Introduction: The Importance of This Message

Open your Bibles to First Timothy chapter 4. First Timothy chapter 4. For the end of the year, I think this is a really important message that you need. If you are a Christian, or if you want to be a Christian, if you’re saying, “I want to be saved. I want to live this life for God and be with him in the next,” you need to embrace what I’m going to tell you in this message. This is not optional. And you’re going to be going into a summer where this needs to be on your mind.

It’s not an overstatement. You’re going to see at the end Paul says this is a trustworthy statement. What I’m going to tell you is trustworthy and it needs to be what your life is devoted to. And if your life is devoted to something else, you need to recognize that. Come to grips. Say, “I am not living for the Lord.”

Reading the Passage (1 Timothy 4:7b-9)

So before we get started on the sermon, I want to read the passage together. This is Paul talking to his child in the faith, the one who he told to put the church in order, to appoint leaders, to be an example to them, preach the word. He’s talked about what the church is, talked about how we must be in the church. And then this is the first command that he gives to Timothy. He’s been talking for three chapters about good things. But then he says, Timothy, here’s what you must do. And let’s read it together. He says, “Timothy, train yourself for godliness. For bodily training is of some value, but godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come.” The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. We should listen to it.

The Athlete Analogy: Dedication and Training

So before we get into unpacking this verse, I want to ask you all, how many here are athletes? How many here play a sport? Yeah, you don’t have to play it well. You just play. How many of you are on a team? How many of you play a sport? Quite a few of you. How many of you guys watch sports? I watch sports, and one of the things that we love to watch in sports is elite athletes doing elite things. Alex talked about this. Remember what he said about Usain Bolt, was it? He trained four years to run 9 seconds. Remember he no milkshakes, all that stuff that he talked about? We’ll be talking about that.

But what are some of your favorite athletes? Raise your hand if you have a favorite really good athlete. The athlete who you think is the best at something. We’ll just go around. David? Dennis Gard. Dennis Gard. He is a captain for the Arizona Cardinals on defense. Defensive. Uh he’s a linebacker. That’s right. Alex? Yes. Faker from Okay. What does Faker do? All right. Captain of the mid lane. Okay. What do you got? League of Legends. Okay. You know what? This counts. We could do esports. The illustration holds. Phelps. Michael Phelps. I finally one that I know. Michael Phelps. Elite. Elite swimmer. Riley. Oh, yeah. Riley Gaines. Swimmer. And uh got Yeah, that was cheating. Go ahead. All right, guys. Let’s go for like the best of the best. I’m thinking like I don’t know who these people are. Let’s not say LeBron James. He is clearly not… Edwards. Anthony Edwards. That’s a good one. We’ll go there. Tom Brady. That’s great. Kiki, what do you got? Yeah, there’s There we go. We got a good sport. Let’s hear some others. Kobe Bryant. That is an excellent pick. He is perhaps the best one we’ve heard so far. Simone Biles. Simone Biles.

So, think of all these names. These are people that we know because they stand out. They’ve done something elite. Why? Why are they elite athletes? What’s happened in them? There was some genetic gifting, right? It doesn’t matter how hard I work, I won’t be able to be an elite swimmer or know I might be okay at it. I might be better than I was, but I won’t be able to be elite. All of these people have some genetic inherent gifting that makes them really good. But they can’t just go out there. There’s athletes who have that genetic gifting, right? They run a 4.3 at the combine, a 4.2 something. For those of you don’t know, that’s really really fast. And they just coast and they don’t make it. They’re not great.

And then you have somebody we’ve heard some names. Dennis Gard is actually a great example, elite, but there’s nothing… He’s about my size. He looks like me and he’s playing in the NFL, captain of the Cardinals. Why? Why are guys like Kobe Bryant, uh, whoever plays esports, other people, why are they so great? They’re devoted to their craft, right? They take an ability and then they live for it. Kobe Bryant, he would regularly—he wouldn’t stay out late. His teammates go party. He would say, “No, I’m going back. I’m going to sleep because I’m getting up at 4 to open the gym.” When he died on his helicopter, it was because he had a workout in the morning. He had to get across town and get back for his other workout. He wasn’t even an athlete. He wasn’t even in the NBA at that point. He was still that devoted to being an amazing athlete, to beating his body and saying, “I want my body to be the very best that it possibly can.”

