Title: Finishing Well
Text: 2 Timothy 4:6-7
Date: March 11, 2012
Place: Washington A/G
Introduction
I. Starting Things
A. It’s easy to do
1. We start projects
2. We start routines
3. We start new disciplines
B. Everyone does it
II. Finishing Things
A. An altogether different subject
1. How many half-done projects are floating around your place?
2. Illustration: I remember the time when I had built a garage in my yard. It was a great building. We dug the foundation, we poured the cement, we built the frame and closed it in. Sometime later I began to putting on the siding. I completed the entire building except for a small space on the back of the building.
When I was asked about the progress on the building I said, “ I finished it all but just a little bit, I think I have it down to where it’s just a spare time project.” One lady overheard our conversation and said in reply, “You’ll never finish.”
About five years later I sold that house, and I never did finish the siding on that barn.
3. Have you ever come close to the end of a project and did less than your best just to be able to call it finished?
B. Finishing the Race of life
1. We’re all running
2. At the appointed time we will all finish
3. This is one thing that will not be void of completion
4. There is a difference between finishing and finishing well
C. A great start does not ensure a great finish
In an article of Christianity Today you can find the story of Bob Pierce.
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.
He ended up separated from his wife and estranged from his whole family up until 4 days before his death.
D. A rough Start does not have to mean a poor finish
1. Maybe you are here today and have made some poor decisions in your journey or stumbled along the way.
2. I want to encourage you that no matter how you have been doing along life’s journey, it is not too late to finish well.
3. And for those who have been running the race of life well, I want to encourage you to keep focused on Christ, because you do not want to slip up now and finish poorly.
III. One who finished well
A. Paul did not start out so well.
1. He was a persecutor of Christians.
2. He was even there at the stoning of Stephen, giving his approval to his death.
B. The Lord gave him the opportunity to step into Hope and he became a believer in Jesus Christ.
1. He then took the next steps of faith and continued on in the journey.
2. He took steps that stood firm when he was arrested and beaten and stoned
C. Nearing the end of Paul’s life he writes a letter to his young friend Timothy. I want you to hear what Paul says to Timothy concerning the time of his own approaching death.
1. First Paul gives Timothy a charge to faithfully carry out his calling
2. Second, Paul speaks of his own life’s situation
For 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. Finally, there is laid up for me the 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 have loved His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8 NKJV)
a. 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 life’s journey and still be focused on others coming to Christ?
b. It is because Paul is focused on the eternal, not the temporary. He understands that our hope is not found in this life or in anything in it.
c. If we are going to finish well, we need to keep our focus as well.
Body
I. Fighting the good fight
A. 2 Timothy 4:7a - I have fought the good fight
B. What does it mean to fight the good fight?
1. If you haven’t discovered this already, the Christian life is not a walk in the park.
2. 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.
3. In fact, becoming a Christian and living the Christian life may make your physical life harder, but it will provide the ability for you to be more joyful in the midst of whatever is going on in your life.
4. But you must persevere. You must fight the good fight.
C. Spiritual life likened to warfare
1. Our Spiritual life is often likened to warfare
2. Paul when writing to church at Ephesus let them know that, as Christians, they were engaged in battle in the Spiritual realm
3. He says to them there will be times when there is nothing for you to do but stand firm in the faith.
4. Some have mistakenly thought that the way to wage spiritual warfare is to first rebuke, bind and take authority over things that are outside of ourselves
5. I believe in those things but we learn from Paul’s words to the Ephesians that the way to wage war, or to fight the good fight is not a battle on the outside, but a strengthening on the inside
a. Gird yourself with the truth (Study of the Word)
b. Put on the breastplate of God’s righteousness (We’re no longer standing in our own strengths but realize that what we are is of God’s provision)
c. Cover our Spiritual feet with the Peace of God
d. Hold up the shield of faith
e. Put on the helmet of salvation
f. This is where the Spiritual battle is won or lost
g. The Rebuking and binding is simply going forth from there to reap the spoils of the warfare that has already been waged.
II. Finishing the race
A. Finishing the race does that mean just getting to the end and dying?
1. It’s not coming to the close of life and simply celebrating the fact that we sat idly by while life passed us by but praise God we have our salvation in tact
B. We all have our race to run
1. It is exclusively ours; it is custom tailored for our lives by God (not speaking of the universalism promoted by the world today)
2. As a Christians God has set a unique path of life before us all
a. You will be asked to run in ways that I will not
b. I will be asked to run in ways that you will not
3. There is a job for you to do; a reason for your existence.
a. It is a blessed individual who is able see past the temporal things of life and into the eternal purpose that God has for their lives and find the courage to pursue it.
b. Queen Esther had one such revelation in her life and declared, “I was put here in this position at this point in history for such a time as this.”
c. I believe I am called by God right now in in the month of March in the year 2012 to be the Pastor of the Greatest body of believers anybody’s ever had the privilege to be a part of: Washington Assembly of God!
4. God wants you to passionately pursue your calling and purpose as long as he puts breath in your body.
5. Listen to Paul’s words
a. "And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:22-24 NLT)
b. Apparently all that mattered in life to Paul at this point was funning the race that God had set before Him.
c. Sometimes circumstances will not be easy, factors and factions will suggest that you should give up on your calling, give in to your fears but RUN!
C. Running the race: A concentrated effort
1. Is not merely existing through life allowing it to mindlessly pass us by
2. In the book of Hebrews we are encouraged to run the race that is set before us making conscious and deliberate decisions about the things we carry through life.
3. We are instructed to lay aside everything that will slow us down
4. Run with patience
III. Keeping the Faith
A. Finishing well requires that we keep the faith; our faith in Christ
B. This race that we run is in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, to finish it well requires keeping the faith that where He leads He is able and will keep us.
1. There will be times when the steps require that we walk where we see nothing to step on; Keep the faith
2. There will be times that we are going to have to step out on faith, even when we don’t see how the Lord is possibly going to work things out.
C. There are so many times, when Satan will come and whisper lies to us that we will believe.
1. “Quit being a godly spouse. Your husband or wife is not being godly, why should you?”
2. “Why should you be honest in the workplace when nobody else is and they are getting all the promotions and raises?”
3. “Why shouldn’t you join in and enjoy the prosperity of the wicked, It doesn’t seem to be hindering them.”
4. “Why should you continue the denial of self for the sake of Christ, look out for Number one?”
D. Neither the battle we are called to wage nor the race we are called to run will be the route of least resistance; it will require that we are resolute in our faith trusting that He who has called us is faithful.
Conclusion
I. Life: A Disciplines Race
A. Someone once said, “Everybody arrives somewhere, very few end up there on purpose.”
B. If you and I are going to finish well our race, our ministry, our Christian walk, it is going to be on purpose.
C. Paul was very aware of this face in writing to the church @ Corinth
1. He knew it was possible to start out on this race and falter.
2. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV)
II. Finishing Well
A. We won’t in our own strengths
B. We can if we commit our ways to the Lord
C. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5 NKJV)
D. It is the best way to ensure that you finish well!
