Finishing Well

2018-08-11

Introduction

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (5) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (6) For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:1-8)

The book of 2 Timothy was written down by Paul at the end of his life. In this passage, we see final words of exhortation for Timothy to persevere in the ministry. These words are for us as well.

God will judge the quick and the dead, and that includes us. Because of the phrase, “at his appearing,” we know that this is the first resurrection, where we believers will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. We will all be judged. Will this be an embarrassing day? We know from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 that there will be believers that are saved but without reward. Will this be us? 2 Timothy 4:1
Always be ready to preach the Word. Preaching the Word and sharing the Gospel is not just for the preachers and missionaries. The believers scattered after the martyrdom of Stephen “went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). We need to always be ready (or “instant”) at all times to share the Gospel. There is no “vacation.”

Timothy was also called to expose sin and encourage the saints, and we should do likewise, being patient with all. Longsuffering (patience) actually implies suffering long, or putting up with others in order to help and encourage them. 2 Timothy 4:2
False prophets are everywhere, but we must persevere in the truth. We live in the age of the prosperity gospel, where false prophets tell people what they want to hear. In our society, we are told that we can have convenience, laziness, wealth, and Jesus too. This is a lie. Discipleship is a call to forego all these things for the sake of following Jesus Christ. When I was in school, a teacher of Discrete Math told me, “If it were easy, everybody would do it.” Anything worthwhile in this life is not easy. In 1 Kings 22:1-18, we see there was an overwhelming majority of false prophets giving the kings advice, telling Ahab what he wanted to hear. Only one, Micaiah son of Imlah, had the boldness to tell the truth, and it cost him. 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Pour everything you have into the things of God. Paul and Timothy had a very hard life serving the Lord. They enumerated their hardships throughout Scripture, which included beatings and jail time. Extrabiblical history tells us that Paul was executed for the faith. We are called to the same life of difficulty, but often we do not want to think about that. Whatever hardship we have, we must endure it, and not let it stop us. 2 Timothy 4:5
We do not know when life will be over. Paul somehow knew that he was going to die soon. We normally do not know when our time to be with the Lord will begin. However, Paul knew that he lived his life right. For example, all the people of Asia had heard the Gospel because of him. Other believers, however, did not have that confidence at the end of their lives, such as King Saul, Samson, and Lot. We want to be able to look back on our lives and know that we lived for the Lord. 2 Timothy 4:6-7
Let us live in anticipation of reward. Because Paul lived for the Lord, he knew that he was going to get a reward from God. Likewise, if we live for the Lord, we will somehow be recognized by the Lord. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:24). 2 Timothy 4:8

Recently, a retiring employee at my workplace gave us a list of things he had wished he had known when he started his job. I was so impressed with what he said, as they seemed to have better spiritual applications than vocational ones. Below are my Christianized takeaways from the presentation. I call them the Roadmap to the End.

Figure Out How You Are a Part of the Bigger Picture

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God gave every single Christian works to do. The first thing we can do is ask ourselves:

What do I have that can bring God glory?
What do I have that can get people saved?
What has God given us that we can use, right now, to accomplish His tasks here on earth?

We all have spiritual gifts, and most likely we have a combination of a few different ones. Are you unsure of what your “gifts” are? Start doing something for God and figure it out. What can you do now?

Share the Gospel with somebody, anybody.
Be sure to be in church, hear the teaching, sing the songs.
Figure out how you can help others.

What talents and assets do you have? Parlay it all into the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.

Be Sure Your Christian Life Is Not Separate from Your Personal and Professional Life

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. (1 Peter 3:15-16)

We need to be ready for those questions about life and faith, and ready to initiate discussions on spiritual things as we are able. We are told to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Ephesians 4:1). Our vocation is being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Every other job on this planet is a tent making job (Acts 18:3) for the Christian. This vocation of ours has the best pay, job security, and retirement and benefits package of any. There is one drawback though: no vacation. However, His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

Write Down Your Goals, and Journal on God’s Answer to Prayer

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD. (Genesis 24:26)

This was spoken of Abraham’s servant, who is without a name recorded. He was sent on a mission to bring back a wife for his master’s son Isaac. He prayed for a successful mission, and when God granted his requested, he was faithful to worship the Lord in thanksgiving. The word worship is used four times in the book of Genesis, and three of them are attributed to this man. He also recounts the story of God’s faithfulness to Rebecca’s family, publicly acknowledging the Lord’s faithfulness to him. You can read the whole story in Genesis 24.

We also can look back at God’s faithfulness in our own lives by recording what our requests to God are and how the Lord answers them. I often prayed for getting 100s on projects while in school. God can do anything; do not sell Him short, not even in the small stuff. Think and pray big, and acknowledge Him when He brings big results.

Build Your Life on the Right Foundation and Regularly Sharpen Your Sword

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

The right foundation to build on is the Word of God. The Word is the source of all truth. Everything else is deception and lies. You can not be saved without hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and you cannot hear the voice of God without the Word (2 Timothy 3:16). The Word of God brings life, for the Word itself is alive (Hebrews 4:12). If we do not commit to hearing and learning the Bible, we are building our lives on a sandy foundation.

Be a Leader, and You Don’t Need a Title

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. (Acts 6:3)

Earlier we saw Abraham’s servant as an example of a leader without a title. Another is Stephen (Acts 6:1-8). This waiter of tables was a great preacher of God, and he had no title. This idea of clergy is something from Catholicism. Everyone has a place to lead and be an example for others to follow.

Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17)

We often farm out mentoring and teaching to Bible colleges. However, if we want to find a mentor, we need to look within our churches and find godly men to guide us in spiritual things, which is the more Biblical method. These men can be pastors, or anyone who has served God a long time. Likewise, when we see people young in the faith who need guidance, we need to be a mentor to those people.

Don’t Worry About the Affairs of This Life

Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. (Proverbs 30:7-9)

We must put away the worries about this life, not striving to be rich or poor. We need enough to live, but God has promised us this already: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

The Bible tells us that those who amass wealth bring shame upon themselves (James 5:1-6). Living in pleasure is contrary to the Christian life. The Lord Himself gives us much detail in Matthew 6:24-34. Read more here.

Don’t Put Off Service to God. You Don’t Know When Your Life Will End

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

We most likely will not know the hour of our death, so we need to live like it is at any moment. In Luke 12:16-21, we see a man who foolishly decided to build bigger barns and live off his excess for years to come, not knowing that he was to die soon. What a waste of time and resources.

Again, we are warned by James:

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (James 4:13-17)

We cannot take the rest of our lives for granted. We may only have months or days to live. We must start serving God now. Pour everything you have into serving God, because the affairs of this life are vanishing quickly.

Read my story here.