Training for the Moment: Temporary Glory

These athletes train their entire life. And some of you guys are athletes. You’re not elite, but you’re pretty good. If you’re in season, you’re thinking your whole life, your schedule, what you do is swirling around and it’s adjusted by when your practice is, uh what you can eat to play well, when you need to get your sleep. You need to practice. You need to get out there on the field hitting. You need to practice your free throw shot, your three-pointer. You need to practice sprinting. If you’re a sprinter, you need to get out there and get to peak performance for the season. Everything that you’re doing is aiming at performing well, right?

Why was Kobe Bryant great? He dreamt when he was on the free throw line. Michael Jordan said the same thing, free throw line or three-point line at the end of the game, right? Free throw line down by one, two free throws. He knew he was going to make them because how many times had he already done that in his mind? What’s some other illustrations like baseball? What do you dream about in baseball, Emmett? Like what would set somebody apart as the best of the best? This is what they go to sleep dreaming about and say, “Man, if I could be in that position.” You have like .300. So crazy batting average, which is consistency across a whole season. And then imagine that guy bottom of the ninth, down by three, bases loaded, right? That’s the kind of stuff you dream about, right? You have three guys on base, you’re up, you hit a home run, grand slam, you win. You fly out, you lose, right? These are the kinds of things that make athletes great and they train their whole life for those moments.

And think about it, the very best of the best athletes. Some of you guys named silly guys. Some of you guys named like Tom Brady. How many Super Bowl rings does he have? Seven. Seven. That sounds right. Is it six? Seven. Something like… Is it seven? It’s a lot. It’s a lot. Will that matter very much in a hundred years? In a thousand years? Michael Phelps, does he have more gold? More medals than almost anybody else or more medals than anybody else? Right. More medals than most countries have. This one guy has. He is elite for his whole life. How did he get there? Well, first he was born. He has all the genetic gifting. He’s got these ginormous hands and his arms hang down to his legs. But he would go to the pool every day, hours and hours and hours. And he would swim to win. Everything he ate was saying, “How can I be the best swimmer I could possibly be?” His schedule was saying, “How can I be the best swimmer I could possibly be?” His bedtimes were saying, “How could I be the best swimmer he could possibly be?” His time in the gym, every single thing that he did was, “How could I be the best I could possibly be?” And he made it. He made it. He won more medals like Carol said than most countries have. And in 10,000 years, it won’t matter.

The Christian Life as a Race or Fight

What I hope we learn today is that we should take the example of these athletes who give their everything, their whole life to be great, and that we try even harder for something much greater. Guys, this is something that you must—this isn’t just pulpit talk. This isn’t just something Jake says. This is the truth. This is what God’s word is putting forth to you as eternally important. So listen.

The Bible describes the Christian life often like a sports event. Alex gave some of those examples. You might know some of them. What are some of the illustrations that you know of in the Bible that the Bible uses to talk about the Christian life like a sporting event? A race. Yeah, Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 9:26. We actually, when Alex is talking about he doesn’t run aimlessly, or Philippians 3, he presses on for the prize that comes with persevering in faith. This is Paul. He presses on like a runner would. At the end of his life, Paul said he’s finished the race. He’s kept the faith. What else? Yeah, Alex. Yeah, a boxing match. I was in the same verse, Alex. He doesn’t box like a shadow boxer. Like you just hit the air, you know, you’re about to be in the ring and if you don’t box well, you’re going to get knocked out. Paul at the end of his life said, “I finished the race. I’ve fought the good fight. I’ve kept the faith.” And listen to what he said. Because he fought that good fight well and finished the race, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only to me, but to all who have loved his appearing.”

You remember what Alex said? The crown that fades was made out of… Do you guys remember what he said? Celery. Celery. That’s like Michael Phelps’s metals—like celery, right? They go away. Gold lasts a long time. Gold isn’t going to last into eternity. It’s the kind of thing that fades. It’s a glory that fades that might be great in this life isn’t going to help you at all in the life to come. This crown of righteousness that God awarded Paul, that’s at the end of all of those who run faithfully in this life, who end this life saying that they’re godly, that their faith was proven. It’s a crown that will not fade and an award that is worth it.

