Well, we come close now to the end of a year.
The end of one year and the beginning of another reminds us that time is passing.
And as time passes, so does life, for time is life.
Roy Lauren, who for a number of years pastored the church of the Open Door in Los Angeles,
said, time is passing and you are passing out of time.
I believe that each of us needs to get a hold of that truth.
Time is precious because it is our lives we are dealing with.
So valuable is time that God gives only a moment of it at once, and He gives that moment
but once in all of eternity.
Perhaps one of the best steps that we can take is to listen intently to the last words
of others who have lived well and who, from their sunset perspective on life, can share
their insights regarding how to make the best use of time.
We need to learn how to manage this greatest and most precious of our resources.
A man that I would like to hear from is the Apostle Paul.
I invite you to turn with me to the book of 2 Timothy, the last of his inspired letters.
2 Timothy 4, the aged apostle is giving us some insights regarding life as he writes
to Timothy, his son in the faith.
He says, beginning in verse 6 of the fourth chapter, For I am already being poured out
as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the
righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have
loved his appearing.
A believer's priority must be to live wisely and thus to redeem his time.
It seems to me that the Apostle Paul's transparency as he approached the end of his own life instructs
us in how to live wisely.
He gives us at least four insights and lessons that follow from them.
Insight number one, his evaluation of life.
He says, I am already being poured out as a drink offering.
The lesson that I see here is this, wise living means learning to sacrifice my life.
Wise living means learning to sacrifice my life.
There may be many different ways to evaluate success or accomplishment in this world.
An artist has his portfolio, a business person his balance sheet, a soldier the brass that
he wears, student their grades, athletes have their RBI's or their yards rushing, politicians
the last election, educators tenure, a sales person his volume of sales, and all of those
are legitimate.
But apart from vocation, how does a Christian, whatever his vocation, measure success in
life?
How do we know when we have lived as best we could for the glory of God?
How do we measure what it means to live wisely?
Well, I believe the Apostle Paul would answer that this way.
He would say that a Christian lives wisely when his life has been poured out as a sacrifice.
Now the figure that the Apostle uses here is that of a libation or a drink offering.
These were usually measures of wine which were poured out around a burnt offering before
it's being consumed with fire.
For an example, turn into the Old Testament to the book of Numbers and look in chapter
15.
We'll begin reading in verse 4 of Numbers 15.
And the one who presents his offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering of one
tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one fourth of a hen of oil.
And you shall prepare wine for the libation, one fourth of a hen with the burnt offering
or for the sacrifice for each lamb.
So we see that in this offering, this burnt offering of a lamb, one fourth of a hen or
about two pints of wine, was poured out around the sacrifice as a drink offering.
Then down in verse 7, it mentions what should be done here.
For the libation you shall offer one third of a hen of wine as a soothing aroma to the
Lord.
And again in verse 10 he says, and you shall offer as the libation one half a hen of wine
as an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the Lord.
The idea seems to be that the larger the sacrifice that was to be burned, the more wine or drink
offering that was to be used.
These libations were always poured out entirely.
There was nothing reserved either for the offerer or for the priest who offered the
sacrifice for him.
The libation was wholly the Lord's.
I would suggest to you that that is what Paul has in mind when he says that he is being
poured out as a drink offering.
He is saying I am entirely and wholly being given to the Lord for His ministry.
And that application is for you and myself.
We are encouraged to present ourselves as a sacrifice, as a drink offering in this text,
given entirely and wholly for the Lord, reserving nothing for ourselves.
And it said there in Numbers that this sacrifice of the libation was a soothing aroma to the
Lord.
That is an Old Testament way of saying that it well pleased the Lord.
As he looked upon that sacrifice, he found delight and joy in receiving it.
And I would follow through by saying that as you and I give ourselves as a sacrifice,
that is well pleasing to the Lord as well.
Only one other time did Paul talk in these same terms, and that is back in Philippians
chapter 2.
This was written a few years before the passage in 2 Timothy.
And he says in verse 17 of Philippians 2, but even if I am being poured out as a drink
offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with
you all.
Now there is a condition here because Paul is not sure to the extent to which he is going
to be poured out.
At this point, when he writes 2 Timothy, he knows that death is close.
But you see the figure is the same.
