2 Timothy 4:1-8
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
November 16, 2025 – Pledge Sunday
Deacon Theresa Gale was locking up her church after a long day of volunteer service when a woman approached her and asked for water and bus fare. It was late, and Gale was alone; but she felt led to give her a bottle, hand her $20, and offer her a ride to the bus stop.
In the car the woman asked about the church, and Gale told her that what matters most to followers of Jesus is showing others His gracious generosity. The woman studied Gale’s face and finally said, “You have then shown me Jesus today.”
Jesus’ followers live to give others, by passing on His good news and demonstrating His loving reality, a sense of what He’s like. Their priority is to use their time, talent and treasure to make His gracious generosity visible.
Today’s sermon is the next-to-last installment in a nine-part sermon series on the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his spiritual son, Timothy. This Sunday and next, we reflect on Paul’s last words in the Bible. Writing them, he was, as far as he knew, within weeks or even days of his execution. Because his time was running short, he was keenly aware that this might be his final chance to exhort Timothy, and whoever else might read the letter, to make the most of their opportunities to do what matters most. Though Paul was immediately addressing a pastor, his words apply to anyone who hopes to open eyes and hearts to the love of Jesus.
Paul began this, the last chapter of his letter, by validating his exhortation, not by his position as an apostle, but by “the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead”. Paul sensed that, if he could remind Timothy and the rest that he was speaking on the orders of the Most High, in the name of the One to whom they all had to answer, they’d rightly receive his challenge as a challenge from God to them.
Paul also challenged them “in view of [Christ’s] appearing and his kingdom”. Paul wanted them to see his exhortation in light of their ultimate destination: heaven, where Christ reigns completely and His followers fully become their perfected selves. In other words, they were to heed his commands in view of who they’d soon be, and to hold on to the vision of their future self, that it might inspire them to live more and more in line with their eternally enduring identity in Christ.
There is a universal principle at work here. Whom we see ourselves ending up in the future impacts who we are and what we do in the present. NYU psychologist, Hal Ersner-Hershfield, used to wonder whether young adults didn’t save money for their retirement because they felt as if they were putting it away for a stranger. So he conducted an experiment in which he gave half of the college students participating in it a computer-generated photo of themselves at the age of 70 and told them to look at it every day.
Those who did that put on average twice as much money into retirement accounts as those who just saw their younger self. Further, those who had an image of their future selves worked harder and did better in school. Finally, they were more likely to act ethically in situations where they could’ve gotten away with violating their morals.
Certainly, what we believe about eternity affects what we do in temporal reality. Hence, even if we know, when it comes to money, “you can’t take it with you”, we can believe that “you can send it on ahead” by giving it away now to fund earthly efforts of love, justice and witness to Christ, and by means of that sacrifice receive a “crown of righteousness” like the one reserved for Paul, according to the last sentence of today’s passage.
By means of such a motivating consideration, Paul urged Timothy and the other readers to “proclaim the message” of Christ’s grace patiently and persistently, in both word and deed, at both convenient and inconvenient times. Paul implored them to take every pain and opportunity to “carry out” the “ministry” he called “the work of an evangelist”. That need not mean leading a crusade like Billy Graham. It might be as simple and low-key as telling an interested friend what Jesus does for you.
Paul backed up his exhortation with exemplification. He pointed to his past three decades when he’d been like an offering “poured out as a libation” to God. Paul had poured everything he had into revealing to others the gracious generosity of Jesus. Paul had held nothing back; had expended all his time, talent and treasure to show people the goodness of the Lord. He’d fought the good fight, run his leg of the race, kept true to the gospel of Jesus – and thereby kept true to his life’s purpose. He’d been a faithful steward of what belonged to God but was entrusted to him in order to make Christ’s gratuitous and extravagant kindness known.
I’ve told the following story before, but it fits today exactly. When he was an adamant, self-identified atheist and writing for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel was assigned one December to report on the struggles on an impoverished, inner-city family.
The Delgados – 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny – had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were living in a tiny, two-room apartment. As he entered it, he was startled by how empty it was – with no floor or wall coverings and no furniture but a single small table. Eleven-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned but one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them which they alternated wearing on their cold, half-mile walks to and from school. But Strobel was even more startled by the attitude of hope and peace that radiated from them all. There was no trace of self-pity or anger. They exuded calm confidence in God’s care.
Strobel was struck by a contrast. They had nothing and yet glowed with contentment, while he had everything and yet felt as empty and barren as their apartment. He wrote his article and went on to other assignments. But he never forgot them. So when December 24 turned out to be a slow news day, he paid them a return visit. He was shocked by what he found. Readers had responded to his article with overwhelming generosity and filled the apartment with furniture, appliances, clothing and food. But he was even more shocked by what his visit interrupted. The Delgados were organizing their bounty to pass on much of it to others. When he asked Perfecta what they were doing, she smiled and replied: “What Jesus wants us to do.”
Perfecta went on to say she took the generosity of Strobel’s readers as a generous gift from God, an abundance so great God meant for it to be shared with others. But she hastened to add that it was far from the greatest generosity they’d experienced from God. That would be Jesus Himself and the good news He brought. Strobel writes, “At that moment, something inside of this atheist wanted desperately to know this Jesus.”
To make a pledge is to make the most of our chance, as individuals and as a church, to do what matters the most: To show forth Jesus’ generosity and to give as many as we can a sense of how good God is.
Write a comment: