Finishing the Race!!!

Reflection:  For anyone who has run a marathon, there is one goal to finish the race.  Of course among the elite runners there is concern about times, qualifying for other races etc… But for the average runner the goal is very simple, finish the race!  

As the apostle Paul nears the end of his life, he has a similar but different goal.  Paul says, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”.  

Paul not only wanted to finish the race, but complete the task God had given him to testify to the Good News of God’s grace.  Paul was so single-mindedly “sold out” for this task/calling that he considered everything else in his life to be subservient to this goal.  And as we survey his life we see this single mindedness fueling everything he did.  

When one trains for a marathon, they have a specific training plan to insure they will be able to finish the race.  In most cases one can’t just go out and run a marathon on a whim’s notice.  As we grow in our relationship to God and learn to hear His voice, we can be more clear on what God wants us to focus our lives on.  Though each of us receive different types of calling, and God uses our different gifts and personalities to accomplish His purpose in different ways, the central calling of the Church and each Christian is the Great Commission. 

Jesus gave the church a clear goal/mandate before He left, “Make disciples who make disciples of all nations starting in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth.”  We can see how focused Paul was to preach the Good News to as many as possible before he died and then appoint teachers in every church to lead them to Christ-like maturity.  It wasn’t enough for people to come to faith in Jesus, but to grow up into Christ through the Church, so they could reach others with the same grace and through the same faith that saved them. 

As believers God is calling us to be single minded in our goal of finishing the race well.  Where are you at in the race?  At the starting line?  Thinking about running it?  Just started?   At the half-way point?  Hitting the wall?  Nearing the finish line?   

The key for Paul to be so effective in his discipleship was that “he considered his life worth nothing.”  Paul died to his own agenda and plans and became “sold out” for what God wanted to do through him.  Jesus reminded him of this when he said, “Whoever does not pick up their cross and follow me daily, cannot be my disciple.”  Simple, but yet hard!  

I want to encourage you today that wherever you are in the race, to set your eyes on the finish.  Having completed a marathon there is nothing to compare to the joy of finishing! There is a great celebration party for all who finish! (and you get to eat a lot!!!)  And I can’t imagine how much joy when we will experience when we finish race God has called us to run and finish!  

Psalm 22:1-8

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me,

    so far from my cries of anguish?

2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

    by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

    you are the one Israel praises.

4 In you our ancestors put their trust;

    they trusted and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried out and were saved;

    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;

    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

    “let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

    since he delights in him.”

2 Chronicles 12:13-13:22

13 King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 14 He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord. 15 As for the events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16 Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.

Abijah King of Judah

13 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah, 2 and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Maakah, a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah went into battle with an army of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred thousand able troops. 4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! 5 Don’t you know that the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? 6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David, rebelled against his master. 7 Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them. 8 “And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. 9 But didn’t you drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods. 10 “As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the Lord are sons of Aaron, and the Levites assist them. 11 Every morning and evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the Lord. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We are observing the requirements of the Lord our God. But you have forsaken him. 12 God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed. 13 Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. 14 Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the Lord. The priests blew their trumpets 15 and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his troops inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel’s able men. 18 The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 19 Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages. 20 Jeroboam did not regain power during the time of Abijah. And the Lord struck him down and he died. 21 But Abijah grew in strength. He married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 The other events of Abijah’s reign, what he did and what he said, are written in the annotations of the prophet Iddo.

Acts 20:17-31

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. 25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. Jeremiah 17:5,7

We have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 3:14

Source of all hope, our Solid Rock, we place all our trust in you, confident that you are with us through all of life and that your love will never fail us. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.