In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the life and mindset of the apostle Paul, particularly in his letter to Timothy. The speaker highlights four key aspects of Paul's life that drove him: his maximum effort, noble cause, focused life, and treasuring of time. Despite being in a difficult situation, Paul's language and attitude were different because he understood the importance of these factors. The speaker also shares the story of a man who gave up his family's plans for him to pursue his calling to the mission field, demonstrating the importance of fully committing to God's purpose.

The title of this message is A Maximum Effort in the Noblest Cause. High in the Alps, there is a monument that was raised in the honor of a faithful guide who one day saw that there was a tourist stranded, so he began to climb as fast as he could to reach that tourist and save him. The tragedy is that he died while he was climbing to rescue that tourist. On his memorial stone there at the base of that mountain in the Alps are these words, He died climbing. That's the way to go. In 2 Timothy, Paul writes the last letter he ever wrote. He's in the Mamertine Dungeon, which is a 10 by 10, little place, dark, rat infested, underneath the city of Rome, sits right underneath the city streets of Rome. He wrote this letter wanting Timothy to come to him. It's doubtful whether Timothy got there before Paul was dead. This is his swan song. Every line that is in here is precious and deep and powerful and packed with the love of God and the wisdom of a man who did it right. It is believed that within a few weeks, Paul was in heaven. They took him out from the dungeon to the main highway there. An axe flashed in the sun and they severed his head from his body. These are his last words he ever wrote. These are precious. He writes his own epitaph in verses six, seven and eight. And that's what I want to focus on. He pours out the passion of his heart. I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to all who love his appearing. As Paul comes down to the end of his life, he's confident. He's confident in something we all need to be confident in, and I'm not so sure we are. He's confident in the faithfulness of his life. That may be convicting. If it is, praise the Lord, because that's something that can be changed. He's confident in the faithfulness of his life. God made him confident. God made him faithful. God can make you and I faithful. The great thing about the Lord Jesus Christ is that walking with him every single morning, his mercies are brand new. Brand new coming from an infinite creator. Think of that. Not just the same old thing, but mercy to meet your need as a unique individual on your unique day. Every day the sun comes up as mercy is new and it's unique. Now, inherent in these verses is Paul's desire for Timothy to catch the vision that drove his life. He's passing the baton. He really wants Timothy to catch the vision. And he wants his departure to be as confident when his time comes. Timothy's as Paul's is at this point. So it's not just a summary of his own life, but an encouragement to Timothy and then to all those who will read it like us. I see four things I want to bring out to you here. First of all, this is what drove this man. He made a maximum effort. Because, number two, he had the noblest cause. And number three, he lived a focused life. And before he treasured his time, the fifth thing is he kept the faith. He kept the faith. Let's talk about these one by one. To begin with, he made a maximum effort. He said, I am being poured out as a drink offering in verse six. I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure is at hand. This is a very graphic statement. It's very rich in meaning. And it's taken basically from numbers 15 versus one through 10, where it talks about the drink offering under the law of Moses. When you brought a sacrifice to the Lord, often you would come with a burnt offering, which was an animal. Then you would come with a meal offering that you would give the Lord that was grain and oil mixed. And then you would finish it all off by pouring out the drink offering, pouring out the wine before the Lord. So what Paul is saying is this. I have come to the last act in my spiritual sacrifice of my life to God. My life is being poured out as the ultimate drink offering. I gave my life living sacrifice, burnt offering, my energy, my time and my talents, meal offering. And now I pour out my life as the ultimate sacrifice. He says my departure is at hand. For I am already poured out as a drink offering, verse six, and my departure is at hand. It's important to see that he is eager. He is eager. He doesn't even call it death. He's eager because he knows he's finished. He says my departure is at hand. And he closed. He chose a very vivid word on purpose. It is the Greek word and elusive and elusive. It's full of meaning and classical Greek usage. It was used for a number of different things. It's very colorful and very meaningful. It was used of unyoking an animal from a plow when it was done with all the hard work. It was used of loosening a prisoner from his bonds, setting them free. It was used of loosening the ropes of a tent when it was time to move on. And it was used of loosening the ropes of a ship from the dock to set sail on the high seas. It was used of all these things. And you can see why he chose that word. My departure is at hand. It is the whole picture of one man who is confident and he is ready at the end of his life. What is the secret of this confident eagerness? It's the effort he made along the way. He says in verse seven, I have fought. I have finished. I have kept. You see it. Verse seven. