Fight the Good Fight of Finishing Faith - Part 2 (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 the.

Title Today is the good fight of finishing faith.

Everyone say finishing faith this morning we talked a lot

about a lot of things. I'm not going to go over that

very much, but I do want to highlight a few things.

Some of this the topic I was talking with Pastor Terence

during some conversations while he was away and he talked about

how God was bubbling and stirring these kind of things up

and, and we just kind of chopped it up a little bit and he felt

God was really impressing upon some things.

And, and, and as he talked about it, he said, Hey, I think God

wants to go move forward with this subject matter.

And that's how it came about. But a couple things that that

stood out for us, at least for me, as he was talking and

through the days that came after, God began to drop a few

things that kind of registered with me.

And that is number one. And I said it this morning, that

God is making us a Nehemiah force to help build a remnant.

Nehemiah was a force for the remnant.

There's a verse that says there's a remnant in Israel.

The walls are down. We need to go build the rebuild

the walls for them. OK, I need to finish that.

But also too as a church, God is also making us a remnant, right?

We are a remnant for the remnants.

We are a church for the church that the roles we take on can

vary. Part of our role as a remnant is

to build walls so that others can can grow and prosper, so

that the marketplace build walls in the marketplace so that

people can receive God's blessing in God's grace in that

space. To build walls within the church

context so churches can grow and ministry can grow and other

things can grow. So that's what we are and

that's, that's what we're doing. But in order to do that, we have

to really be committed to finishing what God is saying for

us to do, really have to be committed to that.

And so I encourage you, I admonish you, I adjure you, I

urge you go and listen to the word, the introduction that I

provided from this morning's time of the experience.

I think going to bless your hearts and give you some things

to meditate on and to feed on and the like.

I want to pick up this afternoon with the God is training a

generation to finish. He's training us to be a

generation of finishers, not just stoppers, not just

completers, but finishers that there's a finishing thing in us.

We are generation that's finishing things that have

strong hearts that won't fail when facing generational

defining threats and difficulties.

To finish when there's no opposition is great, but to

finish in the face of a generation defining difficulty

is something that's more extraordinary.

We see some of that from the past.

That's why we so honor those who go off the war, those who

honored those who went off from World War Two in particular,

they called the greatest generation.

Why? In the face of a generational

threat, they rose to an occasion to finish your work and finish

what was required to be done. And so God is raising up a

generation for his Kingdom, a generation in our context for

the same, for the same purpose. What are the threats and

difficulties that may be coming? I believe, and I'll speak to

this later on as we finish, as we move forward in the message,

I believe some of these difficulties have to do with

economy, have to do with marketplace that we're getting

ready to face. And God is saying to us, I need

you to learn how to finish some things.

I need you to learn how to walk out some things in the

marketplace, in the economy type of context, much like Joseph did

in his day. I need you to understand how to

do that because it's going to be required for you to be standing.

And if you and your standing is going to be the hope to the

world, your standing is going to use provision for everyone else.

So I need you to understand how to do this and how to access

this in ways that are really important for your times.

As I said earlier, this is a message I think for our times,

not just for our church and our house.

So it is So I want to talk to you today and pick up this

afternoon part about some of the aspects of a finishing faith.

We talked about a lot of aspects of a finishing faith earlier

today one, but I want to pick up on a few more that we hadn't

covered off. So a finishing faith rejects

time pressure. Now, now, now I should say this.

Let me preface one we did talk about this one.

I don't want to hit before I get to this one.

A finishing faith decides to finish before it starts.

OK. A finishing phase decides I'm

deciding to finish before I start.

You make that commitment to that ahead of time.

You're not trying to decide whether you're going to finish

as you move forward. I got married to my wife.

That's it. I've decided I will die in this

thing. That's it.

Meaning that that's the only thing that's going to separate

me and her. That's it.

I decided to finish before I started.

And so from that standpoint, a finishing faith makes that

decision. That's the quality and the

character for it. If you're having a faith to

start, that can be great and you need to act.

You need to move out without any question.

