Fight the Good Fight of Finishing Faith - Part 3 (Elder John Swain)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Love Quest International

Church podcast where we seek to love all nations, equip the

church, mobilize the equipped, and serve all.

We're super glad you're joining us from whenever and wherever

you're at in the world. Welcome to the family to get

your Bibles ready, get some water, get some coffee, maybe

some tea, and get ready to receive.

It's go time. Let's get into it.

Y'all can have a seat for long as you can.

Pastor Terence, Pastor Julia, thank you for another

opportunity to declare the Word of God, to call forth the

blessing of heaven in our midst. Thank you for the trust.

And we thank you that we have pastors that hear God, that obey

his voice, that walk with, that walk with God.

We're going to try that again. We grateful that we have pastors

that hear God, that obey his voice, that walk with God.

How many of y'all? You've never really had a pastor

before until you got here, at least not to the depth you all

ought to be. The Lord is here to show God's

faithfulness, to give you a pastor, to pastor you that hears

God after his own heart. Come on now.

Great is our faithfulness. We thank you for faithful

pastors. Yeah, yeah.

You need to stay right there. I'm just going to talk.

Father, we thank you that we're talking about digging deeper

today, digging deeper, digging deeper, digging deeper.

Good fight of finishing faith. We're going to have some review,

but we're going to go deeper than we went last week.

There may be some impartation, but it's going to be some more

detail to allow you to anchor your faith a little bit better.

I want to start with this God is this comes from the word God

gave at the beginning of the year.

And Pastor reminds me, this is we talked about it.

See, God is doing a lot, but he's not asking us to do a lot.

There is a lot going on around us, but we don't have to do it.

We have to behold what and trust God as he accomplishes it.

Pastor said at the beginning of the year, the most key aspect of

us and our church family is the ability to stand.

But you have to understand that standing means standing firm.

It doesn't mean standing still doing nothing.

There is a standing faith that has activity to it.

There's a standing faith that has power to it.

There's a standing faith that has that still is moving and

activating what God is doing. God is calling us.

They have a faith that stands firm, but not one that stands

still. And in the midst of that, we

ought to have a focus singularly on what God is called where and

what God is called to stand on. What does it mean you can stand?

Firm. But not standing still.

David stood firm when he saw Goliath, When he ran, he stood

firm. When he stood his sleep shot, he

stood firm. He stood firm.

But he didn't stand still. Doing nothing.

The call to stand is not an excuse to disconnect, to back

up, to lay down, to get a lukewarm face, to sit back and

expect God to do what He's calling you, to partner with Him

in. Hey man, we want to finish up

this evening. In our experience, we talked

about a lot this morning, but we want to go straight to a part we

wanted to finish up see this, I'll do a little bit of review.

Since God is training a generation to finish, they have

strong hearts that won't fail when facing generation or

defining increased threats and difficulties.

The increase is in addition from the last time I shared this word

because God is going to release great increase in this time to

accomplish his purpose. He's releasing great in increase

to carry you over the difficulties that we will face.

In much the same way, God told Joseph there'll be seven years

of blessing and then seven years of famine.

Let your blessing prepare you to.

Keep you in your. Famine so you we need the wisdom

to steward the increase when we're faced with it and it's

going to be generational increase, something we haven't

seen. And why is it important to

understand that? Because when you receive money

like you've never had, you tend to get complacent.

You tend to forget God, you tend to lose your priorities, and all

of a sudden you begin to spin on all of the hidden desires of

your flesh that you hadn't checked.

It was just buried because you didn't have the money to do it.

Now that you got the the resource, now all of your

desires become begin to come up and what you find is the

resource God gave you for His purpose.

Begin squandered on what you desired, not for what God sent

it for you for you to do. You're going to, it's going to

take, it's going to. Take a lot of faith to walk with

God in the midst of the increases, wells of threats and

difficulties. Knowing God is not is necessary,

but not enough. Though Jesus is enough, knowing

him is not enough. Knowing is a means by which we

connect with Him. Knowing God is not is necessary

but not enough. Want to make that clear from the

last time. I'm not saying you don't have to

know God. I'm saying it's necessary but

not enough. Loving God is necessary but not

enough. Signs and wonders are necessary

but not enough. And showing up is necessary but

not enough. Doing your part is necessary.

