Finishing Strong
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Discipleship, Finishing well, Running the race
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Finishing Strong
- 3. Finishing Strong 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ Luke 14:29-30 In His
- 4. Finishing Strong Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. …7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? Heb 12:1-4, 7 In His
- 5. Finishing Strong • Maintain Faith • Move Forward • Maintain Focus
- 7. Maintain Faith… Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses..
- 8. “let us throw everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles..” Maintain Faith….
- 10. Move Forward.. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us….
- 11. Move Forward… • The loneliness trap • The rejection trap • The quitting trap
- 13. Maintain Focus “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” What are the benefits of following Jesus?
- 14. Maintain Focus A young boy who was kidnapped from outside his Atlanta home was freed after he annoyed his kidnapper by singing a gospel song for three straight hours. “He opened the door and threw me out,” the boy said.
- 15. Maintain Focus ,,, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. …7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? Heb 11 v 1-4,7
- 16. Discussion • Share how God took you through a major crisis in your life. Did it strengthen or weaken your ministry? • Discuss how you plan to maintain focus in your life and fulfil your mission as a team. • Plan, as a team to creatively present your strategy and mission to the group..the next session.
Editor's Notes
- When my son was around 7 years old he had a terrible accident. He was running across the street within our colony when a fully loaded car went over his foot. Hearing the screams of the ladies in the neighbourhood the drivr stopped and reversed after almost going over the foot – thus going back over the foot the same time. His foot was so bad I was even wondering if he would be able to walk again. After several months and 3 surgery, by God’s grace he could walk. This resulted in him having a very weak foot. As he grew up he loved sports and kept injuring his foot. I tried to encourage him to take on more indoor games, but he still loved outdoor games. One day he came home with a bronze medal. I asked him what it was for, and he said for running the marathon. I could not believe my ears. You got a bronze medal for a marathon? I asked. He said yes and walked away. I called his sister and asked him, where you there? How did he manage this. And then she told me the story. She said a number of people ran and he was pretty much way behind. The two who came first and second winning the gold and silver finished off far ahead of him. He kept running. Several others who were also ahead dropped out of the race. Finally there was only one person running and that was Naveen. The whole school was cheering for him…he went on till he crossed the finish line. I realized that that bronze was more than the gold and silver. Even with his weak foot, he persevered and finished the race. He was probably the weakest person to start, he started slow but finished strong. Many others had better starts, had better capacity but never finished the race. When we are on this journey of discipleship it is not the start that matters, it is not our capability that matters, but how well we are able to persevere and finish the race. What matters is how strong is our finish going to be.
- We read the passage yesterday, of being effetive and making a plan. However, while planning is certainly a critical success factor the biggest critical success factor is exeution. Paul assures us that 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” phil 1:6 What does it take to complete what we started. Let us turn to heb 12
- Throw aside every weight – ongoing..eg Hannah (yesterday’s example)
- When my son was around 7 years old he had a terrible accident. He was running across the street within our colony when a fully loaded car went over his foot. Hearing the screams of the ladies in the neighbourhood the drivr stopped and reversed after almost going over the foot – thus going back over the foot the same time. His foot was so bad I was even wondering if he would be able to walk again. After several months and 3 surgery, by God’s grace he could walk. This resulted in him having a very weak foot. As he grew up he loved sports and kept injuring his foot. I tried to encourage him to take on more indoor games, but he still loved outdoor games. One day he came home with a bronze medal. I asked him what it was for, and he said for running the marathon. I could not believe my ears. You got a bronze medal for a marathon? I asked. He said yes and walked away. I called his sister and asked him, where you there? How did he manage this. And then she told me the story. She said a number of people ran and he was pretty much way behind. The two who came first and second winning the gold and silver finished off far ahead of him. He kept running. Several others who were also ahead dropped out of the race. Finally there was only one person running and that was Naveen. The whole school was cheering for him…he went on till he crossed the finish line. I realized that that bronze was more than the gold and silver. Even with his weak foot, he persevered and finished the race. He was probably the weakest person to start, he started slow but finished strong. Many others had better starts, had better capacity but never finished the race. When we are on this journey of discipleship it is not the start that matters, it is not our capability that matters, but how well we are able to persevere and finish the race. What matters is how strong is our finish going to be.
- Who are the great cloud of witnesses we are surrounded by?
- Throw aside every weight – ongoing..eg ship with weeds, hannah.. What is the sin that so easily entangles..”doubt Ees the obstacle, faith sees the way.