But there has to come a place and as soon as you possibly can,

you have to convert that starting faith to a finishing

faith because if you don't, you can start and be discouraged

from finishing something that God's calling you to because you

hadn't made a commitment to finish before you started.

So a finishing faith rejects time pressure as well.

Is this is preached really early.

I'm not above like getting inspired by other folks in the

house, but this is preached Exodus 32.

One, you have to turn the verse there.

But what does that mean? It says the people.

Moses led the people out. He was talking with God up on

the mountain and the people said it was taking too long for Moses

to come down. These folks ain't heard from God

in 400 years. These folk been in bondage 400

years and now because Moses is taking a few extra days, it's

taking too long for Moses to come down.

Come down with what? He ain't coming down with like a

happy meal. He coming down from what?

Thus saith the Lord from a God to make of the heaven and the

earth. Their pressure for time caused

them to abort what happened in their life, and they didn't

finish. That choice in that space, in

that place, resulted in them being a generation that died in

the desert. OK, a finishing faith rejects

time pressure. I decided to finish when I

started. I don't care how long it takes,

where it takes, how it takes, whatever it takes, I've decided

to finish. When I start, I'm impervious to

time. I'm not moved by the any way,

shape, form, or fashion. Therefore, I'm not agitated by

things that seem to be taking whatever amount of time too

short or too fast. And so finishing faith rejects

time pressure. And it makes sense why?

Because if our faith is in God, and God is without beginning and

without our end, then he's not subject to time.

So why should my faith be subject to time that God is not

subject to? Finishing Faith understands the

nature of the race. In order to finish, you got to

understand the nature of the race you're running.

I was talking with a young man the other day about this.

Just on Saturday in our prayer time, we come and we gather

together in prayer on Saturdays. I encourage you to come.

A lot of stuff happens. Stuff like this I'm about to

tell you about. So we were talking and, and he

happens to run track, run track, that kind of thing.

And we were saying this and you got to understand what a victory

is in a Sprint race versus a marathon.

See, in a marathon, you may win by yards, meters, minutes, OK?

But first of all, you don't get to winning by minutes right away

in a marathon. A lot of it stays close because

people are conserving energy with each other and near the

like my marathon run. Yeah.

And then and near the end is when you start getting the

separation. So for most of 26 miles, 26.2,

whatever the number is miles, it looks like we don't know who's

going to win this thing, OK, Even though by the end you may

get some distance, but in a Sprint, the distinction fact of

winning is .0001 seconds sometimes, right?

That's the difference between between you still can't even

tell. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's, it's a hairlash, OK? But when you decide that that's

the race I'm running, you understand victory's going to

come by a hairlash. So I'm not going to sweat, I'm

not going to get concerned when it's a close race.

I'm not going to get tight at the finish because they're next

to me. Why?

Because victories in this race come by a hairlash.

When you understand the context of the race you're running, you

understand what victory is like. So you have finishing faith in

running races. It says this that when when a

sprinter gets through all the phases, starts starts

accelerating, gets to the top speed, It says sometimes one

racer runner has a better top speed than another, you just

lose. But in most instances in world

class competition, the runner that wins when they hit the top

speed is not the fastest runner. It is the one that maintains

poise and form. Typically the folks that lose

are the folks who get tight all of a sudden at the finish and

their form starts getting off. And the one who's not moved by

pressure, not moved by time, just maintains their form and

they win. Not necessarily because they're

faster, but they weren't moved by the pressure and the time.

They understood the nature of the race.

And close means I'm winning. It don't mean I'm losing.

Finishing faith understands the nature of the race you're in.

A finishing faith fully commits with consistency.

You got to fully commit with consistency, and that's the

challenge. You have to ask yourself, am I

fully committed? Am I conditionally committed or

am I fully committed? Full commitment means there's no

conditions on my commitment. I'm giving my all period.

Whether you show up, I'm giving my all period that matter.

A finishing faith is important because why?

God remembers your consistency in Acts 10 one through 4.

Again, these references are there for your reference to go

back and look at the Scriptures. Not necessarily we're going to

pull them up today, but in Acts 10, one through 4, there was a

man, Cornelius, and God came to him.