Doing your part is necessary but not enough.

Praying is necessary, but it's not enough.

Community is necessary but not enough money.

Times. When people talk about

community, what they mean is a group of people that I can that

can serve me. I want a group that will help me

feel good about me. I want a group that will help me

do the things I like to do and help cultivate my interests and

help eat at the places where I want to eat.

It's very rare that people look at commute.

Community is a place. That I can serve with purpose.

God give me a group of people who I can pull my life out upon

in service to them, even if nothing comes back.

Most folks consider that to be slavery or bondage, not

community. The word community comes from

the roots. Common unity.

Common unity around the purpose. So if you're thinking about

community as being something that serves me and my emotions

and my loneliness. So you're missing the whole

point of community to begin with.

But even community and its best is not enough.

Worshipping is necessary, but not enough.

You must have a finishing faith. Jesus was at the wedding of

Canaan. He was there at the wedding but

they still ran out of wine. Him being there wasn't enough.

The people were asked to feel the with water and they did so

with excellence. It was their finishing faith to

do with excellence that triggered the miracle.

Not just Jesus being there. Jesus was there, His disciples

was there, and his Mama was there.

You need to. Have a finishing faith, All of

those things that I declared. Were not enough.

Were ways that we activate mature engage the Lord in what

He's called us to do present there.

It's all powerful. Jesus said this to one person

who was blind or sick. He said what do you want from

me. He still had to say I want to be

healed. It wasn't until his face cried

out to finish the thing that was binding his body that all of a

sudden the healing flow though Jesus was present and asked the

question Are you ready. The Bible says God knows what's

on our hearts before we ask. So God already knew what was on

his heart before he asked. But him knowing what was on his

heart before he asked was still not enough.

He had to have a faith that cried out to finish this

sickness of my body, and God responded in that regard.

A finishing faith rejects time pressure.

We're developing that a little bit.

A faith will fight time. Time tries to induce fear and

shortage. And many times we will put time

pressure in our faith at the beginning in a subtle fashion.

OK, so you can diagnose with a sniffle.

Do you believe God can heal that?

Yeah, I do. OK, let's keep it down.

Yeah, I do. You know why?

Because sniffle is going to take 5.

Years to turn into cancer. I got time.

So Can you believe Jesus can heal?

Stage eight start cancer. I don't know.

We have enough time. It's subtly laid in there, this

idea of time when we believe God OK by finishing faith resists

pressure for time. God is not bound by time.

He created time. God can do whatever he wants to

do, how he wants to do it. He's not limited in that regard.

And what time pressure comes to do is to get people into fear.

Time is designed to do that. The Bible declares that the

enemy knows his time is running out.

God put a clock on him so he would know your time is coming

up. And in seeing his time is up,

he's getting so greatly afraid. He's trying to pull out all the

stops, trying to deceive the very elect because he knows his

time is running out. So time is designed to in some

ways to create a sense of fear and urgency they lack.

I'm going to not have enough at some point.

A faith that finishes. Resist time pressure.

I don't care if there's .3 seconds left on the clock.

It don't matter to me. I'm not.

I'm trying to get a 5 point lead because I don't have to go down

to a last second shot. It doesn't matter to me.

I'll play 8 overtimes. It doesn't matter to me.

A finishing faith rejects time pressure.

Jesus with Lazarus, they came and told him.

Lazarus, the one whom you loved, is sick.

He stayed there two more days. Lazarus died.

Jesus was deciding to follow God more than succumb to the

pressure of time, and one of the things time does is try to

challenge your love for God. God, I'm running out of time.

If you loved me, you would do it.

God, I'm running out of time. I thought you loved me enough,

God. And these are things we don't

ever say, but can be sown as seeds in our hearts because

we've only known a love that's been conditional before we've

come to the love of God. Jesus was impervious to that and

was working the greatest strategy.

He stayed two days while he said, I'm not going to let time

pressure, he interrupt my finishing faith.

And at the end of it he went Lazarus got healed and raised up

from the dead. In Joshua chapter 10, it says

Joshua 10 · chapter mention

this. Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on

the day when the Lord gave the amber rights over to the

Israelites. And he said, in the sight of

Israel sun, be silent and stand still at Gibeon, and you moon in

the valley of Angelon. He's.

