“Finishing Strong”

New Year’s Eve Service

“Finishing Strong”

KEY PASSAGE: 2 Timothy 4:6–18(NASB)

WELCOME

I want to welcome everyone to our New Year’s Eve Church Service tonight. Please stand up and greet some folks around you. For those watching the service online, I want to welcome you all. We love you all, and God bless you. If you are visiting tonight, I want to say welcome to the church and thank you for joining us tonight.

TITHE and OFFERING

We will call on the ushers to pass around the plates to collect our tithes and offerings. Please follow the instructions on the screen on how to give to the church. The worship team will lead us with a song as we collect our tithes and offerings.

ANNOUNCEMENT

· Our next Corporate Prayer Meeting is Saturday, January 4th at 8:00 a.m. Please come [so we can pray together.]

· Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, January 4th at noon. To all the men, please come to the Men’s Breakfast so we can fellowship and pray together.

· Wednesday Night [Remember] is our Bible Study Connect at 7:00 p.m. Please join us on Wednesday night to STUDY [and NAVIGATE] THE WORD OF GOD. We will start the Book of First Corinthians on January 8th in the New Year. We just finished the Book of Romans. There will be no Bible Study this Wednesday.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Let’s pray.

Father, I thank you for the word of God; I thank you for Your truth. I thank You for being full of grace and mercy. It is good to know that when we have not lived up to our full potential, have not maximized our capabilities, or have not done all we could and should do, it is good to know that You are still with us. You still love us; it is good to know that. Father, I come on behalf of the family of the Anointed Church of Jesus Christ, and we are just going to talk and have a fireside chat tonight; let you talk to me about me and say a few words to them about us. We are going to bring in 2025. Lord, I pray that You will give us a perspective that will help us to do this lap of our race well. [That 2025 will be better than 2024]. Yes, we want to do better financially, we want to do better relationally, we want to do better, or maybe do better, most importantly spiritually, that we would give You the honor and the glory. In the name of Jesus, we pray, all God’s people said, Amen.

DECLARATION of FAITH in GOD

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

We are very grateful for another year. I am [grateful], you are, and we are collectively [as] a church. God has been faithful throughout the year. What I want to say to you, in just a few words tonight, is when it is all said and done, and you look back on your life, the issue won’t be how you started; it will be how you finished. I want to talk to you tonight about finishing strong.

In 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul the apostle is writing his final words to his son in the ministry, Timothy. He wants Timothy [A Young Pastor] to have some things to reflect on as Paul is about to die. Paul is sitting in a dungeon, awaiting execution. He is about to be beheaded; his head is about to be removed from his body. [And so] he writes one of these final epistles, 2 Timothy, to the one he will leave behind in his place—the one he regularly refers to as his son, son in ministry.

His basic word to Timothy is found at the end of verse 5, where he says, “fulfill your ministry,” that is, complete what you have started. And then he goes into a statement of his obituary. Paul is writing his final words on his gravestone. You know, you can find out a lot about a person when it is time for them to die because they usually don’t have to fake it anymore. There are no facades [fuh·saadz] to keep up; there is nothing that they have to show because there are no notches to make.

SERMON EXPOSITION

Paul is waiting for execution, and here are his final words, which [I think] are good words as we close out this year and enter into the New Year. He says in verse 6, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” Listen to that again, “I have already been poured out as a drink offering.”

Many Bible commentators believe that is a reference to his method of death because when his head would be chopped off, of course, blood would gush out of his neck, and it would pour out. But the key to know about Paul’s statement, “I am a drink offering,” is that a drink offering was a sacrifice. Guess what he is saying?

He is saying, I am going to do in death what I did in life: sacrifice. You know, it was Paul who said in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren, “By the mercies of God,”that you present yourself as a living sacrifice. In other words, he says that while you are alive, live a sacrificial life. He comes to his obituary and says, “I am going to die like I lived. I am going to pour it out.” He says, “I am going to be a drink offering.” He says, “The time of my departure is at hand.” The word “departure” was used to describe loosening the rope holding up a tent so you could take the tent to the [next] location or releasing the lines on a ship so the ship could be free to set sail. It is like a plane departing from an Airport to another destination.

