What Does It Mean to Finish? // Pastor Bobby

Today is the day that we've set aside to honor our graduates,

and we've got quite a few this year.

I want to share with you their names,

because during the 925 hours,

we're going to kind of reserve these front seats,

rows to seat these graduates and their families.

And they've been participating with the Voyager youth ministries now for

a few years.

And so just trying to.

And a lot of times,

to be honest,

we can't keep up with them all because,

obviously, on Sundays,

we're scattered all over the place,

so.

But here's the list I have you ready?

Mason Morton.

Elora Loanander.

Matthew Burns.

Aubrey Solomon.

Malia Hermione.

Aubrey mcGeorge.

Damian Leal.

Ashlyn Citarelli.

Heather Whitmarsh.

Abby Mowry.

Zachary Bradshaw.

And Nathan Chisman.

Cheeseman. So,

yeah, we got a bunch of graduates that will be celebrating with us this

morning.

And I always ask them two questions when we get up here,

and I'm gonna be honest with y'all.

I cannot preach in this because I will trip and fall down,

and we'll get caught up in the sleeves.

And so I've worn it one time officially,

and I wear it every year for graduates recognition.

But every now and then,

somebody wants me to wear it for a wedding,

but not often.

Just so you know.

But anyway.

But our graduates,

I always ask them,

you know,

kind of where they graduated from,

and typically it's topsail or Dixon high school.

Some of them are homeschooled graduates and that sort of thing,

which means they're the valedictorian of their class.

And then I ask them what they're doing next.

You know,

I love asking the kids,

what are you going to do next?

Cause, you know,

a lot of them will step up there with an absolute plan.

This is what I'm doing.

This is where I'm going.

This is what I'm going to do the rest of my life.

You know,

they've got an idea of what happens next and what they have planned for

their lives,

so to speak.

And so I typically will kind of inwardly,

when they say,

well, I'm gonna be this or I'm gonna do that.

I just laugh inside,

because so many times,

our plans do not turn out the way we expect,

right? We think that we know what's gonna happen next,

and we can even work to plan what's gonna happen next.

But every now and then,

we'll start down a path or down a road or on our journey,

and suddenly,

the circumstances that take place in our lives will change.

You know,

the direction of our lives.

And so I like graduate recognition.

Sunday we're going to give all our graduates a Bible and we'll give them

the opportunity to step up here and share a little bit and that sort of

thing. And Beth will be calling them up and acknowledging their

participation and that sort of thing.

And so it's exciting,

but I had told Beth,

and I hadn't done this before,

but I told Beth I was going to prepare a message just for graduates

recognition Sunday so that we're not in Hebrews this morning.

We're in two Timothy,

actually, which for some,

you know,

the book of Second Timothy is kind of Paul's sort of slang,

one song book.

It's sort of that epistle that he writes to young Timothy,

that sort of the finishing of ministry for Paul.

But before I get to it,

I have to tell you a couple things.

One, there's a bake sale right yonder outside that door.

Somebody just stepped out there and almost,

I forget who was standing there,

but almost bought all the chocolate chip cookies just a minute ago.

So if you want some bake sale stuff,

somebody brought cute little cupcakes,

little two pack cupcakes.

I thought that was cute there.

But it's all for camp.

We're raising the funds to send kids to camp and really trying to discern

which kids and really registrations at about 70 something right now,

we still have room for another 40 or 50 kids to go if they want to go.

And so just encourage those.

We really want to raise the money so that kids will not.

We don't want the cost to be an impediment to kids going to camp because

it's at camp that we get a really focused opportunity to share Jesus with

them. Alrighty.

So jump in there and buy some snacks and if you need a moment,

I'll give you.

I'm just kidding.

Second thing is the book sale,

we're really culling down the library because there are a lot of books in

the library that just don't get used.

And a lot of them that are.

There's a lot of reference works in there and a lot of other things.

And so they've kind of put some books.

