II Timothy 2:4-7: Strong Commitment

I don’t know if you’ve ever been into bodybuilding but it’s quite an interesting sport. I’ve never been into bodybuilding, though I do lift with kettlebells several times a week. But I remember when I was 12 or 13 or so my dad started teaching me how to workout. My dad was pretty fit back in the day; he had some pretty solid muscle and he used to go to the gym and workout with some guys, and he knew a good bit about lifting and bodybuilding and he began to teach me. It’s not something I really got into, but the sport itself is really fascinating. It takes a lot of dedication to be a bodybuilder!‌‌ If you’ve ever learned anything about professional bodybuilding—like the Arnold Schwarzenegger variety, you know that only a part of their time is spent in the weight room. A large amount of time is spent in front of a mirror. They do this not necessarily because they are vain, though that might be the case, but because they are trying to cut muscles. They are looking for balance and symmetry—if one shoulder is more built up than the other they need to be able to identify that. So they specifically hone in on areas of weakness and imbalance so that they can strengthen their weaker parts and have a well-rounded strong physique. Another large part of their sport is in the kitchen. It’s not uncommon for bodybuilders to eat 7 meals a day, and to count everything. They focus on calories in and calories out. Fat, protein, carbs, all of that needs to be in just the right balance for a bodybuilder. Then there’s the supplements—protein powder, whey, creatine, all kinds of pills designed to give the right amount of nutrients and help to build the strength of their muscles. Why do they do all of this? They take great care so that they can identify and focus on their weaknesses and strengthen them. They don’t just strengthen the big muscles, though they do that, they try to strengthen the weak ones as well so that they can be one entire specimen of a strong physique.‌‌ It’s kind of the same way in our spiritual lives. God wants us to have a strong, well rounded devotion to him. And in order to do that, we need to take great care to focus on areas that might need to be strengthened. Sometimes we need to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror of God’s Word so that we can find our weaknesses and focus on them. We need to eat a steady diet of God’s Word so that we can grow and get stronger. But just like bodybuilders spend a very focused amount of time working on their own strength, so we must spend time strengthening our own spiritual lives.‌‌ But here’s the problem—many times we don’t. Many times we have kind of a lazy approach to our spiritual lives. We settle for “good enough”—I don’t have any life dominating sins; life is going fairly well right now; I can manage the trials that I do have; and instead of really strengthening ourselves we kind of just get by spiritually. And when difficult times come in our lives, we struggle. We’re unprepared. Or, we might even leave the faith. God doesn’t want this to happen! So God gave us the answers to solve this problem in his word. And in II Timothy 2:1-7, we find the answers we need. Paul challenges Timothy to not just scrape by in his spiritual life, but to thrive, and to grow and to maintain his devotion to the Lord, and we can learn from Paul’s admonition to Timothy as well. So as we come to this text, here’s the big idea for today:‌‌ BIG IDEA: Commitment today reinforces character for tomorrow