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And he uses three perfect tense verbs all along the way there. He's describing a completed action in the past with continuing results. A completed action in the past with continuing results. In other words, all along the way, I kept at it. So he's looking back on his life and he can say there is not even the smallest thing left undone. I fought. I finished. I kept. What God called him to do, in other words, he did. He did what God called him to do. He faces his death with the memory of a life's work completed, full of triumph and joy. I can't think of a better way to face death than that. To know that you have done what God has called you to do. I have fought the good fight, he says. He uses, notice he says, he uses two words in verse seven. I have fought the good fight. Is he being redundant? Paul is typically never redundant. Fought the good fight. Fought comes from the Greek verb agonizomai. Fight comes from the noun agon. He is saying I have agonized the agony. I have pressed through the very deepest, most difficult, hardest attacks from the enemy. Afflictions, assaults physically that you face in life. I've pressed through it all. I've agonized the agony. I have made a maximum effort in the struggle. That's what he's saying. In 1st Corinthians 926, let me just read it to you. He is using there the analogy of an athlete as he does here. And in 926 of 1st Corinthians, he says, I therefore so run not as uncertainly. I fight not as one who beats the air. In other words, I'm skilled, I'm trained. As a runner, I know how to run and I do what you're supposed to do as a runner to win. As a fighter, I know how to fight. I am skilled. I don't just swing at the air. My blows count. In Ephesians 612, he says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers and against the rulers of this world, against spiritual wickedness and high places. In other words, he realized he was in a spiritual fight. Follow this. And he understood that only a maximum effort would bring the victory. The fight that we are in will only be won spiritually with maximum effort as Christians. The race will only be finished well with maximum effort. Why? Because the enemy mainly is Satan. That's why. And he never gives up. He never leaves the battlefield. You may have a grand victory. You may hit the biggest battle of your life. You may fight it out with the full armor of God. And when the smoke clears and the battle's over, you're cut, bleeding spiritually. But you are standing. Hallelujah. And you're thinking, oh, that's it. You're going to leave me alone for a while. I thrashed him on that one. He never leaves the battlefield. And that is why it takes a maximum effort. In 2 Corinthians 2.11 he said, We are not ignorant of Satan's devices. He studied his opponent so he could beat him. And we must. And then we come with the same maximum effort in our spiritual warfare. The second secret to his life is that he had the noblest cause. Not only the maximum effort, but the noblest cause. And he knew it. He says, I fought the good fight. Do you see your Christianity as the noblest cause? It is the noblest cause of all. He says, I fought the good fight. There must be an understanding of the goodness. If there is to be a maximum effort, right? We do not give maximum effort unless we are absolutely convinced of the goodness of something. Literally, he says, the grand fight I have fought. It could be translated grand. I have the grand fight I have fought. It could also be translated beautiful, profitable, excellent, delightful, honorable, noble. Do you realize in looking at it, his language is so different than ours? If you understand where he is in this dungeon, if you understand the time in his life, if you understand all the difficulty he's faced, why is it that his language is so different than ours might be in a similar situation? How would you be talking if you found yourself in a rat infested dungeon, ten by ten dark with just a little hole in the top ceiling where they lowered stuff down to you in the sewage of the city running next to you? What would your attitude be? What would your language be? What would some of your statements be? I venture to say with things that are not nearly as bad, it's been pretty bad, right? I love his language. The grand fight I have fought. I love the fact that he doesn't say, I fought that stupid worthless fight. I came all this way and look where I end up in a ten by ten dungeon under the city of Rome. I should be in the palace for all that I have done. No, the grand fight. He sees beyond everything that is around him. You understand that? He sees beyond everything. He understands it's the noblest cause. And all the way along it's been the noblest cause. He had, let's