The Journey of life
Finishing Well
2 Timothy 4:6-8
Hebrews 12:1-3
How is it that we can finish the Journey of Life well?
Finishing well requires Fighting the Good Fight (2 Timothy 4:7a; Hebrews 12:1b)
Finishing well requires Finishing your work (2 Timothy 4:7b)
Finishing well requires Faithfulness to Christ (2 Timothy 4:7c)
Slide
We have been talking about the journey of Life these past several weeks
The Journey of life is sometimes illustrated as a race in the Bible.
We are in a race.
This race is not so much to finish first as to finish well.
I want to show you a video of a race from the 2006 Olympics that illustrates how we can run a text book race and finish poorly and all we will be remembered for is the poor finish.
(video of jacobellis losing 2006 snowboarding race at Olympics) email me and I will send it to you)
Video
After Video back to slide 1
Things can go so well and then go so wrong. In that race the snowboarder lost focus.
We need to maintain our focus if we are going to finish well.
Throughout the Bible we find people of God who
start well and yet finish poorly,
who run well and who stumble along the way,
who start poor but finish well.
I want to encourage you that no matter how you have been doing on this journey of life, there is still time to finish well.
And for those who have been running the race of life well, I want to encourage you to maintain your focus, because you do not want to slip up now and finish poorly.
We just saw in the video how easy it is to run well the whole way and then finish poorly.
Don’t let that be you.
Unfortunately for this snowboarder, this finish will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Transition
Today, however, we are going to take a look at one person in the Bible who is a great example of finishing well on the journey of life, and that is Paul.
Paul did not start out so well.
He was a persecutor of Christians.
He was even there at the stoning of Stephen, giving his approval.
But the Lord gave him the opportunity for a fresh start.
He then took the next steps of faith and continued on in the journey.
He stood firm when things did not seem fair and
He finished well.
When I was in High School, I was in drama and in the plays that we did, we had a saying that said, you were only as good as your last act.
Paul’s last act was one of faithfulness even as he faced execution from a Roman prison.
He finished well.
Let’s see what we can learn from Paul so we might finish well too.
Listen to what he says to Timothy as he approached his death in
2 Timothy 4:6-8 (p. 843)
Slide
Now as you turn there, a little background.
Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him in pursing God’s call in his life.
I am going to begin reading from
2 Timothy 4:1-8, to get the context, but we will be focusing on the last part
2 Timothy 4;1-8
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Paul, nearing his execution,
is concerned for others to come to salvation and
encourages Timothy to “discharge the duties” of his ministry.
How is it that Paul is able to face what he is facing and yet come to the end of the race, the end of his journey of life and still be focused on others coming to Christ?
It is because Paul is focused on the eternal, not the temporary.
If we are going to finish well, we need to keep our focus as well.
Keeping our focus on the eternal is what is going to enable us to do the other things that are required for finishing well.
What are those other things. Well, Paul tells us in these verses.
First,
Finishing well requires Fighting the good fight
Slide
2 Timothy 4:7a
I have fought the good fight
Notice this does not say fight each other, but fight the good fight.
What is fighting the good fight?
Hebrews describes fighting the good fight as running with perseverance
Hebrews 12:1
1 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.
This Christian life is not a walk in the park.
I want you to clearly know that becoming a Christian is not going to
make you rich or
necessarily heal you physically or
bring some great earthly reward.
In fact, becoming a Christian and living the Christian life may make your physical life harder.
What kind of evangelist is this guy?
I am an honest evangelist. Becoming a Christian does not make your life easier. But it will provide the ability for you to be more joyful in the midst of whatever is going on in your life.
But you must persevere.
You must fight the good fight.
So in this good fight, what are we fighting for?
There are two things that go hand in hand in this fight and the author of Hebrews outlines them for us in Hebrews 12:1-2
Hebrews 12:1-2a
12:1 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.
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith
We need to fight against any hindrances and sins that seek to invade our life
We need to fight for keeping our eyes fixed on Christ and not on the hindrances and sins and temptations that Satan puts in front of us.
Now this is not nearly as easy as it sounds.
This is why it is a fight.
It is difficult and requires that we battle.
Armor of God
We spoke about this several months ago when we did a series on Ephesians 6 and the armor of God.
All of the pieces of Armor ultimately have to do with our faith.
We need to keep our faith strong.
How do we keep our faith strong?
Spending time with God in prayer and devotions, reading his word and meditating on it.