Speaking the time time you want to serve me, time will not run

out until I win. I'm going to finish and I will

finish in faith and I shall see the promise of God brought the

past. I will see for those that are

for my life. I will see it in my life for

those that are for the next generation.

I will see it at a distance and I won't wave it and by I'll wave

it. Come on, I'm checking out.

But you still got to keep coming.

And the 1st 13 says this, he spoke.

Now notice it doesn't say God told him to say this.

A finishing faith understands the character of a finishing

God, and from that relationship he speaks the heart of God to

finish. And the sun stood still, and the

moon stayed at whose command? At God's command, Joshua's

command. God is like, why you want me to

talk when your mouth is sufficient?

Stop asking me to do your job. You command your space, you

command your time, you command your destiny, you command your

context. I'll back it up.

After all, you, my son, as a father plays catch, will stand

behind his son. When the son or the daughter's

playing catch, it is right there.

The father will say don't worry, I got you backed up the ball.

Not going to get away. I got you.

You commanded and stood still. The moon stayed until the nation

took vengeance upon their enemies.

It stood still till I finished conquering all that the enemy

sent against me. It stood still till I finished

delivering my people. It stood still to all of me was

done. Everyone was healed, everyone

was safe, everyone was delivered.

Not just written in the Book of Jasher.

Out of the amount of two or three witnesses.

That's what's been written in the book.

We already know that, right? So the Son stood still in the

midst of the heavens, and did not hasten to go down for about

a whole day. When you command time, he gives

a testimony of God's eternal power and weight.

There was no day like it before or since.

People are still talking about it.

How you know I'm talking about it today when the Lord.

Heeded the voice of a man for the Lord.

Fought for Israel, Hughes need to have a finishing faith.

I mentioned before the Kingdom of God's looking to see if you

going to finish. So they're looking for you to

speak. How are you going to speak?

How are you going to talk? Do you really know who you are,

who you are, and who we are together in this?

He hated the voice of a man to stop time.

Where's the boldness, the bold sacrifice to say that?

Where's the bold sacrifice? No more people shall die from

this until we get a hold of it. Where's the boldness to declare

like what God has said here? If that's not enough for you, I

want to take you to a headline. October 30th, 2017 Joshua stop

the Sun 3224 years ago today scientists say this is the.

Power of God's ability to command time.

Now I've been talking about manipulating time.

Well, God move all the traffic so I can hurry up to my lunch

date. Why are you going to waste your

power on that? You really going?

You going to waste that on that? I'm not saying it don't matter

to God, but gain some patience. Leave earlier.

Why are you going to waste it on that?

You don't use it for anything else more significant.

Scientists say this is an article from the Times of

Israel. It's by David Sedley, October

30th. It says this Cambridge residuals

that just shows you how smart they are, right Cambridge?

Researchers announced declared Monday that they have pinpointed

the date of the biblical account of Joshua stopping the sun.

You don't say of God stopping the sun for Joshua.

They pinpointed the date when man spoke out of faith and trust

is saying I'm going to finish what God called me to do and

time is not going to pressure me out of it.

Claim was the day the oldest eclipse ever recorded.

In a paper published in the Royal Astronomical Society

Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics researchers explained

that what they were consequently also able to refine the dates of

of the reigns of two Egyptian Pharaohs of that era.

So Joshua was commanding the time in that day reset the

destinies of two kingdoms. Don't let faith, Don't let time

pressure you out of finishing in faith.

Unless your God's name is clock, you shouldn't be concerned about

what the clock going to do to your promise.

And if your God's name is clock, you got a poor God.

First Samuel says this when the men of Israel saw that.

They were in a tight situation, time pressure.

When they saw visual circumstance, they were in a

tight situation, for the troops were hard pressed.

They hid in caves and holes and rocks and dunes and pits or

sisters. The very places where they

poured Joseph to die, they're willingly going to hide in

because of time pressure trying to get them to stop finishing

their faith. Some Hebrews had gone over to

Jordan, to the land of Gad and Gilead.

As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people

followed him, trembling. This fear of time is pressuring

the entire Kingdom. Saul waited seven days according

to the set time. Samuel had appointed to offer a

sacrifice. But Samuel had not come.

