Game Plan | Part 9

Sin, separate. The breach was far too high. But from the far side of the chasm, you held me in your sun. So you made a way across the green divine. Left behind, head is thrown, to build a near inside. And there, at the cross, you paid the debt I owe. From my chains, free my soul. And for the first time, I had hope. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood of mine. Thank you, Jesus. It has washed me wide. Thank you, Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness. And you glorious life. Oh, yes. So you took my place. They designed my tomb of sin. You were buried for three days. But then you walked right out again. Now, Jai has no state, and life has no way. For I have made just hope, by the blood of the living. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood of mine. It has washed me wide. Thank you, Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness. And you glorious life. And there is nothing stronger than the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up.

And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up.

And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught. And the one who won't be caught. And the one who won't be caught up. And the one who won't be caught up. ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ See glory ♪ Try it out. ♪ Glory ♪ Go ahead, give them glory, say. ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ See glory ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ See glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ For you are glorious ♪

♪ You're worthy to be present ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Let them say we lift our voice ♪ ♪ And praise ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Oh, sing glory ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Somebody shout it ♪ ♪ That's it ♪ ♪ Somebody declare it today ♪ ♪ See glory to you ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ What we sing glory, glory ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ That's it, that's it, shout it ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Clear with one voice ♪ ♪ See glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ When you walk alone ♪ ♪ Relax ♪ ♪ You're worthy to be present ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Glory to the Lamb ♪ ♪ To you ♪ ♪ We lift our voice ♪ ♪ And I've been to them for years ♪

♪ Feel the glory of sight ♪ ♪ To you our glory and life ♪ ♪ And my dear, my dear ♪ ♪ To them, to them ♪ ♪ I've won the throne ♪ ♪ And I'm to you ♪ ♪ And I've won the throne ♪ ♪ To them, to them ♪ ♪ I've won the throne ♪ ♪ To them, to them ♪ ♪ I've won the throne ♪ ♪ To them, to them ♪ ♪ I've won the throne ♪ ♪ Go ahead and crown Him ♪ ♪ Go ahead, lift Him up ♪ ♪ I've won the throne ♪ ♪ No more the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ No one left me ♪ ♪ No one left me ♪ ♪ No one left you, I will lift you home ♪ ♪ Come on, Church, I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over every heart and every mind ♪ ♪ 'Cause I know there is peace within your presence ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ 'Til every dark addiction starts to break ♪ ♪ Declaring here is hope and there is freedom ♪ ♪ Somebody shout Him ♪ ♪ In love ♪ ♪ Oh, when you say your name is power, say your name is power ♪

♪ And that's it, 'til your name is life ♪ ♪ These can't be ready to break through today, I believe it ♪ ♪ Break every song ♪ ♪ That's it, shout through the shadows ♪ ♪ For a life ♪ (music) We're speaking over you today Over fear and all the anxiety To every song I can call upon you Go and shout it out I speak Jesus All your name is proud Your name is proud Your name is proud Your name is giving I hear you I always get ready to break through Break every strong hope Shout it out You're like a fire Your name is proud I hear you Your name is Your name is killing me I hear you Your name is proud Drink every strong hope Break every strong hope Shout it out You're like a fire

You can shout this There is power In the name of Jesus Say, there is power Somebody shout it today Somebody shout it today There is power in the name Go ahead and get clear what you can do To break everything Break everything Keep breaking chains off right now We're just saying There is power In the name of Jesus Go ahead, go ahead Somebody shout it Keep breaking chains off right now In the name of Jesus Break everything Break everything Break everything Break everything Break everything, break everything Break everything Shout it out Shout it out Keep the strong emulsing Keep the same as me Keep the same as me Break everything

Shout it out Keep the same as me Keep the same as me Shout it out Shout Jesus Go ahead Keep the same as me Keep the same as me Break everything Jesus, follow my family I speak upon the day Jesus Sing another surprise Come on, if you have the peace of God If you have the joy of the Lord Let me tell you today He's breaking off the chains Let me tell you He's breaking off the chains I believe it There is power There is power And it is only in one name There's nothing else There's no one else But the name of Jesus That can break your sin That can break your addictions That can give you life Attorneyly with him

