Finish Well (Are You On Track)

The Danger of Presumption: Do Not Take Finishing Well for Granted 2:14

As a Christian, as you sit here this morning, you're probably hoping to finish well. As you sit here this morning, you probably hope that that's on the horizon. If you can look through the corridors of time to see your end, you probably hope that you're on an upward angle, an upward trajectory, that things end well.

I trust, I presume, that's your desire — that your final days are better than the present. That's a great objective to have. But as I asked earlier, the question is this: Is it an objective that you're taking for granted?

Only One in Three: The Bible's Leaders Who Finished Poorly 2:46

In 1989, a Fuller Seminary professor did a study of the Bible's leaders, all the leaders that we see in Scripture. And he made some interesting conclusions. Let me read from the author's summary of his report. He said that there are around 800 or so leaders mentioned in the Bible.

And now there are about 100 of those who have data that helps us to interpret their leadership. And about 50 of these have enough data for us to evaluate their finish. About one in three finished well. And anecdotal evidence from today indicates that this ratio is probably generous.

In other words, in this study, the author found that two-thirds of the Bible's leaders, not today's politicians and the like, but two-thirds of the Bible's leaders were sidetracked, shipwrecked by the common sins of power, sex, pride, or financial gain. Now, if you're trying to remember who some of those were, what comes to mind?

Perhaps Samson, perhaps Gideon, perhaps Solomon. Remember King Solomon? See, the Bible's filled with those who knew what it was like to walk with God, and yet strayed off their path in their later years.

Solomon: Wisdom, Wealth, and a Heart Turned Away 3:58

“For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.”

— 1 Kings 11:4 (NKJV)

When we talk about Solomon, I'll use him as a chief example of this. Now, Solomon, what do we know about Solomon? Well, we know he was a king. We know he was wealthy beyond all measure.

He was also incredibly wise. In fact, he was the wisest, the wisest man outside of Christ who ever walked these shores, ever walked the earth. Solomon was wise, Solomon was rich, Solomon was powerful, Solomon was famous. He was all these things.

And yet, for all his wisdom, and yet for being used by God to accomplish great things, including the construction of the temple early on in his ministry, in spite of all of that, in spite of all that he had going for him, he absolutely tanked in his later years. And I'm putting that generously.

Listen to this recap, the 1 Kings 11, which doesn't pull any punches about Solomon. Listen to what 1 Kings 11 has to say about the end of his reign. 1 Kings 11, verse 4. For it was so that when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods.

And his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father, David.

Age and Wisdom Are No Safeguard Against Sin 5:14

Being old, being wise, being wealthy, being powerful, these are not safeguards against sin. Just because you're older — and there is gray hair in this room, of which I have at least some — so, just because you're older doesn't mean you're not liable to be shipwrecked by sin. In his later years, Scripture says, in his later years, when he was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Being old, being wise, is in of itself not a safeguard against sin. It simply means that you're going to face different temptations than when you were young. Sin stays the same. The temptations might change, but sin always lays at your door, Scripture says to Cain.

As long as you have breath in your lungs, you remain in the crosshairs of an enemy that will continue to try to break you down. Is he succeeding in ways great or small? As long as there's breath in your lungs, you are in the crosshairs of a spiritual enemy that seeks your destruction and seeks to sully your witness before a watching world.

Is it happening? King Solomon knew better. He knew better. He understood more.

He had interactions with his Maker that you and I would long to have. And yet his heart was turned and perverted. In part because he listened to voices he ought not to have listened to. You know, you and I don't have to have hundreds of wives in order for there to be people in our lives that turn us away from God.

We are to be careful about the relationships that we have, about the voices that we listen to, about what we watch, about the conversations we engage in, because those things can be a means by which ungodly, unholy doctrines and presuppositions come into our worldview, and then we act based on the worldview that's changed.

That's what happened to Solomon.

Knowledge Does Not Dictate Choices: The Deceitfulness of Sin 7:10

And again, what gets me with Solomon, and is the direst warning for you and I, is he knew better. But what people know doesn't always dictate their choices. What people know to be true doesn't always dictate their choices. How often have you done something, and then like two minutes later, you say, Why did I do that?

You say, I knew better. I know better. Where do you think shame comes from? Shame comes principally when we've done something we knew to be wrong, and yet we did it anyway.

What we know to be true, what you might assent to in an inquirer's class, what you might assent to in a confession, what you might willingly say amen to, ironically, does not mean that when you are faced with temptation that you will act as such. You and I need to be intentional and realize that our head knowledge needs to affect and inform our hands, our eyes, our ears, all these things.