He waited. He told me seven days, Samuel.

He waited, but he had not come. See, when you are resisting time

pressure, you think differently. What you think is, oh, not that

he's not going to come. What you think of is like, oh,

he may be on the way to my house to heal my daughter.

He may have stopped to heal somebody else because he has

more than enough power and more than enough time.

I'm good, he said. Saul, wait.

But Samuel had not come. And so Saul offered the burnt

offering, which he was forbidden to do, ready time pressure, and

just as he. Finish offering the burnt

offering Behold, Samuel Cain just.

As he. Finished behold Samuel Cain.

He was seconds away from finishing but let the pressure

of time. Let's focus on what people were

saying. Let's focus on people's hearts.

Fainting let's focus on the threats of what people were

supposed to be and what was going on.

You got to have a finishing faith.

I think it's important to note now I'm just going to say this

out of my. Spirit, I didn't check this, but

I believe probably at this point David has already killed

Goliath. What did I say?

Who did I say? Killed.

Goliath. David finished.

Saul didn't. Maybe.

Saul Sayed and seized the opportunity to finish in faith

Goliath. Is why he's succumbing to

pressure from time to not finish now.

God is building you testimonies to finish, just like He's using

this remnant project to give us a finishing faith.

Verse 12 says this. I thought the Philistines will

come down now upon me. Think about that.

Time fear pressure, and time pressure is always selfish.

What does it say? I thought the Philistines will

come down now upon me. Not my people, not your people.

I thought they want to come down upon me and I have have not made

supplication to the Lord, so I first forced myself to offer a

burnt. Offering.

I made-up my mind that I was going to do what I needed to do

anyway. I made-up my mind.

I was going to stop listening to what God has said.

I made-up my mind. I was going to stop trusting

God. I made-up my mind that I had to

do what I was going to need to do.

And Lucky says there, you have to convince yourself of that.

You never time never cancels your faith unless you've

convinced yourself of that. The only way time cancels your

faith is if you've convinced yourself.

I have no more time. It's over what you have to say

about the matter to yourself, Will.

Determine time's. Ability to put pressure.

On you and. You have to resist that

pressure. And it says in verse 13 and

Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly, you have not

kept the commandment of the Lord your God which he commanded you.

For the Lord. Would have established your

Kingdom over Israel forever, but now?

Your. Kingdom shall not continue

because He let time stop him. From finishing the difference

between a forever. Kingdom and it ends today was 3

seconds of time pressure that kept him from waiting until

Samuel got there to finish. Maybe just on the other side of

your standing firm but not still.

How do you stand Further but not still I stand.

Firm God I trust you. God I believe.

Your word God, I believe. Maybe sending your word to me.

God, you told me not to offer, so I'll not offer.

If it cost me my Kingdom, I'm going to be found standing in

faith. Haven't trusted you. 1st is me

creating my own solution, my own Kingdom, Thy Kingdom.

My Kingdom versus thy Kingdom. But now your Kingdom should not

continue. The Lord has sought out David, a

man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be

Prince and ruler over his people.

Because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

It was so much bigger than just whether you offered sacrifice.

Is that you? Did you trust me for the nation?

Did you trust me that I was big enough and I cared enough and I

loved the nation enough to still answer even though in your view

time was running out? Faith that finishes does not

give in to time pressure. It resists time pressure, and

you have to resist it. If you are not actively

resisting time pressure, time is already putting pressure on your

faith. We live in an earth of time, so

time is always putting pressure on your faith.

So unless you are resisting it, it will eat away at your ability

to finish. You know who got that kind of

sense? Kids in the backyard.

This is my kid in the stands, right?

Yeah. Here I am.

I got the basketball. Betty, how many kids do this?

5. 4321 Boom. Championship.

What's a kid doing? He's telling time.

You better back off. Me, I'm practicing resisting

time pressure. Kids got enough sense and

delight to do that. They practice those moments.

How much more should we practice those moments?

Pick an opportunity to stand with the finishing fake stance

and resisting time. All those folks that want to be

married resist time pressure. All those folks that thought I'd

have it by now, resist time pressure.

All those folks that thought my ministry would be this

recipient, active and resisting time pressure.

How you do it, Praise, Thanksgiving, prayer, worship,

testimony of what God has done. That puts pressure on the

pressure. Another pop series.

