Plainfield Christian Church
09-08-24 | Finish Line Faith: When You Feel Like Giving In
Welcome to the Plainfield Christian Church podcast. We hope that this message encourages you today. For additional resources to learn about what it looks like to be fully alive with Jesus, visit our website at plainfieldchristian.com. Enjoy the podcast. My name's Luke. I get to serve as one of the ministers here and here's what I want you to remember today. How you finish is more important than how you start. And all the Colts fans in the room said, "Hey man, right Lord help Anthony Richardson please." How you finish is more important than how you start. I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of finishing well. I have a lot of quirks like everybody does but if you ask my wife today she'd tell you that one of my quirks is that I'm a little bit obsessed with thinking about my own funeral. Like what's it gonna be like? Who's gonna be there? What kind of pictures are they gonna show? What are they gonna say? What kind of stories are they gonna tell? You might say that's a little bit morbid but I would like to invite you to join me in my morbid obsession for just a moment. What are they gonna say when it's you? Like when your race has been run and all is said and done, what's that moment gonna be like when they tie a bow on your life? Because how you finish is more important than how you start. Maybe you've heard the distinction before it's been talked about the difference between funeral virtues and resume virtues. The world is going to try to get you to chase after virtues that look good on a resume. Things like wealth and status and career and recognition and a great body and a fat bank account and all these things. Those look good on a resume but Jesus wants you to chase after virtues that will look good at your funeral. He wants you to run after things like faith and hope and love because how you finish is more important than how you start. A number of years ago there was a study done of leaders in the Bible and there's roughly a thousand leaders who are mentioned on the pages of Scripture and of those 1,000 leaders there's about 49 of them that we know enough about their life that we can kind of judge the arc of their story from beginning to end. 49 leaders whose stories we know in the Bible and of those 49 leaders do you care to take a guess about how many of them finished? Well only a third of them. Only a third of the leaders on the pages of Scripture actually finished well these are leaders who started strong they did even amazing things for God but only a third of them actually finished well and we don't need the Bible they even tell us that do we? You just look around you you see it all over the place even in Christian circles leaders dropping right and left and I don't know about you I don't want that to be my story and I've been administering long enough now that I've seen it happen when people come to faith. Man we love seeing that moment like we just saw when people are made alive in Jesus and we've seen it over and over again the people they get excited in their faith they're ready to follow Jesus it's fresh and it's new and they come out of the baptistry and they're dripping with hope and eagerness and enthusiasm and they're ready to give their lives to Christ but as time goes on so many people end up fizzling out and fading away and they just move on to the next thing. How you finish is more important than how you start I grew up hearing my dad tell the story of how in college he wrote down some names on the inside cover of his Bible names of his peers who were training for ministry alongside him and these were the ones he thought that would go on to do great things for God they they had what it takes but over the years my dad told me he's had to open up that list and he's had to cross some names out one by one by one getting out of ministry blowing their lives up some of them even walking away from Jesus altogether and so in college I made a list of names a similar list on the front inside cover of my Bible I've got my list right here these are my peers the ones I trained alongside the ones that we were eager to go give our lives to the church and to have God use us to do great things for him these are the ones that I thought yes they're going places they have what it takes and and yet even over the last decade in ministry I hate how many times I've had to open up that list and cross a name out people who just said I just don't think I can do it anymore how you finish it's more important than how you start one of the images in the Bible for the Christian life is that it's a race that you and I are running a race together now if that's true can we be honest with each other this morning if this life that we're living is a race have you ever felt like quitting have you ever felt like just dropping out of the race if you maybe even felt like maybe I'm just gonna cross my own name off that list I'm not sure I can do it anymore I don't know what it's like for you but maybe it's like you're you're praying for some things that just haven't seemed to come true or you deal with discouragement and broken relationships or the church really disappoints you or you see this life described on the pages of scripture for the followers of Jesus and yet it doesn't doesn't jive with the kind of mundane half-hearted reality of your everyday existence or you wrestle with your sin over and over and over again but you just can't seem to kick those old habits if the Christian life is a race have you ever felt like quitting back in Acts chapter 14 is a guy named Paul he was an early follower of Jesus and he's traveling around the Roman Empire and he's trying to