The Good Life

Well, my name is René, I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. Good morning. How are you guys doing today? It's great to see you and I gotta tell you I have been looking forward to this moment for a long long time.

James Durbin sang in kids choirs here in Santa Cruz County. He sang in a little choir called Melody Makers that you at times heard on the stage here at Twin Lakes Church. Our own kids choir called Light Choir and then the whole world got to know James when he was on American Idol. Watch the screen, look at this. I dreamt about this every single day. This is my huge gigantic opportunity to do this. You sing from where you're supposed to sing from, from feeling, from heart. You're gonna go on to great heights as high as you sing my brother. Rock on! Well let's welcome him home. Welcome James Durbin.

How you doing James? Good morning, good to see you. I'm good, this isn't my usual time clock. These aren't musicians hours. No, not at all. Well how about this, I'll ease you into this with a little "This is your life" because watch the screen after American Idol that same season. The largest gathering in the history of Santa Cruz County was at the Beach Boardwalk. How many of you were there at the Boardwalk? Look at this, James you were there. Kind of. I think I saw you there, that was good.

And since then you've been on Jay Leno, Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, the American Music Awards. Your first album was named one of the Albums of the Year by Billboard Magazine. Your new album is just out now and you and your wife Heidi and your son Hunter are regular attenders here at Twin Lakes Church. Once again to share his journey with us, give James a hand. It's awesome to have you here, really awesome.

I love that picture by the way. What's that? That picture. Yeah. I was asking Heidi last night what that picture is from and she said that's from when we took concert to Disneyland for his first time. He had already met Mickey, you know, he was good to go and I'm like I want to ride my favorite ride so we took him on Peter Pan. That's his reaction. Clearly it's the happiest place on earth.

Well James I want to just fast forward to American Idol. There you are kind of singing for your life before the judges. How in the world do you handle the stress of an American Idol audition with all that is hanging on those few seconds? Well if you go back and watch I didn't handle it very well. Well enough apparently. Well a lot of people don't know this before you get to that point, before you get to the judges round of auditions, there's five auditions before that.

When they show on TV, when they show a big stadium full of people and they're all waiting in the cold, that's like August. This is like February and so my wife and I, Heidi, we were sitting for a total of 34 hours outside in the cold at AT&T Park in San Francisco in August of 2010. Coldest month of the year in San Francisco. Yeah, just so happened. And I mean through all of that it's just we had nothing to lose. We were sitting there in the freezing cold and just basically just holding each other and praying and hoping and wishing and having faith that something can change our lives. And it's it? There were 17 and a half thousand people there. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. That's amazing.

So you just kind of go, "Lord you do what you want with this." And then months later you come back and you're actually singing before the judges. Was that was that nerve-wracking? It really was, yeah. I mean the most famous people that I had met up to that point were like Kenny Baker, the guy that plays R2D2 in the original Star Wars movies, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. So suddenly being in front of Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson, and like Steven Tyler, I was like this is this is gonna be great.

So I'm waiting in line. They bring about three people into the room and you wait behind the scenes and you wait and sit in chairs and they call you up and the next person goes and auditions in front of the judges. But you can hear it all happening. So after all that waiting in the cold in August and five more auditions of waiting and finally I get here and we're waiting like another 18 hours just to get to this point, I'm finally sitting there. So you're like you're about to go. There's someone, Trent's singing right now for the judges and it's you then it's me and we're sitting there and then they call lunch. Jennifer Lopez is hungry and we're calling for lunch. True, this is all true and to that very moment like I'm ready, I can do this, I'm here, I'm ready, let's go now. No, lunch, gotta wait another hour and 20 minutes. Oh boy.

Well Steven puts his face on. And speaking of Steven while I was waiting there, Jennifer walks by, Ryan walks by behind her and then Randy and Steven went the other way. They went around so they had to walk in front of me and René. You were there and I didn't make it. It's not you. You have a great voice. Too karaoke they said. So I don't know. So I'm sitting there and suddenly Steven Tyler walks up he's like oh man look at you man. You look great man. What's that tattoo man? I only had two tattoos that time he grabs my arm. He's like what's that tattoo say? I'm like that's my son's name Hunter. I'm freaking out inside. I'm freaking out and he's just that's that's beautiful man. That's beautiful.