And if we're being the least bit introspective, we can probably look back at our lives and say, There's areas when I'm not doing this. I've been doing this long enough to know the nature of sin that lies under the hood of each of our spiritual cars. And I know there's stuff there that's bad, stuff that we ought not do.

I don't know the particular issues of everyone in this room, but you and God do. We each know what the Spirit is convicting us needs to change. The question is, do we have a heart to do that? Or do we have the view of Solomon that knows better and it doesn't matter?

Knows better and pursues his own path.

Sheep Prone to Wander: We Are Not Commando Sheep 8:41

Don't take finishing well for granted. If being sidetracked or shipwrecked can happen to some of the most dominant folks in Scripture, then you and I are not immune to this. You and I are sheep prone to wander. It helps to be realistic about that.

You and I are sheep prone to wander. I'll offer one more thought, and you'll hear this many times over the course of the next number of years. But you and I, we tend to have no problem accepting that we're sheep. Scripture says it like 8,000 times.

It tells us, reminds us that we're sheep, that God's a good shepherd. We tend to get that. But didn't you know what we do when we go out these doors? We act as if we're some sort of special sheep.

That we're like commando sheep, you know. We can go and mess around with dangers and we can march right into the wolves' den and the like. But here's the thing. You march on into the wolves' den, you're going to have a bad time when the wolf comes.

We don't appreciate that other than to give it intellectual acceptance. Solomon didn't either and it was to his detriment. But Paul, Paul, he got it.

Paul's Model of Faithful Ministry 9:43

Let's return to our text. Let's look at verses 17 through 21 to hear his warnings, his exhortation to the leaders of Ephesus. Verse 17. From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.

And when they had come to him, he said to them, You know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you. He's pointing to his walk. I served the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews.

How I kept back nothing which was helpful, but I proclaimed it to you. He didn't water down the scripture. He didn't tell them the parts they would like to hear. He gave them the full counsel of God.

And verse 20, and I taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, much of what you've learned about Christian living probably came from looking at other Christians. Much of what you've learned about what it is to be a Christian probably came observationally from watching how other Christians live and the examples that they set.

The earliest disciples, they watched Jesus. They watched their leader, their rabbi, their king, and they looked to emulate His decisions. Others watched men like Paul and Ephesus, men and women of Ephesus and Corinth, and also learned from Paul's example. In your own life, I assume that there have been some of set model for you as to what Christian living looks like.

Ideally, it's been our parents. Sometimes it hasn't been. Sometimes it's still others. Sometimes it's leaders in the church, it's godly friends.

The point is that the Bible tells us, in Scripture, it tells us, it gives us the imperatives of what we're to do and how we are to do it. But in God's grace, sometimes He raises up men and women to show us how it's done, to show us what this looks like in action.

So that's what Paul is telling the leaders of Ephesus in verses 17 through 21. He's saying, you know, when I came amongst your midst, I suffered alongside. I taught you everything I knew and I didn't hold anything back that was for your good. I willingly underwent the tears and persecution that comes with being in the Lord's army.

I did these things. And the suggestion Paul is making that this ministry and humility with tears and trials and love and repentance, all these things is a model. Paul isn't saying this to brag. He's hoping that the elders of the church in Ephesus, the leaders of the church, would follow that example because others were looking to them.

Guess what? There are people looking to you. Some of them might be tiny. Some might be our children.

Others might be co-workers, neighbors, friends, relatives, what have you. There are people looking to you to see if your faith holds water. That is a big responsibility. You've been called to be a priest, called to be an ambassador of a great kingdom.

How high is the flag wave? Again, it helps to be introspective. And that's what Paul was telling the elders. He's saying, consider these things.

The Cup Poured Out: Life as a Drink Offering 12:34

Let's look at verses 22 and 23. And now, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there. He knew just enough to know God was leading him to Jerusalem, but he didn't know enough to know what was going to happen. And that's much of the Christian walk.

God leads you from A to B, but you don't always know how things are going to turn out. Verse 23, except I know that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. Elsewhere in Paul's writing, he uses an analogy. He suggests that our lives are like a cup, a cup that there's really two options with.

A cup that you can decide to fill up, fill to the brim, or a cup that's to be poured out. Can you guess which view Paul had? The second one. How about the pouring out?

The great question we have to ask ourselves is, is the primary objective in our lives — if we're being honest, again, if we're being introspective — are we really basing our lives around bucket lists and full cups and having our best lives now and all these things? Or is our primary objective to pour out what God has given us for His glory and the benefit of others?