put it this way, he had a tremendous elevated sense of the cause with which he was engaged. A tremendous elevated sense. How many Christians do you know right now at this time in your life that walk around with a tremendous elevated sense of their Christianity? Their walk with God and their place in the kingdom. A tremendous elevated sense of the cause in which he was engaged. There is no question that it is that understanding that detaches you from your own self-interest. It is that understanding that it detaches you from your own self-interest to do what? To join the fight. To join the fight. So Paul, when he was converted, joined the fight. And he kept it up all the way to the end. He fought and he finished his fight. See, men and women have given their lives for many causes. Many good causes. But I'll tell you something. There is none so noble as the cause of Jesus Christ. What are you giving your life for? The noblest cause of all is Christ. He made a maximum effort because he had the noblest cause. And further, because of that, he lived a focused life. A focused life. I like that. That means he was a thinker. That means he was a determined thinker with great resolve in his heart. That means he had great resolve in his will. That means he had what I call spiritual iron in his soul. He lived a focused life. That's how he finished his race. See, he says, I finished the race. Now to finish the race, you have to stay on course until it's over. Right. The idea here, as he's writing, is of a scheduled race, a scheduled race. In other words, it was his race, his race that God had scheduled. See, God has specific things for you to do. Do you think that way God has specific things for you to do? And if you do not stay in the race, you will not finish. See, I see this race as our calling in Christ, the calling of your life and the course that each one of us have been given. That's why I spoke recently as we were studying Peter in the book of Acts about getting moving. Peter got moving and then God led him. He began to follow God in the course of his life. We each have a course. We each have a race to run and it has a beginning and it has an end. And we can't finish the race we've been given if we are running all over the place somewhere else. In other words, you have to stay in your lane. Anybody here ever run track at all, even in school somewhere? They put the chalk marks on the track and they assign you a lane and they tell you stay in your lane. You have to stay in your lane. Now you stay focused then. Well, if you have to stay focused and if he stayed focused, then how do I keep from straying away, straying out of my lane? We have to watch out for a couple of things. I want to give them to you. You know what they're called? Weights and sins. Weights and sins. Turn your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Coming out of Hebrews 11, which you could call the hall of faith. The great heroes of the faith and all that they went through and stayed their course. The writer comes into Hebrews 12, one. And he says, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin that does so easily beset us and let us run with patience. The race that is set before us. Let me read it to you out of the NIV. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders. And the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Just like Paul's life, we have a race marked out for us. Now, here we have weights and sins. Lay aside every weight, everything that hinders. What is that? That is what you could call unnecessary baggage. Unnecessary baggage. See, there's some things that in your life that are not necessarily immoral. They're not necessarily unrighteous. They're just not necessary, not necessarily immoral, not necessarily an unrighteous, just not necessary. And these things become weight to throw them aside is actually one of the hardest things in life to do, because there's always the rationale that it's not sinful. And yet it might be a weight. You have to keep your mind and your heart focused on what God has given to you to do. So here's how I did in my life. In my life, I have to weigh everything that I do against how it relates to the calling that God has given me in my life. I have to weigh everything that I do against how it relates to the calling God has given me in my life. How does this fit in to what God has called me to do? So that requires self-discipline. By the way, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. And one of the further spirit is self-control. So we can do this by the spirit's power, not by our own. It requires self-control, self-discipline to say no to things that are going to slow you down. Those are weights. God will show you what they are. You're probably thinking of some even now. I've been burning up so much time on this thing and it's empty and I know I've been burning up time. God's been telling me to get rid of it, to stop it. No, it's not unrighteous, but it's a time bandit. It's a weight. I'm getting rid of it. Thank you, Lord, for confirming it tonight. Good. If he's telling you, then act on it. Go from here and act on it. So you lay aside the weight. What about the sin? The sin that so easily besets us. Sin does easily beset you. And Satan