So fast-forward like 10 minutes later my wife and I were sitting eating lunch while Jennifer's eating her croutons and and we're sitting there in this chair and she's sitting on my lap and we're talking and then suddenly out of the corner of my eye is the creepiest thing. Follow me if you will. Out of the corner of my eye you're me okay. This is Steven. I just see him out of the corner of my eye like this. Like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Oh it was it was creepy and and I felt honored. That he was peeping on me.

So we obviously this your star kind of rose into the stratosphere during that time and and you have this huge homecoming and and a big launch to your career but you told I read in an interview with Wallace Bain from The Sentinel that you said you learned about ego during that first year with American Idol. Tell me what you mean by that.

Oh man I mean when you get to this point that outfit in particular I have one just like that incidentally. If you would have told me I would have worn it. I'd be wearing it right now. It doesn't fit as well. It's a little big on me but if I were to go get that that outfit made by the woman who made it just someone off the street just a you know pedestrian that that outfit would have cost upwards of $5,000 of hand time and like that's free. Sunglasses free, suits free, watches free, thousands and thousands of dollars worth of clothes and time and hair and makeup and energy put into this and suddenly it's all gone and you're still sitting there wondering like hey where'd the party go? Like don't you know who I am? Like didn't all this just happen to me? But as soon as I heard myself think that or even start to say do you know who I am? It was never about that. It was never about that.

I think the person that really knocked the sense into me was my wife Heidi and we because I had been gone for so long I hadn't been coming to church and I lost I kind of lost track and lost sight of what things are really important because before any of this happened it was all about the feeling the energy the feeling the love of performing the love of singing because if I can make you feel happy or make you feel sad or control your emotions by how I'm singing or what I'm writing that's beautiful to me. I love being able to do that and to just evoke emotion and I lost track of all that and then Heidi brought me back to church and the first service back I just broke down I just lost it and and I just remembered right then and there that it's all about this I wouldn't be here if you know God hadn't of given me this gift for a reason. That's awesome.

Well I can tell you something there is a song on your new album which I love the album incidentally and there's a song on there called You Are Not Alone that James wrote specifically hoping that young people who are currently in the situation he was in when he was younger would hear this and realize that they are not alone because James you went through a tough time your your dad died and then what happened shortly thereafter?

Yeah I mean I was already getting bullied when I was a kid and then when I was nine my dad passed away December 98 and then January of 99 I turned 10 and then I got diagnosed with Asperger's and Tourette syndrome and then word got around the school that not only my dad passed away but now I have these diseases and everyone needs to stay away from me so yeah times are really hard when I was a kid and I was at the end of my rope and when you're at the end of your rope and you feel like you don't have anything left and any hope or energy left but you put your faith in God I think it's it's happened for me many times and he's pulled me up pulled me up he gave me music God gave me music and gave me an outlet for my negative energy to turn it into something positive and now that I can write songs and deliver performances and songs to my fans just anyone I mean my fans aren't they're not young they're not you know extremely old they are extremely old and they are extremely young and everything in between I have the most diverse fan base I've ever seen I had a beer with a 95 year old man the other day and he is a huge fan of mine and then I hang out with like four-year-olds and my five-year-old is my biggest fan and and my wife and well I hope they all hear the message of this song because this is I hear this and I think every single word could be the word of Christ to all of us to assure you that you are not alone and so if you're here today and maybe you just came to hear James you know I didn't like want to interview James to sort of trick you into being religious or to be member a member of this church the object is not you know or give money the object is this to realize it's not about rules or ritual it's about a relationship that you're not alone and as Trent was leading us in songs the God of the universe is saying to you you're not alone and James and I and all of us here saying to you you're not alone and so listen to the lyrics of the song and as James gets ready to sing this I kind of want to give away an autographed CD from James and so who would like to have this now listen I'm gonna ask you a question about James a question that I answered in the interview and so this is a question about James's life who was listening to the interview and thinks they might know the answer to this question raise your hand I there's lots of hands going up what what who shall I choose I'm going to choose you why don't you stand up Samantha it's good to see you that introduce us introduce yourself to us Samantha I'm Samantha great awesome Samantha were you listening to our new yes all right what is the name of James wife Heidi you are correct and you win an autographed CD from James congratulations and now would you please put your hands together as we welcome to the Twin Lakes stage after an absence of a few years during which he was busy let's welcome James Durbin again.

No use story far too well inside you burning love is no a cluster you don't even know yourself I see inside you fractured heart the piece together broken part was always in fear and now it's time you start where you are I'll be free.