He sees himself being poured out, his life being offered entirely and wholly to the Lord
as a sacrifice.
My point is this, wise living means learning to see life as a voluntary sacrifice, wholly
giving oneself to the Lord as an act of worship.
And why?
For the sake of others.
If you and I could get a hold of that, it would change some of the marriages in our
church.
For both a husband and wife would view their role as that of sacrificing for the other.
There are some brothers and sisters who would get along a whole lot better in the home.
If only they would understand that as far as their life is concerned, it should be counted
as a sacrifice for the sake of others, giving on their account.
The same would be true of friendships.
It would be a whole lot happier if the two people involved in that relationship would
see their role as giving for the advance of the other person.
And likewise, whatever ministry God gives to us would be more fulfilling if instead
of trying to get as much as we can from it, we rather look upon it wholly as a sacrifice
to Him.
It is impossible for you and myself to offer ourselves as a sacrifice without it costing
us something, perhaps even something dearly.
There is no such thing as a comfortable sacrifice.
A sacrifice means that I give and it hurts or it costs.
The Apostle Paul was in the midst of suffering.
He was imprisoned in the Mamertine prison in Rome, a despicable, hideous place to keep
someone.
How long he was there we do not know.
But he was not released from that suffering except through his own martyrdom, and that
was the end of his drink offering sacrifice.
Wise living means learning to see life as a sacrifice for the sake of others.
It is faithful service for their advancement, the giving of myself that they may be forwarded
in their walk with God in their understanding of Jesus Christ.
This flies in the face of the world's idea of success.
The world says, get and accumulate as much as possible in your life.
But the Bible says that we are to give as much as possible in life and even give our
very lives themselves, if necessary to the point of martyrdom, for the cause of Jesus
Christ and the sake of others.
Do you want to listen to that kind of advice?
Well, that is what the aged Apostle has to say if we want to live wisely.
Now, there is a second insight that he gives in his transparency.
It is his anticipation.
And from this, too, we derive a lesson.
His anticipation is found in the last part of verse 6, where he says, the time of my
departure has come.
The lesson is this.
Wise living means knowing its limitation, knowing that life is limited.
We are not permanent fixtures on the scene of history.
We are mortal and limited to one lifetime, and then we are gone.
Life is limited in its duration.
It does not go on and on and on.
Paul recognized that soon he would depart from the world.
The word that he uses there, departure, is used only here in the whole New Testament.
There is a special kind of word that literally means to lift up or to loosen.
It was used in that day in commerce, especially by ships, when they were loosed from their
moorings, the ropes that held them, and allowed to go to sea.
It was a word that was used in the military of that day by the soldiers, striking their
tents and moving on to a new location.
It was a common euphemism even then for death.
Paul says, I am about to strike my earthly tent, my body, and to move on to my heavenly
home.
He says, I am about to be loosed from those ropes that tie me to the earth, and be allowed
to depart and to be with Christ, which he says in the book of Philippians is far better.
Now, what kind of an impact did this knowledge have in Paul's life?
Well, notice it did not create fear.
He did not suddenly panic because he knew his departure was near.
Rather it served to motivate him to live wisely.
He anticipated the inevitable, and he planned his life accordingly.
You and I do not like to talk about death.
In fact, in our society we do everything we can to not face the fact of death.
The death is inevitable unless the Lord comes first.
A hundred years from now all of us will be in a grave somewhere in the world if Christ
does not return before then.
As we said here a year ago before starting 1984, there were people who were sitting here
who are now gone, who have gone to be with Christ.
Death is inevitable.
And so what you and I are going to do for Jesus Christ we had better do today because
we are not guaranteed tomorrow.
If there is some witness we intend to give, we had better plan to give it soon.
If there is some sacrifice we intend to make for the Lord's sake, we had better do it
now.
If there is an apology another person needs to receive from us, we had better get on the
phone and do it.
If there is restitution that needs to be made with someone or an employer, now is the time
to take care of that.
Wise living means that I understand that life has its limits and that I am not around here
forever.
I think it is important that as early as possible each of us establish some life objectives
to determine what we want to do in this world.
It is not long as you grow up before you realize you are not going to be able to do everything.
As a child you have the luxury of being able to say, when I grow up I am going to be a
cowboy and then the next day say, when I grow up I am going to be a doctor because it does
not make any difference as a child.