In church I know there's somebody in this house That can testify To what God has done in your life So when somebody stir up The testimony that's within you And somebody shout the name That's about every other day Jesus Just the voice to say There is power In the name of Jesus Say there is power There is power In the name of Jesus There is power There is power (upbeat music) [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] So that was really cool to have him here and then there have been several really good messages along the way. I think the Lions open on the 13th, I believe. I'm looking at my son. He gave me the nod of the head. They open on the 13th. But listen, because in my household we are waiting for football all year long. When the football season ends, the first thing we do is look at how many weekends we have until football starts up again. And so in two weekends, college football is going to be back. So... [Music] You know what I heard, Pastor John? Everything but OH. Was there one back there? Only team that needs help spelling its name. I'm just saying. We love football and I think there's a football game on next weekend. My son said, "Dad, I don't care who's playing the football game. I don't care if it's, you know, whatever team it is I'm watching every last second of that game." And so we love it. But Jake Bates kicked off the series and we've been talking ever since about God's game plan for us. And we're going to continue that today. Philippians 3.14 is one of the foundational passages Pastor Sam has. And it says, "I press on the Apostle Paul's writing." And it says, "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us." Today we're going to be talking about playing to the final whistle. If you watch football or you watch any kind of a sport, you know you want your team to stay aggressive through the entire game. My boys and I, when we watch football, we hate it when we get to the end of the game and our team goes into a prevent defense. Which means we're trying desperately not to lose, which also means we're probably going to lose in the last seconds of the game because we stopped being aggressive. But Paul pictures the life of faith in terms of athletics in the scriptures. And Paul, we're going to look at his life because he played right up to the end. He ran right through the ticker tape at the end of the race. And that's what he's talking about here in Philippians 3. And he picks up on that theme. And we're going to jump into 2 Timothy. So in Philippians 3.14 he's talking about reaching the end of the race. He's talking about the heavenly prize and he's going to echo that in the Book of 2 Timothy chapter 4. But I want to tell you what's going on in his life. those imprisonments were a little bit less severe than others. He was able to stay in the house, people who could come and visit him. He was just basically on house arrest, things like that, but that's not what's going on in 2 Timothy. The Apostle Paul is getting to the end of his life, and he is imprisoned. As a matter of fact, Pastor Sam and Brenda have shown you

pictures from their time in Rome, because he's in prison in Rome, and they actually showed you a picture of his prison cell, and it is a harsh imprisonment this time. Paul knows that he's coming to the end of his life. He knows that he's reaching the end of his race, and so he's giving some of his final words to Timothy. Timothy is a pastor in Ephesus. He's a young pastor, and the Apostle Paul is saying, "I'm giving you my son in the faith some of my final words," and he talks about his life in finishing well. He says in 2 Timothy 4, verses 7 and 8, these are going to be the verses we're going to build on today, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful." And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return, and the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. So the Apostle Paul is telling you, "I finished well," and God wants us to finish well also, but there were some realities that the Apostle Paul had to embrace if he was going to finish well, and we've got to embrace some of those same realities ourselves. And the first reality, the first thing that Paul embraced is what you see right out of the gate in verse 7, he embraced the contest. Paul knew that the life of faith is a contest. Now sometimes you'll read Paul and he'll say, "I fought the good fight," and he's using a military picture. Sometimes you'll read him and he says, "I fought a good fight," and he's using more of a wrestling or a boxing image, but the biggest thing that he uses is the concept of a race. And all of those things are really the same thing because Paul is acknowledging, "I am in a contest for the life of faith," and whether it's the picture of the military or the picture of the boxer or the picture of the racer, which he most often uses, Paul is saying, "I did not stop running the race. I finished the course." He embraced the fact that it was a contest. And he uses this image so often, in fact, he does it in 1 Corinthians 9. He says, "Don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize." Now if you're new to reading Scripture, you might think, as Paul's saying, "Only one person gets to go to heaven," or whatever, it's not what Paul is saying. He's just using the earthly picture of a race to get to this next line. Run to win. Paul and the Holy Spirit want you to run in such a way that you win. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away. We do it for an eternal prize. So I love this part of 1 Corinthians 9. So I run with purpose in every step. Paul ran with purpose in every step. Now what did Paul's race look like?