Take me down there up in the wild. Take the home and make it right. 'Cause love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. The waves are running away. The world's painful things are there. Love is always meant for you. The chance you see is here. You're not alone. It's where you are. It's where I'll be. You're not alone. It's where I'll finally treat. Take me down there up in the wild. Take the home and make it right. 'Cause love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you.

Get a ratchet and spank your seat. Now we're in the wind between. 'Cause love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Whoa whoa whoa. The dawn's open night. You gotta take a moment. Make it right. Love is all I have for you. It's all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have. Get a ratchet and spank your seat. I'm so in the wind between. 'Cause love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you. Love is all I have for you.

Thank you. Whoo! Thank you so much. Hey, I want to mention that whether you're watching here in the auditorium or maybe in Munsky over in the venue service, James is going to be out at the grass in between these buildings here for kind of a meet and greet afterwards. You can chat with him, and it's going to be really a blast. He's a great guy, and it's been great to work with him on this weekend.

And also, I just want to add my personal thank you to every single person who worked so hard on the world's biggest garage. So what a weekend we have had here at Twin Lakes Church. We had more stuff than ever before. Literally, like Mark said at the beginning, we had probably a couple of thousand people just shopping at 8 a.m. yesterday. And what I love about it is the Bible says in Acts 2:45 that the early church sold some of their possessions from time to time and then gave the money to the poor, and that's exactly what we did because 100% of this goes to Second Harvest Food Bank. So once again, let's put our hands together. The superstars who work for the world's biggest garage sale. They're awesome. Fantastic.

Well, I want to invite you to grab your message notes, look like this. We are in our series Strong Grace, and that is a verse-by-verse look through the book of 2 Timothy in the Bible. And I just want to get you up to speed here because the context, the historical context, this was written and is so important to understand. It was one of the darkest times in Christian history. Jesus had been crucified about 30 years or so before this book was written, but then people had seen him alive again. And so everybody thought, now the kingdom of God will arrive. Peace and harmony and love is just around the corner. Instead, they got Nero and insanity and persecution as he literally lit Christians on fire for his garden parties in Rome.

And then the worst imaginable, the early church's leader, the apostle Paul, was about to be beheaded, and what was in store for the next 250 years, more bloody persecution. And Paul in prison sees all this coming. And so he dashes off his final letter just before he dies to Timothy, a young pastor at the strategic church in Ephesus, telling him to hang in there. Now, what in the world is Paul going to say? When it looks like all the wheels are coming off the bus, everything is falling apart. Well, if you've been following us in the series, you know that we need to know what he said to Timothy, because clearly it worked, whatever it was he said, because the Christians, despite, you know, a quarter millennium of persecution ahead for them, survived and thrived without resorting to violence, without even having political power.

And if the things that Paul said inspired them that way, they can inspire you no matter what you are facing. So this morning, briefly, let's talk about how to thrive spiritually, no matter what. Now, check this out. In the passage we look at today, Paul warns Timothy about the biggest threat to your spiritual life. And what do you think that is? Persecution? No. Temptation? No. You know what it is? It's simple distraction. Specifically, the subtle shift from God is more than enough to, "Am I doing enough?" Do you know what I mean? When you start out your Christian life, you are so stoked by God's amazing grace, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. God is more than enough for me, His grace is so lavish, but subtly your focus shifts to your performance.

You know, kind of like how James was talking about his first year after American Idol, kind of subtly your focus shifts from God to me and my performance, and it's that way with your spiritual life. Am I performing well enough? You know, is God noticing how hard I'm trying to be good? And what happens is it just kills you. It kills your spiritual life, it kills your joy, and I should know because it happened to me while I was a pastor. And Paul sees it happening to Timothy, happening in the early church. See, all this persecution was kind of making the early Christians do some weird stuff. First, it was making them get legalistic, and that means they were inventing all kinds of additional rules for them to follow.

I think the thinking was something like this. "While we're suffering, maybe that's because we're not holy enough. And so let's just get crazy holy. Let's start forbidding a lot of extra foods, and we'll forbid people to marry if they're super spiritual, and if they're married, we'll say that they can't make love to their husbands or wives, because that's more spiritual, and maybe the real spiritual people will go to live in monasteries up on rocks, and so God will think we're holier, so maybe we won't suffer as much." And they even started to invent new stories about Jesus. And tell me if you see something similar about these new stories.

