When A Disciple Defects!
When A Disciple Defects!
2 Timothy 4: 10
Country music has many sad songs of someone who has love and left.
It really hurts when someone has vowed allegiance and then, breaks it off and leaves
the one to whom he had pledged his love and his life.
If there is sadness when a lover leaves or a mother or father forsakes, it is so much sadder
when a disciple defects.
Discipleship indicates that a person will faithfully follow Jesus.
Many look at their lives as they are in the present, and never consider the eternal implications.
Often we fail to think of the ultimate outcome of an action, but we think only of its present implications.
When we live for the present we will never build for the future.
Our food comes in disposable containers.
We buy throw away ball-point pens to write and disposable razors to shave.
Babies are diapered with disposable diapers.
Our consumer products are designed with built-in obsolesce; and many of our children
attend school in temporary buildings.
This can also be said about our lives.
We live for the present.
That is Timothy addresses in 2 Timothy 4: 10: "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world."
This verse is disturbing.
Paul asked this young preacher and close friend to come to him as soon as possible.
The scene is a prison in Rome.
This is probably Paul's second imprisonment.
Before this, he had been imprisoned in a private house, but this time he is imprisoned
in a dark, damp, prison cell.
He has asked for his coat and his books.
He was told about all those who had left him while he was imprisoned.
Only Luke was with him.
So, Paul called for his young son in the ministry.
It is interesting to note of all those whom had lef him, he communicated his disappointment
in one person -- Demas.
Demas is mentioned only three times in the Scriptures.
In the Book of Philemon he is mentioned as a fellow laborer.
In Colossians, Paul related that Luke and Demas joined in his greeting to the Christians at Colossae.
Then, here in 2 Timothy there is Paul's saddness when he wrote, " Demas hath forsaken me."
Then, we are told why he left Paul.
The Scripture says that he left: " Having loved the present world."
Like so many of us, Demas was living only for the present.
To live for the present we do not have to renounce our Christian faith.
We can just prefer the comfort and security of thing that attracts us for the moment,
and then leave our place of responsibility, and leave a task that was ours, undone.
Many disciples defect their duties by living for the present.
One of the ways in which Christians defect from discipleship is by living for the present is
by seeking the momentary thrills of the world.
Then, life is lived for the thrill and pleasure of the moment.
Our society is pleasure crazy.
The pursuit of pleasure results in the spending of millions of dollars and spending our energy
and time in that pursuit.
One pastor said, " People are looking for new nerve endings to excite."
In this pursuit for pleasure things that are lasting are overlooked.
When people are seeking momentary thrills, the lasting and eternal are neglected and forsaken.
Some years ago a 27-year-old man was convicted of three brutal robbery-killings
in Islip, New York.
He stated that he got a thrill out of killing.
When asked how he spent the money, he said that he had spent 1/3 on women,
1/3 on liquor, and 1/3 on foolish things.
He had followed his destructive impulsiveness in seeking the thrills of life.
It is sad to hear our society and many Christians say that the most important thing
for them are momentary thrills.
Seeking the thrills in life results in frustrating hopelessness.
Therefore, there is no joy in spite of all the attempts to enjoy their pleasures.
People who live only for thrills and pleasures are trapped in frustrations and futility.
All of us have heard life described as " a rat race".
Alcoholism and drug addiction are ways of life for many people as they attempt
to anesthetize themselves against life.
Irresponsibility is widespread.
Many people are not concerned about consequences.
Absenteeism has become a real problem for employers.
Everyone must search for a center in life.
People need something on which life can be built.
Seeking the thrill where there is no joy and satisfaction has caused many people
to leave the very thing that can always bring them back to the center which should be
a vital a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.
Some missionaries are said to have landed on the beach of a south sea island.
When they landed on the beach, they began to find driftwood so they could build a fire.
Then, they built a fire and warmed themselves by it.
Soon, they noticed a group of chimpanzees who were dragging branches
and arranging them as though they would also have a fire.
Then, they warmed their hands and their feet at the pile of wood.
But there was no fire!
So often we have gone through the motions of worship and ministry, but do not have
the fire of God's Holy Spirit in our worship or in our ministries.
This is so frustrating and so futile!
When someone seeks only the thrills in life, this is what happens!
