Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction

This morning as we come to a close here in 2019 we are going to be setting out on a new journey to lead us into 2020.

As I began to think about this upcoming year, I couldn’t help but to think about the thought of 20/20 vision.

I mean, anytime you hear that phrase 20/20 you either think about vision or the ABC news broadcast that comes on on Friday nights and has for years now, right?

But as I began to think about this sermon today and how it is the last Sunday of the year, I began to ponder on what we as Church should focus on in 2020.

And at first, I began to look up words like rest, restore and complete trying to find something that I felt like God wanted me to preach on for this last Sunday but it wasn’t until I typed in the word “finish” that I knew I had found what God was leading me to!

When I began to look at all the verses where the word “finished” was used, there were two verses that jumped out to me and as I began to ponder on them there was a great commonality that I found in the two.

The first verse that I came to was...

(KJV) — I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And then I came to our text before us today in where Paul tells Timothy...

— I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Now, in order to see the commonality here, you have to know the background of these two passages.

In , Jesus has just finished supper with His disciples and He is telling them of things that are about to happen to Him and things that will also come to happen to them after He’s gone.

And then, He looks up to heaven here in and has what has to be one of greatest glimpses of who Jesus really was in all the Bible.

He begins to pray to His Father in heaven and for just a moment here just opens up about missing His eternal home and tells His Father, “Father I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Then Jesus goes on to say in verse 5, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

He in essence is saying here, “I’ve done what you asked me to do.

I’ve completed the mission and now I’m ready to come home!

I’m ready to get back to how things were before this world was even formed!”

And then, right after this, Chapter 18 opens with Judas and his band of unbelievers coming to arrest Jesus and take Him to Pilot’s hall for questioning and as we all know, scourging, mocking, beating and ultimately the crucifixion was to follow.

The thing I want you to keep in mind out of all that though is the fact that Jesus knew His time was over and He makes the statement, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Now, let’s jump forward to the text before us here today.

We have Paul who is telling young Timothy, “I fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

To understand the setting here you need to know that Paul is actually penning this letter from a Roman prison cell.

This letter to Timothy would be the last letter Paul ever wrote.

It is believed that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy in A.D. 67 and was martyred either the end of that same year or the spring of A.D. 68.

Either way, Paul knew that His time was at hand and that any day could be his last!

It wouldn’t even surprise me if he didn’t pass this letter off to Dr. Luke as they were walking him to the chopping block to be beheaded!

Now, in both instances Jesus and Paul both knew that this was the end and they both make similar comments, Jesus saying, “I have finished the work” and Paul saying, “I have finished my course.”

Now, this is the thought that God gave me…it’s not time to rest, it’s not time get lax, it’s not time to take a breather but rather it’s time to get busy!

The fields are white with harvest and God is looking for some workers in the field!

It’s not time to slack off, let up or quit but rather we must “Stay the Course” for our work is not finished!

Our race is not complete!

Instead, we are somewhere right in the middle of our marathon!

We have work to do Church and not just any work but a good work, a great work, a gospel work, Amen!

And so our foc

So, with that being said, we’re going to end 2019 and begin 2020 with a series entitled “Staying the Course” and we’re going to look at a message today entitled “Fighting to the Finish!”

(KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

If New Home Missionary Baptist Church is going to be successful in 2020 and the years beyond in reaching people for Christ, then we must determine in our hearts that we are going to Fight to the Finish!

Not until next year or the year after or the year after that but rather until one of two things happen…we go to be with the Lord or the Lord calls us home!

Amen!

II.

We must Fight

“I have fought a good fight”

Paul begins by saying, “I have fought a good fight.”

Listen this morning friend, whether your here and saved or here and lost what you both need to understand is that this world we call earth is a battleground and we are all in the enemies cross hairs!

This reality was all to real to Paul!

At every turn the snares of Satan were trying to stop him but you know what he did…he stayed the course, Amen!

Every time Satan sent a snare to stop Paul or end his life it only strengthened him and his ministry because he didn’t know what the word quit meant!

John Phillips — Paul had practiced what he preached.

He had waged war day and night against all of the power of the enemy.

Now he was a battle-scarred prisoner of war; but even so, the Devil did not know what to do with him.

If Satan turned Paul loose, he would turn the world upside down.

If Satan locked Paul up in prison, he would win his jailers to Christ, engage in prayer that would shake the Devil's strongholds to their foundation, and write deathless letters that would arm multitudes of believers in ages yet unborn to fight as the apostle had fought.

If Satan killed Paul, he would simply be promoted to glory, where he longed to be.

You see Church, Paul understood that the battle had already been won on Calvary and whether he lived or died he was a winner either way!

Amen!

And what that enabled Paul to do was to fight without fear!

Listen friend, when you can fight without the fear of losing it adds a whole new perspective to the battle at hand!

Paul said in — For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Paul said, “whether I live or whether I die I’m a winner either way!”

Then he said in — For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

And what that enabled Paul to do was fight without fear!

When your not scared of something your able to put more of yourself into it right?

Paul left it all on this field we call earth!

Listen friend, when your not scared of something, you’re willing to put a little more of yourself into it right?

Paul left everything he had on this battlefield we call earth!

Once he came to the saving knowledge of Christ he gave God 110%!

Once he came to the saving knowledge of Christ he gave God 110%!

What are you giving God this morning?

At what percentage of this race we call life are you running at for God?

What are you giving God this morning?

At what percentage of this race we call life are you running at for God?

Paul said, “I fought a good fight” and if we are going to be successful for Christ, we too must fight a good fight!

Who are we fighting against you ask?

A. The Saved

For the saved this morning, the Bible says in...

— 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We’re fighting first and foremost against the devil and his minions!

— Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary (opponent, enemy) the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

And if that weren’t enough, we not only have the fight without but the fight within!

And if that weren’t enough, we not only have the fight without but the fight within!

Paul said in...

— 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

— Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

— Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

That word “mortify” means “to slay or deprive of power.”

You see, when we come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior we become new creatures in Christ Jesus but sometimes that old man, our flesh, still wants to have control and therefore, there is always a constant battle going on not only on the outside but also on the inside!

Paul said it like this in...

— 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?