encourage some new Christians these Christians who just started their race and he's going around to these churches and he's encouraging them in Acts chapter 14 it says he did this he's talking about Paul and his companions it says they preach the gospel in that city and they want a large number of disciples and then they return to you'll want to remember this Lestra Iconium and Antioch and they were going around strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith so pause right there Paul's going around to all these new Christians who just started their race and he's trying to encourage them he's trying to help them run in such a way that they will be able to finish as well as they have started so what's Paul's amazing message gonna be to make sure these Christians finish well Paul tells them we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God well dang I don't know about you but like that's not the message I wanted to come to church in here today have you ever felt like quitting have you ever felt like you know maybe maybe the hardships are just too many and I don't know if I can do it anymore during World War Two when Winston Churchill was the prime minister of England after the British army had achieved victory over the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge one of Churchill's advisors came up to him and said well we know this proves one thing this proves that the British soldiers are braver than the German soldiers to which Churchill responded oh no they're not he said the German soldiers are just as brave as the British soldiers but the British soldiers were brave five minutes longer so if you've ever felt like quitting if you're discouraged in your faith if you're honest about your life and you know you've gotten a little bit distracted and your priorities are a little bit mixed up if today you're just tired and you're struggling to go on we're launching this new series today through the book of 2 Timothy and we're calling it finish line faith because God wants to help you to run this race well all the way through to the finish line he wants to help you hold on for just five minutes longer just don't let go that's our goal for this because how you finish is more important than how you start I'm all along this series we're also walking along in a little devotional book by the same title I'll confess I did steal the title for this series from the title of this devotional book a whole bunch of our groups are gonna walk through this book together this walks through 2 Timothy this is a chance if you're in one of those groups to dive deeper in God's word throughout the week to go deeper and integrate this into your everyday life man if you're not in a group we would love to get you plugged into a group we got to be doing life in circles and not just in rows but if you're interested in getting this for yourself you can get it like wherever books are sold and all that good stuff I will let you know that this book was written by some cranky senile strange-looking elderly man named Matt Proctor who also happens to be my dad promise I'm not getting any kickbacks from promoting this or anything if you think he's getting rich off of royalties you should look at the car he drives when he's here a few weeks preaching for us in this series but I will confess that I think my old man did a pretty good job he wrote this about 15 years ago it's been helpful for me I hope it could be helpful for you as well but without further ado would you join me in praying let's center our hearts and we're gonna prepare to hear from the Lord today in his word Father in heaven those words are true we have to go through many many hardships and and you know from my brothers and sisters in the room right now the hardships in this room every person to hear is running a hard race but our desire Lord is to finish well so help us we believe that you speak through your word through your people and through your spirit so we are listening in a Jesus name all God's people said amen amen open your Bibles with me to the book of 2 Timothy it's in the second half your Bible right toward the back and we're just going to jump right in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1 says this Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God you'll want to remember that part right there pause right here Paul you might remember he'd been a Jewish religious leader he hated the Christians it was his job to go around and hurt Christians but one day Jesus himself appeared to Paul Paul went through a radical conversion he started following Jesus and he became the church's greatest author missionary and theologian he spent the rest of his life wandering around the Roman Empire planting churches and encouraging churches full of new Christians and as Paul is writing this letter he's in jail now if you're like kind of a church person you might be thinking yeah right big deal like isn't Paul always in jail and like yeah he was a bit of a repeat offender he just couldn't stop telling people about Jesus but this time is different and Paul knows it this time he's not getting out this time Paul's in jail and the executioner awaits this is the end of the line for him and he knows it now specifically Paul is in prison in the city of Rome now I've gotten to go to a Rome it's pretty amazing you can wander around the city still and see all these ancient ruins from thousands of years ago you can see the the forum and the Colosseum and all these these roads and monuments and this our architectural wonders it's pretty incredible but my favorite part of the city of Rome was not a lot of those places where some of the other tourists were because in the shadow of all these incredible