Hindsight 2020

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Good morning Happy New Year yeah my name is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here uh a year ago right around this time we got to come together as one Church family to worship for the first time so that's something to celebrate it's been a year and uh and last year we launched a sermon called 2020 Vision cuz we were really excited uh we were excited about uh about being a a a family together as a Church family on Mission here in Casey we talked about being missional in this neighborhood and the City of Casey getting to know businesses like we we were excited about all the things that were in front of us.

We were excited about some of the renovations we're going to be able to do to the building and at one point last last year we thought I think we could wrap this thing up by Fall get Renovations done by Fall launch into this school year and uh it's going to be great so I don't know if you're familiar with the with the word 2020 but uh it's not what it used to be that is a concept has changed completely we had our.

First Global pandemic in a hundred years and that was fun uh we uh getting to know neighbors and and knocking on doors and introducing ourselves at one point last year would have been considered violence and uh and then we learned last year that not talking to people was violence that silence is violence the whole the whole year was just confusing in a lot of ways so uh if we could go back a year ago we'd do a little bit differently so the title of this sermon uh before we launch into Matthew next week is hindsight 2020.

If we could go back a year ago and preach a sermon it would be this sermon so here's what we're going to tackle this morning we want as a Church family to take a big step forward in 20121 in maturing on our faith in growing in godliness now I know then I say that that we want to grow in godliness this year that that doesn't seem all that exciting to some that maybe that that uh the some of the New Year's resolutions that you made this year uh weren't some kind of version of of that just this is not a popular thing that you want to grow in godliness to start out the new year.

So I I'm assuming some of us have different things we want to grow in some of it might be related to our faith but growing in godliness is not a concept that's really out in front of us we have goals like wanting to to to maybe lose weight lose some of the covid weight that we got get healthier maybe get more on track with our finances and not have to hope that the next stimulus bill is what rides us through there are lots of good things that we might strive.

For but the reality is is a lot of those things that we might strive for in a new year are temporary they are not Eternal and what I want us to do is to take a step back this morning and see an investment in our eternity is worth it let me ask you how many of us feel stagnant in our faith how many of us feel like we're just kind of going through the motions a little bit feel like we're in a little bit of a low that it's just kind of Cloudy right.

Now and it's just hard for us even imagine taking a big step forward in our faith my hope for us this morning is that we able to take a step back look at all of this and see that growing in godliness is worth our Pursuit that that maturing in Christ is worth it so we're going to look at 1 Timothy 4: 6-10 today and God willing as we walk through this passage it will encourage us to take a step forward in following.

Jesus and becoming more like him so as we walk through this we're we're going to see what godliness is we're going to see why we should want it and how we get there so let me pray for us this morning and then we'll jump in uh father we thank you that we get to start new this year God I pray that you would help us see that godliness is worth our Pursuit that you are worth our Pursuit and that out of this we would respond we ask this in.

Jesus name amen all right so we are jumping into a new testament letter so just me let me give some some quick background so first Timothy was a letter that Paul the Apostle Paul the missionary Paul wrote to Timothy a younger Pastor that he has invested in for many years at this point he has relationship with him he cares about him and the letter is packed with at the very beginning there's some some very strong warnings against false teachings that was prevalent throughout the New Testament Church it's also prevalent.

Today uh there he he reminds them of the Gospel that he was called into he gives them some some uh some uh instructions on how to order the Church how to structure the Church with overseers elders and with with deacons he's walked through all of this and then he shifts gears a little bit in chapter 4 beginning in verse 6 he says if you put these things before the brothers meaning the things he's just talked about already in this letter if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ.

Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for to this end we Toil and strive because we have our hope set on the Living.

God who is the savior of all people especially of those who believe all right so we're going to walk through this in three parts uh what why and how so the what big reveal is godliness that's what we're going to be talking about this morning that's what Paul is getting out here is godliness verse 7 he says have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness now be honest how many of us when we heard the sermon was going to be on godliness and it's a new year has some kind of version in your in your mind that said this is a this is going to be something on how to.

Be a better Christian how how to be a better person how to improve ourselves listen that is partly because we misunderstand what godliness is in the first place we don't have a full concept for what actually godliness is if you go back at chapter the end of chapter three Paul starts to speak about godliness he says in verse 16 great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness all right so and there's a coal in there so he's getting ready to unpack what godliness is he's about to poetically explain here's the mystery of godliness he says he was manifested in the flesh Vindicated by the spirit seen by Angels proclaimed among the Nations believed on.