Warning Against False Godliness

So Paul has talked to Timothy about, hey, you need to know how to live in this church of the living God. So he said that in chapter 3. Hey Timothy, this is God’s church. And there are people around the church. He talks about this earlier in chapter 4. He talks about it in Colossians where they do something that looks like godliness. Paul says that it has the appearance of godliness but denies its power in Second Timothy. Here’s what that is. There are people that say, “Hey, don’t eat certain foods” or even say “Don’t get married.” What are they saying? They’re saying don’t enjoy pleasures of your flesh. Don’t do what your body wants. What are two of the things that people want most? Things that feel good. When you eat cake, when you eat cheesecake, you eat food, it’s something that you like. It’s something that your body says, “I want that.” And in marriage, marriage is something that we want naturally. You were made to want to get married, most of us. And that’s a good thing.

So what do these false teachers say? They say, “Oh, you need to be disciplined. You need to be religious. So, let’s set crazy rules that God didn’t set.” These rules are like discipline is shown, godliness is shown through saying, “I’m so godly I’m not going to eat that.” Or, “I’m so godly, I’m not going to get married.” That was actually the lie that the Catholic Church spread, still spreading. Oh, the pinnacle of godliness is that you’ll say no to these kinds of things, right? You’re going to live in a monastery and eat leeks and not be married and then when you die, maybe God will reward you. That is the opposite of godliness. That is not looking at God, not trying to please God at all, but making much of the flesh and trying to impress others. That looks just like the Pharisees that we’ve been talking about.

So just before this, Paul says, “Watch out for the kinds of people that do that.” And instead, when you eat good food, when you get married, say thank you to God. And so receive those things within the limits that God set. Say thanks to him and then receive them. Don’t do that. Don’t follow myths and silly teachings like that.

The Command: Train Yourself for Godliness

Instead, train yourself for godliness. Train yourself for godliness. What’s that word train there? That word train comes from a Greek word that actually sounds a lot like our word gymnasium. Gymnasium. Gym. It starts with gym. And it has athletic connotations to it. Not athletic connotations, it just is an athletic word. It’s a word that was known for athletes. So Paul isn’t just taking this illustration that’s all over the New Testament. I’m not taking that illustration and saying, “Hey, let’s apply it here.” It’s built into this word train. Paul looks at Timothy and says, “Timothy, train yourself.” Like an athlete trains themselves. Train yourself for godliness.

So I just have a question. When you think of godliness, if you’re a Christian, godliness is what God has called you to. And when you think of godliness, do you pursue it like an athlete? What do I mean by that? Right? We talked about these elite athletes. If you are on a sports team and you want to be good, your whole life revolves around training for that sport. Do you pursue godliness like an athlete pursues physical training? Do you? Paul says you he—this is a command. This isn’t optional. He looked at Timothy and said, “Train this way.”

Built into that training word, this might sound a little bit weird, but built in, it actually literally meant train naked. Why? That’s weird. Train naked. Why does it mean train naked? It means train naked because you set aside all of the things that entangle—sin that clings so close—all the other distractions and you pursue this thing without those things. So, if there’s sin, this is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, setting aside, laying aside sin, things that would slow you down in your race, run this race with endurance. What sin? We’ve talked about this, right? This is not the first time you’ve heard this from me. What sins hold you back from pursuing godliness? This would be like asking an athlete, “Hey, you you’re so close. You’re so close to winning. What’s holding you back from winning?” Uh the way that you eat, the way that you sleep, the way that you train. But you know what? Some Christians actually don’t even pursue it at all. They say, “Hey, I’m not even running this race.”

Some Christians pursue godliness sort of like people who have a gym membership but never go. You might have parents who do that. Yeah, I’ve done that before. Man, I need to really get in shape. I’m going to get a gym membership or I’ll get some workout equipment in my house and I just never go use it. Some Christians live godliness like that.