Doing Bible study as a group
Being connected and accountable to other Christians
Doing these things will help us fight the good fight by
being strengthened to resist temptation and
keep our eyes on Jesus
so we can walk worthy of the calling he has given us.
These are the things that are going to keep you running well on your journey and bring you to the point of being able to finish well.
Finishing well not only requires fighting the good fight , but
Finishing well requires Finishing your work
Slide
Paul tells Timothy
In 2 Timothy 4:7b
“I have finished the race”
Does that mean just getting to the end and dying?
No.
In Acts 20:23-24, he gives further explanation.
Acts 20:23-24
I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
He wanted to complete the task that God gave him
In Colossians 4:17, Paul tells a friend of his to
“See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.”
Now, Paul had a special calling, testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
That was his special mission in life.
Not everyone of us have been given the same mission as Paul, but God has given each of us purpose.
We need to finish the work toward our purpose.
For most of us a major part of our purpose is found in what many of us consider normal life.
Be a husband who loves his wife
Be a wife who respects her husband
Raise your kids in a godly manner
Live your life in a way that is a testimony to God’s grace.
Without completing and finishing these tasks, any other tasks or work given to you by the Lord, will be marred.
Illustration – Bob Pierce, World Vision
Bob Pierce was the founder of World Vision and a leader of Samaritan’s Purse, putting it on the map.
While Bob did a lot of good things for the Lord, he did not finish well.
His uncontrolled temper led to his departure from World Vision
His own passions and desires led him to focus on the visible things and he paid little attention to his family responsibilities.
On his final trip to Asia, his daughter called and asked him to come home. He refused and in fact extended his trip. His wife went home. By the time she got there, the daughter had attempted suicide. A year later she tried again and succeeded. Pierce was in the hospital in Switzerland at that time suffering from a nervous breakdown.
Up until 4 days before his death, he was estranged from his family.
Don’t forgo the tasks that God gives you that seem small to you, that may be less visible to peoples, but are so important and visible to the Lord, like your family.
But perhaps, God has given you a further calling.
We must continue to remain faithful to the few things even as we have been given more responsibility.
Maybe He has called you to mission work.
Maybe He is calling you to service in the local church
Maybe He is calling you into full time ministry.
Not following His call and finishing the work He gives you will only cause you to finish this journey of life with regrets.
If you are going to finish well, I echo Paul’s statement.
“See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.”
Finally,
Finishing Well requires Faithfulness to Christ
Slide
2 Timothy 4:7c
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
We must keep the faith.
We must continue to trust Christ.
Hebrews 11:1
11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
There are times we are going to have to move out on faith, even when we don’t see how the Lord is possibly going to work things out.
I have met people who have said they have felt the call into ministry and began pursuing it but failed to see how it would work out for them and then would not step our in faith.
I look back on my own call into ministry and while it was a time where God grew me greatly in my faith, I think of all that I would have missed out on if I had not left my job when I did in obedience to the Lord.
It was one of the scariest things I ever did, but it was the best thing I ever did.
If we are going to put ourselves in a position of finishing well, we must be faithful to follow Christ.
Even when we don’t fully see how He can work it out.
Even when we are scared.
He has given us the faith we need to take the next step in front of us so that we will be in position to finish well.
So, I want you to ask yourself the question,
Slide
“What can I do now that will help put me in the position of finishing well?”
Do you need to be baptized?
We have opportunities for baptism next week.
Do you need to be more faithfully working at your job.
We are to work as if we are working for the Lord.
That is being faithful.
Do you need to be more faithfully raising your kids in the Lord?
Do you need to take a step of trust in giving a tithe of your income or at least moving in that direction?
Tithing is an act of trust in the Lord. We trust him to provide for our needs on 90% of what he gives us and honor him with the first part of our income.
Do you need to be sharing what God has done in your life with someone else?
Maybe you think God hasn’t done much in your life.
Is that because you are stuck in neutral unwilling to take the step of faith that God has placed in front of you.
On the bottom of your outline is a line.
I want you to write on it what God is laying on your heart that you need to do now.
Then we are going to pray and ask God to help us make moves toward that so we will find our selves in the position of finishing well.
We are not going to be able to finish well in our own strength.
That is why we need to pray and ask for His help. Our Lord not only is able to help, but desires to.
Let us not forget that we have a Redeemer who is alive and able to help us so that when we come to the end of our journey of life and we have walked with Him in faith, we will be able to hear the words that we long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Let’s pray.