Please notice [Church] that in these verses, “You don’t see panic or fear, Paul is not in trepidation, he is not trembling, he is not scared of the future. Many of us are scared of 2025, and we are not dying. O Lord, what is it going to be like next year? Let me tell you this: if you are alive, you are doing all right. Paul is about to die, and he is not panicking. His head is about to be chopped off, and he is not all shaken up. He is secure because he says, “I am a drink offering, I am an offering to God, and I know I am going somewhere.”

You can be secure in the uncertainty of tomorrow because while you don’t know what tomorrow holds if you know Christ Jesus, you know who holds tomorrow. So even though the time of my departure is at hand, I am not going to be panicking. Paul says, You [are not going] to hear me screaming, and I will not be shaking because I know where I am going. He was secure in his relationship with Jesus Christ, even though his circumstances weren’t all that good.

SERMON EXPLANATION 1

Let me share some of his circumstances with you because I know many of us have made a lot of [complaining] in 2024, and if anybody has the right to complain, Paul did. Let’s look at verse 13. He says, “When you come, bring the cloak, [which] I left at Troas [Troys].”In other words, “I am cold.” He is in this dungeon, and this dungeon is isolated, and it is very cold in here, “So when you come to visit me on the next visitation when they let you in prison, bring me a cloak so that I won’t have to be cold at night.”

Paul says, “Alexander the Coppersmith, in verse 14, did me much harm.” He says, “I am cold, and all my friends have left me.” He says in verse 16, [Watch This], “At my first defense, no one supported me,” but all departed from me. Has anybody here tonight ever been rejected? Paul says, “When folks turn against you, I know what you are talking about, and I am very cold here, but look at Paul’s attitude. Even with all that rejection, he says at the end of verse 16, “May it not be counted against them.” In other words, he didn’t want to enter heaven with an unforgiving spirit.

He goes on to say in verse 17, “But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear, (and) I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.” He says if the Lord was with me before, even though they are getting ready to chop off my head, God is not going to leave me now. If the Lord was with you in 2024, the question is not, what does 2025 hold? The question is only, is the Lord with me? Paul says the Lord stood by me before; the lion’s mouth was Nero. Nero tried to kill Paul before but couldn’t do it. He says the Lord was with me when Nero was after me, and now that Nero has gotten me, the Lord will not leave me. Paul says I am secure in Jesus. In verse 18, he says, “The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. [And then he closed with] Amen.” God will not let anything happen to you or me outside of His will.

I hope you know that the only time God stops meeting your needs is when it is time to take you home. Up until that time, God will deliver you from all evil. God will be the final say-so. It won’t be the job that is the final say-so, it won’t be the economy that is the final say-so, it won’t be evil people that are the final say-so. The Lord is the final say-so for your life in 2025.

In anticipation of his entrance into heaven, Paul then looks back on his life and makes three of the [most profound statements in the Bible.] He says, number one, “I have fought the good fight.” “I have fought the good fight.” I don’t know if you have learned this yet, but the Christian life is not a playground but a battleground.

Paul says I have fought a good fight. I gave it my all. Now, here is my question. Have you given Christ your best in 2024? Do you have any wounds to show? It is not because you are looking for a physical fight; it is just that they will find you because you are living for Christ. Some of you have had fights on your job this year simply because you tried to be Christian. Some of you have had fights in your homes this year simply because you tried to be Christian. You have had fights in your circumstances simply because you are living the Christian life.

SERMON EXPLANATION 2

Paul says, “I have fought the good fight.” Now I like the word good because every fight is not [a good one]. The Greek word good means noble. Or, to put it another way, I only fight fights that are worth fighting. Every fight’s not a good one. Many Christians today are fighting, but we are fighting the wrong battles. We are not fighting a good fight. We are fighting the wrong battle. We wrestle with stuff we shouldn’t be spending time on. We are dealing with folks we should not be dealing with. We are hanging out and wrestling with [stuff] we should not even be in the vicinity of. Talking about I am running for Jesus. I am fighting for Jesus. Paul says, “I fought the good fight,” that is, I fought battles worth fighting for. So the question is: are you spending your time and your energy wrestling with things that matter? Brothers and Sisters, in 2025, don’t waste any more time. Time is too short. It is too uncertain; I could be dead tomorrow, you could be dead tomorrow; don’t fight over stuff not worth dying over. Paul said I didn’t waste my time with [stuff] that didn’t matter.