Because I want you to see a picture of what he was embracing, what he understood the contest was going to be. In 2 Corinthians 11, he describes some of his experiences as he's running his race of faith. He says, "Three times I was beaten with rods." Sometimes we read these things and we just kind of read over them. I'm not going to ask if anybody's been beat with rods because I don't think most of us have. That hurts. That's painful. We're talking bruising, cutting, broken bones, stuff. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Can you imagine somebody being against you walking for Jesus and living for Jesus? So they gather around you and pick up stones to throw at you to kill you. Did Paul have a concussion? Did stones hit him in the eye and the nose? Can you imagine the violence of those moments? Three times I was shipwrecked. I read that and I think, Paul, you got to stop riding on boats. There was a theme going on there. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and day adrift that sea and there was no I've traveled on many long journeys. I've faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I've faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I've faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas I've faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. People who say they're part of the body of Christ and did damage to Paul. He faced that kind of stuff, too. I've worked hard and long, and during many sleepless nights, I've been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I've shivered in the cold without enough clothing to keep me warm. That's what Paul's race looked like. Now, our race is probably not going to look like that. We live in a different context. Paul was in a much different culture. He was in a different time. He was living in a very violent time. And so you're probably not going to have to undergo that, although there are brothers and sisters in the faith around the world who are. On a daily basis, on a daily basis, there are people who are giving their lives for walking with Jesus every single day, somewhere around the world. And they're experiencing that kind of stuff. We live in a different context and we are blessed to live in it, but we probably won't have to face that. But we all have our own race that we have to run. And when you see Paul writing about that, he's writing and saying, "Nothing's going to knock me out of the race." Not the violence that people do to me, not when people in the church hurt my feelings, not when something happens to me and I got to go hungry or my finances are low, my bank accounting, what it should be. Paul is saying, "Nothing is going to knock me off course. It's not going to knock me out of the race." And he refused to be distracted. And so how did he do that though? How does Paul

stay focused like that? This picture of the race comes up in Hebrews chapter 12 at the very beginning. And here's what it says, "Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves of every obstacle in the sin which so easily entangles us, and let's run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only to Jesus. The originator and perfecter of the faith who for the joys set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." That picture of the race is so powerful. So there if you read the chapter before that, it talks about all these people who ran their race of faith before you. And all of those people are part of this cloud of witnesses that's watching and cheering us on. And the writer of Hebrew says, "So since they're cheering us on and they ran their race, we got to run our race too." And we do that by looking at Jesus, because Jesus ran his race before us. We need to look only to him and follow in his footsteps. But there are two words in here that really affect how we run that race. And the first word is obstacles. What it really is meaning and implying is the word is burdens or weight. So the writer of Hebrews is saying, "Let's rid ourselves of every burden, every weight." But man, burdens can be really tough. Sometimes burdens, we have burdens in life. We're weighted down in life because of stuff that we have done. We've brought burdens on ourselves. We've made mistakes. We've done dumb things. I've done stupid things. As one guy says, "I've done stupid with zeros behind it." We've all done that kind of stuff. And sometimes we bring burdens on ourselves. But then there are some times that burdens are given to us. We didn't ask for it. We didn't do it. There are different burdens. I think of some of the weights that people carry when they come here week after week. I think of the burden of broken relationships. And it's not just marriage stuff because that's very challenging. But it's also even lately parent child stuff. I mean, I've been reading articles about kids and their parents and they disagree. So kiddos cut themselves off from mom and dad. And I don't like that you think this or you don't like that. So you can't see your grandkids and all that. And what a burden that is. And by the way, if you're doing that, can I just lovingly say, knock it off. Just knock that stuff off. Because here's what's going to happen. you get to watch the show that comes behind you. Man, don't be a person that does that. But that weighs down on people, folks that my wife and I know who they haven't talked

with their kids for so long because their relationship is broken and it's a burden to them. You know, there could be health conditions or people I know who struggle with ongoing issues and you walk in here every Sunday and maybe you're in pain, whatever the condition may be. That's a burden that weighs you down. There's financial strain. There are folks who come in every week and they're like, "Man, the person I love has an addiction, and every week for me, I just have to fight to get through the week, and I'm just burdened and weighed down by that stuff." And the author of Hebrews is saying, "You need to get rid of those burdens. You need to throw those things off." Because here's the deal. I said, "Look, only to Jesus, Jesus ran his race so that you could run your race." That's why he went to the cross. He doesn't ask you to do it by yourself. He says, "I ran the race. Look at how I did it and tap into my power so you can run your race." As a matter of fact, Psalm 55 talks about it when it says, "Give your burdens to the Lord and he'll take care of you. He will not permit the golly to slip and fall." And Psalm 55, 22, "It's casting your burdens on him." That's why it's so important to have moments like we just had when we were singing about the power of the blood. Isn't that a great song? And there are certain parts of songs that I just can't sing. Whenever Pastor Drew starts going, "I know a name, I can't sing a single word of that song," because I immediately get tiered up. I also can't sing part of that song about the blood. There is nothing stronger than the wonder, work, and power of the blood, nothing stronger.