He was a man of the Italian band and says he wasn't a Jewish guy.

He was a guy who was loving God with all his heart.

But outside this revelation of what Jesus had done.

But God said to Cornelius, Cornelius, I have seen the

consistency of your prayer to me and I've can seen the

consistency with which you have given to the poor to help those

in need. And on the basis of your

consistency, I have come and I'm sending you to someone who can

lead you in the fullness of the faith that you're seeking so you

can know me better. God remembers your consistency.

A finishing faith fully commits with consistency.

It fully commits to the Word with consistency.

I'm not an in and out study of the Word or standard on the Word

or meditated in the Word. I'm not in and out believing

this verse, but I don't believe that verse.

It fully commits to the word with consistency.

I commit to the word of forgiveness when it's easy to

forgive, when it's hard to forgive, when I have to forgive

a thing that that something no one should ever experience.

If the Word is to forgive, I have to be as committed in that

instance when I have every right to hate and to want to destroy

someone for the heinous thing they've committed to me.

Has to be as committed to forgiveness there as I am when

someone cuts me off on traffic and I say I forgive you fully

commits to the Word with consistency.

It fully commits to love with consistency.

It fully commits to worship with consistency.

What does that mean? Well, if I'm committing to love

with consistency, that means I'm going to love you whether you

love me back or not. I'm going to love you because

I'm called to love you. I'm called to walk in love.

I'm called to forgive. I'm called to do to do the hard

parts of love. It fully commits to worship with

consistency. That means when it's hot, I'm

worshiping. When it's cold, I'm worshiping.

That means when I when I'm angry at God, I'm still worshiping

when I'm crying with tears because I'm confused in the

midst of my tears. God, I don't know, but I just,

I'm still choosing to worship you.

I don't have any understanding about this, but I'm going to

continue to remember that you're good.

I'm a remember of the goods you've done and the good that

you are fully commits to worship with consistency.

How's your worship? Is it fully committed worship or

is it consist and is it consistent?

Is it full throw passion or is it consistent?

Is it full and giving myself to it or is it consistent and is it

consistent? It fully commits to pray with

consistency. It fully commits to be rooted

with consistency. Are you committed to be rooted

in your church community with consistency?

I'm going to be rooted when it's easy and rooted when it's not.

I'm going to be rooted when I'm challenged.

I'm going to be rooted when I want to run.

I've told several people in years, I've talked with them and

I've just admired their journeys.

I said, you know, the thing I appreciate about you the most

is, is that you didn't off ramp. What does that mean?

There comes times where you could be offended or you could

be confused or you could be whatever.

God is being faithful, but because of your experience,

confusion is entered. And yes, you have the and

there's a a moment where you can decide I'm just going to take

the exit. Now, it doesn't mean I'm bad,

doesn't mean God doesn't have a plan for me, but it means I'm

just going off ramp. But I've seen some of people

battling to live this out, literally pull over at the off

ramp, put the blinkers on and bang on the steering wheel

trying to fight through and see God.

God, I so want to get off this highway today.

Right? And then after a while they

wiped their tears and they said I'll at least go one more exit,

if nothing else, and they get back on the finishing.

Faith is fully committed, fully commits to being to be

discipled. Being mentored is not being

discipled. You can want people to help you

with your situations. That's mentoring.

Being discipled means I'm willing to walk, walk with you

as you live your life, to help me learn how to live mine.

I'm willing to let you speak into my life, into the hard

parts, the easy parts. And I'm going to offer you

opportunities to do it. I'm not going to make you hunt

for it and make you have to work for it.

I'm going to be vulnerable and trust.

A finishing faith fully commits to be disciple.

A finishing faith fully commits to disciple others as well with

consistency. But you can't be, you can't

disciple others unless you're being disciple first.

That's part of where you learn it, a finishing faith.

Elijah said to Elijah, go ahead. What you want, Elijah.

Elijah said, I want a double portion of what's on.

You say OK, He say, if you see me when I get caught up or

wherever I'm carried away, then you can get it.

And after he said that time passed, Elijah said to Elijah,

I'm hungry man, why don't you go get me a sandwich from town?