Praise on your pressure. Anyway, A finishing faith

understands the nature of the race, so he can finish each

phase of the race. You have to understand the race

you're running, OK? You have to understand.

It because there's phases to the race and you not only have to

finish and if I finish each phase.

Then I will. Finish the race if I understand

the phases. And I'm focused on finishing

knows I will. Finish the course.

OK, so if I understand the nature of the race, so you can

finish each phase. Mark four says this.

The earth produces acting by itself.

First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

See each of those stages, you got to finish each stage.

You got to have finishing phase for each stage, a finishing

phase says God, I don't want to leave this stage until we're

finished. So I'm not coming back once I'm

out, moving forward to the next place you have for me.

So God, I'd rather spend more time here finishing than seeking

to escape from it because I'm tired of doing the work,

finishing each phase in a Sprint.

We're in Olympics. See my French colors So, so my

wife said that's USA colors. No, it's not stripes.

There's no stripes. It's block colors.

That's the French flag anyway. So in 100m race there's faces.

There's the start phase, finish the start phase, get out of the

blocks well. Then there is the transition

phase. When you go from bowed over to

more of a upright position, when you begin to get your feet

underneath you a transition phase, then you got what you

call an acceleration phase or a top end phase.

OK, you got to know the different phases because what it

takes to finish in this phase is different than what it takes to

finish in that phase. In this phase you're starting

bowed over. In this phase you ought to be

upright. If you try to finish this phase

at the start upright, you will blow the phase and therefore

blow the race. How you to finish each phase can

change. Coaches will say things like

let's win the end of the quarter so we can have momentum going

into the next quarter. Let's win the end of the half so

we can have momentum coming out of the half time.

You have to understand the phases of your race.

You need revelation of that need God to speak to you about that.

So you can have a finishing faith for each phase because

what it takes to finish each phase we can differ.

We said a finishing faith fully commits with consistency.

One I want to really drive home because a finishing faith fully

commits to the word with consistency.

We're digging deeper here. Deuteronomy 6 says this and you

should love the Lord your God with all your.

Mind and heart and your entire being, and with all your might,

stop. Is that enough?

The scripture shows you that's not enough, otherwise I'd stop

there. But what does it say?

And these words which I'm commanding you shall be on your

minds and your hearts. You shall wet and sharpen.

Them so as to make them penetrate and teach and.

Impress them diligently. That's a full commitment with

consistency. Upon the minds and hearts of

your children. Why does he say you need to?

Teach these to your children because your children ain't

hypocrites, not that you are. Your children would say why, and

then you need to have an answer for why.

Children would challenge you. You would challenge the depth to

which you believe something. They would challenge your

understanding, your revelation about what you believe.

And when you get to the point of saying why, you say because I

said so. You've just set your children up

to fail. It's.

Better to say I don't know why it's all I have.

Then let us seek God together and see what He says to answer

the rest of your wives. That's a better position of

success. You shall and you shall talk of

them when you sit in your house and when you.

Walk, by the way. And when you lie down and when

you rise up. When you do your.

Word in the morning you miss him most.

Of the day, how much is the word of?

God on your lips. How much is the word of God in

your heart? God so wants us to be fully

committed to this word always. He gives us an example in

Abraham. Abraham's name.

Abraham's name was Abraham. He changed it to Abraham, which

means Father many nations. That means literally when

everybody saw Father many nations.

What's up? Every way he went, every part of

the day, when they called his name, they were given testimony

to God's promise. He was remembering the word that

God had. Given them Now imagine that when

your body is 79, no kid Abraham father many nations.

Body 80 no kid Abraham father many nations and all of that

keeps coming back to you. That's where he was able to have

the faith to stand and do what God needed him to do because he

committed himself to the word so much.

He made the word his name. You couldn't separate his

identity from the. Word.

If you want to know who I am, look at the word God gave me.

That's who I am. You commit to the Word with

consistency. In Psalm 138 it says this.

I will confess and praise You, O God, with my whole heart before

the gods. I will sing praises to you.

I will worship towards Your holy temple and praise Your name for

your loving kindness and for Your faithfulness.

For You have exalted above all else.

Your name and your word and you have magnified your word above

your name. This is what he's saying here.