But you cannot do that when you grow up.
You cannot change your mind that often.
I have a relative who tried to do it and he was in his mid-forties before he ever settled
down to an occupation and stuck with it.
It went from one thing to the next to another and then another and it took a toll on him
and his family.
You and I need to establish what we before God wish to accomplish in this world and do
that as early as we can in our lives.
Those may not be fixed in cement.
Ten years from now we may feel differently about them and adjust those objectives.
But somewhere we need to decide what we are going to do in the next 20 years or 40 years
should the Lord tarry and our lives last that long.
And once we have those objectives set then we can start making goals.
Goals that will get us eventually to our objectives so we can achieve as many of them as possible
and not waste time.
Because when we waste time we are wasting our lives and we cannot reclaim that.
Wise living means knowing its limitation.
Knowing that it is brief at best.
Whatever we are going to do in this world we had better get at it.
Not in a panic.
Not in fear.
But simply facing the reality that we are only going to be here for a short period of
time.
Now if we are going to live wisely as we enter the new year we need to look at the third
insight that Paul shares with us in his transparency.
It's in verse 7, his reflection.
The apostle reflects here upon his life and he says, I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the course.
I have kept the faith.
Here's the lesson that I see from this insight.
It is that wise living means discerning its nature.
Understanding what life really is.
From his aged perspective the apostle Paul sees life in three different roles in verse
7.
He sees it first in the role of a soldier.
Then he sees it in the role of an athlete and finally as a steward.
As a soldier he says, the good struggle I have struggled.
That word for fight or struggle is the root of our word for agony.
He's talking here about something that was painful.
There was hardship involved or conflict.
Some people have the idea that the Christian life is supposed to be a bed of ease.
A garden of roses that we walk through.
Hardly.
The apostle Paul understands an important perspective on life that we need to get a
hold of and that is the Christian life is a battle my friend and we are soldiers in
it.
The apostle does not limit this metaphor to his last few words.
Go back again to Philippians chapter 1 and notice verses 29 and 30.
He says to these Philippians, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only
to believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake.
What does he mean by suffering?
He goes on to explain in verse 30.
Seeing the same conflict, there's the same word, the same struggle, the same agony which
you saw in me and now hear to be in me.
At this time Paul was imprisoned in Rome as well in an earlier imprisonment than when
he wrote 2 Timothy.
He says you are going to experience agony and struggle and conflict.
We certainly err when we tell new converts that if they accept Christ their life is going
to be alright from then on.
Certainly in some respects that is true.
But in another respect it is not true because when one accepts Jesus Christ he begins to
walk then counter to the direction of the world and he places himself in the enemy's
camp as far as Satan is then concerned and the battle is on.
That is why the apostle says again to his beloved son in the faith Timothy in 1 Timothy
chapter 1 and verse 18, this command I entrust to you Timothy my son in accordance with the
prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you might fight the good fight.
And then again in chapter 6 and verse 12 of the same book he says fight the good fight
of faith.
Oh my friend do not be naive about the Christian life.
Do not expect that it's going to go well every day that you're out there in the work world.
Do not expect that all people are going to stand up and applaud when you attempt to live
for Jesus Christ.
Indeed expect just the opposite.
Do not expect them to understand, to appreciate or to love you.
The Christian life is a battlefield.
This last week I saw a shepherd boy on one of the news programs.
This boy was shepherding some sheep in his homeland of Afghanistan when he picked up
what looked like a stone but was actually a butterfly bomb which has been dropped by
the Russians.
These bombs have been strewn throughout the hills of Afghanistan.
They look innocent enough but when one picks them up they explode in the hand.
They're not intended to kill only to seriously maim and it worked well in the shepherd boy
as his hand was swollen and gashed and he walked ten days to find a doctor to give him
some treatment.
It was an awful injury.
Do not think that as you walk out there in the world that everything is wonderful and
that there is no battle.
Quite the opposite.
There are hidden devices out there of the enemy to trip you up, to maim you, to injure
you, to make you ineffective in your Christian walk.
There are some Christians who are skipping through life naively not recognizing that
the world is an enemy.
We're not in a game.
The world is an enemy and while we love the world for Christ's sake and even as God has
loved the world and given His Son, at the same time He recognized that that world system
which holds in His capture the world population, that world system is our enemy and we are
at war.