Again, what do you think that Paul did? When we look at our lives and our talents and our remaining time, however long that is or isn't, is that time best filled, best used, filling our cup or pouring out what we've been given to the benefit of the people around us? Paul repeatedly talked about his life as a drink offering that was poured out, that was sacrificed to God's glory.

Paul had a lot of options on his plate, but he routinely put himself in positions where he faced persecutions and hardships. Why? Because God is worth it, because he loved his fellow man. That's what finishing well meant to Paul.

It didn't mean you end your last day, you take your last breath with the fullest cup and the most toys. It meant pouring it all out. Paul saw that as success. That was the model.

Having poured himself out. When he took his last breath, he desired to have given everything. When his hour of tribulation drew near, when his lifeblood was required of him, he desired that he would finish well by having lived as a drink offering before his God. Now, it wasn't that he was a glutton for punishment.

He didn't like beatings and martyrdom and the rest. He didn't love chains and sufferings any more than I suspect we do. But he's willing to undergo these things. Paul saw his life like a cup, and he was not going to go out with his cup half full.

You and I, we've been blessed with certain gifts and talents, each one different. We've been blessed with spiritual, material blessings at our disposal. We've been blessed with giftedness, all manner of things. And again, it varies from one individual to the other.

But the question is, what are we doing with what we got? You know, you had Solomon. God blessed him to the hilt. I mean, no one had more material wealth and fame and the riches, the power, all these different things.

And he seemed bent, at least for a long swath of his later ministry or his later years, in continuing to fill that cup up. Paul lived differently. To run your race well is to pour your cup out. To run your race well is to leave it bone dry to some extent at the hour of our departure.

Let's look at verse 24. Verse 24. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. None of these things move me.

Not fame, not riches, not wealth, not power, not any of these things. They don't move me. I don't even count my own life as dear to myself, he says here. I desire this: to finish the race well, to finish my race with joy, to take the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus and to testify to the glory and the gospel of our God.

Paul and Jesus: Facing Death with Eternity in View 16:26

You know, in all Scripture, there's only two guys who regularly, consistently talked about their upcoming death. Only two who consistently, regularly in the course of their writings or their discussions talked about their coming death. Paul was one. Who was the other?

Yes, Paul and Jesus — they both talked about it. Now, when either one talked about their coming death, when either one looked down the corner of time to see what was coming, when either one did this, you notice they stressed the concept of being poured out at the end. Furthermore, they knew that death in and of itself really wasn't the end that we sometimes perceive it to be.

We can get really lost in that. See, death is the end. They did it. To Paul, dying wouldn't slow him — at least the prospect of his upcoming death wouldn't slow him down — and death itself couldn't hold him back.

He knew what glorious future awaited. And because of that, he looked at his remaining days, his remaining time, and he says, You know what? I'm going to live accordingly. I know what awaits.

When we've been there 10,000 years, as we sang this morning, our time will have scarcely begun. He says, I know what eternity holds, and it's a whole lot more than the present. That is a comprehensive ocean of grace and joy and peace and love. This is a concentrated drop of water, the here and now, during which I'm expected to pour myself out and to live sacrificially.

Paul said, I get it, I'll do it. And so that's what we see. I do not count my life dear to myself, but I will finish the race. The question — this is given to us, remember, is a model.

He said all this to the leaders at Ephesus as a model. He didn't say just to brag, just to say, I'm Paul and I'm so awesome. He didn't do that. He said, Look, this is how I've lived.

And the implication of the leaders of Ephesus, and the implication of you and I is: Are we following suit? Are we bystanders to faith? Watching good theology sail by and, again, tipping our hat to it and the like. It's easy to fall into that mentality.

But it's not the mentality you want when you take your final breath. You want to be as Paul does and says, you know, I lived the life I was called to live. I fought the good fight. I ran the good race.

I know you want that. I know I want that. But it isn't something that we dare take for granted.

Making Intentional Decisions Today: Die to Self, Live for Christ 18:37

And it's something that requires us to begin making intentional decisions today. There is sin in your life that needs to be dealt with. There's sin in all of our lives that needs to be dealt with. Then deal with it.

Don't put it off. There is ways to serve God and serve your fellow man that are fully on your radar and fully within your ability to pursue. Then do so. Don't be held back.

From our first breath to our last breath, we're called to die to self and live for Christ. And again, that's Paul's emphasis here. So verse 24 again said, these things don't move me. None of the other stuff moves me.

I don't count my life dear to myself, but I will finish my race well. I will finish my race well. And Paul, when he looked at the men of Ephesus who he called to meet him in Miletus — you know, here's the thing — he didn't want to set himself above them. He wanted to lock arms with them.