And Jesus shed his blood to help you deal with the burdens of life. He shed his blood for that. But it's not just burst. So the word obstacles in this passage, it's not just burdens, it's the sin that so easily entangles, and that means the meaning behind the word is constant distraction. Constant distraction. And sometimes we are constantly distracted by the sin in our lives, by the stuff that we allow our heart to go after, the stuff that we give constant attention to. We're distracted by things that we don't need to have in our lives. And sometimes we know those things, but we pursue them anyway. The aim of our heart is supposed to be Jesus only and moving in that direction, but sometimes we veer off this way, "Well, I'm going to follow this person I'm dating, I'm going to follow this friend group, I'm going to get into this thing over here," and that thing over there we get distracted and we're not running with purpose, like Paul said, every step of the race. Those distractions like that, there are also things that come into life that aren't necessarily sins, but they just are distracting to our faith. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, "You look at Jesus, you follow Him, run in His footsteps, do it in His power, and when stuff comes your way, you won't be veered off by those distractions because you're only focused on Him, and you won't be walking in the wrong, and you can use every step to have purpose to walk after Him. Jesus wants to lift your burdens, but He also wants to break the power of the distractions. There was a pastor I heard one time, it was a great illustration. He said, "We live in a day when we've all heard of weapons of mass destruction. We've all heard of that, but we also live in a day of weapons of mass distraction where we are always being distracted by something. Some of you all are distracted by, you're not out doing wild and crazy stuff, but some of us get distracted by scroll, scroll, scroll, on our phone, and we're all looking at everybody else's life and how much better we think they have it, they actually don't. They all post the best parts of their life.

So those are distracted by things like that, or distracted by doing too much of one thing or I'm too much into this. Jesus wants to break the power of burdens and distractions in our lives, especially the distractions that come as a result of our failures. So Paul embraced the reality of the contest, but that's not the only thing that Paul embraced. He also embraced the reality of the commitment. He embraced the reality of the commitment that it was going to take to run this race. At the end of verse 7, Paul's writing in he says these four words, "I have remained contested, and it is a fight for your faith. That's what it's all about. As a matter of fact, I think Pastor Sam recently was doing a message and he referenced Simon Peter and something that Jesus said to him. So there's the 12 sitting there, and of course there's Peter who was always go get him. Sometimes Peter was the loudmouth who spoke before he thought, "I love Peter, I think Peter is great." Because Peter's the guy that if you're in trouble, he's like, "I'm with you, man, I'm going to be there." He might not know what he's getting into, but he's going to be there with you. I love Peter. And Jesus looks at the 12 and he says, "Satan has asked to sift you all like wheat." And he looks at Simon Peter and he says, "But I have prayed for you that your faith may not be shaken because it's a fight for our faith." And he knew that he needed to pray for Peter so that Peter could stabilize himself after the crucifixion and all of that stuff and then turn around and help his brethren who were going to be struggling in their faith. It is a fight for our faith. And there are a couple of things, big things that the Apostle Paul did and we need to be faithful in these ways as well. First, he remained faithful to the lordship of Jesus. Man, stay faithful to Jesus, being Lord of your life. Not just, "Okay, he's saying I'm going to heaven, but he's Lord of how I live my life." I want to jump to another passage by the Apostle Paul, and this is in the first book of Timothy, chapter one, where he also talks about the battle for your faith. And he says, "Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this command and keeping with the prophecies made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith. Faith is, believe in that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do. It says, "Hold on to faith and a good conscience which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith." Can you imagine you start out your race in your running well,

