The Finish Line of Faith | Jay Hubbard | City Light Church

Hey, what's up, family? We are about to jump into God's Word, and I'm so excited about it. Hey, just wanted to take a moment real quick to tell you to like and to subscribe and to hit the notification bell, all the things that help us get this Word and this message out to a greater audience. If today's Word is a blessing to you, even if you wanna like throw it in your Instagram story, things like that, if you're still on Twitter or X or threads or one of those and share the Word with a friend, all of those things help us. And so if this ministry is a blessing to you, help us spread the Word. Also wanna tell you, man, we've got some really great praise and worship that is coming out of this house. We recently released Let the Redeemed. As you're watching this right now, we're just releasing a brand new kind of spontaneous moment called Joy. And we've got lots of incredible music with City Light Worship. So that's on Spotify, that's on YouTube, that's on Apple Music, all the places that you listen to music. And now hope all of that is a blessing to you. And right before we go to God's Word, if City Light is a blessing to you,

if this ministry has been impacting to you, would you prayerfully consider partnering with us financially? They tell us that Las Vegas is the most unchurched city in the most unchurched state, Nevada, in America. And we are doing everything we can to win people for Jesus and make a massive impact in this city. And if that stirs your heart, man, we need your help. And we need your partnership. And if you kind of consider City Light to be a part of your spiritual formation, if you consider my ministry to be a blessing, no gift is too small, no gift is too large as we continue to reach this region with the gospel. Let's jump into God's Word and let's receive from the Lord. Amen. If you have your Bible, turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter four. We're gonna read one verse here and then we're gonna get going. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse seven says this. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. I have kept the faith. I wanna preach a message to you today titled the finish line of faith.

The finish line of faith. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to preach your gospel and teach your gospel. I pray in these next few moments, the word will fall on good soil. That it wouldn't be my words, it would be your words. And that you would do a mighty work in people's lives. In Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. And amen. Man, in order to get to the finish line of faith, you have to first learn how to run with purpose. You gotta learn how to run with purpose. Paul is writing this letter to his younger brother in the faith, Timothy. Paul is in prison at the time as he's writing this letter. And the first six verses are all about, hey, Timothy, there's gonna be some false teachings. You're gonna have to endure. You're gonna have to correct. You're gonna have to encourage the people. And then we get to verse seven and the tone shifts just a little bit. And now Paul is reflecting back on his life. And he says, I have fought the good fight. I have a question for you today. What is your good? See, Paul had to understand his good.

Paul's good that he is telling Timothy about right now is the good news of the gospel. Paul's good has eternal weight that is attached to it. See, if you are not careful and you cannot define what is good, the world will define it for you. Culture will define what good is for you. Your good determines your goal and your goal will determine your destination. And the Apostle Paul, who was previously known as Saul, was getting his orders from culture on what his good was that he was supposed to do. And so here is Saul on the road to Damascus carrying the letters from the high priests that are giving the orders to go into Damascus, persecute, kill, destroy, tear down Christians. And the same man who was on the road to Damascus carrying letters from the high priests would one day be the man in prison writing letters to edify, uplift, and encourage the church. See, what God did on the road to Damascus was blind Saul to the things of this world. Now, was Paul's life altered right there on that road to Damascus? Yes, but was it changed forever? No. I submit to you this thought. Paul's life was altered on the road. It actually wasn't changed. Because whenever God calls you out of darkness,

whenever God blinds you to the things of the world, whenever God gives you that God purpose that's in your life, he will always attach it to community. So what did God do? He spoke first to Ananias. And Ananias got the download from God that said, there's an evil man that's coming, but you're gonna love him unconditionally. Whenever God calls you into something, he always gives you community. And so Ananias comes and Paul is blind and Ananias knowing all the bad things that this man Saul was going to do, still said brother Saul, still laid hands on him and the scales fell off of his eyes and he could see again because it took that moment of community, that moment of friendship with Ananias that brought Saul to become who he is today and that is Paul. You are one friendship away from defining your purpose. Just one. Pastor, should we join a small group? Absolutely. You certainly should join a small group. Well, I did and I didn't like it the first time. Me neither. It's awkward. Who are these people?

