Finish Well

Introduction

Welcome. For those who may not know me, my name is Kent Hinrichsen and I am the youth and college pastor here at Crosspoint Community Church. Tonight I just want to pause for a few minutes and encourage you and challenge you as tonight is our last Hype for the school year.

This time of year is always exciting! Warmer weather is approaching. Trees and plants are starting to bloom. The school year is coming to an end and summer break is getting closer.

What is a tendency that many students have when this time of year comes around. We can become lazy, procrastinate on our homework. We call it senioritis.

Senioritis- A supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance.

But what I’ve noticed is that it is not just seniors in high school who have this issue. I see middle school students, freshmen, sophomores, and yes even juniors exhibit signs of senioritis. Even though there is this tendency for students to have this decline in their studies, every year we have a class of students get promoted from 8th grade to high school as well as seniors in high school graduate and move on to their careers or furthering their education in college.

It’s in this moment of graduation we are shown that it is possible to finish your schooling. That there is an end to your studying. For those who are still in school, when you see a graduation ceremony it should give you hope and motivate you to finish well.

We see this concept of finishing well in the bible as it relates to finishing well in our spiritual lives.

Finishing Well Spiritually

So if you have a bible please meet me in Hebrews 12:1-2

I told you this would be a short lesson as we are only going over two verses this evening.

Read

Hebrews 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let’s put this passage in context of the book of Hebrews.

The main purpose of the book of Hebrews is to encourage believers to keep going strong in their faith in Jesus. In chapter eleven (right before our passage) the author of Hebrews gives several examples of people lived a faith filled life in God. With this in mind the author continues this in chapter 12 with verse 1.

Re-read Heb. 12:1

Notice that writer of Hebrews tells us how to run our spiritual race; by focusing our eyes on Jesus.

Now why do we focus our eyes on Christ while running in our spiritual race?

We do this because of what Heb. 12:2 says.

He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. This means that our faith in God is perfect because of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. When Jesus died he paid the penalty for our sins so when we accept that payment and give our lives to God, He sees us as perfect. Not needing payment for sins because Jesus has already paid our payment. In this way our faith is perfected in Jesus. By Jesus.

To illustrate this I want to show you a video of Derek Redmond

Show video but unmute it this time.

Reshow video of Derek Redmond but muted

Explain how the video shows that we need God to help us (through the person of Jesus) to finish our spiritual race.

We all are going through the race of life, but we all have a problem; a problem of sin. Sin breaks us. Keeps us from living the life that God intended us to live. Sin hinders us to finish the race of life well.

Without us having to first ask, God, because of His love, comes to our rescue to carry us across the finish line. We as sinful people cannot finish on our own we need a God who can come and carry us there.

This was done when Jesus died on the cross for our sins as He paid the penalty of death which we deserved. When we accept Christ’s sacrifice for us and we ask God to take over our lives, He sends us His very own Spirit; The Holy Spirit to help us and transform us.

Practical Takeaways

First and foremost; if you have not ask God to forgive you for your sins and ask God to take control of your life, I invite you to do that tonight. If this is something that you feel like God is prompting you to do please talk to me or your small group leader before you leave here tonight.

If you have already entered into a relationship with Jesus, I want to encourage you to keep depending on Him. Know that when you are tempted to coast through life and coast through this last month of school, God has called you to live in such as way that glorifies Him. This means that we must depend on Him, we must be faithful and obedient to God. I want you to recognize that God has placed you where you are at for a reason. God has you in this season of schooling for a reason. Since this is true, we must live, we must study in such a way that glorifies God. So when you are tempted to be lazy with your schoolwork or tempted to slack off in your studies, I hope you are reminded that God has placed you in that moment for a reason. That is to glorify Him.

We aren’t going to be perfect in doing this. When we fail, when we are confronted with our laziness, let’s run to God and ask for forgiveness and repent of our sin.

Re-read Heb. 12:1-2

Hebrews 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let’s pray.

Sing song.