- After a long time in the flight, the passengers were happy to hear the pilot’s voice. “The good news is “we are all safely on the ground”. Then he went on “The bad news is we have not yet taken off”
- (rest, renewal – perseverance – eagle..it is not only a race for life it is a lifelong race) Many of us have been in this race. What do we do when crisis hits
- Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa-to what was then called the Belgian Congo . They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area. This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N'dolera the chief rebutted them, who would not let them enter town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts. They prayed for spiritual breakthrough, none came. The only contact, was a young village boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood-a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall- decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded. But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N'dolera to go on alone. Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days. Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven- year-old- wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, 'Tm going back to Sweden . I've lost my wife, and I obviously can't take care of this baby. God has ruined my life." With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself. Within eight months both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to "Aggie" and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three. This family loved the little girl and were afraid that if they tried to return to Africa , some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota . As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst. Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there. One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn't read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD. Aggie jumped in her car and went straight for a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. "What does this say?" she demanded. The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N'dolera long ago .. .the birth of a white baby .. .the death of the young mother . . .the one little African boy who had been led to Christ . . and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ... the children led their parents to Christ... even the chief had become a Christian, Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village.... All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. For the Hursts ' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden . There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: "Never mention the name of God-because God took everything from me." After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. "You can talk to him," they replied, "even though he's very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage." Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three- year-old man lying in-a rumpled bed. "Papa?" she said tentatively. He turned and began to cry. "Aina," he said. "I never meant to give you away." "It's all right, Papa," she replied, taking him gently in her arms. "God took care of me. "The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped. "God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him." He turned his face back to the wall. Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted. "Papa, I've got a little story to tell you, and it's true one. You didn't go to Africa in vain. Mama didn't die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life... "Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you." The old man turned back to look into his daughter's eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades. Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America -and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity. A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London , England , when a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo ). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel's spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard, of David and Svea Flood. "Yes, madam," the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. "It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother's grave and her memory are honored by all of us." He embraced her, in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, "You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history." In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle. The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother's white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: He then followed with Psalm 126:5: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy." Satan has many traps for us, the rejection trap, the loneliness trap, the qutting trap. Elijah faced all three Remember we are in a war and will face opposition from our enemy …many times from within the church. We need to keep going on, find alternatives and ensure we are always on track to follow Christ.
- Maintain focus When my son was the only one on the track, he had a big advantage – the whole school was cheering for him – it kept him going. Remember, people around may not cheer, but Jesus, the angels and the pioneers of faith are cheering for us Heb 12:1 Therefore since we have such a great cloud of witnesses let us run….Hand in hand with pitfalls there are benefits – let us recognize these too! - abundant life, prosperity of soul…
- But Willie's actions during those terrifying three hours are inspiring people around the country. Willie says he sang the gospel song Every Praise until the man let him go. Thursday evening, community leaders held a meeting in Willie's honor, celebrating his happy ending, but also telling other parents and children what to do if this happens to them. In front of a crowded sanctuary at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, Willie recounted the moment he was freed from the car. Willie said while he was singing, the man kept cursing and telling him to shut up before eventually kicking him out. how do we drive our goal and make sure we are not sitting on the same spot? What are the steps we take? What are the pitfalls. What are the benefits?
- Discipleship requires discipline – hard discipline. This is no ordinary race – it is a death race. He who has started a good work in you will bring it to completion. My uncle shared an incident in his life when he was a rebellious teenager. He had failed twice ii his studies and had been sent to his uncle’s place for discipline. His uncle followed the practice of tithing time. This meant that 2.5 hours of every day was spent with the word of God. He used to wake up at 4.30 am He told the youngsters in his house to follow suit. My uncle had no clue what to do. He asked his uncle and he said just do what I do. He saw him with his bible so sat with the bible at 6 am every day. His English and tamil were both very poor and he could barely speak a sentence straight. So he decided to read this bible and started from the beginning. This went v. slow, but with 2.5 hours daily at his disposal he finished the bible in 3 months. He went over it again, and then went to the Tamil bible. By the end of the year, his language skills improved so much he was asked to speak on of the 7 words on the cross in a GF service. Hard work..Jim Elliot – therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, abundant always abounding in the work of the lord knowing that in the lord your labour is not in vain…1 cor When we have the strong king on our side, we can be sure of finishing strong… He who has begun a work in you will bring it to completion…