is very clever at seeing to it that it does easily beset you. You want to know one of the ways he does that? He'll take you to the Bible. He'll get you while you're reading your Bible. And what he'll do is one of his great ways of catching you is to point out great saints in the Bible and hide their virtues, hide their sufferings and point out their sin. Hide the virtue, hide the suffering, point out the sin. So you're reading along in your Bible and he'll say, please notice the anger of Moses. He kills a guy. Notice later on, he strikes the rock. The guy had an anger problem. That's Moses. You got a little anger problem, too. Don't worry about it. You move along in your Bible. Look at David, a man after God's own heart. He commits adultery. What's a little adultery? Here's David, a man after God's own heart. And so he points out the sins of the saints in the Bible. Look at Job. Oh, Job. Yes. Have you considered my servant Job? Oh, yeah. He started out OK. He fell to the ground and he worshiped. I came in naked. I'll go out naked. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he worshiped. But how about later? He curses the day he was born. And he starts complaining all over the place and questioning God, even Job. Yeah. And how about the pride of Hezekiah? How about Noah? What a guy. For 120 years against all opposition in a place where it's never rained ever because it had never rained on planet Earth. He's talking about it's going to rain. And it's going to rain so hard. What's rain? Never mind. It's lots of water. It's going to come down so hard there'll be a flood. And that's why I'm building this huge ark for 120 years. He went through this. What a man of God. And they're rejecting him. And he climbs into the ark and eight people get into the ark. God himself closes the door. What a guy. Oh, yeah. The devil comes along. He's very careful to point out. You know, after all that seafaring life. Later on, he comes out of the ark and he plants a vineyard. And he gets into the wine business. And he has a little too much. And he ends up drunk in his tent. Now, even Noah got drunk now and then. Have a little nap. So he points out the sins of the great saints in the Bible to encourage you to get easily beset in them. Let me give you a few remedies against this. Remedy number one. Know that the spirit has been as careful to point out the rising by repentance out of sin in the lives of these individuals as he was to point out their falling. They rose in repentance out of their sin. Psalm 51. David writes of how the Lord brought him out of his sin with Bathsheba. That's Psalm 51. Job cursed the day of his birth. But later on in Job 40, verse four, he said, Behold, I am vile. I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I will repent in dust and ashes. See, that's in there, too. So that's the first remedy. Know that God shows the rising out of their sin by repentance. They didn't stay there. And that's the next thing I want to point out to you. They didn't make it a habit. They didn't make the habit of Moses. Life was not one of anger. The habit of David's life was not that of adultery. And so these things, they fell once or twice. And then they kept much closer to God than ever. That's a good remedy to understand that another remedy is the punishment they receive for their sin. That's in there, too. So that Psalm 51, 8, David prays, Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Lord, it's been really, really hard for these nine months since the thing with Bathsheba where I haven't sought you. Bring me back to the place of joy with you. I have suffered under your chastening hand. Bring me back to the joy of my salvation. In 2 Samuel 12, 10, Nathan, who was like a father to David, the prophet who brought him to repentance. He should have died for the adultery under the Mosaic law. Do you ever think about that? David should have died for adultery. He should have been stoned. But he hid it. God points it out to Nathan. Nathan comes to David and he tells him, I know and God knows. And now, you know, and now it's time to repent after nearly a year of walking out of fellowship with God. He says, then he says this interesting thing. You need to know the Lord has said you shall not die. That's because he should have been stoned for the sin of adultery. However, he goes on to say, nevertheless, 2 Samuel 12, 10. The sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. You killed her husband. You committed adultery with her and you married her and you did it in front of all of Israel. And the sword is never going to depart from your house. Realize how hard that was for Nathan to say that to David, that there was punishment. There's always consequence. Let me give you the last thing to help you stand against sin besetting you. And that is that God records the saints sins for two reasons. One is to keep us from fainting, to keep us from fainting, to see that even the best may fall. Even the best may fall. Number two, he not only records them to keep us from fainting, but number two, he records the sins of the saints as landmarks to warn us to take heed. Lest we do fall. It's both. To see that the best may fall so that we don't faint and to be warned to take heed. Lest we do fall. So