Finishing Strong
1st Kings chapter 11
1.The dangerous detour-When the queen of Sheba, which was located somewhere between Yemen and Ethiopia, came to question him she was amazed at his wisdom. She was impressed with the temple and all his servants. King Solomon had a throne of gold inlaid with ivory and he had built everything he set out to build. We are impressed with those who achieve great things. How many times have we been impressed with men of God that have achieved somewhat of a celebrity status in the church. They preach great sermons and write books that move our hearts and inspire many But in the midst of their success we hear news that breaks our heart that another great leader has fallen, they fell into sin and were led astray. And it is not just those visible leaders but it can be anybody who has been a Christian and has been in ministry for years can fall in the same way. No Christian is inoculated from the affects of this sinful world. There isn’t a sin vaccine that we can take that will immunize us against temptation. I wish there was but it doesn’t work that way. This is a message that is especially important for those who have been Christians for a long time because though we may not say it or think it outright, we can develop the attitude that we probably won’t fall in our walk with God. It doesn’t appear as obvious arrogance it develops at a subtle pace. We become lazy in our walk thinking I’ve read that part of the Bible before or I don’t have to pray today it but it becomes an attitude of “been there done that.” probably the greatest downfall of many Christians is thinking that they have reached a point in their spiritual walk or ministry where they have arrived, Look back at Solomon, he arrived in they eyes of the world but in God’s eyes he wasn’t done yet. This is very dangerous thinking because we get into preservation mode and just think about maintaining rather than growing spiritually or looking for a new ministry opportunity. It means we are losing our sensitivity to the Spirit and our Awe of the creator and we begin to take that dangerous detour we can lose our reverence for God and our Christianity just becomes nothing more than being an armchair critic of the world with no action.
How do we avoid following in the footsteps of Solomon, of falling into the trap of complacency and lackluster Christianity and eventual into willful sin? I want us to look this morning at how we can finish strong. It has to do with living our life like we are the Lords. Not that he is part of our life but that we belong to him that we are H.I.S. In fact that is the acronym we are going to use. H.I.S. so we can remember it.
1st part of being the Lord being his is-
1. Humility-
Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
18 Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.
Humility requires us to bow down to the God of the universe and realize that he is the one who gives us every skill, gift, talent that we have and without him we are just dust. The problem begins when we start to think that we are responsible for the results, that everything hinges on us. Notice this lesson that Jesus taught his disciples.
Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV)
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “ ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
In this parable God is portrayed as an owner of an estate who entrust his servants to make investments while he was gone for an extended period of time. You will notice that the person with two Talents and the person with five talents (A talent was equivalent about 20 years wages of a day laborer of that time) they both invested what they were given by God and he was equally pleased. The lesson here is that God does not expect the person he gives two talents to have the same results as the person with 5 talents. Both are expected to be faithful with what they are given, to live passionate lives in faith and to invest themselves and their skills, gifts and resources in the kingdom of God so that his will is done in their lives. And when the Lord returns he will be pleased. But we have allowed the ideology of the world to sneak it’s way into the church and we see books published that might as well have the title “How I personally succeeded in going from a two talent servant to a five talent servant. And how you can do it too” only $19.99 at amazon.com. It is God who gives the anointing to those he wills. It is our responsibility to invest what he gives us not to waste time by wondering why we aren’t like the other guy. You may practice basketball your whole life and never get close to playing like Michael Jordan, You may put in all kinds of effort, invest in all kinds of training but never swim as fast as Michael Phelps. You know why. Because you aren’t those guys. Does that mean that you don’t work hard with what you have? Does that mean just because you aren’t a superstar your not even going to try? No, you give it your all. all you have to do is be the best you that you can be. That’s all that God expects. For us to focus on the ministry right in front of us and to say, what would you have me do Lord?
2. Invested-What about the servant who hid the one talent that he had. You will notice that he mis-judges God’s character calling him a hard man harvesting where he did not plant. So he did nothing with his life, just prayed the prayer but didn’t bother witnessing to the people around him, didn’t invest his life in the kingdom of God, didn’t bother with ministry. Didn’t risk anything. He had the attitude that it was all on him like God wasn’t going to show up. He was so afraid to fail that he didn‘t even try. This isn’t a life of faith it’s a life of fear, a life that says I’m a Christian but I am part of God’s secret service, I serve him as long as I can keep it on the down low, I‘ll just play it safe. Biding his or her time until God comes but doing nothing to serve him in the meantime. I have talked with many people who started out strong they got excited and than settled in, got comfortable, started to drift and than got out of ministry all together. And this is where the danger is.
Edith and her husband glen kind of adopted, my parents when they were newlyweds. Whenever my parents where going through a struggle glen and Edith were right there. When my sister almost died on the operating table they where there, When it looked like mom and dad weren’t going to make it in their marriage. They where there. Over the years they have embraced families in the church and encouraged young couples. Edith was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But that didn’t stop her when she got so weak that she was confined to her bed, she never stopped reaching out and writing letters of encouragement and witnessing to people right up to the end. She just passed away last week. But even in the end she glorified the Lord and she was grateful for the full life that the Lord had let her live. No superstar, no celebrity, no mega ministry, just a faithful servant of God who invested what she had and finished strong.
-Examples in the church- you may not think you are talented or gifted or have much to give but you can give your love. The Bible says that spiritual gifts are given to us all for the encouraging and building up of the body of Christ that is the church. If we don’t invest ourselves in the kingdom we become overfed and under exercised sheep we become restless and bored and maybe even hop from church to church seeking something that will recharge us when all along its been about jumping in with both feet and serving God.
3. Sanctified-means to be set apart for a purpose. In our case it is to be a servant of the Lord. It has to due with living a holy life. If we are going to be effective in serving the Lord and finish strong we must never neglect the study of the word and prayer. That is the main means of drawing close to God.
Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
God’s got a more accurate picture of us than we do. He knows us better than we know ourselves and so doesn’t it make sense to ask him how we are doing. Also when we fail to confess our sins before the Lord and we continue in disobedience to his word we interfere with the blessings that God wants to bring us. If you want God to answer your prayers you need to stop the sin that your in.
Conclusion: It is always interesting when you watch a football game and it looks like the other team is going to win because they have more points in the 1st half of the game. But then half time comes and I have seen plenty of turn arounds in the third and fourth quarters to know that you can’t count the team out because of how it looks at half time. (Would everybody stand to their feet?) many of us that have been Christians for a while and have been involved in ministry together, we have seen victories and experienced tough times together, I count it as a privilege and an honor to be your shepherd, your coach. But this is halftime and I realize that it when we look at all the going on the enemy seems to be winning and you may just looking forward to the end of the game when the Lord takes us all home. But I would encourage you to lift up your head. To keep your eyes on the prize, not a trophy but an eternal reward. Be bold in this second half, lets hit the enemy hard with all we got. Love as you never have before, minister to the lost and broken, reach out ask god what’s next for me in ministry and when he tells you don‘t hesitate.. We have God’s play book in fact we even know the endgame. All that is left is execution, that is the will to finish and finish strong. I want to finish by quoting one of the greatest coaches in history the Apostle Paul.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Lets finish this game and finish strong.