God Provides, We Must Strive (2 Peter 1)

Can you open your Bibles? Flip forward to second Peter. Second Peter. Second Peter chapter 1. Christian, if you are a Christian or you want to be, this is what God offers you. Look at Second Peter 1:3. “His divine power has granted us”—this is every believer. If you are not a Christian, if you haven’t put your faith in Christ, if you’re trying to get godliness on your own, this does not apply to you. But if you do, if you put your faith in Christ, this is true of you. “His divine power has granted to you, to me, all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Jesus who called us” or “through the knowledge of God who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us very great and precious promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

If you’re a Christian, God has made you. He’s taken you from death to life. He’s made you a new creature and he’s given you everything that you need for godliness. This is like the Michael Phelps when he was born. He had everything he needed to become an elite swimmer. But what if he never got in a pool? Would he have been great? No. Right? There’s athletes out there who are great, those 4.3 40 kind of guys who never practice, never train, and they’re never great. This is what every Christian is. If you are saved, God has given you everything you need for godliness. So what’s the command here? You look at verse five. “For this reason, make every effort”—every effort—”to supplement your faith,” the faith that you have, “with,” and then look at verse six, “godliness.”

Christian, God’s given you everything you need for godliness. So, make every effort to add godliness to your faith. Do you see what’s going on? You can’t get godliness without God giving you what you need to be godly. But when God gives you what you need to be godly, now you must go and be godly, right?

If it’s like the athlete who just says, “Hey, I’m just going to coast. I’m going to coast. I won’t be great.” But the problem is for the Christian, Christians don’t coast. Remember what Paul said? He’s finished the race. He’s kept the faith. Now he gets the crown. Run the race like one who’s going to win.

Because if you say, “All right, I prayed the prayer. I put my faith in Christ.” And you don’t run like this, you don’t train for righteousness, and then at the end, you don’t have godliness. What does that say about your faith? Every Christian will persevere. Every Christian will finish this race godly. And the means that you get there is through training.

Remember how I talked a little bit about that bottom of the ninth? You’re on the free throw line down by one or the three-pointer. Christians, you’re going to face a time like that. You’re going to face times like that this summer, multiple times throughout your life. Joseph with Potiphar’s wife, right? David with Goliath. David with Bathsheba. There are times where you didn’t know that the test was coming. Just like Job didn’t know his family was going to die. You don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. And if Christ is in you, you will pass that test. Right? If you are an elite athlete, you will step up and perform well in the big game. Like there was no doubt when you give the ball to Kobe Bryant, he’s going to go score when the game is on the line. So much more the Christian will persevere the test when it comes. But it doesn’t come automatically. That’s why Paul said, Timothy, train yourself for godliness because you have to set the believers an example. You have to pass the tests that are going to come.

Guys, you’ve learned a lot this year in student ministries. You’ve learned a lot this far. You’ve learned the importance of God’s word. You’ve learned the importance of obedience. You’ve heard Jesus lay out the very extremely high call that he calls people to. It’s not enough to know the truth. You have to live the truth. Your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees or you’re never getting to the kingdom of heaven. You have to be godly. So like the elite athlete, train for it.

The Comparison: Bodily Training vs. Godliness

The comparison. So Paul says, Timothy, be like the athlete and train for godliness. But don’t be just like the athlete. Be better than them. Because let’s think of what the athlete’s training for. Bodily training is of some value. Like think about it. Athletes actually have it pretty good. Their bodies work. They can do things that the rest of us can’t. They even get crowns of celery and gold medals and things and there’s some value there in this life.

But they still die. I don’t care how good they were when they were 20, 25. If they live to be 80 or 90, they might be better than other 80 and 90 year olds, but they still won’t be doing well. Past 100, they’re dead. Bodily training helped them in this life. There’s benefit.

But Paul compares that with godliness. Godliness is of value in every way. Godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come. So think about that. Bodily training, it’s actually worth it. The athletes aren’t fools. They’re better than the people who sit on their couch. But Paul says, Timothy, if the athlete trains hard for that crown that fades, godliness is so much better because it holds promise for this life and the life to come.

