Endurance Testing
April 20, 2008
6If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed. 7Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in godliness, 8for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. 10For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
I Timothy 4:6-10
About a year ago, Molly and I were at one of her work functions and I was introduced to a spouse of one of her colleagues named Dave. Dave looked right at me and in all seriousness, he said, "Do you work out?" Now, when Molly heard that, she was trying to contain her laughter so much that she almost snorted her drink. But personally, I didn't see what was so funny. In fact, I thought Dave was kind of a smart guy. Apparently to him, I looked like I had the lean body of a runner. Unfortunately, I had to tell Dave the truth which is that the only time I run is when something is on fire, and even then, I run very reluctantly.
My guess is that unlike Dave, most of you in here have already figured out by looking at my manly physique that I'm not really the greatest athlete in the world. When God was passing out athletic ability, I think I was in the other room. Growing up, I wasn't just the last boy picked for the kickball team; I was the kickball. I played rec basketball for about five years and during that entire time, I don't think I ever made more than two points. Every time I got the ball, somebody stole it. I was so bad my team thought I was playing for the rival.
Now, you may think that was just an awkward phase. And maybe I have grown out of it. After all, it is true that just this past Friday morning, I played golf. And believe it or not, I shot a 70. Problem was that was just on the front nine. So, maybe things haven't changed that much. After years and years of disappointment, I've reconciled myself to the fact that I'm never gonna be a great athlete. It just ain't in the cards.
In our passage of Scripture for today from 1st Timothy, Paul compares the physical training of athletes to our development as Christians. But Paul claims that instead of training our bodies for an athletic event, we Christians should be training ourselves in godliness. It's an interesting idea, and it's one that I want us to spend some time thinking about this morning. It's particularly interesting when you look around and notice that most of you in here look like you're in about as good a shape as I am…or worse. So, Paul's suggestion that we need training isn't necessarily what we want to hear. In fact, I believe this advice from Paul violates several of our most beloved principles.
For starters, we like things easy. We don't really like to expend much effort to get the things we want. We'd rather have it handed to us on a silver platter. And you know just as well as I do, that here in America, that's what happens most of the time. We may think we've got it tough, but most of us are living on cloud nine compared to the rest of the world. Most of the world is digging through the trash looking for something to eat. Here in America, we're the ones piling up the trash.
Unfortunately, we've come to believe that we should get something for nothing. We're a culture of entitlement. We take it for granted that we should have the right to say what we want, the right to worship how we want, the right to bear arms, the right to a jury, the right to Social Security and Medicare, the right to a free education, the right to cheap gas, and the right to a McDonald's on every corner. Rarely, if ever, does it cross our minds that perhaps all these things we consider to be our rights are in actuality only the result of the particular time and place we find ourselves living.
The point is, we've got it easy. As Americans, we are born on day one with distinct privileges and advantages that we just take for granted. And because we've gotten so spoiled, we've fallen into the trap of believing that that's the way the world was meant to work. So what we do is we take that same philosophy and we apply to our faith. If we're entitled to all those other good things, it makes plenty of sense that we should be entitled in just the same way as Christians. If we can get healthcare and food and clean water without doing much, why shouldn't we be entitled to kindness and compassion and forgiveness without doing much?
It's a logical connection to make, and believe me, plenty of us have already made it. That's why we hear so many preachers today telling folks that church is easy. I've been on some church websites and in the visitor information, it actually says right there in print, "We want you to come be a part of our church. But we're not going to ask you to do anything. You don't have to sing or give any money. All you have to do is show up."
Now, my question is--What kind of message are we sending people by promising that you don't have to do anything to be a part of the church? You see, I think that we have become so desperate and so fixated on numbers that we are willing to compromise our entire purpose just to get warm bodies in the pews. So, let me speak a word of truth this morning…Being a Christian isn't easy. And I don't want anybody in this church, or any other church for that matter, thinking that all we have to do is just show up.