the two things that cause you to lose your focus are what? Weights and sins. Listen to this. For every one servant of God who gets off track because of some big sin in life, there are probably ten who've gotten off track because of unnecessary stuff. That they have allowed to become a big part of their lives that had nothing to do with the calling in their lives. Stuff had nothing to do with the calling in their life. That's usually the way it is. So we need to adopt the attitude of Paul, the apostle. Can you turn in your Bible to Acts 20, verse 22? We're talking about a focused life. Here he is in Acts 20, 22. Acts 20, 22. Here it is. Behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem. There it is right there. That is the iron in the soul. Acts 20, 22. Behold, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there in detail, except this. The Holy Spirit witnesses in every city through prophets, you could say, saying that bonds and afflictions are waiting for me there. I know that. But verse 24. None of these things move me. Neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. And the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus. Do you see how this man lives? These things don't move me. Yes, there'll be afflictions. Yes, there'll be difficulty. But they don't move me. Why? Because I don't count my life dear to myself. Why? Because I plan on finishing my course. And that's the only way to do it and to finish it with joy. And I have a ministry and it isn't mine. I didn't get it by multiple choice. I received it from the Lord. And so I will account to him. That's a focused life. You know, they say that Ted Williams had the greatest focus at bat of any man who ever played baseball. When he used to stand there sometimes ready to just belt that thing out there. They would throw firecrackers at his feet to distract him. Can you imagine tossing firecrackers at his feet when he's getting ready and the pitch is coming. And he'd smack that ball out there. And afterwards, everybody. Whoa, how'd he do it with firecrackers all around his feet? He never heard them. He never heard them. He was so focused. He never heard them. We need to be like that. We need to be like that. How do you do it? Hebrews 12 to looking under Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. That's how you do it. You keep your eyes on the Lord who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Same way Paul did it. Maximum effort, noblest cause, focused life. And the other thing is he treasured his time. He treasured his time. In those statements he makes in Timothy four, it is so obvious he treasured his time. God has given you a moment to be born into his kingdom and God has ordained a moment. You will enter his presence. There is a fixed moment. And you know what? He's ordained the moment you enter his kingdom. Born again. And he's ordained the moment you will enter his presence. And that is how much time you have to run your race. The minutes in between. They're fixed. They're fixed. The grains of sand are going through the hourglass of your life. They're fixed. There's an ordained moment. You're born again. There's an ordained moment. You'll enter his presence. You only have so many minutes. So much time. You learn to treasure your time. The psalmist said in Psalm 90 verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. And all of that is to say this. There are some very important things that you have left to get done in your life. Do them. Do them. You must discover, if you haven't already, your calling. Then fulfill it. Fulfill it. Do it. I love the example of George Whitefield. If you've never read his life, Arnold Dallimore has a great biography on his life. Get the paperback version because he studied his life for 40 years before he wrote the biography. Forty years. And he wrote two big volumes. Later he condensed it into a paperback. I suggest you get the paperback first to start with. But Whitefield was so ordered in his life. He would never go to bed if his duties were out of order. He put his gloves in place on the nightstand, especially later in life, because he never knew for sure if this was his last day. Whitefield preached on the hillsides in the open air to countless thousands of people. Led countless thousands to the Lord. Traversed what they called the pond over in Britain. Traversed the Atlantic back and forth several times. Became great friends with Benjamin Franklin. Was very influential in the Great Awakening in America. And went to bed at 10 o'clock every night and got up at 4 o'clock every morning. And then he would read his Greek New Testament and his English New Testament and Old Testament. And then he would read Matthew Henry's commentary on the Bible that was in front of him. He did that every single day of his life at 4 in the morning. And out from there he'd be ready for sermons any time of the day. On the day that he died, he preached a sermon from the balcony right by his bedroom from his house. And he was just going up to the stairs with the candle to go to bed. And they gathered a crowd in the streets and just said, One more sermon, one more sermon. And he hadn't been feeling well that day. He'd traveled and preached twice already, traveling by