architectural wonders still today in Rome there's a small old prison called the Mamertine prison and historians tell us that the Mamertine prison is almost certainly where Paul would have been kept when he was in prison awaiting his execution in Rome now the thing is in the Mamertine prison there's only one cell and it's way deep multiple levels underground here's a picture of this cell I've gotten to go into this very room in the Mamertine prison this was almost beyond the shadow of a doubt archaeologists will tell us the cell where Paul was kept as he was awaiting his execution this is where Paul was as he wrote these words to Timothy that we're going to spend this fall walking through Paul would have been in here chained to a wall it's cold it's dark it's damp sewage is dripping down through holes in the ceiling from the floors above him Paul knows that the next time he sees sunlight he's going to be walking toward his death and yet even here Paul has the confidence to say all of this happened by the will of God no matter what happens in your life some of you've been walking with Jesus long enough to know this you know that you can say confidently if you are in the middle of God's will that's the best place to be and so Paul goes on he says in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus do you know what a crazy thing that is to say as you were in prison awaiting your own execution staring death in the face Paul still has the audacity to say yes but Jesus brings life that all of Paul's life and all of the gospel the good news of Jesus's death and resurrection has been to bring a life to God's people both life in the here and now and life on the other side of death this is an incredible thing that Paul holds on to this is why our mission as a church is to help you become fully alive in Jesus and so Paul clinging to that promise begins to write his letter now he says to Timothy my dear son now pause right there we've seen so far that this letter is written by Paul but now we see it's written to Timothy well who's Timothy you might remember we read a few minutes ago from Acts chapter 14 that one of the cities Paul went to was the city of Lestra well Paul goes back he makes another visit to the city of Lestra two chapters later in Acts 16 says this says Paul came to Derby and them to Lestra where a disciple named Timothy lived whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek the believers at Lestra and Iconium spoke well of him so this is the first time we meet Timothy Paul meets Timothy here he sees this young man who shows a lot of promise Paul takes Timothy under his wing as his protege and so for the next 15 years Timothy just kind of follows Paul around on all of his missionary trips visiting all these churches planting churches until 15 years in Timothy gets his own ministry and Timothy becomes the minister at the church in Ephesus now Ephesus Paul wrote another letter there at one point it's the book of our Bible called Ephesians Ephesus was the second most influential city in the Roman Empire it's next to only the city of Rome itself so this is a big job and Timothy like he doesn't really feel qualified for that big of a job the letter we're writing through is second Timothy which implies there's a first Timothy first Timothy is the first letter that Paul wrote to Timothy super creative titles and but if you read first Timothy you can kind of pick up by reading some of the clues that Timothy like he was young seems like he was sickly he had a weak body he was nervous he was prone to anxiety he's just kind of a scared little guy and he's maybe even tempted to quit because his job was difficult and yet Paul writes this letter to Timothy because Paul Paul has been running this race long enough that one by one by one he's had to open up the cover of his Bible and he's had to cross off another name and so name after name after name he crosses off these names until there's only Timothy's name left and Paul writes this letter to Timothy to say whatever you do don't quit Timothy how you finish is more important than how you start and he begins to plead with Timothy he says this in verse two he says grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord this is Paul's prayer for Timothy and maybe this is his prayer for you and I too that God the God of the universe who also happens to be your heavenly Father and Christ Jesus the King the cosmic Lord over everything what does he want for you he wants grace for you grace is blessing you didn't deserve it is unmerited favor grace means you did not eat your dinner but you still get dessert that's what God wants for you grace and mercy mercy in your time of need mercy when you are desperately in need of help mercy when you are broken beyond your ability to fix it when you are worthy of death and worn out from life Jesus steps in with a dump truck full of grace and an avalanche of mercy and he walks right into your chaos and your anxiety and your busy scattered swirling life and he brings peace this is Paul's prayer this is what God wants for you and so Paul continues to pray for Timothy Paul says Timothy I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience as night and day I constantly I love this phrase he says I remember you in my prayers I love that phrase I remember you in my prayers can I ask you a question who do you remember in your prayers if you're anything like me sometimes like you try really hard you want a relationship with God and so you sit down and you start to pray but sometimes like prayers really hard right because I sit down and immediately I get distracted and my brain feels like it's a bunch of monkeys jumping around in a banana tree and so it's like