That is an important perspective to gain on life if you're going to live wisely.
But then the apostle sees life also as an athlete.
He says, the course I have finished or literally the foot race I've completed.
He says, I've arrived at the goal.
Earlier as the apostle spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, he used a similar
phrase, except there of course he put it differently because he was still quite involved in ministry.
He says, I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself in order that I
may finish my foot race, my course.
But now as he writes this letter to Timothy, he's finished that course.
His foot race is over.
The apostle sees life here as a contest.
You see competition invigorates and stimulates us.
Only don't misunderstand him.
He is not saying that you and I are in a contest against other people in our Christian walk.
That is not the idea.
Rather we are in a contest to accomplish the will of God for our own lives.
You and I cannot know personal fulfillment unless we know the will of God in our lives.
The apostle is saying here, I have fought, I rather I have run the foot race.
I have arrived at the goal.
I have experienced the course laid out for me by the will of God.
The writer to Hebrews puts it just a little differently and yet certainly within the same
metaphor when he says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding
us, that is those in chapter 11 who live by faith, let us also lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us.
And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
What does he mean fixing our eyes on Jesus?
Where is Jesus?
Jesus is standing at the goal line.
He is down there where we are to finish, where the foot race ends.
And he says, I fix my eyes on him down there and I run with endurance and I lay aside the
weights and the sins which encumber so that I can run successfully.
Do you see life that way?
Are you walking in the will of God for you?
Are you on the course?
Are your eyes fixed on Jesus at the end of your race?
And finally, he sees life from the standpoint of a steward.
He says, the faith I am keeping.
He actually changes the tense here.
He says, I am keeping it.
I mean, even to this point, he is doing that.
He is remaining faithful and true to the faith, that is the truth, about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says, I see life as a steward.
I have been given a responsibility to fulfill.
And he says, I am doing that.
It's as though he sees life as a contract between himself and his Lord.
And that contract calls for him, Paul, to do certain things, including preserving, keeping,
guarding the faith, keeping it free from apostasy and from error.
And he says, I have kept.
I am keeping the faith.
Do you see life as a stewardship?
Do you see the responsibilities God has given to you, the spiritual gifts He has entrusted
to you?
And are you in light of that then, being a faithful steward?
If you and I are going to live wisely, we have to discern life's true nature.
It's not an opportunity to live as we please, to accumulate personal wealth or fame or power.
It is a conflict in which we are assigned as soldiers in God's army.
It is a contest in which we are the participants and can gain eternal awards to glorify Christ.
It is a contract in which we are charged stewards with a definite responsibility to keep and
spiritual abilities to develop and to invest.
It is not a few meaningless years that are wrapped up between two dates on a gravestone.
But life is a span of time during which we can live for the glory of God and make a difference
in the lives of others.
And in another sense, it is a period of preparation for our eternal destiny.
So if you and I are going to live wisely, as I trust we want to do in coming into the
New Year, let's learn this lesson from Paul and discern what life really is all about.
And then finally we see this insight from Paul's transparency in verse 8.
He says, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord
the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who
have loved his appearing.
There he gives us the insight of his expectation.
And the lesson is this, that why is living means focusing on the future.
Now there are several options that people can take at this point.
We can focus, for example, on nothing and live life.
And in doing that we waste it.
We drift through it without purpose and consequently without fulfillment.
We can focus on the past, but that too is a waste.
It results in our living in a dream world wishing for the good old days, which were
probably not so good anyway.
We can focus on the present, but it seems to me that leads to short-sighted decisions.
It makes us a part of the now generation looking for quick schemes to be happy, get rich, and
have fun, living as though there's no tomorrow.
Or we can focus on the future, as it seems to me the apostle is doing.
Now that can be dangerous too if one doesn't adequately deal with the present.
It seems to me that the best of the options is to live in the present with a focus on
the future.
Now, what did Paul see in his future?
Well, he says in the future something's going to happen.
He said there's a day.
What day is it?
A particular day, the day of the rapture, the day when he is to be rewarded at the judgment
seat of Christ.
He says in that day, the Lord will award me.
In other words, the Lord would examine his life how wisely he had lived and would give
him commensurate reward.