In the world taken up in glory and if you think man that's what godliness is that's that's not super clear that's partly because we we misunderstand what godliness is because our mind quickly goes to okay godliness is being a better person being a better Christian the ways I need to improve instead of the person we are supposed to behold godliness is beholding Christ that whole mystery of godliness is all about Christ says he was manifested in the flesh that's his life and his death he was Vindicated by the spirit that's the Spirit who raised him to in the resurrection he was seen by Angels that's his exaltation before the Angels he's proclaimed among the Nations.

That's go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations heralded amongst all peoples believed on in the world the gift of faith that Jesus is to the world taken up in glory the eternal glory of Christ it's all about Christ godliness is a matter of focus and fixation focus and fixation on Christ I put it very plainly godliness is christlikeness it is not the Improvement of self by looking within it is a matter of focus and fixation you Behold Him in order that you might become like him that is what he is getting at here you.

See the opposite of of waywardness which is straying from Jesus the opposite of waywardness is godward it's a godward focus I love what ji Packer says in his book knowing God ji Packer was a theologian he was a gift of the Church for for decades he passed away last year but I love what he says in defining godliness in his book knowing God he says godliness is responding to God's Revelation in trust and obedience faith and worship prayer and praise submission and service life must be seen and lived in light of God's word and what happens.

When we hear that is that our mind quickly jumps to okay it's it's it's about trust and obedience it's about faith and worship it's about prayer and praise these are the things that I need to grow in but we miss we miss it because that's not how he starts it he says it's responding to God's Revelation it's first responding to who God is focusing on him fixating on Christ and then out of that the Overflow is Faith obedience trust uh prayer and praise these things that display the fruit of godliness our approach is off it's a little bit like uh a little bit like falling in love.

So maybe maybe you're single and you you want to meet the right guy or the right girl in this year and you say I want to fall in love and let's say you later this year you're at the kitchen table and you're riding uh these well-crafted love letters and they're just they're real poetic and you're thinking about all the intentional language and you've mapped out here here all the date nights that I'm going to do all the romantic gestures you got it all laid out you've got it all planned out.

And then all of a sudden your roommate walks in and says what you doing over there it's like I've fallen in love I mean I've got look at this I've got look at these letters look at everything I got planned out and your roommate says that's awesome who's the girl that's not important I I've listen on the letters I've saved a little space for a name I'll write that in roomate would like weird it's not it's not how that works because none of that makes sense.

If you haven't actually met the girl yet have you even had your heart stolen by the guy if you can't sleep at not because you're thinking about that significant others love letters romantic gestures all the works doesn't make sense all of that flows out of a relationship with the one you love godliness flows out of relationship with God of beholding who he is and out of that the Overflow is some of the fruitfulness that comes with godliness so that's what godliness is we have to we have to have that.

So firmly in our head in order to understand what comes next and we're going to look at uh why and tackling why we should pursue godliness the why is he says value in every way there is value in every way he says have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Okay so there's two different ways that he shows value the present life and also the life to come so I'm I'm going to tackle those in reverse order let's look at the value in the life to come all right so uh and Jr Packer's knowing God he he walks through this he says that uh that that godliness is a little bit like a dress for rehearsal for eternity he says it's a dress rehearsal for the eternal life to come and the point that he starts to explain that he's getting at is that love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness some of the fruitfulness that comes as a result of godliness he.

Says those are Eternal things those are Eternal characteristics they that reflect the Eternal character of God when you deal in those you're dealing in Eternal things and that's preparing you for an eternity where these things will be perfectly on display before you the the the rest of it fades away right the the rest of the things in life that your riches the the weird Vendetta you have against your neighbor or or your coworker the relational weirdness you have with an old friend that all fades has no place in the Eternal kingdom of.

God but but love and joy and peace and patience some of this fruit that comes out of godliness that's Eternal so his point is pursue that go at get after that those qualities last they're Eternal and they prepare you for in a mysterious way a future Glory where all of this is is is perfectly displayed in Christ and through you in the new Resurrection it's mysterious it's hard to wrap our minds around but this prepares us for the life that is to come it also It prepares us here.

Now and the present life which is a little more uh a little easier for us to to grasp it has value in the present life and this is get this gets confusing because a lot of times when we when we think about the value in the present life our mind jumps to the effort it jumps to that being the end the end goal is doing these things and doing these things better but that's not the end goal in verse 10 he says.

For to this end we Toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the Living God who is the savior all people especially of those who believe the the end goal is Christ and a lot of times when we try to uh grow in this we're going to hold the the the toil and the striving and the result of godliness out in front of us and it's hard because when that's presented as growing these things it doesn't quite capture us like it does.