but somewhere along the line something happens and maybe it is a burden, maybe it is a sinful distraction, whatever it might be, but it ends up in shipwreck, the shipwreck of your faith. You know, there was a great picture of this back in the 1940s. Everybody in the room has heard a Billy Graham, and one of the reasons is because if it weren't for Billy Graham, your pastor would not be the pastor of this church. If you remember his story, it was his mom going to a Billy Graham crusade where Jesus appears to her, she has an encounter with it, will totally change the trajectory of her family life. And so you've got, she had seven kiddos and I think all of them, ones in heaven I know they serve Jesus. It was that encounter at that crusade. So we've all heard of Billy Graham, but not as many people have heard of a guy named Chuck Templeton. So Chuck Templeton in the 1940s, he was actually considered the more dynamic preacher as compared to Billy Graham. Guys filling up auditoriums, he's preaching the gospel, he's winning people to Christ. He, I think, even planted a church that he pastored as well, doing amazing things. And if you had looked at the two of them together, you'd have said Billy Graham's good, but this guy at Chuck, he's really going someplace. In 1945, they're writing amazing things about him, but by 1950, he is turning his back on Jesus. He doesn't believe in the scriptures anymore. He's denying the faith. He's embraced an entirely different life. He's gone into media and journalism and they're nothing wrong with going into media and journalism if that's what God wants you to do, but that's not the calling that was on his life. He was shipwrecked in his faith, did not remain faithful to the Lord Jesus. And how sad that is, how sad that is. You know, there's a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Howard Hendricks, and he wrote a great book. I can't remember, it's a book on reading scripture, but it's one of the best books for you to learn how to read scripture. Also, there's a small group that you can jump into on Wednesday nights that does that same thing, helps you to learn how to read scripture. He wrote this book on how to read scripture, and it really is life-changing, soul life-changing. But he did a study of 100, and he came to the conclusion there were about 100 biographies of people in the scriptures, about 100. Some of them are longer and more detailed than others, but there are about 100 biographies in scripture. about two-thirds of the people in the biographies in Scripture did not finish well. Two-thirds did not, I mean, think of people like Saul, king of Israel, anointed by God to be the king of Israel.

Can you imagine that calling and that anointing? That instead ends up shipwrecked because he's disobeying what God's told him to do and to be, and he ends up dying on the battlefield because of it. I think of Samson, the guy who didn't cut his hair and had all the power and all of that stuff, but he was also, you talk about constant distraction, that was Samson. His whole life was, God wants me to do this, but look at this over here, that was Samson. The sad part is, his greatest moment was a murder suicide. It's him trying to take out a bunch of other people while he's taken his own life. And I can continue two-thirds of the biographies in Scripture. People don't end well, they don't stay faithful to the Lord. And the thing is, starting out strong doesn't guarantee you're going to finish strong. You can start, everybody looks great when they're straight out of the gate. I'm sorry, I think of this every time. My son used to be on the water polo in the swim team. And so they would do the four by relay, and so there were the four guys, they always had, my son, I can't remember if he, yeah, I think he might have done the first leg of it. But they saved one guy for the very end, he was going to swim the anchor leg of it. And those first three guys knew we better get like a five-mile lead on this other team. And they would hit the water and go like crazy. And the second guy would go and the third guy would go and the last guy would jump in that water. And for about four strokes, he was the fastest swimmer you've ever seen. And after four strokes, he was like, well, that's all the energy I have. So we are now just out for a leisurely swim. You can start the race really good. I hope none of you all know who that is. Strategically not said his name, my son is laughing at me now. You can start out the race really strong, but that doesn't guarantee that you're going to finish that way. Listen, don't reject God's work in your life.

Don't reject the opportunities you have to grow in your faith. Don't reject those things. And ask yourself, are the things I'm doing leading me toward faithfulness to Jesus, or are they leading me away from that? Are they moving me toward him or are they causing me just to drift? And we got to stay faithful to the lordship of Jesus. But we also need to stay faithful in another way that the Apostle Paul stayed faithful. And that is we need to remain faithful to the mission of Jesus. This is a big theme for the Apostle Paul. Whenever he speaks about the race, very often he mentions this idea of staying faithful to the mission. Because it's not just about not falling away and having Jesus be your Lord. I mean, sometimes we think of staying faithful as okay, I obey Jesus, I let a morally good life and try to honor him and obey him. And he does want us to do that. He does want us to stay faithful to his lordship in that way. But he also wants us to be on mission and stay on that. There's a passage where the Apostle Paul is talking. It's in the book of Acts. He's in a place called My Leaders, and he asks these elders from Ephesus to walk 40, 50 miles or whatever to come to where he is. And he's given some of his last words to them. And here's what he says, and he actually talks about the race. He says, "I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace." That's what it meant for him to remain faithful to the mission of Jesus. If you all have done relays, running relays, you don't hand off batons in the pool, but if you've done running relays, maybe you ran track, or you did that track unit in your phys ed class.