The Foolish Trade: Delaying Godliness for “Fun”

Will being a good person, will being great in this life, an elite athlete, a powerful person, a king, having everything in this world, what will that do for you if you’re not godly? Meaning, if you don’t have faith, if you’re not saved by faith, get everything you need for godliness and then are godly. So, to be clear, you’re not saved because you’re godly. You’re godly because you’re saved. But if you’re not godly, meaning you’re not saved, what’ll life be like in 10,000 years, 100,000 years?

I’ve heard some of you, and I’m so grateful for your honesty. I’ve heard some of you say things like, “If I am godly or if I live the way you’re saying, I’m going to miss out on fun. I’m going to miss out on so much fun.” I’ve even heard some of you say, “I think I’m going to wait. I think I’m going to wait a few years, have my fun now, and then turn to God.”

Some of you might not say that out loud. Some of you do. And I’m actually really grateful that you recognize where you’re at and what your choice is. It’s a foolish choice. It’s actually the stupidest thing you could possibly say. But you’re being honest with yourself. Some of you guys aren’t even being honest with yourself. You’re saying, “I’m going to wait or I’m going to be halfhearted in my commitment to Christ. I’ll use him to get out of hell, but I’m not really going to live that different than the world. I’m gonna actually have all the fun that this world offers.” It’s a lie. I won’t be godly. I’ll use Jesus for forgiveness and I’ll have fun in this world. The opposite of godliness, right? It’s not true fun.

But that is just… I know stupid might sound… It’s foolish. It’s stupid. It’s idiotic. It is the absolute worst possible trade that you could ever think of.

The argument here is if athletes do it for some value, godliness is of value in every way. It’s going to help you in this life and in the life to come. [Reference to the Oreo vs $10k video example]. Look what he picks. Two Oreos. That is just stupid, right? This is… He’s thinking about it. I don’t think this is staged. This is real. He’s like, “Yeah, no. I’m going for the Oreos.” He picked the Oreos instead of… I mean that is just that is foolish. Right. Like how many Oreos could he get? How many Oreos could he get with $10,000? Not millions, but thousands. That was That is a That is a foolish trade. That is a foolish trade.

And a lot of you are making a foolisher one. I don’t know if foolisher is a word, but a lot of you are making a trade dumber than that. Dumber than that. You’re living for the world. You’re going to go into the summer without thought of God. You’re going to be content with where you are, saying, “I haven’t put my faith in Christ or I don’t know where I am with God. I don’t want to go to hell, but I don’t really see fruit in my life, and I’m okay with that.”

No, Paul charges you with something so much more. God charges you with something so much greater. Train yourself for godliness, which means put your faith in God and then live like it more than an elite athlete trains their body for a gold medal, a celery crown, or all the glory in the world—stuff that fades. Train yourself for godliness because it has benefit in the life to come and this life now.

I want that image of the kid making the stupid choice of I’m going to pick two Oreos instead of $10,000. And you put yourself there. And if you’re saying I’m going to wait. I’m going to wait to pursue God. I’m gonna have my fun now. Hebrews talks about that in Hebrews 11 [Corrected reference, likely meant Esau context in Heb 12:16]. A guy like Esau says that he sold his birthright. Do you guys remember what he sold it for? Bowl of soup. It’s like the kid trading his $10,000 for Oreos. But you trade an eternity of joy at God’s right hand and the eternity where God just wants to pour out his kindness to you in Christ Jesus. He will take your sin from you, place it on Christ, take his righteousness, place it on you, change your heart, give you everything you need to be godly, and then says, “Now be godly like I made you to be.” And you say, “No thanks. I’m going to live like the world. I’ll take the forgiveness if you’ll give it, but I’m going to live like the world.”

You’re not getting heaven like that. You’re proving that you don’t have faith. And not only that, this life is going to go worse for you. Right? Paul didn’t say, “Hey, pursue godliness because even though your life’s going to stink now, it’s going to be great in the life to come.”

Have you guys read Proverbs? Have you guys read Proverbs? This is a book that talks about wisdom, the fear of the Lord. If you walk in the fear of the Lord, trying to please him, not leaning on your own understanding, but acknowledging him in all your ways. One of the take-home points of the book of Proverbs is that your life will tend to go better. Right? Proverbs isn’t a book of promises. If you do this, your life will go better. But you know, if you’re godly, if you walk pleasing the Lord, your life will tend to go better.