If God is presented and held out in front of us my wife and I we got to watch uh a Christmas classic this uh this past month and I'm not talking about Christmas Vacation which is the Christmas classic I'm talking about the the easily forgotten uh film with Nick cjun at the family man and you all remember that show hands who who remembers seeing the family man all right so a few of you all right so a lot of times I've been told that I I spoil movies.

So I'm gonna do it again so In The Family Man Nick Cage uh he's this this multi-millionaire Mega businessman uh making deals on Wall Street he's he's got it all and on Christmas Eve he encounters uh he encounters a man he encounters a man Don cheel who plays the guy and uh don cheel asks him he says would you is there anything missing in your life he's like no I'm good he's got the penthouse he's got the money he drives a Ferrari he has it all and the next morning he wakes up in New Jersey in the in a Suburban household with a Suburban family driving a minivan in a different reality where uh he's.

With the the woman he left 10 years ago to pursue all the riches and the dream the dream of of money and everything else so he he freaks out and he drives back to New York City and he finds Don Cheeto who's who's an angel type figure and he says this that you're living right now is a glimpse this isn't the the real reality it's a glimpse it's a little bit like It's a Wonderful Life Christmas Story type thing so you can kind of write in the rest of the movie he goes back home and try to figure out what he needs to do in this Glimpse and uh and he immediately he hates his.

Life he misses the Ferrari he misses the nice things he misses the money and then slowly he realizes that his his family is is so good that his life trying to pay bills is is is really sweet that he's missed out on a whole bunch because he's pursued uh this this this American dream of wealth and and and and financial prosperity then he finally the Glimpse ends he wakes up in his Penthouse and what does he do he he he he tries to find the girl that he left 10 years ago.

So he can re he can capture what he had been missing out on now if you fast if you go back to the beginning of the movie and he encounters Don Cheeto Don Cheeto says here are the things that you're missing no you need to listen you need to give up your life right now you need to go and and find this girl you need to have the middle class life I'm telling you it's great Nick Cage would have said no he just completely passed on it.

Because he had not first experienced what that life is like he had not experienced the goodness that he was missing out on and therefore he would have never chosen that in the first place what the problem is for the value in this present life is when godliness in and of itself the results of it are held out in front of you we don't it's it it's we don't want that it's hard and but the the reality is is that we have to.

First Look to Christ to see the benefit for right now that we have to Behold Him and and focus and fixate on him so that we will see the value in this present life we have to experience Christ first in order that we might make the changes that are necessary that will follow that's why we say all the time that's why we said it this morning we say it every single week Jesus is better than everything else Behold Him he is better.

Because when you believe that then you start to see the fruitfulness of godliness and the value that it has in this present life the reality is if you if you want to be a better wife or a better husband be a better spouse this year if you want to grow in that you first need to focus on Christ when you real when you fixate your eyes and your Gaze on Jesus and you see how good of a husband he is to this bride the Church.

When you see the the the sacrifice and the love and the faithfulness that Christ has towards this Church when you look at that and then you look back at your marriage you go man these are the ways that I fallen short here's the ways I need to repent here are all the things I need to do I want my love to reflect Christ for his Church but it takes focusing on him first and fixating on him if you want to be be better with money this year.

If you want to be better in growing in generosity you first have to look to the author of generosity you have to look at our God who's generous towards us that's what we talk about all the time if you try to muscle change in your finances and your money on your own it's not going to work but if you look at how good our God is towards us how generous he is towards us that he gave up his son for us on a cross.

For us that he calls us into life with him that he pours out blessings upon blessings on us he provides for our needs when you look at how generous our God is towards us then you look back at your money you go take it what do you want to do Lord how do you want me where do you want me to grow in generosity how do you want me to structure this you have to First Look To The God Who is generous you can do this with anything you want to be a better mother or a better.

Father and grow in that this year you first need to look to our God who is a perfectly heavenly father to our his children who provides love and discipline and Grace and when you behold how good our God is toward us toward us you can be a better father you can grow in godliness as a mother as a guardian if you want to be a better employee a better friend a better cooworker if you want to grow in anything this year you.

First behold Christ and you look at him and everything else follows but you got to keep that that as the why in front of you in order to understand and get practical with the how that's the last thing we're going to look how how do we grow in godliness and he says it very explicitly train yourself train yourself he says if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of Faith.