God, you've demonstrated to me that your word is so, so

connected to your identity that for you to break your word would

mean for you to break you. That's how powerful God's word

is. That's that's why God, you can

commit to it. That's why the more you fully

commit to God's word with consistency, you wouldn't what

you're doing, You're not committing to a sentence, you're

not committing to a phrase. You're committing to a person

and a belief that he is everything that you're saying,

everything that you're studying. You're committed to identity of

your Father being good and being gracious and looking after you.

You're committed to it in such a way that no one can whip it out

of you, beat it out of you, shake it out of you.

You're committed to it in such a way that.

If you standing on the corner as a kid and and it's long past the

time for someone to pick you up. They say, do we need to take you

something? No, I'm standing here.

Why? Because my father's coming to

get me. How do you know?

Because it seems like the time has passed.

I'm not basing it on time. I'm basing it on my relationship

with him, on who he is. You will never leave me.

You will never forsake me. You will never abandoned me.

To be fully committed to the words, to be fully committed to

who God is, because God has put his identity in his Word.

And when you doubt the Word, you doubt him.

When you hold the word short, you hold him short.

When you believe the word don't work, you believe and then he

doesn't. And be watchful of those small

cheats. Most people in this room won't

say. I don't believe the word of God

doesn't. Work.

They was diluted down to 80%. They won't say God, no, you

won't do it. They'll say, well, God, I

believe you'll do it, but if you don't, but if you don't do it

all, I'll take this. You water it down.

That's like saying my daddy's faithful sometimes on a Tuesday

after six. Glory to God, you got to be

fully committed. A faith that finishes fully

commits to being discipled with consistency.

Everyone say being discipled. Mentorship is different than

discipleship. Most people come to church

wanting to get mentored or inspired.

What is the difference? Between mentorship and

discipleship, mentorship means I come to.

You to resource. Me from my agenda, mentor me and

how to do my business better, mentor me and how to accomplish

XYZ better. I set the agenda, identify who I

want to mentor me and I'm. There to get from them what I

need to become them or to accomplish my goal of my task.

OK, discipleship is I'm giving myself to you.

Leave me where you need to teach me.

Leave me where you need me to go.

I want to be the best ever. So teach me how to eat.

Teach me how to breathe. Let me partake of your life.

Let me see your thoughts. Let me submit to your

accountability. You have the right to speak into

my life in any way. And I present it to you for you

to do that. That's discipleship.

It's not about my agenda, it's about what you see and your

ability to bring God's best out of me, not based on what I know,

what I want. I don't want my timetable.

Are you committed to being disciple or do you want managed

mentorship? Do you want bucks?

Do you want better lifestyle? Do you want stuff?

From the Kingdom. You have to ask yourself, how

can you keep coming to church and not wanting to be disciple?

What kind of transactional relationship is that?

No, all I need is what I is, is that little message I get.

All I need is that I don't need relationship.

When you fall, who's going to pick you up?

Who's going to teach you how to get up?

When you fall, when nobody's around, discipleship is come and

follow me, come and live with me, come and walk with me.

The power of discipleship is that it multiplies your

effectiveness in your call. Elijah said to Elijah, I'm

getting ready, you know the part, what you want.

He said this. I think, I believe he said it

this. What do you want from me while I

am still with you, you won't always have time and opportunity

to be disciple by some people. Take advantage of it.

He said I want a double portion of what you got.

Double faith, double prayer, double power, double anointing.

I want a double portion of what you got.

Elijah said, OK, cool. Now notice God.

He doesn't say. God told Elijah to say this, but

this is the relationship. He said, all right, Elijah, this

is what you do. If you see me caught up, see me

leave. It was time to go.

You'll get a double portion. Elijah said, OK, cool.

Next day, I'm paraphrasing to kind of shorten it.

Next day Elijah says, hey Elijah, why don't you go give me

a sandwich, OK. Mentorship says no problem, I

get your sandwich, you come back.

Discipleship says I'm not leaving your side.

Either we go get the sandwich together or we just eat what we

got. I'm not going to leave your

proximity. I'm not going to leave your

life, I'm not going to leave your side.

That's discipleship. And when Elijah got caught up,

he cut and Elijah gave him a couple times to leave and every

time he said, no, I'll not leave.