Proverbs says things like, “If you walk in wisdom, you’ll tend to have more money than the guy who doesn’t.” Not always. Not always. If somebody might cheat, lie, steal, don’t worry, God sees. He’ll take care of it in the end. But your physical well-being, your contentedness, if you walk in godliness, you won’t be lazy. Things will tend to go better for you. You’ll tend to have people like you more. You’ll tend to be more satisfied in life. You’ll tend to have a better outcome in your life. You’ll tend to enjoy life better more. Your family life will go better. Your career will tend to go better. You’ll tend to accomplish more. Your life will be better. God tells you the way to live it.

Like think about what we’ve been learning about. If you pursue, think about we talked about with marriage. If you pursue relations with the other sex or even just, hey, I’m going to go after… well, I’m just going to set God’s whole thing about man, women aside, and I’m going to go after it on my own. I’m going to follow the way that the world does it and say, I’m going to pursue pleasure on my terms. There’s a promise there that the world’s saying, “Hey, it’s going to feel better. You’ll actually enjoy life more if you do it the way that you want to do it.” It’s a lie. If you follow God’s wisdom, if you please him in godliness, it’ll actually be better in this life. It’ll actually be better in this life. Oh my goodness. And in the life to come, it will be infinitely better. Infinitely better.

The Trustworthy Statement

And Paul says this is a trustworthy statement, right? So he said, “Train yourself for godliness.” Take the example of the elite athlete. They do it for something that has only benefit in this life. If you train for godliness, you’re going to have benefit in this life and on into eternity. And then he ends it by saying, “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.” He doesn’t even want to move on yet to the next point. He’s like, “Timothy, I told you what to do.” By the way, this is his first positive command in the whole book. He’s been talking. He says, “Timothy, do it.” And before we move on, what I just told you, you can take it to the bank. It’s trustworthy. You need to accept it. You have to accept it.

If you don’t do this, if you don’t pursue godliness, not just like an athlete, but actually more. What are you saying about what God called you to? When God saves a Christian, he gives them, like we said, everything they need for godliness so that they can accomplish those good works that he prepared beforehand. so that he could walk in them. Right? Back to Matthew chapter 5. Be salt and light so that you can glorify your God, your father in heaven. If you say, “No, I don’t want to glorify my father in heaven. I want to live for myself. I’m going to have a chance to honor God. There will be a test of my faith coming up. I’m not going to train for it. I’m going to live for myself.” What you’re saying is, “God, I don’t believe you.” What does that sound like? Lack of faith. It’s only those who trust in God, who have faith in God, who are saved. It’s only those who are saved, who are godly. It’s only those who are godly, who will have all the benefits of this life that God offers and the life to come.

And you know what? Even if this life goes bad, there’s some people who choose godliness and get killed for it. There’s some people who choose godliness, lose everything for it. Did God lie? No. You’re walking right in his best path for you. God knows exactly what you need. God knows exactly what you need. And what seems to be bad is actually good. God accomplished the greatest good at the cross. Right? We learned about it this morning. Satan thought he was in control. Satan was doing exactly what he wanted. So were the Romans. So were the Jews. They crucified the son of God. And God accomplished the greatest good from it. That was the best thing for Jesus and it was the best thing for us.

Conclusion: A Call to Train

So, whatever God has for you tomorrow, if it’s hard or if it’s a blessing, what do you need to do in it? Be godly. Live out your faith. If an athlete is willing to give their whole life for physical benefit, think of all the things they do. They change what time they sleep. They change how they eat. It affects their job. It affects their school. It affects their family life. Every single part of their life is affected by this. How much more should your life be affected if you are training not like an athlete but more than an athlete for the sake of godliness?

So, let’s go to our discussion groups and I want you guys to be real. I want you to be real. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with your discussion leader. They’re going to ask you hard questions, not to embarrass you, but to give you an opportunity to confess sin. Because when you confess sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you. It is only confessors of sin who have a hope at this godliness. So go to your groups, praise God if you’re being godly, if you’re pursuing this. If not, I pray that today is a day of change for you where you can apply everything you’ve been learning.