There's a whole several tables of books in the fellowship hall this

morning and you can just pick them up and make a donation.

They don't have prices on them,

but all the donations go to camp also.

So you got a bake sale,

book sale.

We alliterated that for you so you could remember both of them.

Alrighty. And then obviously you can go to the app and the webpage and

all that sort of thing to donate for camp if you'd like to.

Because we,

like I said last week,

we take the kids on those big old buses.

They feel really special when they come here and load up at 06:00 in the

morning on those big old greyhound type buses and go up the road.

And it's a great week for them.

And we need adults to go along.

Remember I said,

you know,

we got to have one to five kids and one adult to each five kids.

So we need adults to go.

So some big things happening.

We are in the summer months,

I tell the staff,

when we get to the summertime,

you got to run the play you've called.

Whatever play you've called for the summer,

now you got to run it.

You can't change the play anymore.

The calendar is kind of in place and a lot of things going on.

And every Sunday you're going to be hearing about stuff to be involved

in, so.

Second Timothy,

chapter four,

verses six to eight.

And I've got this question to present this morning.

As far as the message is concerned,

what does it mean to finish?

You ever think about.

We don't think about that,

y'all. What does it mean to finish?

I kind of grew up in a house where some projects never got finished.

Y'all know that?

I lived a life where some projects never quite got finished.

All righty.

Let me share with you.

Second Timothy,

chapter four,

verses six to eight.

Here we go.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

And the time for my departure is close.

I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith there is reserved for me the crown of

righteousness, which the Lord,

the righteous judge,

will give me on that day.

And not only to me,

but to all those who have loved his appearing.

All right,

let's pray together.

God, we thank you and we praise you for loving us.

And God,

thank you for just making us aware that your desire for us is that we

would love you back and that we'd act like it.

So, God,

as we take a moment to consider Paul,

consider who he is and what he's done,

and God,

to take a look at our own lives.

Some self examination.

God help us to consider what it means to finish and to really to plan.

To plan our finishing.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Not a.

It's sort of a morbid topic,

right? We're all standing here and everybody's obviously.

Paul's talking about his own death.

But I'm not necessarily speaking about death this morning because our

graduates, you know,

Thursday night for topsail,

they sat out in the heat,

in the.

In the stadium out there,

and.

And Dixon,

I guess they are yet to graduate.

I don't think they've quite finished yet.

But anyway,

yeah, they finished something.

A lot of graduates believe that they've,

you know,

this achievement of graduation is a really big deal.

Those of you that are at least my age know that.

Guess what?

There's a whole lot of big deal left,

right. Finishing high school is not near so monumental as a lot of the

things that come next.

So I think about Paul,

and I think about this testimony of his from chapter six,

chapter four.

And as it begins in verse six,

verse five.

And I didn't give this to the booth,

so you're going to have to trust me on this.

He's talking to Timothy.

He says,

but as for you talking to Timothy,

exercise self control in everything,

endure hardship,

do the work of an evangelist,

and fulfill your ministry.

So Paul,

as an older father in ministry,

according to his own testimony about Timothy,

is giving Timothy some instructions,

some direction for his future,

for what Paul more or less expects out of Timothy,

but on a larger scale,

because this is the word of God.

This is the inspired scriptural text that we get to read today.

Can this be an instruction for us as well?

Can we look at this and go,

all right,

who should I pick on this morning,

right? I should call somebody's name.

I'll call Cole's name.

Here you go.

Exercise self control in everything,

endure hardship,

do the work of an evangelist,

and fulfill your ministry.

Right? See,

I could say that to everybody in the room,

because this is the expectation of what it means to surrender our lives,

to serve God,

to follow Jesus,

to be disciples of our savior,

our Lord,

and to fulfill the ministry that God has set before each one of us and

yet so much in the body of Christ.

I'll ask people,

well, what has God called you to do?

And they're like,

well, I don't know,

really? Then how do you go about your day?