And Elijah did get caught up and then his cloak for his mantle

fail and he grabbed a hold of it and he said, take me to the God

of Elijah, let me serve him. And he did twice the anointing.

Discipleship increases your capacity geometrically.

It multiplies your effectiveness and your ability.

Mentorship only gets you information.

Discipleship gets you. Impartation gets you.

Activation gets you a sense of the purpose and the call of God.

That's why if they say athletes, they call them dogs.

Folks that have grit. And determination on how to

finish. That's why players want to play

with dogs. Why?

Because I get something about a dog in me when I play with you.

I get a. Determination.

I get the subtleties of the game and how to fight and how to win.

I get the mindset. I watch what you say.

Watch what you eat. Watch how you practice.

Watch how you recover. Watch how you rest.

Watch how you say no. If you ask.

Me to mentor you. You will never ask me, but I'll

never. Many times you want to be as

concerned about my nose as my yeses.

You're trying to get a yes? From me, not how I say my nose.

And sometimes my nose have more to do with my outcome than my

yeses. Do If you serve one God, that

means you're going to. Be saying no to more things that

you say yes to. Mentorship is different than

discipleship should be that van. And then I want to go to one

other component to kind of go a little deeper on this.

This is the finishing faith. Probably look this way.

Yeah, there we go. A finishing faith knows how to

increase momentum because a finishing faith faces facts.

You increase momentum by facing facts, the good and the bad.

OK, then this is really important.

And the story from there in Romans says Abraham faced the

fact his body was dead and his wife's body was dead.

But he didn't. Give in to doubt, unbelief.

He continued to worship God and then through that worship His.

His faith was. Proven.

And he finished. OK, it was proven that he

finished. Got it.

So he faced the facts. Of his body not being dead.

OK, that's the bad part. A finishing faith is not afraid

of facts. If you're down 20, a finishing

face is we down 20. OK, let's get it down 15, then

let's get it down 10, Then let's get it down 5, then let's get a

stop. And before you know, we'll be

back in this game. A finishing faith is not afraid

of facing facts. And too often you want to duck

facts because you frayed, because you started in fear.

That's why you can't finish now. You started depending on no

resistance. That's why you're not finishing

now. That's why God had the people

don't know how to fight in the desert, because if you don't

know how to fight to get in, you don't get kicked off of it once

you get there. And at that point, generations

are going to be in line. Generations are going to lose

their inheritance if you don't know how to fight to keep it.

So, so to increase momentum, it's a few slides down.

It's a new slide. It says this.

You have to face facts, the good and the bad.

Why do you have to face the good facts?

Because that's the responsibility.

Many time we don't understand the responsibility of walking in

the fullness of God. We don't ascend the

responsibility of finishing. Solomon was called to finish the

temple. David gathered the resources and

God said David, you're not going to build it, your son going to

have. To build it Solomon was called

to finish the temple to finish the faith OK, but he understood

there's more than went with that there was a responsibility to

steward well because people's lives are on the line that's I

need to know how to face the facts of steward in great

abundance, not just face the facts of problems.

God, you're going to bless us and increase us.

The fact is that we only have 5 so God, how are you going to

expand our reach activate more people.

How are we going to do that? Because we're not going to have

any. May any be lost, God.

Now sometimes when you face the facts that way, a finishing

faith will have you give and not keep God.

I only have room for 100 lbs of fish and you're going to sit and

I believe you're going to send me £200.

God, what do I do? We'll catch the 100 and give it

away, then go get the other hundred.

Now you got room for the 100. You catch you.

Oh, oh, what does that mean? That means I'm the mindset.

I'm losing. I'm losing.

I'm losing out, right? A finishing faith says, listen,

I don't ever lose. All I do is sew.

I can't. You can't steal.

From me, man. Why?

Because what you would have stolen, I'm declaring.

I'm going to sew it to you anyway.

You know I would have. I sold this car to you at $5000

less. That's all right.

I just sold a $5000 profit into your life.

I'm getting the harvest of profit coming back to me.

You can't steal from me because I'm a sore.

A finishing face says it's impossible for me to lose

because I sold what I intentionally do.

I sold what I don't have. Pastor Julia came up here.

She had a great job. She didn't quit a job, didn't

leave a job. She sold her job, SOWED.