Where is this house? It's dark outside. And then you walk in there, you're like, oh, they have a cat, dang it. Oh, my cat people, I'm not gonna bag on my cat people. I am allergic, so don't invite me over. And you're like, you know what? They had a cat, so I'm not gonna do it again. Wow, you're gonna let the cat keep you out of community. Wonderful. And that's the tragedy is you try it once and then you're like, oh, I just didn't like it. Try it again. And then the second time you try it, you're like, man, they have a dog. You're like, not a dog. And it's not one of those like cool dogs. It's like one of those feefy little dogs and they're like, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr. And you're like, it's just too much. And so you're like, I don't know if I can do this again. Well, try it a third time. You know how many small groups that I have led? You know how many of them I've walked away and been like, I don't know if anybody got anything out of that, but I'm gonna do it again. And I'm gonna do it again. And I'm gonna do it again. And then we led a premarital group this last season and almost all the couples in the premarital group

are now engaged. And I was like, you know what, God? I'm gonna do it again. And I'm gonna do it again because you are all about friendship and you are all about community. Let me double down on this thought for you. Paul had three major missionary trips, ministry trips that he went on and he did not go on them alone. The first one he went on to Cyrus, he took Barnabas. He took a friend. He was not about to do what God has called him to do alone. He was not going to go out into the world without the protection of community. God had given him a purpose and he knew that purpose was for him to run with people. So he takes Barnabas and then he comes back home and like any good friendship, him and Barnabas, they got in a fight. Just like you do. Well, she didn't comment on my photo, but she commented on her photo. So we're just not talking right now. It's literally how it goes sometimes. It's kind of crazy. It's the world we live in. She didn't like my photo, didn't like his photo. We're not talking anymore. So they had a little scuffle. So Paul goes, well, you're not coming on this one. I'm going to take Silas.

And so him and Silas, they go out through all of Asia, preaching and teaching the gospel. Along the way, they run into a younger brother by the name of Timothy. The very letter that we are reading out of right now. He takes Timothy around with them because Paul's all about inclusivity. He takes him with him and then he gives him a direction. He says, you're actually going to go ahead of me. You're going to go to Ephesus. I trust you enough to send you to Ephesus. I'm going to send you to Ephesus. And since you're going there, there's a couple other people I'm going to take with me on this trip too. I'm going to take Priscilla and Aquila with me too. And we're going to go to Ephesus and we're going to continue to preach and teach the gospel because God is all about community. He's all about friendship. Now I know I doubled down, but let me triple down. Paul had a home church. Here we go. Paul never did anything without the blessing and the sending of Antioch. You know who brought Paul to Antioch? Barnabas. Barnabas was like. That man's crazy. That man was killing Christians.

Side note, anybody who's out to kill anybody is crazy. And he's like, that man is gifted. That man has a call in his life. That man has a purpose over his life. That man needs the four walls of the local church. That man needs his doctrine to be shaped within Antioch. That man needs his leadership to be shaped in Antioch. And so Paul never went anywhere without the blessing and the sending of Antioch. So then he would go and then he would come back and he would tell them all the good news and the things that happened. His theology, his doctrine, his leadership, his preaching, his teaching were all formed in his home church, his local church of Antioch. I don't do anything without the blessing and the sending of the pastors of this church. There is no ministry worth having without the blessing of those who are above me. I honor up, I honor down, and I honor all around. And so people go, well, aren't you selling yourself short to opportunities that may arise? No, I actually think we're living a very blessed life. And you know why? Because me and my wife, our friends, we are committed and we are submitted to this house. And if you're not gonna be committed and submitted to this house, find a house that you can be committed and submitted to, that you can go out with blessing

to do the work that God has called you to do, that you'll come back to to report the good news of. This is how you get to the finish line of faith. You have to run with God-given purpose. Number two, you have to run with perseverance. This is one of my favorite points of the whole message, run with perseverance. Perseverance is staying faithful when the process takes longer than we all expected. Everybody say hallelujah, we've been there before. And I know we're in a summer sprint, right? And it's all about running fast, it's four weeks. The marketing is incredible. We've had such a response, everybody thinks every group is a running group, and it is not, I'm not running, okay? Nadia can run, I'm not running, okay? So not every group is a running group, don't be scared. You can all sign up for a small group now. Hopefully yours doesn't have cats. You have to sometimes realize that even though we're talking about a sprint, if you wanna get to the finish line of faith, a lot of times you have to slow down to a slow, faithful pace. It's a slow, faithful pace. Let's talk a moment about habits. You guys know I'm not a runner, right? Okay, thank you for affirming that I'm not a runner. Do I look like a runner?