There is no fire!
There is no depth!
There is no victory!
Life takes on a certain hopelessness, and there is a defection from the One who can give
purpose and direction to life.
When a person lives only for the present, he is emphasizing the trivial in life.
Many of us battle daily with the problem of the good overcoming best.
There are many things that might be called good in themselves.
But God has called us to the best.
In his book, Why Not The Best?, Jimmy Carter tells of his application for the
Navy nuclear submarine program.
In an interview with Adam Hyman Rickover, Carter sat in a large room with Rickover
for more than two hours.
Rickover let him choose the subjects they would discuss.
So Carter chose those things about which he knew the most -- current events, seamanship,
music, literature, naval tactics, electronics, and gunnery.
Then, Rickover began to ask him a series of questions with increasing difficulty.
In each instance, he soon proved to Carter that he did not know as much about the subject
as he thought he did.
Always looking him right in the eye, he never smiled, and Carter was soon saturated with sweat.
Finally, he asked a question Carter thought could help him redeem himself.
He asked how he stood in his class at the Naval Academy.
He had done very well.
So, his chest swelled with pride when he replied that he stood 59th in a class of 820.
Instead of congratulating him, Rickover asked him one more question.
He asked if he had done his best.
Before answering that he had, Carter remembered those times when he could have
learned more about the Allies, the enemies, weapons, strategy, or whatever the subject.
So, he replied that he had not always done his best.
Rickover looked at him a long time, then turned his chair around to end the interview.
He asked one final question, which Carter didn't answer and never forgot.
That question was, " Why not?"
Why have we not done our best for God?
One reason could be that we have emphasized the trivial so much in life
and give very little emphasis on doing the best.
Because of too much concern over the trivial, we never get around to following Jesus
in dedicated discipleship.
A seminary president once said that if the church suffers from any ailment it was triviality.
So much of church programming, activity, budgeting, and the expenditure of energy
involves the trivial.
Many things are done that are not done in the name of Christ.
Convenience is chosen over consistency.
Expediency governs life.
Rather than living with the principles of Christ, we do the things that are most convenient for us.
I read of a pastor telling that early in his ministry he was faced with a peculiar church
problem that worried him.
He tried to decide on the right solution.
But his decision could possibly offend some of the church with the decision.
So, he went to one of his college professors and presented the problem.
But the professor did not tell him what to do.
But he did give him a principle in making that decision when he said,
" You will have to decide whether you will follow what is expedient or your convictions."
It comes down to where will we place our devotion and love.
The love we have for Christ must be more compelling than our love for the world.
Anything that would crowd out Christ and draw us away from Him would be
a good definition of the world.
Christ is to be loved supremely.
The disciple who lives for the present is forgetting the eternal.
The tragedy of living for the present would suggest that future results do not seem to matter.
Actions today will have future results.
We must remember that destiny is determined by decision.
Our eternal destiny is determined by the decision that we make to accept or reject
Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.
We must remember that for Demas and any other defecting disciple the door is always
open to return.
Christ will forgive any who will confess and forsake his sin and returns.
Many have been in the far country, and has said as the prodigal son, " I want to come home.
I want to come back."
And God always says, " Come back! Welcome home!"
Many years ago I read of a father who was deeply grieved because his son had left home
in a rebellious attitude and joined a group of young people in a commune.
Although the father had asked the authorities to help him in locating his son,
the search was unsuccessful.
It was determined that his the son was in a certain major city.
So, the father went to that city and made a list of all the places frequented by young people
who shared the life style of his son.
Following this list, the father took his own portrait to a studio and had many prints made.
He wrote across each picture: " All is forgiven. I love you. Come home." Dad.
Then, he went to each of the bars and the clubs and asked for permission to place
his picture with others hanging on the wall.
The son came into the bar and was stunned to see his father's picture and message.
It touched his heart.
He felt a flood of sorrow sweep over him for the suffering he had caused his father.
He realized that his rebellion had resulted in wasting his life and had lead him
into a life of despair and depression.
So, the son got on a bus and went home where he was lovingly and warmly welcomed.
You can go home again -- God is waiting!
For life to be lived at its best in the present and for eternity it must be lived
with Christ at the center.
Sermon adapted by Dr. Harold L White