For example, they invented new stories about the childhood of Jesus. And they said when Jesus was a child, he was so super powered that, for example, he made little clay pigeons, clay birds to play with, and then he made them come to life. And then a bully came along, and he stomped on Jesus' toys and kicked dust in them and broke them. And Jesus looked at the bully and said, "You shall die just as you crushed my toys." And boom, the bully dropped dead just like that. And then they told another story about when Jesus was in school, and one of his teachers bullied him, and Jesus stabbed his fingers, and the teacher dropped dead. Starting to see a similarity here.

Now, why do you think they would imagine these kinds of stories, making Jesus almost into this child superhero? Well, again, they were being bullied. They were being persecuted, right? And so they started to have all these revenge fantasies and these legalisms, and Paul kind of sees all this happening. He sees the persecution coming, and he sees the response that the early Christians are starting to have. And so he warns Timothy about that, and he says, "You've got to stay away from legalism and stay away from mysticism and come back to what it's all really about." He says, "Here's how to thrive spiritually. Jot this down. Number one, recharge with God's grace." Recharge with God's grace.

Look at chapter 2, verse 1, and this is really the theme verse to our series. Let me tell you something. This one verse is really the key to thriving in your spiritual life. If you could only memorize one verse, memorize this one. Let me hear you read this out loud with me. Here we go. "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Now, you've got to check this out. This is so awesome. The command here is to be strong, right? But the Greek verb here is actually in the passive voice, so it's more accurately translated, "Let yourself be strengthened," or "Be empowered." In other words, you don't get strong by trying harder to be a good Christian, obeying more rules and being crazy holy. You relax and you let God strengthen you.

Example, let me tell you about the day I almost drowned. I was at Torrey Pines State Beach down in San Diego. Anybody ever been down at Torrey Pines Beach? You know, it's famous for rip currents, right? Well, I was the youth pastor on one of my first trips to the beach with a high school group, and I'd been in the ocean here more times than I could count. I'd seen warning signs for rip currents, but this time it got me, and nothing worked. I was being swept further and further out to sea. I could feel my strength giving out, and then another swimmer floats past me, and you know, I've heard the term "panic" thrown around. Oh, stop panicking. But I had never before actually seen someone panic, and this person was really clinically panicking, and he was just freaking out, screaming like, "Ah! Ah! Ah! Get around! Get around!" and just flailing around like crazy.

I was trying to float on my back, you know, kind of trying to stay calm, and he was just screaming and shouting, and I was wondering, "What are we going to do?" And then suddenly our savior appeared. It was the lifeguard who, like, came out of nowhere, appeared right next to me, must have been watching us from the lifeguard station, and swam out to us, and I kid you not, this San Diego lifeguard sounded just like Crush the Turtle in Finding Nemo. He looks at us, but instead of saving me, because I'm thinking, "Good, I'm saved," he looks at me and he goes, "Dude, are you okay with floating on your back for a while? Because this other dude's totally freaking out." And I said, "Uh, sure, dude."

And the lifeguard goes over to the other guy, and you know what he did next? Nothing. The other guy's still panicking, "Ah! Ah! It's flailing!" And the lifeguard is just treading water, just watching him, until the guy just starts to kind of lose strength, and then he goes, "Relax, dude, and just let me tow you in." And he puts his flotation device around his chest, and just kind of swims in, and meanwhile I'm floating my back going, "Oh, man, I hope he comes back soon." And before I know it, he's back for me, and he says the same thing, "Just relax, dude, and let me do the work." Now, what happened next? I will tell you the rest of the story in a few minutes. Spoiler alert, I did survive. I did not die that day.

But listen, Paul is basically saying the same thing to Timothy here. He's saying, "Stop thrashing around. Legalism, secret formulas, mystical new stories about Jesus." He's saying, "Let yourself be empowered by what? The grace that is in Christ Jesus." Now, Paul talks about this a lot, so this is important to define. What does this mean? Question, anyone here love the band You Too? Anybody love the... I love You Too, and I read an interview with their lead singer, Bono, the other day. Now, this was not a religious interview. This was in a secular rock magazine, but Bono's very open about his faith, and so that's got to be part of most interviews with him, and so the reporter asks him about his Christianity.