In this passage, Paul says that we have to train ourselves in godliness. In other words, if we really want to be like God, it's not gonna come easy. It's not just gonna magically happen because we show up. We've got to work for it. We've got to train. In this passage, Paul is challenging our sense of entitlement. Yes, it's true that when we accept Christ, something changes. But that's just the start of the race, not the finish. And I believe that too many times in the church today we think we've arrived at the finish line when we should still be training for the race ahead.
Any good athlete will tell you that the actual competition is only a small part of what they do. I read a story this week that said the average Olympic athlete trains four hours a day, 310 days a year, for six years before they succeed. Swimmers train an average of 10 miles a day. Marathon runners average 160 miles a week at 10 miles an hour. These athletes succeed not because they take their skills for granted, but because they understand the importance of training.
All of us have heard the old saying that "practice makes perfect." The problem is, we don't like to practice. And quite a few of us in here have realized that we're never going to be perfect, so we figure what's the point in even trying? I believe it was W.C. Fields who once said, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it."
Many of us in here can identify with that statement. We get so fixated on our potential for failure that we give up before we've even really gotten started. Oh, we tried to be nice once or twice back in the day, but it didn't work out, so we gave up on it. We read the Bible a couple of times when we were 12 but it didn't really grab us, so we quit. We tried listening to the sermon for a few weeks, but that preacher is just so boring, we couldn't take it anymore.
You see, another one of our unique traits in the church today is that we have very little endurance. We're fine in the short term, but we have trouble following through. As long as the work is easy, we're happy. But when the work becomes complicated or irritating or boring or repetitive, then we quit. We just don't have the long term perspective. We act as if we're in a hundred yard dash when in reality, we're running a marathon.
That's why so many people in the church today burn out. They get enthusiastic about a project and they pour all their time and energy into making it happen. And then, when it takes longer than anticipated or a problem arises, they don't have anything left in reserve and so they collapse.
Part of our training in godliness is learning how to pace ourselves. And I'm afraid that today we not only want things to come easy, but we also want them immediately. In our society, we're all about instant gratification. And so, we have a hard time slowing down and taking things step by step.
"Why are we doing all these renovations around here when what we really need is more people?" That's the perspective of a sprinter. But a long distance runner understands that in order to achieve bigger goals, we have to begin by meeting smaller goals. Becoming like Christ does not happen overnight. It is the culmination of many small decisions, made over the course of our lifetimes. And even then, most of us are still nowhere close to being where we should.
But Paul tells us that while we may never reach perfection in this world, training in godliness still has value. For one thing, our training in godliness prevents us from falling into profane myths and old wives tales. I know that some of y'all will hate to admit it, but we spend a lot of our time in church dealing with profane myths and old wives tales. We're focused on junk instead of the things that really matter. And it winds up hurting us. But Paul says that by training ourselves in godliness, we learn the difference between the things that are beneficial to us and the things that aren't.
In this race we're running as Christians, many of us have been hurt along the way because we weren't prepared for the journey. Any runner will tell you that they stretch before a race not primarily to win, but in order to prevent themselves from being injured along the way. Some of us in here bought into the profane myth that as Christians, we are somehow exempt from the same problems as everybody else. In some cases, it was our pastors who told us that once we became a Christian, everything would be okay. All those struggles we had before would just disappear.
So, we became a Christian. But instead of making life easier, it didn't take long for us to realize that in some ways, life was actually harder. We certainly didn't get a free pass from suffering just because we had accepted Christ. And so, because some of us had not trained to expect the pain, it nearly crippled us. Some of us have been hobbling around here for years because we just can't handle the constant wear and tear. When we were seven, being a Christian was all well and good. But now, that we're seventy-seven, we're getting a little tired. We've neglected our training and we've gotten so feeble that we're no longer even sure why we started this race to begin with.
But then we read this passage. And we get a reminder of why we're doing all this training. Paul tells us that we toil and struggle because we have our hope set on the living God. We're not just training for training's sake. We're training for a purpose. And we must continue our training in godliness not just because it will help us in this life, but because it will reward us in the life to come. Being a Christian isn't always easy. It's not always immediately gratifying. And there are plenty of us who have been hurt along the way. But the good news is, it's worth the struggle. And God is beside us on the journey. So, let's continue to train until we finish the race. AMEN