Don't lie, don't lie, don't lie. I know I've shed the shoes, I'm ready. I know I've shed a few LBs, but it's not because I've been running. I am not a runner. In fact, here's a fact, I am 1,000% probably out of shape. And that probably is a surety. Here's one thing I do know. My desire is great. I'd love to run a marathon. It'd be amazing. But if I said I wanna run a marathon tomorrow, I'd die. I'd be on mile one and I'd be like, ugh, water, I can barely get through a message without drinking water. I got problems, okay? But my daily habits will not sustain me for tomorrow's race. The same is true spiritually. The same is true spiritually. The daily habits of reading your word every day, surrounding yourself around the right community every single day. Although we have good intentions, if we cannot build healthy habits, then we can't sustain the pace of the race when the race gets hard. And it will get hard. Sometimes orange theory hard, and you're like, I'm never going back, ever.

It will get hard. Bad habits breed condemnation. And condemnation kills hope. Romans 5, 4 says this, endurance builds character and character builds hope. They're connected. Your daily habits directly affect your hope. And here's the good news, here's the good news. You can learn to have really good habits. People always ask me, and my wife, they'll be like, how do you balance this life? I'm like, first, sir, can you define life? Like, what is this life? How do you balance this life? I'm like, I hate the B word. I don't like it. I don't like the word balance. I'm not into tipping scales. They're like, how do you balance family? And how do you balance life? And how do you balance ministry? And how do you balance baseball? And how do you balance travel? And how do you balance all the birthdays? Because both me and my wife are a part of very big families. And those families are our brothers and our sisters-in-law. They really trust the Bible. And the Bible said, be fruitful and multiply. And they multiply. They multiply.

And so one birthday, I'm like, where are these kids come from? I just mopped my floor. I'm like, where y'all go? What time is it? There's a lot of you. On top of that, it's like, I'm a pastor. And then all of you invite me to the birthday party too. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what's going on? It's like every two weeks, there's another birthday party. I'm like, oh, happy birthday. Happy birthday. And they're like, how do you balance that? I'm not into balancing anything. I'm into a slow and steady rhythm of grace. It's the same thing my pastor has been teaching me for the last 15 years of my life. We're not into balance, we're into rhythm. And sometimes life's on the downbeat and you're on that one and you're going, all right, this is interesting. And sometimes life's on the upbeat and you're on the four and you're flying high. Sometimes life's between the two and the three. And you're like, what is this push and this pull? Sometimes life is like a really good Michael Jackson song. It's just vocal bliss. And you're like, life is good, this is great. I like this rhythm. You have to learn the rhythms of grace

because they sustain you when the race gets hard. You have to have the rhythms of rejoicing that says my God is good. And all the time, God is good. You have to have rhythms that go, I'm gonna reflect on the goodness of God. And you're like, I know this song. I've heard this song before. This is an oldie, but it's a goodie because that's the time that you got us through one of the darkest seasons of our life. And I know if you did it then, you can do it again. It's the rhythms of reflection. It's the rhythms of rejoicing. It's the rhythms of rest. It's the rhythms of good friendships. It's the rhythm of community that says all of this is gonna get me through. And it is the hope that your thirsty soul needs to run the race that God has set out for you. It's perseverance. Perseverance. Point number three, the keys can come back. I'm so excited about this point. That was my excited life. Pumped, gotta be careful. Point number three, it was just like, yeah. I don't know. It was like cross-stitching like a Michael Jackson kick and something else.

Could watch that. I need some loafers, some white socks. That was my excited life. That was my excited kick. Anyways, squirrel. Point number three, run with faith. Run with faith. Run with faith. Man, this is so powerful. If you are taking notes, I want you to go to the one scripture. We've only read one scripture. 2 Timothy 4 verse seven. And at the end of that scripture, Paul says, I kept the faith. I kept the faith. If you're taking notes, underline the word kept. Circle it. If you have a cool highlighter, highlight it. I kept the faith. Paul often describes the gospel as something that is entrusted to him. It's entrusted to him. 1 Thessalonians 2, 4 says this. I was entrusted with the gospel. 2 Timothy 1, 14 says, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Paul says, I've kept the faith because Paul realizes he didn't invent the faith. And so all of Paul's life,

he's not keeping anything. He's just stewarding it. So he kept the faith. It was sacred. It was given to him. And he spent his life guarding it, proclaiming it, and living it. When Paul says kept, it's past tense. For all of you teachers and grammar people and the you, your, you are police in my Instagram DMs, please stay out of my DMs. It's your, you're just confusing me. I probably said that wrong too. I don't know. The reason why he says kept is because he's in prison. He has come to terms that he is going to die. This is it. But he knows he kept the faith because he looks back and he goes, Timothy is still running. Titus is still preaching and he's still teaching. The churches are still thriving. Paul kept the faith because he understood the faith was never his own to keep. It was his to steward. There's a really cool race that happened about 20 years ago. It was the year 2006, a famous car race. It's called the Piston Cup. Y'all know about the Piston Cup? This is now the gospel of Pixar.