I don't even know what to pray about and but can I just tell you one of the things that's been helpful for me lately in terms of remembering people in my prayers I'll just sit down and I try to make my mind aware of God's presence because God is always with us and inevitably I get distracted like 43 times but you just gently drag your mind back to God's presence that he's here he's with you and then I try to engage my imagination in my prayer because I don't always know what to say but I try to engage my imagination and I just try to picture myself and Jesus in a room and then I'll just ask him okay Jesus is there anybody else that you want to invite into the room for me to pray for and without fail I could just imagine Jesus inviting somebody in and and somebody will walk into that room somebody in my life and I'll spend a little while praying for that person whatever comes to mind and then and then Jesus will bring another person in the room and I'll pray for them too and it's just a little exercise has been helpful for me to try to help me not get distracted but my question for you is who are you remembering in your prayers I hope you're praying for your brothers and sisters Paul goes on when he talks about remembering Timothy he says I'm I'm recalling your tears I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy I'm reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and I'm persuaded now lives in you also so as Paul is remembering Timothy in his prayers he's saying hey I remember your family I remember the faith you have I also remember all those tears Timothy I know how scared you are to answer God's call I know how afraid you are to do what he's asking you to do you ever been scared before to do what God is asking you to do the great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong he grew up down in the bayou in New Orleans and his house didn't have running water in it and so Louis Armstrong would often in his later life tell the story of when he was just a boy one time his mama sent him down to the water with an empty bucket to fill the bucket with water and bring it back up to the house and Louis Armstrong he went down to the water and just as he was about to scoop up the water in the bucket and alligator popped up and and so that scared young Louie so bad he dropped his bucket he ran all the way back home and when his mama saw him come home without the bucket she wasn't too happy and she said you go back right down there you fill that bucket up with water I don't care if that alligator still says she said that alligator is as scared of you as you are of him Louis Armstrong said to his mama well if he's as scared of me as I am a him that water ain't fit to drink and that's kind of where Timothy finds himself like I know what I'm supposed to do but this is hard and I'm afraid and so Paul is encouraging him hey don't quit how you finish is more important than how you start for the next few weeks we're gonna walk through this book we're gonna see a lot of different things that Paul says you and I can do to make sure we finish well at the end of our race but for today here's just three nuggets of wisdom that we can blame from these verses we just read to help you keep running the race that God has marked out for you here's the first thing when you feel like quitting remember who ran before you remember who ran before you three times in those verses we just read Paul uses words like remember in other words sometimes the key to going forward is actually looking backward Paul saying hey Timothy you can't give up remember your mother remember your grandmother remember those who ran before you a few months ago we let our boys watch the Lion King for the very first time and I forgot what an awesome movie that is and so now for the last few months you know exactly what those little boys do now every time they climb on top of anything what do they do don't judge me don't tell me you've not done that right and so that's like what the Proctor House has sounded like the last few months but but I'm remembering like what an incredible story that is and every good story is a gospel story and so do you remember the story of the Lion King it's like the archetypal story of destiny it's your story it's it's my story because Simba he's he's this main character and he makes a mistake and the mistake leads him to run away into shame and to hiding he runs away from his true identity and from his calling because Simba was born to lead his family and to rule the pride lands but because of his fear he spends his days just in a faraway land focusing on himself instead you remember the song Hakuna Matata right no worries and that's that's you that's me in our sin and our shame and our fear it leads us to run away and to cave in on ourselves instead of living the life that God made us to live and we need something we need someone to shake us out of that and to call us back to who we are and the mission that God has made us for and you remember what it is for Simba for Simba it's the memory of his father the king speaking down from the stars and you remember what he says he says Simba remember who you are I can't do the James Earl Jones very well and that's that's what Paul's saying to Timothy he said Timothy remember who you are remember who ran before you and and as Paul's saying that you just got to imagine what pictures would have been flashing through Timothy's mind what he remembered his grandmother kneeling by the bed to pray what he remembered those songs his mama sang to him at night songs about Abraham and David and Moses Joshua and Esther and Ruth what about you who who ran before you who handed the faith down to you when I'm having a hard day in