Elijah says, brother, I'm not leaving your side.

There's something about being in proximity with those that are

disciple in you. When you pick up something more

than just information, you pick up impartation and the character

of God and the character of things.

You have to be fully committed to disciple with consistency.

A fully a finishing faith fully commits to fight with

consistency. I'm talking about fight.

Stand for it. Fight, fight, fight.

You don't want to come to church, fight.

You don't want to worship. Fight with consistency.

I'm going to get there, then I'm going to fight the next fight.

You don't have to fight every fight every day.

Just fight the one that's in front of you and win that one.

And then let that be a momentum. So if you got to fight to get

here, I fought them here. But I don't want to worship God.

I don't want to say God is good because they don't feel good to

me right now. But then you fight through that

moment, OK? You got to be willing to fight,

man. You got to be willing to battle

to do something, open up your mouth.

You got to be willing to lift your voice.

You got to be willing to move your body, change your position.

I can't fight. You'll fight for you.

I can fight on your behalf. I can createspace for you to

fight. I can try to impart, impart my

fight to you, but ultimately you're going to have to be in

the ring. You're going to have to fight

and a finishing faith fights, and it doesn't fight only at the

big fights. It fights at the little fights

when I'm beginning to get a little bit of offender when I

think, I think I could feel some type of way, I'm going to fight

that thing out right now before it blows up into something else.

OK, you got to be committed to a fight.

A finishing faith fully commits to tie with consistency.

Have you committed to tithe? What, what, what does that mean?

Abraham did it with his whole heart and gratitude to God on

recognition of God's blessing on his life.

So it wasn't God's idea to tithe, and it wasn't your

pastor's idea to tithe. It was our great, great, great

granddaddy's idea to tithe. The one whose blessings we walk

in right now, the one whose faith we walk in right now, the

one whose righteousness we walk in right now through Jesus.

It was his idea. He was so grateful to have

encountered God and God released a blessing upon his life.

He was so grateful out of that gratitude, he said man, God, us

want a gear and gave 10% of a major victory that he had won a

finishing faith. You have to be committed to

tithing because it's a commitment to recognizing the

generosity of God's blessing on your life.

It's a commitment to recognizing that you didn't do your life by

your own hands. The dress you wear, the car you

ride, the pants you got, you didn't get that by the might of

your own hand. It was about the breath God gave

you and the grace God gave you. I got a job who gave you the

mind? Who gave you the thought?

Who gave you the opportunity? Who gave you the space?

It's a recognition of God's graciousness and goodness to

you, and your consistency and commitment to that anchors you.

The one of the things that's kept me and my wife throughout

all the ups and downs of our marriage, we made a commitment

to tithe, period. We didn't make a commitment to

money and then tithe. We made a commitment to tithe

and then money. Our commitment to tithe was

like, we're going to do it, and we're going to press in with

gratitude and faithfulness to God.

We're not going to wait for much to come.

We're going to do it whatever we got.

And there's a time where it seems like it's going to be

hard, but I've already lived at that time in my life.

I'd already lived on the other side of hard.

No hope, no gratitude, no recognition of God's blessing.

My parents had a bunch of money. I've been to Super Bowl.

My first car was I drove was a Mercedes-Benz 450 SCL.

That's not a brag. What I'm telling you is I've

been on the other side of money with no blessing and no God and

no gratefulness. And if my tithing meant I had

the faith being without, but I had a blessing of God and I had

a good encouragement to know God, I'm done.

I'm just remembering the blessing that you had on my

life. I'm not getting you to bless me.

I'm recognizing what you've done.

I trade all of that for the to know God that way and that has

kept us. How did you move here with no

job? Tithing got us here because we

knew to God that blessed us there is going to bless us here.

Abraham did it with his whole heart and gratitude to God and

recognition of God's blessing on his life.

You can't serve God 2 masters. You can't serve God and Mammon.

What you're going to do with the one, you're going to hate the

other one for the reason God is, is is encouraging you to

maintain the commitment, the voluntary commitment of Abraham,

your great, great grandfather. Is that where your money is?