horseback. He was old, so he went out to the balcony to share a few words. But by the time he was done, the candle had burned almost all the way down. He walked in. He felt a little tired. You can understand why. He laid down on his bed, and within minutes, he went to heaven. It was an ordered life, a focused life. That's Paul right there. And the final thing is he kept the faith. He kept the faith. Maximum effort in the noblest cause. He focused his life. He treasured his time, and he kept the faith. How many people do you know along the way that are gone now? I could list off probably thousands that I've known in my life that are no longer walking with Christ. They're gone. They haven't kept the faith. It's just tear-jerking to think of it. You keep the faith. You keep your eyes on the Lord. You finish well. I'm going to read you a story, and I'm going to be done. It's true. It's about William Borden, who was the heir to the Borden dairy fortune. In 1904, a young man graduated from high school in Chicago, Illinois. He was a member of Moody Church, and his pastor was R.E. Torrey. His name was William Borden, heir to the Borden dairy fortune. He was worth millions even in 1904. For a high school graduation gift, his parents gave him a cruise around the world. He went to Hong Kong, all of Asia, found himself in Egypt, toured through the Middle East, and then went across Europe, visiting the capitals of Europe. As he rode home in the process, the tone of his letters began to change. It began to accumulate an incredible burden and compassion for lost people. He had seen millions of them without Christ. One letter said, Mom, I believe God is calling me to be a missionary. Another letter said, I am sure God is calling me. I'm going to give my life and prepare for the mission field. But that was not the family plan. He was the most gifted of the children in the Borden family. He was the one they had desired to run the family business. But after the cruise, he returned home. He spent four years training at Yale, three years in seminary, because he had such a heart for the mission field. Seven years of training. During his time in college and seminary, he gave away his fortune to needy people. In the midst of this, as he was preparing to go to the mission field, he took his Bible and he opened to the back cover. And there he wrote two words. After he'd given all his money away, no reserves. Then closed his Bible. In other words, I'm holding nothing back and I have nothing but trust from here. I've given away all my reserves. I will go on trusting God to supply all my needs. No reserves. He began to pray about where God would want him to go. His heart was moved toward China. He decided that God had called him to China. He announced to his family he was going and that he would be leaving very soon. Just prior to leaving, his father became very ill. In fact, his father was near death. The family came to him and said, you can't go. We beg you to stay. You have to stay. You are the only one who can run the family business. By now, of course, these seven years had passed and he was a mature young man. They said, we will give you your father's office. We will give you all the money you want, whatever it takes. They promised him cars, everything a young man could dream of. In his biography, it says that he said this. I can't do it. My life is committed now. Again, he opened the back cover of his Bible. And he wrote two more words. No retreat. First two words earlier, no reserves. Now the two words, no retreat. He said, God has called me and I'm going. He sailed for China. On the way through the Mediterranean, he stopped in Egypt. He had been there before. While he was in Egypt, he contracted cerebral meningitis. He was dead in one month. He never reached China. He never reached a mission field. He never became a missionary. All that preparation. All that effort. And he died. They found his Bible after his death. They opened it. And again on that back fly leaf, they found that he had written one last thing. They found the words, no reserves, no retreat. And just before he died, he wrote one more line. No regret. No reserves, no retreat, no regret. He never got there. But you know something? He lived his life to the maximum of dedication to the Jesus Christ whom he loved. And if that was to be the end, that was God's choice. And he had no regrets. That's the way to go. Like Paul, no regrets. Like Jesus, no regrets. No reserve, no retreat, no regret. Father, thank you. There is such a life as this. Oh, God, lift us up and away from the things that would entangle us in this world into this kind of life. It is you that makes such a Christian life. And so we ask you, Lord, to work within us by your love, by your grace, by your power, by your word. Mold us and make us into that which you would have us to be. Lead us and guide us into the course, into the calling you have for us. Give us that great sense of the exalted life you've called us to, that we might order our lives accordingly, casting aside the weights and the sins and running the race to win. And we will give you all the glory, for we ask these things expecting a great adventure and a great experience with you here and heaven forever after. Amen.