Because here's the real question that graduates have got to answer.

When you set an agenda for yourself during the day,

who are you seeking to please?

Is the effort of your life to please?

What? Your boss?

That'll get old in a hurry,

right? If your parents are still around.

Am I still seeking to please my parents?

Well, see,

we live in a culture for about the last 60 years now that I think that

the main driving emphasis of our culture is to please ourselves.

We think that it's all about our happiness.

It's all about my satisfaction,

right? And so when I look at this,

I'm like,

all right,

Paul is encouraging us to what is essentially the highest priority and

calling that we fill our lives with a plan and an agenda to please God,

to honor God in all things.

Do as unto the Lord is what Paul tells us in Colossians.

And so who is this Paul guy?

Who is he?

Know who he is.

All right,

so we know he was Saul of Tarsus.

Tarsus. Being a greek influenced roman city,

Saul grew up as a child in a jewish hebrew home,

right? He probably had some sort of affinity for his early education in a

jewish home.

Probably had a real knack for memorization,

right? Because as he was learning the Torah and the things that little

jewish boys have to learn,

he probably was good at it.

You know how you know that?

Because he became a pharisee,

right? He was not only good at memorizing it,

he was good at dogma.

He was good at legalism.

He was probably a really,

really, really good rule follower,

right?

And he was probably that kid in his circle of friends that would go,

you can't do that,

right? He was probably that kid because he grew up and eventually he

lived in Jerusalem and studied under what was at the time probably one of

the great Sanhedrin,

one of the teachers of the jewish faith,

Gamaliel, because it says he trained,

learned, studied under Gamaliel.

And so he was a good student.

You know,

we don't know this about him,

but he might have been valedictorian of his home school class.

Now, I tell that joke just about every graduation recognition day,

because years ago,

when I was a youth pastor,

we did a,

we did graduation recognition at First Baptist Buford in Georgia.

And I,

it was way back before homeschooling was,

was, you know,

a thing like it is now.

And this one kid,

I remember when he stepped up,

you know,

everybody stepped up and they would say something about school and what

they were,

had done and what they were going to do,

and he,

he stepped up and said,

and I have the honor of being valedictorian of my home school class like

that. And the whole place,

there's, you know,

a bunch of people just cracked up about it.

And so I've always thought about that.

I thought,

that's pretty cool to be valedictorian of your own class,

right?

I mean,

I wasn't that because there were 500 something people in my class.

But, but Paul was probably an excellent student.

He probably excelled above others,

because by the time we get to the book of acts,

what we find is,

is that he has been appointed,

in truth,

entrusted with the responsibility of the rules of Judaism in Jerusalem,

that he has been given this authority to take christians to task,

to persecute,

to arrest,

even to the point of death,

because we know that in chapter seven of acts,

the deacon Stephen,

Paul, Saul,

was the one holding the coats overseeing the stoning of Stephen.

And then he's given the paperwork to go to Damascus to arrest christians.

You see,

so Paul was.

So if you had asked him when he left his house that day to go to

Damascus, Paul,

what are you doing going to Damascus?

I'm going to ensure the legitimacy and the purity of our faith.

I'm going to find those jewish individuals who have left the legalism and

law, he wouldn't have called it that.

He would have said,

who have left the law to follow this way thing that's come up since Jesus

crucifixion, I'm on my way to Damascus to ensure our faith and the purity

of it.

Somewhere in that,

I've got to believe that God's going,

yeah, right,

watch this.

Because it's on the road to Damascus,

right? That God,

Jesus appears,

you know,

blinds him,

throws him down from his donkey on some level,

this idea that there's a rumbling that Paul's companions hear,

but Paul's hearing the voice of Jesus and he says,

who are you,

lord? I am Jesus,

the one you're persecuting.

See, man,

Jesus changed his day.

Jesus changed his life.