That's where your heart is, where your treasure is, that's

where your heart follows. It's an easy way to draw close

to God, because you're paying for God.

No, but if you're put, if you're willing to sacrifice and put

some of your currency, some of your wealth, some of your

resource there, it's going to anchor you there in ways that

other things don't. It's easy to leave a church

you're not supporting. Have you committed to tithe?

God said it would draw you nearer to Him when you put your

whole heart, your whole faith, and your whole mouth into it.

What do I mean by whole mouth? Malachi through Malachi three

and four talks about this. The people were doing the

tithing or the generous or the giving thing, and after they did

the giving thing, they were like, man, this ain't working.

This don't matter, man. The eve, the wicked folks, the

folk who don't man it, it's not doing nothing, man.

God, God forgot about us. So you're doing one thing,

expresses trust and generosity to God, and with your mouth

you're canceling it all. Abraham gave his whole heart and

his whole mouth to it. God said if you do that, he's

going to honor it by pouring out a blessing too big for you,

rebuking the attacks against you, restoring your family, and

bringing your sons and daughters home as a result.

That's God's faithfulness. That's what he says because why?

Because when you tithing, what you're saying is God, you got my

heart. And if you giving God your

heart, God's going to give you his in a more extraordinary way.

His heart will be towards you in a more open way for you to

receive a finishing faith. Fully commits to bold sacrifice

with consistency. Bold sacrifice with consistency.

Have you committed to bold sacrifice?

Again, this is not stuff you do based on your resources.

It's what you do based on the number one.

My commitment to the Word. My commitment to my relationship

with God. And it's not something for old

people either. It's not something for working

people either. It's not something just for non

students either. It's something for everybody.

What I found is that when you make that commitment to God, God

sees that and he stands by it. This is my son right here.

We're from the South Side of Chicago, African American

people, and he came up here and he went snowboard.

That ain't like us. We didn't know nothing about it.

Only thing I knew about snow in Chicago was I didn't want to be

in it very long. But I saw his commitment that I

just want to do it. And when I saw his commitment,

it moved me to resource OK, where we got to get a coach,

what kind of car we need to get up a mountain.

His moved his Mama to drive through blizzards to be there.

His commitment moved us. Had he not been committed, there

would have been no movement in that.

It wouldn't matter that I knew it, I didn't know and it

wouldn't matter it was foreign to me or familiar to me.

I saw his love and I saw his commitment.

I saw the sparkling in his eye. I saw it was something he needed

to do because it gave him life, not because he could be good at

it. He was competitive, high-ranking

in Canada, but I saw he just enjoyed it.

I saw the joy he got out of it, and his commitment moved me.

His commitment to your tithing and sacrificial giving.

Now you notice I talked about a bunch of other stuff too.

Remember that when you leave the meeting.

But his commitment to that moved me and moved us.

And in moving us, we met people who prayed with who we stood

with, who stood with us. Or have you committed to both?

Sacrifice Abraham's sacrifice The best land to pursue peace.

Bold sacrifice Rahab risked a certain death for treason for

her and probably her family. To save the spies.

She hid them. What if they never came back and

work that out? She hid them.

Her family dies. She committed the bold

sacrifice. Solomon's sacrifice 144,000

animals to dedicate the temple so people could come and

experience God. Part of his prayer dedication is

God. Wherever people are, if they

need help, just let them even just turn towards the temple and

receive your presence and your help just by even acknowledging

you with that simple gesture. Think about that when you look

at these condos around here and what we're trying to do on this

property. Solomon sacrificed 1000 animals

just to hear from God on how to lead God's people.

David sacrificed his life to slay Goliath and rally his

people to God. And it was a sacrifice.

God did not ask him to do that. He saw an opportunity.

He saw his God being mocked and he saw his people in need.

And he said that's enough for me to move because I'm a finisher.

I finished lions, I finished bears, I finished my ego

watching them sheep. Noah sacrificed his friends and

his family and all he had known to trust God.

Have you committed? Are you committed to bold

sacrifice? 3 Hebrew boys sacrifice their

lives to a furnace. Bold sacrifice.