Then he goes on to say have nothing to do with the reverent Sly myths rather train yourself for godliness for our barley training is of some value three times emphasizes train and it's I know a lot of times we try to get behind the text and see what what you know what the Greek word would have said it's the same thing that we would understand today it's athletic training it's physical training effort that's the concept that he's using it is an intentionally disciplined effort with a goal in mind here's the deal as Christians.

For those of us who have trusted in Christ the picture of the Gospel is that you are once dead in sin and you're alive in Christ now you were once old and now you are new the reality is is you've been given legs to walk in this race in following Jesus so you can't earn Christ on your own believe in Jesus the gift of faith you come to life but once you are in Christ as a new creation and you got legs to walk there is an a an aggressive call to training yourself.

For godliness you got to get some some strength in them legs because it's a long race we need to grow in godliness do have nothing to do with the reverent silly myths don't have anything to do with with for them that was weird diets for us that's the Prosperity Gospel and everything else in between have nothing to do with that mess rather train yourself for godliness for our Bly training is of some value godliness is of value in every way he says that bodily training has some value it does.

But our culture really really puts a lot of emphasis on the body especially this time of the year right whether you're on you know the pretty extreme end of the spectrum you love CrossFit or Orange Theory Fitness or some of those cultures and you get after it or if you like doing interpretive dance movements on the elliptical machine at Planet Fitness in between pizza party bites the things that happened there there's a lot of emphas a lot of lot of money and time and energy and focus placed on bodily training and that's fine Paul says it has some value it doesn't have eternal value you know how we know this you're going to die your.

Your body spoiler alert is going to fall apart and you're going to die and all the burpees and the chinups and everything in 150 years dust just it has some value because we treat our bodies as a temple it has no Eternal value so Christian train yourself for godliness deal in Eternal things train yourself for godliness that's the that's that's the focus that we want to grow in is to make an investment in our faith to see the value of that to evaluate ourselves and to grow in godliness every year around this time I I know I've said this in the past I love new years's it's great I love it every year around this.

Time uh I do something called life mapping something I learned from one of my former pastors it's a it's a day a structured time of of getting away of of Prayer of focusing and fixating on Christ and then out of that just asking God how about my life where do you want me to grow what are the things you want me to do in the past few years Matt Freeman and I we both love deer hunting we go away for a day we hunt we spend some time in the Bible and and in word and prayer and I I start to to to.

Look at the different areas I want to grow in I ask God where do you want me to grow what are the things you want me to do and I have this in my journal and I can go back a few years and look at the the areas wanted to grow in in my life mapping and I have about a 30 to 50% success rate which may seem a little depressing but the reality is is that every year I'm making some small adjustments and the next year some that stick I'm I'm I'm adding on to that and I'm making a few more and I'm asking.

God where do you want me to grow what do you want me to do and I'm and I'm adding small bit by bit bit by bit and it snowballs in immaturity it grows and it grows and it grows by starting small and adding a little more this is a marathon faith is a marathon it is not a Sprint that's why Hebrews 12 says run the race with endurance it's a marathon it's not a Sprint now I've never trained for marathon and I have 0% interest in ever training.

For Marathon but when you talk to people who run marathons they're going to say it takes a long time to train you don't do it in a day try to run 26 miles in the first day it does not go well it takes a little bit of running and then a few days later a little bit more and a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more when you add and add and add until you get to the end goal.

So start small if you don't regularly read the Bible if that's not something that's a regular part of your life maybe starting with a 365 I'm going to read all of the Bible in a year maybe that's not the best launching point I'm I'm serious it might not be because you might get into it and Leviticus might take you out we just it it it might not be the best starting point but here's the deal maybe you commit all this year to read one chapter a day to read the Bible every single day read a chapter and the next year maybe you add a little more and the next year you add a little bit.

More and maybe a few years you're reading the Bible every year and you're growing and beholding who our God is and his work have that vision for yourself and be intentional who could you be in a year if you took some small steps towards pursuing and beholding God and and seeing godliness flourish and grow in your life where would you be in five years as a Christian if you made some small steps this year and the next year you took a few more steps and the next year you took a few more steps what would the Overflow be like in the rest of your life right what would it be like.

For your kids if you said you know what I just don't want to grow in godliness I want to impart this on to my children and this year you just started and say you know now one night a week I'm going to sit down with my kids after dinner and we're going to read the Bible we're going to read the Jesus story B Bible we're going to talk about God we're going to try some Gospel fluencing applying the Gospel to my children and you and you started there and the next year you added a little more.