You've ever done a relay, you know that runners are passing the baton, one runner to the next. And when you're running with the baton, you've got that baton in your hand and you're going to lay it into the hand of the person who's going to take it. that baton and off you go. And if you've got a really good team, those batons get passed quickly and smoothly and off they go. And that's kind of what Paul is like. He's like, listen, there's a mission for me. I'm carrying the baton of the gospel. And I'm going to hand it off. When he writes to Timothy, he's like saying, here, I'm handing the baton off to you. I'm staying faithful to the mission that Jesus has for me. Because for Paul, it wasn't just, okay, I obey Jesus. It was, I made a difference for him, for his kingdom. That's why your pastor's always encouraging you to find a place to serve, to find a place to give. What is the baton that you have? What is it that God has for you? Is it that you're supposed to be mentoring somebody? Is it that you're supposed to be sharing Christ with that neighbor or that co-worker? Is it that you're supposed to go to North Point College because you need to go into ministry? Maybe you're called to be a pastor. Maybe you're called to go to the mission field. Whatever it is that God has called you to do, you need to do that thing, but you need to run the place well and be faithful to that mission. And listen, the mission of somebody who goes into pastoral ministry isn't greater and more important than the mission of somebody who is a nurse or is working in a factory or is a mechanic or is a business owner of some kind or a teacher or whatever. You need to be faithful right where God put you, how he designed you. Because if you try to be faithful with somebody else's stuff, it's not going to work. But if you're faithful to do what God has called you to do and to hand off that baton in the way he's called you to hand it off, then you'll be like Paul and you'll get to the end of your race and be able to say, yes, I was faithful to the Lord Jesus and I walked in the obedience with him and I was faithful to his mission and what he had for my life. We need to hand that baton off and be aware of that, man, as God called you, be a go-serve hero. There's so many amazing things that you can do. And remember they had all the stuff here on the platform? I was looking around at some of that stuff and I said, everybody's going to be running down to get that bed that's down there or whatever other things that there were down here. Can you see how something as simple as that can open the door for you to actually be able to be on mission for the Lord Jesus? Because Paul

was faithful to be on mission. Spreading the gospel was just as much a part of his commitment as it was obeying Jesus and living morally and clean before him. So Paul embraced the reality of the contest, he embraced the commitment it was going to take, but he also embraced one final thing. And that is he embraced the crown that there is a prize at the end of it all. In verse 8 of 2 Timothy 4 he says, "Now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return." And listen, Paul is not looking for immediate reward. He is not looking for reward and the here and now he is focused on that. He is doing what Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 says. He is looking only to Jesus and looking to reward from him. He is centered on that reward and eternity. And he knows that Jesus is a righteous judge and he is a fair judge. And Paul doesn't fear Jesus because he knows he is righteous and just. Paul also knows that Nero is the emperor over Rome where he is in prison. And he knows he is not a righteous judge. But Paul doesn't fear that judge. He fears the righteous judge. And he also knows that this judge Nero is going to stand before this judge Jesus. And so he entrusts all of that to the Lord and he is looking for his prize in eternity. You know sometimes we read about the judgment seat of Christ and it can feel like a little bit of a scary thing but it doesn't really have to be a scary thing because the reality is for those of us who walk with Jesus, for those of us who know him, our judgment day took place at his cross. That was the judgment day. That was the guilty or innocent day. That was the day when everything was taken care of so that when I put my trust in him, I don't have to stand before him and worry, up or down, guilty or innocent. That was at the cross. But when we stand before Jesus as believers, it is a place of reward. That's what it's we do in life and such and I believe that all of us will have our review with Jesus the things we could have done differently the things we missed out on from him but it's not just going to stop there it's going to be but here's how I'm rewarding you. So the question is are you running in such a way as to when so that when you stand before Jesus he really can look at you and say you stayed faithful to me and you stayed faithful to my mission and I'm going to give you a reward that you could never get on earth you can only get it in eternity with him. So Paul anticipated that and he sees beyond his own death and he looks to Jesus and that's that's been a recurring theme in Paul's life it's I'm running the race I'm in this contest and I'm focused squarely on the Lord

Jesus just running after him running straight toward him purpose in every single step and he wants us to finish our lives well also and you know what finishing well you know I said starting strong doesn't mean you'll finish strong but there's also the truth that starting week doesn't mean you can't finish strong it means that if you'll trust him doesn't matter what you've done doesn't matter the mistakes you made doesn't matter the failures you may have started life very weakly but you can end it very strongly and you can finish the race full force, full strong. That's what God wants for us.