Daniel sacrificed his position in order to have a prayer life

and communion with God. Not for money, not for wealth.

He just says, I just want to pray in communion with God.

If it cost me my life, then it cost me my life.

If it cost me my position, it cost me my position.

What does that tell you about prayer?

Mary sacrificed her womb and her virginity to carry Jesus.

Think about that. A gift she's supposed to reserve

for a husband. She said, honey, I'm going to

give this to God and you will never know what it is to have

your first born be that which opens my womb.

She gave, she sacrificed that treasure to carry Jesus and I

sacrificed decades of getting remarried to draw near to God.

She got married young. Her husband died young.

She was a widow a long time, she could have got remarried, it

wouldn't have been no problem with God or nobody.

But she sacrificed in service to God.

And when Jesus came to the temple, being to be circumcised

by his, his parents brought him to the temple.

She beheld him in the midst of that sacrifice, Zacchaeus

sacrifice half of all he had and repaid what he stole after

accounting Jesus. Are you committed to a bold

sacrifice? Not just money, but both

sacrifice to love the folk you hate.

Both sacrifice to have peace with the folk that only want war

with you. Both sacrifice to serve in

places where you you need it. But maybe don't feel it's my

first call. Jesus sacrificed his glory in

heaven to put on a body so we can know God as Father, the Holy

Spirit that sacrifice. His life should be to live in us

so we can live as children of God.

In Acts, people sold houses and sacrificed lands to expand the

Kingdom of God. Sacrifice.

Are you committed to bold sacrifice?

Finishing Faith commits to bold sacrifice.

Kobe Bryant didn't start training at 8:00 in the morning

when the other players did, he said, I'm going to get up at

4:00 in the morning and train. That gives me two more

opportunities to train than other people do.

And over the course of time, that's 10s of thousands or more

training hours than I have. I'm going to commit bold

sacrifice. Not even knowing.

Not even knowing the least of us is far greater than all of those

people combined. All in people that both

sacrifice the least of us is greater than all of them

combined. Why is that?

Jesus said this. There's a prophet, John the

Baptist, though he's a great prophet, the least in the

Kingdom is greater than him because you have the opportunity

to have the Lord live in you. That makes you far greater than

knows who God had to come on, you got something you

experienced something greater than even Moses did.

So if we experiencing something greater, let's stop merely

reading about their sacrifices and let's start exceeding their

sacrifices. Let's start exceeding their

sacrifices of comfort for love and for grace and for soul

winning and for ministry and building up the faith and taking

care of and building our families.

Let's start exceeding their sacrifices.

A finishing faith knows how to fight.

The Scripture references there said there were those that

fought with both the right hand and the left hand, that we

equally skilled. You got to know how to fight.

The other reference there, Gee, David said, shall I go up and

fight the Philistines? He fought them the first time

and went one way. He knew enough to say, God, this

is a different fight. Is it a different strategy?

And God said, yeah, this time take your rest bro, I'm going to

take care of it on the front side with the angels.

Knowing how to fight means there's different strategies,

there's skillfulness that's required.

What you do in this one season to finish your faith fight,

maybe something different need to do in the next season to

finish your faith fight. A finishing faith has increasing

joy because of the joy that stood before Jesus.

He endured the cross despising his shame.

He finished the fight with increasing joy, exceeding joy.

A finishing faith has increasing joy.

A finishing faith knows how to stand.

Having done all the stand, I'm going to stand because I'm not

moved by fear. I'm not moved by time.

I'm going to stand. And having done all the stand,

I'll stand. I'll stand and I'll stand.

But let me tell you how standing also looks.

It looks like Moses when he sat on a rock and folks had to hold

his arms up because he was tired.

That's still standing. Sometimes when you're on your

knees crying, not sure, but you're still pointing your heart

and your spirit towards God. That's still standing.

Sometimes you fall and you say to yourself, I can't stay here.

Just that thought alone is still standing.

And then you get up. That is still standing.

A finishing faith finishes through contact, Knows how to

take contact, take blows and keep going, knows how to hit and

not quit, knows how to get bad news and still declare the good

news. 2nd Corinthians 4 says this.