ministry often I'll go read the ordination certificate that hangs on my wall where before we came up here to Indiana a group of men gathered around and they laid their hands on me and we said yes we believe that God is calling to look to spend his life doing this and we affirm that calling and I look at the names of those men signed on that paper in my office I see names like Jean Proctor my grandpa and Kevin Moyers my father-in-law Matt Proctor my dad these these are my heroes I see names like Mike Button and Matt Button my uncles that I grew up working on the farm with those are the guys who taught me how to follow Jesus see names like Mark Scott the man who taught me how to preach I see names like Eddie Fowler and Kerry Fowler and Mark Christian and and Steve White the guys who believed in me enough to give me my first shot and when I'm discouraged and if I'm tempted to quit I think I can't give up because this this faith in my heart it's not just mine it's theirs and it's been passed down to me and maybe you're thinking yeah nobody's ever done that for me nobody's taken me into their wing I don't have a mentor like that I definitely don't have a family heritage like that and that's okay because remember who ran before you look around this room you've got it in here there are people in this room who've been following Jesus as a part of this family for decades and it's because of their faithfulness in running the race that you and I get to be here and enjoy the fruits of their faithfulness for a hundred and ninety five years people have run the race faithfully all the way to the finish line right here as a part of this group of people and so the Bible says hey remember that Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 says therefore since we're 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 when you feel like quitting remember who ran before you here's the second thing when you feel like quitting remember what you're entrusted with remember what you're entrusted with you might remember Paul wrote another letter to Timothy before this creatively titled first Timothy and at the end of that letter he reminds Timothy of what's been handed to him of what he's carrying Paul closes first Timothy by saying this he says Timothy guard what has been entrusted to your care remember what you're entrusted with remember what you're holding on to remember what you're carrying and so he's meaning hey the gospel of Jesus Christ the mission to reach this city the responsibility to care for this church the faith of your mother and your grandmother remember what you've been entrusted with guard it carefully carry it faithfully remember what you've been entrusted with which is why then in second Timothy we're gonna see Paul sounds a little bossy to Timothy like there's gonna be 35 times in second Timothy that Paul uses imperatives which if you remember English class imperatives are commands and so Paul's gonna sound like a coach giving a locker room speech at halftime and he's gonna remind Timothy of what he's been given and command him to carry it faithfully he's gonna say Timothy don't neglect your gift Timothy fight the good fight Timothy fan into flame the gift of God Timothy God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-discipline Timothy remember what God has entrusted to you so so what has God interested to you what's he asking you to carry maybe it's the opportunity to invest in your grandkids maybe it's the responsibility to care for your employees maybe it's the opportunity to share God's love with your neighbor maybe it's the holy calling of serving your spouse what has God entrusted to you carry it well and here's the third thing when you feel like quitting remember who's up ahead remember who's up ahead you've heard it said before that life is not a sprint it's a marathon right I like to tweak that just a little bit though if it's okay because I don't think life is really a sprint or a marathon I think life is more of a relay because you aren't the first one to run this race and you won't be the last one but for right now you are the one with the baton a few weeks ago if you watch the Olympics you might remember what happened with the men's four by 100 relay team they lost the race it's actually the last few years of American relay has kind of been an embarrassment for US track and field because the four by one team keeps losing over and over and over again and you remember why the four by one team is losing in the men's track it's because not because they weren't fast they're actually blazing fast it's because they keep botching the handoff they fail to pass the baton well and so they lose the race one of the things I love about this church is that this is a church that cares about passing the baton well and God's given us a unique opportunity to do that we have a lot of generational diversity in this church and as the generations are here we don't get to run for very long together we get to run together just long enough for one generation to pass the baton to the next just for a little bit and I don't know your story today but I do know that God has placed somebody in your life that he wants you to pass the baton to and it doesn't matter how fast you run if you fail to pass the baton you lose the race and even if you did not have a great mentor even if you did not have godly ancestors even if somebody botched the handoff to you you have the chance to become a mentor and a godly ancestor and to rewrite that story and to hand that thing off faithfully so remember who's up ahead but when I think about remembering who's up ahead I think of our partnership with Go Ministries down in the Dominican Republic if you see those stickers all