And listen, this is an exact word-for-word quote from the interview. Bono says, "Well, at the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and yet, along comes this idea called grace to upend all that, which in my case is very good news indeed because I'd be in big trouble of karma, we're going to finally be my judge." I love that. He says, "I'm holding out for grace that Jesus took my sins onto the cross." And at this point, the interviewer interrupts because I think he was getting uncomfortable. He kind of laughs and he says, "I wish I could believe that," and Bono interrupts back, and he says, "Well, the point is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that our sinful nature doesn't reap death." That's the point. It's not our good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

And he goes on to say that that's what motivates him to do all the good works that he does do, not that they're going to get him into heaven, but he's motivated to do them because God has lavished his grace on him. I love that because he has it exactly right. When you get that you can be weak, you can just let go like that lifeguard told me on the other swimmer too and just rely on Jesus to haul you into shore. When you get that God loves you that much that he gave his one and only son to come and be your savior, your lifeguard, and that if he gave you that, how will he not graciously give you all the things that you need? It just fuels you.

And that's why Paul says the second thing you need to do if you want to thrive spiritually is keep retelling that story. Retell the story of grace. I love this. Verse 2, very simple. He says, "And so the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others." He's saying, "Timothy, listen, you don't have to invent new things. Just that great story of how Jesus the lifeguard plopped in next to you when you were drowning and saved you, you just keep retelling that story to other people and then they'll retell that story to others. You don't need new prophecies or teaching. You just keep retelling that story." And that's how lives are changed.

Let me tell you a fascinating story. And listen, you are in this story. So listen to this. On July 1st, 1885, this young shoe salesman, Ed Kimball, shares his faith with another employee at the Boston shoe store where he works. He said later, "I don't remember a thing I said." But that other shoe salesman becomes a Christian based on what he hears. That shoe salesman's name is Dwight Moody. And Moody decides to start a Christian school in Chicago. Well, one day a man named F.B. Meyer visits that school, gets inspired, starts a college Bible study after he becomes a Christian, and at the college Bible study he shares his story with a student named Wilbur Chapman.

And Wilbur Chapman finds Christ, and one day Chapman's volunteering for the rescue mission in downtown Chicago and part of his volunteering, he's just a college student, is he's actually preaching on a street corner in the seedy neighborhood in Chicago. And along comes this rowdy group of Chicago White Sox baseball players who on their day off decided to go bar hopping and they come over to the street preacher just to make fun of him, right? But what he says kind of clicks from one of the ball players who becomes a Christian and actually leaves pro baseball in a couple of years to become a preacher, and his name was Billy Sunday.

Well, one day Billy Sunday is preaching, and a totally rebellious teenager who's into baseball shows up to hear him, and he said later that he and his buddy showed up just to mock him. Well, something that Billy Sunday says kind of rings true in the heart of this teenager, and the teenager goes forward at this tent meeting to accept Christ, and you might know his name, it's Billy Graham. Well, one day decades later, when Billy Graham is an old man doing one of his final evangelistic campaigns on television, a young boy in Australia who was born with severe birth defects is thinking of committing suicide that day.

And he decides, you know what, before I go through with it, I'm going to watch Billy Graham on TV just to kind of see if God has some final words of hope for me. And he hears how much God loves him, and he commits his life to Jesus, and that boy's name is Nick Wojcikic. And despite being born without any arms or legs, Nick has since then preached to millions across the planet, and some of you have been touched by him sitting in this room because Nick came and preached a couple of years ago at our sister church, Gateway Church, in Scotts Valley, and some of you were there and heard him, and I know that to be true, because a man named, a young man named Nick Krivelli came up to me after the service last night, and he said, "I was there at that service when Nick Wojcikic preached, and I became a Christian at that service." And so it ends with you, but it's all a story that you can trace back to a shoe salesman whose name almost nobody remembers named Ed Kimball.

That's exactly what Paul is talking about here. You tell one person, they tell somebody else, they tell somebody else, and what happens is the message expands exponentially. Never think your story won't make a difference because you are part of a much, much bigger picture that God is writing. You just tell the story of Jesus. And what are the essentials of the story? Paul says, "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel." It's very simple. Remember Jesus, raised from the dead, because when he's risen, he gives you power and hope, and descended from David. That means he is the Messiah, the Christ. Paul says, "This is my gospel, Jesus risen, Messiah. This is my story. This is my focus. This is my narrative."