We are hedged in on every side, troubled and oppressed in every

way, but not cramped or crushed. We suffer embarrassments and are

perplexed and unable to find a way out.

But we're not driven to despair. It don't matter the contact we

have. We're not quitting.

We're not giving up. We're not giving in.

We're going over. We're not going to stop.

It doesn't matter what happens if I fall.

If I fall, then brother, you walk across my body to keep the

victory going, OK? It doesn't matter.

A finishing faith doesn't say I get there.

A finishing faith says we get there and when we get there you

carry my faith with you, you carry my spirit with you, you

carry me with you. When you get there.

This body is passing away. The real me is when we bonded

together. You go when we get there.

Joseph said this. I'm not going to see when you

get to the new land, but when y'all get out of Egypt, take my

bones with you. I will have been dead, but if

you take my bones, I'll get there with you as if I visited

when I was alive. We're pursued, but not deserted.

We're struck down to the ground, but never struck out and

destroyed. Romans 8 says this, and I want

to read. This one's pretty small.

What things shall we say to all of this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Who can be our foe? If God is on our side, don't

matter the contact, I'm going to finish.

He who did not withhold or spare his own son, they gave him up

for all of us. Will he not also with him freely

and graciously give us all other things?

I'm going to keep going because he's for me, not against me.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect when it is

God is the one who justifies, who puts us in the right

relationship himself. Who's going to come forward?

Who's going to think they can knock me down enough and accuse

me enough? And pinch me enough, when God

has chosen me, who going to tell me I ain't qualified?

When God said, Son, you go gaster it.

Who was there to condemn us? Well, Christ Jesus, if not full

stop, we can leave it right there.

He's the one that died for me. He knew exactly what the

condition I was in and he died for me nonetheless.

And if he's not going to condemn me, who am I to be?

Have my face stopped by anybody else who says we can't?

You too small. You a Church of 300, you're

asking for too much. You believe it too big, you're

trying to reach too many people who shall ever separate us from

Christ's love shall suffer that affliction.

Contact, I'm still going to finish.

Tribulation, Contact, I'm still going to finish.

Calamity, distress, contact, I'm still finishing.

Or persecution, or hunger or destitution or peril, or sword,

or people not liking you, people trolling you on IG, it don't

matter. Contact, I'm still going to

finish. Even as it's written, For thy

sake we're put to death all day long.

Doesn't matter even if my life looks like it's in the balance.

We regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet amid all these things, we're more than conquerors.

I know how to finish through contact.

See. See, You only have more than

conqueror if you had something to try to conquer you, and you

conquered it. That's the definition of

finishing through contact. For I'm persuaded beyond doubt

that neither death, nor life, nor angels or principalities,

nor things impending and threatening, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height or depth, or anything else in all

creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And it's that knowledge and that surety that allows me to finish

through the midst of contact. A finishing faith endures to the

end. A finishing faith gets stronger

at the end A finishing faith gets stronger at the end.

Jesus on the cross, it says after being beaten strapped, he

said with a loud voice. He cried out.

A finishing faith will get stronger at the end because.

It comes from your spirit, not from your body.

It comes from divine resources, not stuff for this natural

world. A finishing faith gets even

better at the end. Jesus took turned the water into

wine, and the one he did at the end of the way, it was better

than the one they did before Jesus.

A finishing faith knows how to increase momentum.

A finishing faith knows how to increase momentum.

You need momentum to finish. You need momentum to get out of

ruts sometimes you need momentum to get ahead.

Sometimes knowing you're going to fall back a little bit and

then finish. Your faith knows how to increase

momentum, knows how to Stewart momentum well.

You increase momentum by facing facts and getting focused.

The Bible says Abraham face the fact that his body was dead and

his wife was too. When you face the facts, it

takes all the fear out to fight. I done looked at the worst that

can be and I still ain't scared because my God is bigger and I'm

bigger in him and he's bigger in me.

Face the facts will get you focused.

OK God, it's clear I came. That means I got to really focus

on you doing, eliminating any confusion about whether I still

have the ability to, and I'm totally trusting in you.