And then you're growing what would your family look like in 10 years if you grew together in godliness what would your marriage look like in 15 years if you took small steps of growing in godliness and the Overflow of that and pursuing your spouse what would the Kingdom look like in 20 years if we said I want to take small steps right now in being hospitable I want to learn my neighbors names for the first time I'm going to get to know my co-workers and actively.

Listen to them and then the next year and the next year what would it look like if we T took small steps in growing in God godliness what would the results look like the hope is as we be the kind of men and women who would own this and invest in our spiritual health and pursue godliness so we want to we want to hold that out this year in front of us as a Church and we're going to try some things.

Listen the main things are always going to be the main things for us and that is probably never going to change we we we we come together right now on Sundays for Gatherings where we worship and then we depart from here as groups and we journey together as groups Gatherings and groups is is probably always going to be the main thing but the reality is is we as we've talked with y'all as we've looked at this for those who want more we want to be able to offer more.

For those who want to to to grow a little more in godliness we want to be able to put that out in front of you so this year we're going to try some things things out we want to grow in prayerfulness as a Church we're going to try some some corporate prayer this year as a Church y'all remember a couple years ago a few of us went to Egypt and we got together and we prayed together we had a whole just one hour of just praying that was great we're going to try some more of that this year coming together.

For corporate prayer we're going to try a couple times this year some conference type weekends we're going to specifically have a Friday and a Saturday where with some intentional structur teaching so for those who want to be trained for those who want to who want to want to grow there's going to be some opportunities to grow in some conference type weekends this fall I'm hoping to launch our our our our recovery Ministry it's something that we've been wanting to do we just we're.

Finally getting ready to do if you're familiar with Celebrate Recovery recovery at other churches it's going to be very similar if if you struggle with anything from from depression to pornography this is going to be 8 to 10 weeks where you can come be a part of recovery and grow together in godliness we're going to do things like the Hope business in a few weeks we're going to launch a virtual bookstore this is going to be a recommended reading list for you know books that we want to uphold say you want to grow read these books and I know that some of you don't like reading.

But I want to tell you something do you know what disciple means means learner which involves reading it just does so figure out if you're an audio learner and you need to listen to books or you just need to train yourself and being Visual and reading books I don't what that looks for you looks like for you but we're going to uphold these are some things if you want to grow in godliness here's some here's some some means in doing this we want to continue to uphold things like we've done in the past we we have 36 Bible verses that we've chosen that our kids walk through that we uphold every month it shows up.

On on the slides most of the time when I'm on the ball and they're they're loaded in proes Center uh but also we put them on our group content so if you want to grow in Scripture Memory there's an Avenue y'all listen we have an Avenue every single Sunday morning at 9:30 it's called Sunday school and it happens two buildings over in the fellowship hall and yes here's the deal I love Sunday school and most of the people who take most part are older members every week we get to teach about.

Jesus in some different uh facet every week we're we're we're we're we're teaching the Bible and what I love about Sunday school is that when I'm there even when I'm teaching it we have older wiser Saints older believers who are it's collaborative it's not like this where I'm preaching and you're listening it's collaborative we're talking and I get to hear the collective wisdom in the room of Decades of following Jesus so we're going to uphold that if you want to grow and you're not in a in a volunteer capacity that takes you up at 9:30 show up we want to grow together in godliness Matt's going to come up and I and I want us.

To take this seriously hindsights 2020 if I could go back a year I preach this sermon the reality is is we don't know what 2021 we we don't know what awaits us listen I saw all of your memes and they were cute 2020 was the worst got it I there's no guarantee that 2020 wants to be better we could have twin pandemics it could be a depression we we have no idea but listen here's the deal the circumstances of this year don't have to dictate how you respond to this year you can pursue.

Behold Christ and out of that you can grow in godliness so I want to hold that out in front of us let's do that no matter what awaits us this year let's be men and women of God who pursue godliness and if none of that makes sense at all and you're like I I don't even know where to start it might be that you need to start by placing faith in Christ to Behold our God you have to realize what he's done.

For us that he went to the cross that he died for our sins and our Rebellion that he conquer death of the Resurrection so that you could have a new life so that you could pursue him and see the benefits of godliness so that you could deal in Eternal things so if you don't know where to start come talk to us we'd love to invite you into following Christ so that you can reap the benefits of pursuing Our God delighting in him we pray.

Father I pray that you would convict us this morning you would help us as Christians respond by beholding you by focusing on you and out of that may we train ourselves for godliness the work is hard but you've given us the Holy Spirit who is in us who wants us to grow deeper in you Lord may you help us grow may you call us to repentance may we pursue you in Jesus name amen one of the things that Spencer said is that we grow.