You see that everything that,

I mean,

Paul certainly probably had an idea in his mind that he was going to be

one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin,

that he was going to be one of those maybe not high priests because he

wasn't born into the family,

but, but the idea that he was going to have that kind of authority,

that he was going to have that kind of leader,

that he was going to achieve those things,

and Jesus went,

I've got other plans for your life.

You know,

I've had these conversations here in the gathering and still do.

It's interesting to me that folks who have grown up with some

introduction to faith and introduction to Jesus and a knowledge of what

you guys know,

and it might offend you,

but I'm,

yeah, I'm gonna say it again anyway.

But folks who have this awareness of what I refer to as churchianity,

but when it comes right down to it,

they don't know Jesus.

You know,

they've done the things,

they followed the rules.

They've stepped through the hoops of whatever's required.

And they may genuinely know Jesus,

but the relationship is lacking in some way,

you see?

And so I look at these things and I go,

all right,

well, what is it that Paul has done?

You see,

we know who he is leading up to,

and then we see in his life that that day on the road to Damascus,

God confronted him on the road and changed not just his agenda,

his goals,

his direction of his life.

They changed his identity.

We even know him differently after that.

He was Saul of Tarsus,

and now he's Paul.

You see,

now, a lot of scholars will tell you he was probably called by both

names, depending on who he was talking to.

Saul being a more roman name and Paul being a christian hebrew name.

Anyway, whatever it is,

he was probably known by both names.

So a lot of times when I preach about Saul Paul,

I call him Saul Paul.

It's just who he is.

But his life was different after that day.

Can I just tell y'all something?

I have struggled in ministry with the fact that some people will talk

about Jesus in their life,

but there's no difference.

There's not a presence of regeneration,

that something has changed.

Because if the culture really is teaching us to please ourselves,

and then all we do is add Jesus to it,

then we're just pleasing ourselves with Jesus.

When what God has called us to is a transformed life,

what God has provided for us is a transformed life.

That Jesus becomes more than just an add on to our lives.

He becomes the center of our identity.

That. That when people want to know who we are,

it's about Jesus.

Not about where we graduated or our career goals or our family,

for that matter.

It's about Jesus.

So when I look at these verses and he says,

I am already being poured out as a drink offering,

we understand what he's saying there.

He says,

you know,

and that's a picture to an actually a pagan type,

and there's some reference to it in Judaism.

But this idea of the drink offering being poured out as an offering,

that what Paul is actually saying right there is I'm done.

And more than likely,

he's writing from an incarceration,

a prison.

The time for my departure is close.

And then he makes a statement of testimony.

I've fought the good fight.

He's looking back over his life,

and he says,

you know what?

And I'm going to word it this way,

because people ask me about the gathering.

In a lot of ways,

I think Paul's sitting here going,

you know what?

Every opportunity that I've understood God to give me.

I've taken.

I went here and I went there and I.

I was beaten here,

and I was shipwrecked there.

I got bit by snake on that island over there.

Everywhere God sent me,

I went.

I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

Then he speaks about something that we all really should consider,

because he says,

there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness.

Now, when you hear the word crown,

what do you think?

Gold, right?

So I've heard preachers preach on,

you know,

our crown and all the stars that are going to be in it.

And I'm thinking,

really?

You know,

I mean,

crowns are mentioned throughout the Bible.

There are all kind of crowns,

about five different crowns that are mentioned.

And I list them in the daily devotional,

but I didn't list them in the message today,

but crown of life.

You think the crown of life's made of gold?

I'm not sure.

Got rubies in it?

Probably not,

right? What's the crown of righteousness look like?

You see,

the crown of righteousness is the perfection made when we step into the

presence of God.

See, it's when we become whole again.

I'm like,

wow. That's when,

spiritually speaking,

I can be completely and wholly reunited with my creator.

I will.

I get to see him face to face?

That's what Paul tells us in one corinthians 1213.

But then we shall see face to face.

Wow. You see?

So. So what is Paul doing right here?