around the building you can grab some if you want to say Garabo on it you might not remember what those are for we have a partnership with Go Ministries in the Dominican Republic their lead church planters from our church and we have a vision there in the community of Garabo in the city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic we want to plant ten churches in that community in the next five years as a part of Go Ministries vision to plant a thousand churches in the next ten years and it's happening it's amazing they've got over 200 already just a few years in how in the world are they doing that their strategy is crazy simple it's just three words pass the baton they expect every single person that's a part of their ministry whether you just attend church whether you sweep the floors whether you're an elder whether you're the preacher doesn't matter what your role is every person in every family is expected to have an apprentice that means you just find somebody in your life that you say you know what I think I see something in you I think God's given you some potential come with me spend a year with me learn how to do what I do and they spend a year together and they say you know what at the end of this year either you're gonna go or I'm gonna go but the baton is gonna be passed either way and God is blessing that is growing like crazy pass the baton remember who's up ahead of you if you feel like quitting remember who's up ahead if you today if you're a parent if you're a grandparent if God has like entrusted you with playing a significant role in the life of a young person you have a very simple job description it's just three words pass the baton Psalm 127 says that our kids are like arrows in the hand of a warrior and so as people who are raising kids it's our job to aim them well to pull back the bowstring of faith and then to launch our children deep into the heart of enemy territory to pass the baton that's your job description now I have various job titles but my favorite job title is not preacher at Plainfield Christian Church my wife Rebecca's favorite job title is not preacher's wife our favorite job title is missionary we are missionaries to an unreached people group we are missionaries to the unreached people group of the proctor boys and let me tell you that they are little savages they are wretched children of iniquity there is desperately in need of the gospel as any other unreached people group and our job is to pass the baton listen if you get to play an influential role in the life of a young person that means you are tasked with socializing homo sapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo Christian tradition and leading them to dependence and allegiance on the cosmic lord of glory so that they may might be transformative agents to subversively infiltrate the social order influencing it toward the eschatological utopia that God preordained from before the foundations of the world did you catch that pass the baton for just a moment if we can be really honest with each other in the room can I talk to my well-seasoned friends in here today if you have gray hair or no hair I'm talking to you for the next few minutes okay all right you know this this world is geared to make you wish that you were younger and you might be tempted to think that your best years are behind you but as a person who still has brown hair can I just say that may we need you just imagine with me what if your second half of life became your most effective hat what if you ran the second half of the race faster and stronger than you ran the first half what if you handed the baton off better than it was handed to you and you can my goodness I mean look around even in the secular world people do this all the time you are not too old on average Nobel Prize winners made their discoveries at the age of 44 well into middle age one study found that a 50 year old tech founder is twice as likely to start a successful company as a tech founder in their 30s Morgan Freeman had his breakthrough movie role in his 50s Colonel Sanders started KFC in his 60s Copernicus formulated his theory of planetary motion in his 60s grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was 77 and one of the last great movements of God that the world has seen the Hebrides revival where an entire Scottish community was transformed by mind-boggling outpourings of God's power that whole movement started when two little old ladies got together to pray they were in their 80s and their 90s one of them partially blind the other one partially deaf but they just started praying and praying and praying and God moved and it's not just in the world read your Bible it's happened throughout all of time Moses led the Israelites at age 80 Daniel served God and Babylon in his 80s Noah was 600 years old when he built the ark I don't want to hear your excuses I love the story of Joy Johnson. Joy Johnson was the oldest runner in the New York City marathon a few years back she was 86 years old when she completed that race for the 25th time enjoy Johnson after she crossed the finish line she went back to her hotel room she laid down on her bed to rest and she died right there with her running shoes still on her feet and love can I challenge you today the world's gonna tell you to use this season of your life to kick back to relax to make it about you you've earned it you've paid your dues but I know from my story what a pivotal role church mothers and church fathers and church grandmothers and church grandfathers have played in my life so can I challenge you no excuses can I challenge you to invest can I challenge you to serve can I challenge you to write letters like Paul did to Timothy