Finishing Strong
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
https://youtu.be/UjU-bCQwZBE
https://youtu.be/UjU-bCQwZBE
He says that I am a poor starter...
It’s about how we react and how we recover...
Keep your head forward and keep driving...
Get tall so that whatever is on us falls off...
Usain Bolt says that the The Last Part of My Race is the strongest!
That’s Where The GLORY BEGINS!!!
We started 2017 off declaring that this would be a purposeFUL year for us individually and personally…
We declared that the liberty in which the Lord has made us free, would be lived in such a way that we all Lived On Purpose…
Which literally meant that anything, anyone, or anyplace that was outside of God’s PurposeFUL living for our lives in 2017 would be shook off and shook loose.
And I don’t know about you… But if you’re willing to honest and frank… I am willing to admit that I have often started off running well and it never fails… I will get:
A little winded…
My energy begins to fail me…
My fervor fades…
My determination gets detoured…
My heart gets heavy…
My Faith begins to falter…
My obedience becomes optional and at the end of the day I’ve become lazy!!!
Let be the first to confess… That I often start strong but, I don’t always Finish Strong!
I come the last month or the last leg of the race to 2018 just to encourage each of us to Finish Strong!
Paul in provides us a methodology for Finishing Strong!!!
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So, run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
If you and I are going to Finish Strong we must be willing to receive instruction:
1.) “Everyone runs…” - Resist The Need To Compare Yourself to Others…
a. Run your race…
b. Run all out…
c. Know that we’re running before and for an audience of ONE!
2.) “but only one person gets the prize?” Paul asks an interesting question to challenge us I believe to: Release ourselves from unrealistic expectations…
3.) Everyone is running but every one isn’t winning “only one person gets the prize?”
“So, run to win!” - Develop a winning strategy:
· Run your race – “run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
· Stay in your lane – “keeping your eyes on Jesus...”
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
· Find your pace
What Paul is saying that the word “QUIT” does not exist in the Christian Life…
4.) Don’t focus on results stay faithful to the process: “All athletes are disciplined (Agonizes) in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”
a. Be willing to push through the pain…
c. As long as we lift only what we can handle we will never get any stronger or get the results we desire… (WE’VE GOT TO LIFT SOMETHING HEAVY)…
26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
5.) “I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
Finishing Strong requires a disciplined determination to have our actions line up with our proclamation.