This is the thing that I encourage people to do,

particularly people that are at least my age and older.

You know,

who you are.

But I talk about it sometimes.

I'll say,

you know what?

Think about what's next.

Not like I want.

I'll be honest,

you know,

I mean,

Eli just got married,

you know,

five months ago,

six months ago,

something like that.

I did the wedding,

I should remember.

But my point is that,

no, it's not that I'm looking forward to going to this crown of

righteousness today,

but it doesn't mean that I can't look forward to it,

that it's there,

and that everything that I do in the here and now is preparation for

that. You see,

that's what Paul's talking about here.

So what does it mean to finish?

What does it mean to know that there is a.

And here's the whole point of today's message.

Finishing is just beginning,

you see?

Because when we finish this life,

it's just the beginning.

Of eternity.

And guess what?

You never finish that.

Everything else you finish.

I finished high school,

goodness, 40 something years ago now,

right?

I finished college after seven years.

I finished seminary after a little time.

I finished ministry at First Baptist,

Buford. After a time.

I finished ministry in Maryland at town Baptist church.

I finished ministry at Pisgah Forest Baptist Church in Brevard area,

up there in the mountains,

which prompts me to always tell the joke,

you know,

I moved here from the mountains because everything in between was boring.

So if you're from somewhere inland,

sorry, finishing is beginning.

But my favorite story to tell about finishing goes back about four and a

half years now.

Just before COVID started,

I had a gentleman who approached me about discipleship.

He wanted to meet with his pastor on a regular basis about discipling,

about being who God wanted him to be.

Now, he's about ten years older than I am,

or so.

He's 70 ish.

Probably 74 or 75 now.

Y'all know him.

Will Tate.

Will.

Will. He said,

bobby. Well,

he always called me pastor.

Pastor. I need to get this right.

I said,

okay. He said,

I'm in the fourth quarter,

man. That just.

I'll be honest with you.

That just kept resounding in my head like a bell.

I'm in the fourth quarter.

And so we've joked about it since then.

We're kind of the thing when he's sitting in here and I mention it,

he laughs back there because he always sits in the shade back there

because, you know,

the fourth quarter,

at some point,

the horn sounds and the game's over.

So here's the challenge for us today.

How are you playing the game?

What effort are you putting toward winning the crown of righteousness?

Are you surrendered to what God wants for your life,

or is there a struggle?

Because Paul also describes a struggle in his own life of pleasing self

versus pleasing Jesus.

You see,

man, I look at this,

you know,

42 years of ministry.

Now, I'll be honest,

I'm not ready to quit.

So y'all are stuck.

But I look at this passage and I go,

but God,

I want to give all.

I want to give my best.

I don't want to be lazy in the fight,

okay? I want to be devoted to who you've called me to be doing what you

desire me to do.

See, there are going to be 14 graduates sitting right here in the next

hour, and they're looking at college or trade or career,

or someone might be looking at military.

I don't know.

But the question is,

as those things change,

the thing that doesn't change is who is lord in your life.

Because you can make the world your lord.

You can make your hobbies your lord.

You can make your habits your lord.

You can make your career your lord.

I like Paul's words here.

I look at it.

It says,

there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness,

which the Lord,

the righteous judge,

will give me on that day.

And not only to me,

but to all those who have loved,

longed for,

looked forward to his appearing.

Can't wait to see Jesus.

Can't wait to see Jesus.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need him.

You need him today,

right now,

we're going to give you an opportunity to respond to him.

We're going to sing one more song in a minute.

It's your opportunity to respond to him.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today and thank you for your words and all that

you've accomplished.

God, my prayer would be that this morning that no one leave here without

knowing Jesus having that intimate personal relationship and fellowship

with our creator and Lord and God,

I just pray right now that you would speak to our hearts in such a way,

God, that we would be surrendered,

that we would be devoted,

be committed to living our lives in such a way that we please you first.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.