Wise living, folks, involves the long-distance vision and perspective on life's opportunities,
its problems, its disappointments, and its successes.
If I focus on the disappointment of today without taking in mind the longer focus of
things, then I'm going to be miserable.
If I live only in the success of the moment and revel in it without taking the longer
distant view, then I'm going to waste that opportunity of success.
I'd like you again to turn to the book of Hebrews, this time to chapter 11.
As we read through just some verses in the chapter, I want you to keep in mind what we're
talking about.
The wise living means focusing on the future.
And notice how many of these people listed in Hebrews 11 did exactly that.
We'll begin in verse 7 with Noah.
By faith, Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark.
What did he do?
He looked into the future to see what was coming, and in light of that judgment, he
did what God told him to do, prepared the ark.
Verse 8, by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was
to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.
By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land dwelling
in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for
the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.
Come to verse 13, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having
seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were
strangers and exiles on the earth.
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own,
and indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would
have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a
heavenly one.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for
them.
Now what about these patriarchs that are mentioned in the previous verses?
They died without receiving, tangibly, what they had been promised.
Abraham had been given that land, but he lived there like an exile, not the owner.
He lived in tents, not a house.
What about Abraham?
He had the long-distance vision.
He looked into the future.
He saw the fulfillment of the promises, and therefore God was not ashamed to be called
his God, because he had that vision.
He was focused on the future.
Going down to verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau even regarding, what?
Things to come.
You see Isaac with that same focus?
Verse 22, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the Exodus of the sons of
Israel.
What Exodus?
The one that happened hundreds of years later, and he gave orders concerning his bones.
What about his bones?
He said, don't you leave them in Egypt.
He says, I want you to take me up there and bury me in Canaan.
Why?
Because he knew in the future that was going to be the place of blessing.
You see he was focused on the future when he died.
Going down to verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
He wasn't focused on what he could have just then, the now generation, considering the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to
the reward.
And finally, down in verse 35, women received back their dead by resurrection, and others
were tortured not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.
So what about those who were tortured and died in that torture, when they could have
been released, if only they would have recanted?
Tomorrow night in the film of John Huss, you will see an example of a man who lived 600
years ago and was faithful even at the stake where he was burned to death.
And the same thing was in mind.
He could have recanted, been released, but rather he looked to the future and had the
same thought in mind as did these, he might obtain a better resurrection.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the point is clear, that if you and I are going to live
wisely, it means that we live in the present for sure, but our focus is the future.
The future, we can say it a different way.
We live in the present and we live by faith.
For living by faith means focusing on the promises of God and the future.
The Apostle Paul says, I'm looking forward to that.
That was his expectation.
He expected a Stephanos of righteousness.
That was a victor's crown, a garland of pine or wild olive which was placed upon the
heads of those who won the Greek games.
Paul uses that figure and he says, I'm going to receive a crown of righteousness because
I have expected the coming of Christ and have lived focused on the future.
Our suffering and sacrifice, our hard work, our faithfulness, the reproach that we may
bear, all of that is worthwhile because we focus on the future by faith.
That's wise living.
Now if in fact you desire to live wisely and not as a fool, learn the lessons that the
Apostle shares with us from his perspective on life.
What changes do you need to affect in your life as you enter 1985?
I care not how you may have lived the past.
What's in the past?
You can't be focused on that.
If there have been accomplishments in the past, praise God.
If there have been failures in the past, then thank God you're past those.
But recognize that tomorrow is here.
It is a new page for you.
And now today is the opportunity for you to say, I am going to live wisely.
I may have a day.
I may have 20 years.
I may have 50 years.
But whatever I have in the will of God, I want to live it as best I can.
I want to live wisely.
Now what do you need to do to make that true?
What changes do you need to affect in the decisions that you make, in the things that
you do, the habits that you have, the way that you give, in the company you keep, in
your commitments?
What changes do you need to affect to live wisely in 1985?
Let's bow together.
Father, we today would learn from the Apostle Paul, and I trust that we will not be hearers
of his counsel, but doers of it, that we might be those who would live wisely as we enter
the new year.
And whatever changes need to be made, whatever decisions need to be made, I pray that you
will show those to us right now in the sanctuary of our own hearts.
And may we have the humility and the faith and the obedience to follow through with what
you say to us.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.