She sold her job and she's reaping harvest from it even

right now. A finishing faith faces the good

parts as well as the bad parts, and it's not selfish about the

good parts. We understand God's not enough

for you to increase us if we fail to do it to increase

properly. So the facts is we're going to

need more room. How are we going to do that?

The facts is we're going to need this God, it seems, or will we?

A finishing faith faces all of the facts, the good and the bad.

And then at the end of the day. Above all else.

A finishing faith finishes. A finishing faith does not

almost finish. A finishing faith does not get

close. A finishing faith doesn't say,

man, I've come so. Far.

Man, wow, I can just live on that.

Finishing faith is not satisfied until you break the tape and you

won't get through the finish. Matter of fact, I told you about

sprinters. One of the things they teach

sprinters how to do is how to finish.

OK. What they tell you as a sprinter

is you don't want to lean into the tape this way because now

you throw your mechanics off and you actually slow down.

What they tell you is. You run through the tape, you

don't slow. Down to after you've crossed the

finish line, pause finishing faith, runs across the finish

line, doesn't crawl across the finish line, doesn't roll up to

the finish line. Now I'm not saying you can't

have victory crawling and rolling.

I get that. But what I'm saying is, God

wants you to. Have the kind of faith that says

I will get stronger at the end. I will be bold at the.

End. I will be bold and going out

then I it was when I started. I'll leave more behind me than

all of that was gathered to me together.

The Bible says this about Samson.

So he went through all the stuff he went through Samson strong

man of God, left God, got into sin, but God never left him, got

blinded through a relationship with Delilah, but God never left

him and in his face of greatest need he came to a place of

repentance. He was raised up to overcome the

people that were terrorizing the people of God.

But he didn't had a character to walk fullness in the call.

He had a call, but no finishing character, no finishing faith.

In the midst of that part, he said God.

I got one more opportunity and they put them up between the

temple pillars and he said God one more time and he destroyed

the temple and then with it he destroyed more of the enemy in

his finishing move than he did. In all of his life together.

Finishing Faith finishes strong until the end, leaving a

testimony of greater things, not lesser things.

You have to decide to have a Finishing Faith worship team you

can come on up. You have to decide to have a

Finishing Faith before you start.

You will never finish that strong unless you start to

decide to start that strong. The thing about starting that

strong is you may have to break it down.

I used to bench press more than £300 but I want to finish my

race now so I go to a trainer, Matt Big Dog.

I go to a trainer and he tells me all your joints are

compromised, your mobility is compromised, so you got to start

with a broomstick. I used to bench press 325 lbs.

Like I start with broomstick, brother.

If you want to finish your life strong, sometimes you got to go

back and recreate and rebuild and restructure and renew

because that's not a weakening phase.

That's a decision to finish because I decide to finish my

race. I said bring on the broomstick,

baby. Let's start, resident.

Trying to move to the side and show you what I could do,

Father. I was going to pray.

Father, we thank you for this moment that we're finishers,

We're finishers, we're finishers.

You're making us a nation of finishers, a generation of

finishers. A place of finishers, Father.

So much so that when the world cries out, go find meet someone

who can finish. They're going to say, go to Lord

quest and you'll find one. We thank you God, that we have a

finishing faith and ability to accomplish all that you've asked

us to accomplish. We thank you, Lord God, for what

you're doing and are you imparting this in us and threw

us in these moments in this time.

And we thank you, God, that you are finisher and you're our

Father and we take after you in every way, including our ability

to finish. So whatever happens, we finish,

tragedy comes, we finish, trial comes, we finish, God, whatever

comes, we finish. Prosperity comes, we still

finish. We finish, we finish, We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish.

We finish. We finish, We finish, We finish.

We finish for our generation, We finish for our family, We finish

for the the Kingdom, we finish for Wally, we finish for our

passes. We finish.

Yeah, we finish in Jesus name. Thank you so much for tuning

into this week's sermon. We pray you were challenged,

equipped and encouraged. Make sure to follow us on all

platforms. That's Lovequest Intl church.

We out here for real. We're really doing it.

That's Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

You can find us anywhere you need to find us.

But until next time, you know the drill.

You know the motto. Get your love fixed man and

we'll see y'all real soon.