Increased momentum through worship.

It says that Rome is one of the ways he increased his momentum.

He said he began to worship God. He said increased his worship

under God, facing the facts. But God's your provider.

God, you told me I'd be a father of many nations.

God, you're faithful. God, you visited me.

I remember the blessing you put on my life.

I remember that it moved me so much and prompted me to tithe.

Are you seeing a connection? I remember you were present.

I remember you were there, He continued worshipping.

You increase momentum by loving. Love never fails.

They hurt me, Love. I don't understand love.

You don't know what I've been through love.

Anyway. You increase your momentum by

intentionally loving the loveless, the people that are

hard for you to love. What about people like like,

like my family? Why I intentionally love them

more, more consistently, more intentionally.

You increase your momentum by increasing your love.

You increase your momentum by sowing.

God is not mock whatever a man sows that shall he reap.

You increase your momentum by praying, because the effectual

fervent prayer of the righteous avails much power.

When you dial up heaven Heaven dials in on your circumstance

you ever had. I was in my car the other day

and I called one guy and it wouldn't the other guy there's

two guys with the same name and the first guy I wasn't trying to

call and I happened to call him and the and the phone went and I

turned it off. I didn't really hear it ring I

just saw the name pop up. OK Then I called the other guy

with the same name I was trying to talk to. 5 minutes later the

first guy calls me and says hey man did you call me?

All I did was very faintly make contact with him and he was

moved to respond and call me back and see what is it you

need, my friend? Increased momentum by just

showing up to pray you increased momentum.

That's like that little contact I did with that fellow on the

phone. I just showed up.

Increase the momentum by receiving God's grace.

His grace is sufficient for you. His power is made perfect and

weakness is by His grace. That you live, by.

His grace that you move is by His grace.

You increase your momentum by not deviating and not wavering.

If I am a track runner and I'm in a Sprint and this is the

center of the lane, if I begin to drift even this way a little

bit, I'm getting behind. I'm deviating from my course.

Don't deviate. Stay the course right on the

middle. Don't deviate not to the right,

to the left. Don't get distracted.

Don't let people pull you aside. Don't waver.

You increase momentum by seizing challenges.

David came to bring lunch and left with a giant head and a

Kingdom because he sees the challenge.

Do hard things. Shout out to Rachel and Matt.

Do hard things. You increase momentum by walking

with momentum makers who are the folks that got momentum around

you. The Bible says that when Saul

fell among the prophets, he became like them.

The Bible says that to Peter. You sound like Jesus.

It's clear to me you've been with him when you need momentum,

get among the folks that got it and watch it come on.

You get among those that know how to steward it and watch your

skill level and steward in the momentum of God increasing your

life to help you finish in faith.

And finally, a finishing faith actually finishes.

Don't get close to finish, it actually finishes.

It breaks the tape. You don't get closer than lose

it at the end. A finishing faith is not almost

finishing faith. Runners will tell you this that

I don't run to the tape. I run 10 yards past.

My race is not 100 meters, it's 110.

A finishing faith goes all the way through the finish, not just

to the finish. A finishing faith actually

finishes. So Father, we thank you for what

you're doing and our time in this moment.

And this is just the context. I'm just setting the atmosphere.

Pastor Terrence going to come back, he's going to lay round.

He's going to lay layer after layer after layer after layer

after layer to build us up even stronger in what finishing faith

means. But in this atmosphere, I'm

saying, God help us to finish. If that's you, if that's you, if

that's you, he got it. If that's you, you respond the

way you want to respond. See, if I got to tell you how to

finish, then you're not finishing.

Father, we thank you that you're making us to be finishing

people, people who respond to the moment, who respond to the

opportunity, who respond to the grace.

Lord Godfather, we thank you. God, You're showing us and

giving us revelation of this and how to walk it out and live it

out in our lives. And we thank you, God, that we

are repeated after me say I am a finisher.

By God's grace, I'm a finisher. Paul's not the only one.

I too am finishing my course. I too am finishing my race to

the glory of God forevermore, in Jesus name, Amen.

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 love quest 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.