can I challenge you to give lavishly and generously can I challenge you to encourage can I challenge you to make dinners or at least share your recipes and can I challenge you to pray and to pray and to pray and to pray and to pray and someday I hope you die with your running shoes on because how you finish is more important than how you start if you got the communion elements when you walked in you could take those out now if you didn't grab them no big deal they're in the boxes at the back of the room you can grab them now no shame if you feel like quitting remember who ran before you remember what you've been entrusted with remember who's up ahead and could I go ahead and just like fast-forward to the end of Timothy's story and ruin the story for you here on the very first week church history tells us that Timothy listened to Paul's advice and that he did finish well church history tells us that Timothy led that church in Ephesus for 30 years and that eventually he was killed for his boldness in proclaiming Jesus he finished strong and you can too and maybe you hear this challenge today and you're thinking yeah preacher but you don't know me you don't know how bad I've blown the start of the race I'm not sure I'll ever be able to catch up I'm not even running in the right direction I don't even know who I'm supposed to pass the baton to I had a chance to influence my kids and I missed it my grandkids don't want to hear from somebody like me how in the world am I supposed to speak up to these people my service I just don't think I could do something like that that if a third of the leaders in the Bible finished well maybe today you're thinking you're squarely part of the two-thirds that you've blown it already and you're too messed up for this but can I tell you of that one-third of those leaders who finished well a whole bunch of them started terribly like some of them were murderers some of them spent the first part of their lives running away from God they were liars they were sexually broken a whole bunch of them in middle-aged were failures going absolutely nowhere failure to launch they were bitter they were frustrated they were confused but praise God how you finish is more important than how you start and we serve a God of grace and mercy and peace so remember who's up ahead of you because the good news is who's up ahead is not just somebody waiting for you to hand them baton if you look further up ahead down the road you'll see Jesus and he's been running the race long before you got here and he will be there long after you're gone and everywhere you ever go he's already been and where you are right now he is - in fact the Bible says he's already at the finish line he's already done and all you have to do is keep your eyes on him scripture says let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith for the joy set before him he endured the cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and all God's people said amen and so every week we get to do this we get to fix our eyes on Jesus together in this way so in just a moment I'm gonna let you receive the bread on your own this little piece of bread that reminds us of the body of Jesus nailed to the tree for you and me to cover all your sins and then you can pray and I'll pray and we'll receive the cup together that reminds us of the blood of Jesus that washes us clean but I'm gonna ask that in the next few moments as you draw your heart into awareness of God's presence would you just ask him one question would you say Jesus is there anything in my life that's gonna stop me from finishing well and if he brings it to your mind then confess it to him and if you need help with it come talk to us our prayer team is gonna be gathered around the edges of the room toward the end of the service with their glowing lanyards on but then I want you to thank Jesus thank him for finishing the race when he hung on the cross he said it is finished and we get to receive his grace and his mercy and his peace so take a few moments see the bread and I'll pray we'll take the cup together you (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Jesus, thank you for living the life we couldn't live for dying to death we deserved. Thank you for running the race faithfully, never faltering all the way to the end. And we thank you that because you are risen from the dead, because you're one day gonna return, because you live in us as we follow in you, that our hope of glory you say, that isn't just on us to run hard and run fast and not screw up, our hope of glory is you in us. So God, we just ask for your help. We want to finish well, we wanna hear those words when we cross the line saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant, but we can't get there on our own Lord, you know me." You know how many times I've stopped, slowed down, how many times I've wandered from the path, how many times I've tripped and fallen, how many times I've turned around and gone the other way. So we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your peace. It's in your powerful name. Then all God's people said, "Amen, this is the blood of Christ." Let's stand and worship our King together. - Thank you for listening to the podcast today. It is our deepest desire here at Plainfield Christian Church that you would experience the joy of being fully alive in Jesus. If you have any questions about our church or would like a plan to visit with us, go to plainfieldchristian.com. If you'd like to receive our podcast every week, we encourage you to subscribe to the Plainfield Christian Church podcast on whatever podcasting platform you prefer. Have a great week. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)