In a sense, we all should want to lock arms with the men of Ephesus and with Paul. Lock arms with one another. We're not trying to outdo one another in the sense of being the best Christian. We're trying to lock arms with our brothers and sisters that we can all advance the kingdom and all be able to fight the good fight and all to hear on that great day, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

We're all called to run the race together to the great and glorious finish line that awaits. Let me wrap up with a couple thoughts. At the outset, we made the observation that everyone wants to finish well. And yet in Scripture, there are plenty of examples of those who didn't.

As a side note, it's not different for pastors either. When I first entered into seminary, there was some scary statistics. There were studies that showed that about 80% of those who start out in pastoral ministry leave the ministry within the first five years. And 90%, they said, do not remain in their pastorate through retirement.

Again, that's scary. Now, there's a lot of reasons for those statistics. But among them is this: that there's a lot of dangerous reefs. There's a lot of dangerous reefs in ministry upon which otherwise good men have been shipwrecked.

But that said, the same holds true for your vocation, for your walk of life, for the walk of life that we all engage in. Sin and temptation aren't limited to a select few. They're something we all must contend with.

Indwelling Sin: The Unwanted Tenant of the Human Heart 20:41

And furthermore, just a thought, sin and temptation aren't just traps you happen to stumble into. Sin and temptation aren't those things that are these landmines that you just happen to wander into from time to time. Sin and temptation, rather, they're unwanted occupants, tenants of the human heart. What you have to contend with is not merely the dangers outside these doors.

What you have to contend with is that which is within. Temptation arises from desires within the human heart. Out of the human heart proceeds all bad things, as Christ said. Sin and temptation emanate from within.

And when they are indulged, it don't matter how strong you are. Samson was plenty strong. It doesn't matter how wise you are. Solomon was plenty wise.

It don't matter if you're the litmus test, the utmost of these things. Even the strongest or the wisest can be broken and humbled. If it was true for them, it's true for you. Samson saw them and they expected to finish.

Well, they didn't. They didn't, to lesser and greater degrees. You and I need to be realistic about our condition. If, as we said before, if there's some way through our activities this week in which we are frolicking in the lion's den, we're going to have a bad time when the lion shows up.

We need to be honest about that. How many of us have deep spiritual scars that were not necessarily laid upon us by evil people outside of us, but spiritual scars that we carry because of our own decisions? I trust many of us can relate. We are not commando sheep.

We have no business acting as such. We are called to be realistic about this. David, we didn't even speak about David's sin. We talked about Solomon and a little bit about Samson.

And David, you know his sin. And this was a man after God's own heart. He was a king. He was powerful.

He knew better. He was a man after God's own heart. And yet, up on the rooftop, while the men were away at war, he was seized and his affections to do that which he knew better than. And that decision tree led to a host of other bad decisions.

I can't think it can happen to them. It can happen to all of us. So we need to be introspective about these things.

Sanctification Is Synergistic: The One-Word Imperative to Stop 22:59

The moral imperative of Scripture — I've said this on other occasions, but the moral imperative — if there's some area of your life, which right now you're doing something you ought not do — and it's true of all of us, it's true of all of us — if there's some area of our life where you're doing something you ought not do, the moral imperative of Scripture doesn't require ten chapters, ten books, ten Bible studies, ten sermons to understand.

The moral imperative boils down to one word: Stop. It isn't always that easy, but that's the message of Scripture. If we're doing that which we ought not do, God is at work sanctifying us. Praise God.

He doesn't leave us alone in this. Praise God we're not fighting this fight just on our own. God, through His Spirit, will help us, will aid us, will strengthen us to that end. And yet, sanctification is a synergistic work when we work with God to that end.

How committed are we? And is that commitment waning this morning? Sanctification is not God's bubble wrap that will insulate you from every harm or painful consequence that your choices may bring. But it is a synergistic effort, and God will see it through.

But we need to be committed to this.

Run to Win: Discipline for an Imperishable Crown 24:01

“And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 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 9:25-27 (NKJV)

Last verse, 1 Corinthians 9. Paul said this to the believers in Corinth, because he cared about these issues in all the churches. It wasn't just one church he cared about, it was all of them. To the Corinthians, he said this.

He said, everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body, I bring it into subjection, Lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Paul was introspective. Paul was realistic. And so he prayed for the grace to overcome sin, and he trained and disciplined himself to do so. We have to have that sort of intentionality.

That's what he was trying to convey to the Ephesian elders. He's saying no one finishes well by accident. Finishing well tomorrow is the result of prayer and diligence and striving for godliness today. Let me pray for us.