His gospel wasn't the gospel of trying harder. His gospel wasn't the gospel of judging others. His gospel wasn't the gospel of, "I'm better than you." His gospel, the good news is God loves us so much, He sent Jesus the risen Lord, who is so awesome. And that is why you need to point three, resist distractions from grace. And Paul fires off three quick examples when he says, "You gotta resist distractions from this really amazing message." He's getting so excited here. He goes, "Timothy, it's kind of like a soldier. It's kind of like being an athlete. It's kind of like a fire. Well, it's kind of like all three of these things." And he starts off with soldier. He says, "It's kind of like being a soldier who stays on mission." Verse three, "Join with me in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus."

By the way, first of all, that means we're in a battle, okay? We're in a battle. Don't get surprised if people take shots at you sometimes. No soldier, you know, on the front lines comes running back to his commanding officer going, "Oh, there's people out there who don't like us." Yes, you are in a war, all right? But he says, "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." I want you to circle great words there. "Gets entangled." I love this because most of us here in America are not getting persecuted in the way these Roman Christians were, but our danger is this subtle trap. Don't get entangled with the ways of the world.

Now, watch this because I know how some of you are going to take this. "Oh, right. René said, 'Don't get entangled in the things of the world.' And that means when you leave church today, don't buy drugs and don't see prostitutes and all those worldly things." Well, yes, those things are stupid. They are bad. They're stupid. But Paul is saying, actually, the schemes of your enemy are far more subtle than that, far more subtle. Don't get entangled in the things of the world that will distract you from a simple focus on God and His grace. And that includes being worried and caught up with your status or your achievements or your accomplishments or all the busy things that can distract you and entangle you.

He says, "Stay on your commander's objective." Which, by the way, if Jesus Christ is your commander, what's His objective? The Great Commission, go into all the world and keep telling this story, and the Great Commandment, love God and love your neighbor, right? That's the commander's objective. Don't get distracted. And he says, "If you don't like the soldier thing, it's kind of like this. Be like athletes who stay on track, literally." Verse 5, he says, "Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete doesn't receive a victor's crown except by competing according to the rules." I heard a great preacher named Chris Brown say, "Can you imagine competing in the Olympics?" And he got the big oval, and he got nine guys lined up at the starting line of like the 400-meter race, and they're all lined up ready to run, and the gun goes off, and everybody runs this way. Boom! Except for you.

What you do is you turn on a 45-degree angle, and you run straight across the field as fast as you can, "Wahaha!" And you go over to the opposite side of the field, and you break the tape, and you start screaming, "I won! I beat all those world record holders because I broke the tape first!" And nobody in the crowd is cheering. They're all just looking at you like, "He is an idiot." You know? And you're jumping up and down. Bob Costas comes down and says, "Excuse me, sir. What have you done?" "I won! Broke the tape! New world record! Market! Numero uno!" And he says, "Sir, you need to actually stay in the lane markers as you run. You have just proven to the world you're a moron." You know, that would never happen, and yet Paul is saying, "You got to do that. You got to stay on track if you're an athlete." Why? Because the rules make the sport what it is, like baseball.

Any baseball fans here? Can I see a show of hands? What makes baseball the tradition that baseball fans love? The bases are always the same distance. There's always potentially three strikes and four balls to account. There's three outs and an inning. There's nine innings in a regular length game. Now, if you change the rules, if you go, "You know what? In this game, there's going to be seven innings, actually, and the ball's going to be bigger, and we're going to allow aluminum bats. After a while, that's not baseball anymore. It's another game. It's softball." And Paul is seeing these young Christians, and they're starting to change the rules. They're starting to change the story, and he's saying, "That's not baseball anymore. That's not Christianity anymore. That's another thing you're inventing out of whole class. You got to stay on track."

And then Paul goes, "If you're not into the soldier or the athlete thing, maybe you're more of a foodie kind of farmer's market type. Let's talk about how farmers stay committed to their field." Paul says, "The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops." Now, circle "hardworking farmer." What's a hardworking farmer do? Is this just a verse about trying harder, work harder? No. Can you imagine a farmer, overalls, John Deere hat, driving his tractor with his flannel shirt on, but he's just driving all over your neighborhood? Here he comes down your street. "Hello, everyone." He's working hard, but before you know it, he's stopping at your lawn, plowing a couple of rows. Then he drives over across the street to the neighbors, throws out some lettuce seeds, you know, just driving around. And what are you doing? "I'm a farmer." No, you're not. "Yes, I am. I'm wearing overalls, and I'm driving a green and yellow tractor, and I'm wearing a John Deere hat. I'm a farmer." No, you're not a farmer. A farmer is one who farms. You want to farm. You've got to stick to the farm if you want to grow crops.

