2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Epiphany 4
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
February 2, 2025
What Does Success Look Like in God’s Kingdom? Ronaldo and Messi, Simone and Serena, Scheffler, McIlroy, and Woods—you know names like these because they are among the most successful athletes in the world. Sheeran and Swift, Eilish and Ariana, Combs and Stapleton—some of the most popular singers. Denzel, the Rock, Cruise, Johansson and Sweeney and Aniston—wildly successful movie stars. Ticket sales and jersey sales, most-streamed songs and radio plays, movies that tear you away from Netflix and your couch and get you into a theater…these are some of the things that announce that a person is popular and successful. But What Does Success Look Like in God’s Kingdom? I can tell you that it’s not the same kind of stuff! God has an entirely different way of judging success—and you and I should too. Faithfulness to God’s Word is Success The Apostle Paul was writing to a young man named Timothy who was a bit like you and a bit like me. Like him, you are an important person to God and an important part of his kingdom. Like him, I am that also and I am a pastor like he was. As we look over Timothy’s shoulder and read this letter too, truths of the highest importance pop off the page, things worthy of learning and remembering. Really, things we have to know— both for ourselves and for others as we live for God in his kingdom Timothy was blessed in a way that many of you were. He was raised to know God from the time he was a baby. Paul had already mentioned Eunice, his mom, and Lois, his grandmother at the beginning of this letter. Timothy would have thought of them when he read, As for you, continue in the things you have learned and about which you have become convinced. You know from whom you learned them and that from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. In God’s eyes, Lois and Eunice were successful. We don’t know anything more about them and we don’t need to. That they raised Timothy from the time he was a baby to know his God and Savior—that was faithfulness to God and his Word, which is success in the kingdom of God. The only “popular people lists” those ladies end up on are ones that you and I might see within the kingdom of God. The world hardly notices people like that. No one sells posters of parents who raise Christian children. But you know who notices. I was talking with a college student this week about how hard it is to know what’s true and what’s not. Who and what can you trust? Are the images you see real or AI? Is the “breaking news” on X actually true? Or the story on Facebook? Is she really your friend