're like, dude, I got a headache that won't go away, come and receive prayer. If you're like, bro, I'm under this deadline at work that I can't. So we got a first. First responder here in the front. Kevin, he's gonna. He's gonna help. It's okay. We're gonna get some water. We'll get it taken care of. Yeah. So if I can have eyes just up here. We are in an incredible community where we have first respond. If you can't, you don't know what's happening. Just. We have first responders taking care of it, so we're gonna be okay. We have multiple first responders, actually, so we got it covered. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna invite you guys to just try to recenter and refocus Real quick in this moment, God's got us covered, and it's gonna be all right. Yep, we got a whole team. It's great. We have first responders. We have physician assistants. Everything's gonna be cool. So if I can just have your attention up here. I'm gonna pray for a second, and then we're gonna respond. Father, I want to thank you. I want to thank you that you know what you're doing. I want to thank you that you have got us, and I want to thank you that nothing surprises you. And so I pray right now for your peace to settle on us, for your joy to fill us, and for you to give us the next step of faith, God, whatever that is, for each person in this room. God, thank you. It's your name we pray. Amen. Okay, we got some first responders on it, so if I can bring you guys back in for just a second, I think God wants to do some things in this time. And we have about 15 minutes or so left. And so whatever it is for you personal, I want to invite you to respond through prayer, if you want. If you need to come up and get prayer from anyone from the front, they're here to receive you. You may just need to praise God in this time, or maybe if you're feeling anxious or worried, you might just need to take this time to pray and to ask God to help you. But I believe he has something for each of us today, and so I'm going to invite you to respond to him and however you feel him leading you. And then we'll have Mike come up to the front here in a little bit to close us out.