And Paul is saying if you want to grow something spiritually, it doesn't happen if you go to church a little or pray before a meal a little bit. It takes persistence, focus, dedication to the same field. So do you see what these all three have in common? A soldier, an athlete, a farmer. I used to read this passage and get all guilty and think, Paul is trying to say, "You're not doing enough. You've got to try harder like an athlete, a soldier, a farmer." But this is not about trying harder, because you can try really hard and be totally off-mission. You can try really hard and be totally off-track. You can try really hard and be totally off the field. This is about staying focused on the objective, staying focused on God's grace.

Paul is in a prison cell knowing he's going to die, and he's just saying, "Timothy, stick to it. Stick on the mission objectives." And then finally he says, "Realize the power of grace." Paul is saying, "Timothy, I know you're probably getting bummed about me being in a prison cell about to be beheaded." I get it, but he goes, "Don't be too bummed, because is this going to stop the gospel? Not a chance." Verse 9, "And because I preach this good news, I'm suffering. I've been chained like a criminal, but the Word of God cannot be chained." Don't you love that? I'm in chains? God can't be chained. Listen, never let circumstances prevent you from living intentionally.

Look at what Paul says. "I'm willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen." Paul stays on mission even in prison. Don't ever let circumstances prevent you from staying on mission, living intentionally. Example, I mentioned Nick Voichkic, born without limbs. He's got an attitude like Paul here. He says, "If God doesn't give me the miracle, he's going to make me the miracle for somebody else. Just because I don't understand God's plans doesn't mean he is not with me." God is using my life as just one example of how God can use a man without arms and legs to be his hands and feet. In other words, I may be in chains, but God's not in chains.

And then Paul just goes on a riff. He goes, "This is a trustworthy saying. If we die with him, we'll also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he'll deny us." Now, hit the brakes for a second. That doesn't sound like grace. Well, that just means if we say no to him with our whole lives. If we say at the end of it all, if we say no to him, he will honor our choice. But it doesn't mean if in a moment of weakness you fail, you're lost forever because look at the very next line. But if we're unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

You know that lifeguard story? I did make it to shore safely. The lifeguard didn't drop me off 100 feet from shore and go, "Oh, you're probably good now. See you, dude." A lifeguard's job isn't done until you're all the way safely to shore. And Paul is saying, "Jesus isn't going to let you down. He's going to take you all the way into shore, even when you're weak." Now, I'll tell you something about that story that I'm kind of ashamed of. I got to shore and I stumbled to my feet and I saw my youth group starting to come toward me in the distance and I brushed the sand off and I just sort of hobbled over to my youth group and I never even turned to thank the lifeguard. I'll regret that for the rest of my life. Why? Pride? I was ashamed to admit in the presence of my youth group that I needed help swimming back to shore. Isn't that sick? But you know what? It's that same sick pride that keeps us from receiving the help from our ultimate lifeguard, Jesus Christ. I don't need no help. I can swim back to shore by myself. But Paul's saying, "No, from beginning to end, from start to finish."

Here's the bottom line. Circle back to verse 1. To really be strong enough in life, you've got to be strong in the grace that God gives you in Christ. It's not about your strength. It's about God's limitless, matchless, infinite, unimaginable strength alive in you because in that, all things are possible. In that, you can do all things. Put it this way. My strength comes from whose I am, not who I am. And so to Timothy and to you and me, Paul says, "God is up to something great. Just relax and let Him work through you by His grace available in Jesus." Let's pray about that together. Would you bow your heads with me?

Lord, today, we want to say we want to be strong, but not in religion, but in a relationship with you. Not in our attempt to earn salvation, but in your grace, in the fact that you're alive in me, empowering me, changing me from the inside out. And so, God, I just pray that if anybody is here today who has felt like they've been flailing and drowning in life and wants to say yes to you right now, I pray that some ill-founded pride wouldn't keep them from saying yes to their Savior Jesus who's right there with them, who's saying to them, "You're not alone. I'm right there next to you. Just relax and let me save you." I pray that they would just say to you, "Yes. Jesus, give me the kind of strength that I just heard about. I feel dead. I need a resurrection somehow. I need restoration. And so come and live in me." And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.