SERMON EXPLANATION 3

He then says number two, I finished my course. The Bible says that the race is not given to the swift, nor is the race given to the strong, but it is given to those who endure to the end. Your goal in life is to finish well. Most folks who go into marathons don’t go in to win; they go in to finish [To finish well]. There were no unfinished symphonies in Paul’s life, nothing [that was not] completed. He didn’t die wondering what the things left to do were; there was no sense of incompleteness.

He says, "I have finished my purpose for being, the course God has set for me. In Jeremiah 29:11, God says, “I have a plan for you. It is a plan that is not evil. It is a plan for your welfare, to bring you a blessing and hope. God has a plan for you.” Stop living on everybody else’s agenda and discover God’s plan for you.

SERMON EXPLANATION 4

He says number three, “I have kept the faith.” You know the things you keep in your home are the things you treasure. The more valuable they are, the more you keep them. We keep things for generations because we treasure them. Paul says, “I have kept the faith.” Faith is that body of truth, and Paul is living up to it, which has been passed down. We must value faith if we are going to keep it. Our faith should be protected as a treasure.

He did not throw in the towel when the going got tough for him. Paul did not walk away from the Lord. Folks don’t have time for the Lord when things are going rough. The test of how serious you are is when you don’t hear from God, and God is silent, and you don’t know what He is doing. Do you love God because you love Him, or do you love Him because you are getting something?

That was the Job question, you know. The devil said, “Job only serves you because you give him something. You stop giving Job stuff. He will not serve you anymore.” He is serving you for what many people are offering today. “He is serving you because you are going to make him prosper. The devil says if You take all Your blessings from Job, he won’t serve you anymore.”

What did God say? He said, “Go ahead and touch him. Take it all away.” Now, next time somebody tells you God guarantees you prosperity, you tell them that God told Satan to take it all away from Job. Do you know that God will take it away sometimes to test you? He will take it away to test you. God will bless you, but He will also take it sometimes to see if you love Him.

FAITH APPEAL, CALL to ACTION and ALTAR CALL

Job finished strong. I don’t know what your situation is right now, or what the good was last year, the years before, the bad, or the ugly, but I know there is still room left in your quarter. Now, you may have to do a two-minute drill. In other words, a two-minute drill means you are running out of time. A two-minute drill [means] you don’t have much time left.

Samson had an up-and-down life, but he finished strong. He said in Judges 16:28, I am paraphrasing here: [Watch This], “Lord, even though I messed up my life, even though I made mistakes, give me one more time to show what God can do through a man, fully committed to Him.” And the Bible says God, at the end of Samson’s life, did more than he ever did during all of Samson’s life.

Did you know you can finish well? Have you ever seen a runner running a race, and it is going, and the runner is running hard, and he makes up the time he lost early on? God is inviting you, in 2025, to finish strong. [To come back here next year at the church], and tell us, let me know about the ground you have made up. Yes, you made some mistakes, but you spirited this year. And you have made up some ground. I pray that we finish next year strong.

Stand where you are. For the next three minutes, we want to go to God and invite Him to give us the ability to run this next leg of our race—and to run it well. “O Lord, help us to run strong so that when we are finished, we finish well, and nothing is left to do. O Lord, help us see a two-minute warning; it is time to get busy, stop talking about it, and go forward. To get close to You, Lord, is our desire. Draw us near in 2025. Draw us near, Lord. We love you, Lord; help us to finish strong.

Let us pray.

BENEDICTION [CLOSING PRAYER]

“And now, Lord, as we come to the final seconds of 2024, thank You for Your patience. Some of us should not be here this year, but You were patient. Some of us have made mistakes, but You have not rewarded us according to our sins. And so, we thank You for that. Lord, we thank You for 2024 and loving us; it was good to know. We thank You in 2024; You stood near us. And so, Lord, we give You the glory for last year and thank You for this year. Bless Your name, Lord. We give You the glory, and we shout, hallelujah.” We pray in Christ’s name. And everyone says, “Amen.”

Bless your name, Lord. Happy New Year, Anointed Church. God bless you.