Like the most famous race car of all time, the Lightning McQueen. All right, we're on the same page now. All right, I just wanted to make sure. I just wanted to make sure you were tracking where I was going. The Piston Cup, 2006, Los Angeles, California. Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, the king, ka-chow. Not kachuga, ka-chow, amen. This story is so amazing. This race is so amazing because the whole movie, Lightning McQueen, is going through this whole self-discovery. I'm like, what is his purpose? They're at the Piston Cup and the three cars are racing and he is there. He can see the finish line. He can see the finish line. It's right there. And I have a nine-year-old son going on 10, so I've seen this movie a hundred times. We've probably seen it a hundred times. We've ridden the ride more times than we can count, right? But when he was little, it was green car, bad car. Blue car, old car. McQueen, good car. And if you know the movie, green car gets really mad. He gets upset. He's losing the race and he's like, I'm not gonna have this.

So green car, bad car decides to hit blue car, old car, and old car flips off the track into the infield. I think it's called the infield. Any NASCAR people out there? I think it's called the infield where the grass is. I'm just checking. I think I'm right. I think I'm right. And old car ends up on the infield and Lightning is flying towards the finish line and he's almost at the finish line and he slams on his brakes. And reality sets in. What good is it to finish this race if I'm gonna finish it by myself? I might as well take somebody else with me. And he throws the car in reverse. He backs all the way up to the king and he starts pushing the king towards the finish line, slow and steady. He's pushing him. See, the reason why Paul knew he kept his faith is because the others were still running. The others were still being pushed towards the goal. I'm not so much concerned about crossing the finish line if I'm gonna cross it by myself. It's all about other people. And he starts pushing the old car and the old car goes, man, you're crazy. You have a chance to win the Piston Cup.

And Lightning McQueen reflects back on what Doc Hudson taught him and he said, it's just an empty cup. It's just an empty cup. My question for you today is, who are you pushing towards the finish line? Who are we serving in a better way? How are we putting our hands and our feet to the work of the ministry? See, it's not just holding a baby. It's not just watching newborns and toddlers and four-year-olds and five-year-olds. What you are doing is you are pushing a couple closer and closer to the finish line. You don't know what they're going through. You don't know the fights that they've had. You don't know how hard it was to just get into the house of God today. And the moment you take that baby, the moment they pass you that baton, you're going to start running and they're going to come in here and they're going to receive the goodness of God and experience true life change. It's not just a guitar. It's not just a bass. It's not just the drums. It's not just the keys. It's not just another guitar. It's serving.

It's running a race to allow you to experience the presence of God. It's not just a greeter holding a sign. It's a smile that's breaking depression. It's not just a person in the parking lot. It's a stall that's opening up. It's not just a camera, cam one. It's not just cam two. Where's cam three at? Is there a cam three anywhere around here? Where, wherever cam three's at. Hey man, it's not just you holding a camera. It's for my friend Carlos that is currently at the High Desert Correctional Facility. And he's holding the camera so you can run your race because one day you're gonna come out of there and God has a plan for you. It's about the 15,000 people that we reach every single Sunday. Who are you pushing? Who are you pushing? Pastor Jay, are you gonna ask us to serve? Yes. Yeah. Duh. The greatest gift you will ever receive is serving somebody else. It's the greatest gift. The ROI on that is eternal. It's eternal.

And then what does Paul say? Verse eight, he says this. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. He's in prison and he pushes back on culture. He says, I don't want your crown. Back then when you would win the race, they would give you a Stephanos. Stephanos is like the flower crown that they would wear when they were made out of flowers. Flowers die. Earthly crowns die. Crowns of righteousness get casted. They get casted at the feet of Jesus, the one who ran the ultimate race, the one who got to the finish line and said, I wanna make sure everyone gets to the finish line, so I'm gonna die. I'm gonna raise again three days later so that y'all could run your race, so that you could do what God's called you to do, so that you could take people along with you, so that way we can plunder hell and populate heaven. That's the race we're running. Your race is always about people. Your purpose is for people. Your perseverance is for people. And your faith, it is meant to be given away to people.

Bow your heads.