Finishing Well

It has been a wonderful long time together and I appreciate the invitation to be here. Thank you for having me here. Of course, you had no say in this, did you? You probably are looking for a way out right now, but stick around, it should get better, okay? I'm excited about the church going through the book of 2 Timothy and the whole idea of strong grace. It's very exciting. If you are here this morning, I welcome you. I know there's a venue campus somewhere around. It's either on the campus here or in Detroit. I forgot what you told me, but welcome wherever you are. I'm supposed to look at a camera somewhere and say hi. Glad you're here.

And I want you to know that looking at 2 Timothy, it gets me very excited because of what the apostle Paul has to say. You've been going through it. You know what we're talking about. Paul's in prison. He pretty well knows for sure this is his last book, his last letter, his last chance to really say something. And it fascinates me because there's a cliche that is going around, especially in the business world over the last few years, but things become cliches because they're true and we just use them a lot. And the cliche goes like this: Begin with the end in mind. Begin with the end in mind.

If I am young, if there is something I can do now as I launch my life, my adulthood, my career, my relationship with God, my marriage, whatever it is, if I can begin with what I want it to look like when it's through, I'm a pretty smart person. And so the apostle Paul writes in this amazing passage that he's got some ideas of what he wants his life to look like as it comes to an end. You have it on the front of your bulletin. It's 2 Timothy chapter four, beginning in verse six. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

A familiar passage to some of us. This kind of gets a lot of press, especially those metaphors, I fought the fight, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith. These are things that we love to think about. And I know for me, I trust that this is not my last message and this is not the final word that I will say, but I know I had an experience very different from Paul's, but an experience that got me thinking about what really is important in life. I wasn't in a Roman prison. I didn't know it was about, a matter of fact, it was years ago when I was just a young dad. We have five children, they're all grown now. A daughter and four sons, all J's, Joy, Jesse, Jeff, John and Joseph.

And those of you that are parents will identify with exactly what I'm about to say. By the way, who are the parents here that are willing to admit that? Would you put your hand up? Okay, hmm, not very many willing to admit that, okay. When your first child comes along, you're so excited and you want to do everything right and to this day, my adult child, my daughter, my firstborn, I look at her and I just spontaneously apologize. You know, I'm sorry sweetie, we didn't know any better. You were the first one, we were reading everything we could get our hands on, you know, but.

And of course, by the time we had five, I knew a lot better what to do, but you're just so tired. And poor Joseph, I mean, things that are significant to children, we would just kind of, ah, who cares, I've been through that four other times already, you know. Even something as big as when he uttered his first words. You know, now I remember because of how it all took place, but at the time, it was like, oh well, it took place on a Monday night at the dinner table. He was seated in his high chair. Now Monday night was significant because at that point in my life, any other person who might have business endeavors might be able to relate to this. I was so engrossed in my career that I was paying very little attention to what was going on at home.

I was working Monday through Friday at what they call a parachurch ministry. I mean, I was a minister, but I worked Monday through Friday. What minister do you know who has his weekends off? And apparently I just couldn't fathom that, so I started seeking invitations to come and be with churches like you 28 years ago, getting churches, and I'd come in on a weekend and I'd spend all weekend with a great church just like you. And I remember I'd sneak out early from the office on Friday afternoon, I was living down in Southern California, my wife would drive me over to Disneyland. I'd take a bus from Disneyland to LAX, fly off somewhere in the country, be with a church, and the theme back then was predominantly, you need to spend more time with your family.

I'd fly back late Sunday night, so late that the kids were already in bed, I'd get up early Monday morning to get into the office to make up for missing Friday afternoon, so if you're doing the math, there were plenty of weeks where I would not see my kids from the time I tucked them in Thursday night until the time I saw them again Monday evening at dinner. Thursday night to Monday night, if you need a little help with the math, that's way more time away than God really intended. So, it's a Monday night, haven't seen everybody since Thursday night, I come back, I sit down, Joseph's in his high chair, mom's over here, I'm over here, God hits the switch. This is not some kind of oozing into the language, the switch is on, he's gonna start speaking.

And I'll never forget, he turns and he looks at his mom and his face lights up and with unmistakable clarity, he goes, hey, hey, hey, ma! And then he turns and he looks at me and his face lights up and with the same unmistakable clarity, he goes, hey, hey, Bob! And his mom goes, you've been on the road too much. To which I responded, well, nevermind that, who's Bob? Well, I found out there wasn't a Bob and I didn't know whether that was good news or bad news because that meant my little boy doesn't even know who I am. He doesn't know me as dad, good night, he doesn't even have the first name right.

And I remember I just went into this downward spiral. It was like, God had slapped me away, what am I doing with my life? I've got all this wonderful stuff that I'm doing all over the place, but what's going on at home with the people that are most important? I mean, I was in a funk, I wish we had a video camera, I wish video had been created back when this story had taken place, but I can remember I was in this daze and Joseph had moved to phase two. All of you that have had kids or grandkids, you know how this works. As soon as the kid learns how to speak, moves to phase two, three or four favorite words, they say them over and over and over again. Joseph had three, if he wanted more food, he'd say, more. And if he wanted something to drink, he'd say, dink. And interestingly enough, he began calling me, bill.

I was not offended, I felt he meant no personal discomfort. I mean, after all, we had started with Bob, so we're moving in the right direction. I knew we'd get to dad eventually. But if you can imagine that in your mind, a dad walking around, figuring out what am I doing with my life, with a kid in the high chair screaming, more dink, bill. It's become a very popular word in our world today. It's the word legacy. What am I leaving behind? How do I want to be remembered? And it really gripped me at that point. And I began to realize, you know, I need to create some sort of list of what's significant to me.

I remember I went right to my Bible, I thought, you know what, with God's help, I'm gonna figure this out. And I'll save you some time, cover to cover, as best as I know, there is no verse in the Bible that says, that begins, this is what thy children shall say about thee when thou diest. It's just not there. I began to see all these things that were significant beyond, you know, land and jewelry and stock portfolios, that's all good stuff to leave behind. But I mean, what about the real significant internal stuff? And I created what I called my short list, which has become one of the books that Val held up. In this life of all these, there are four things that really matter. And as I looked at them and then looked at the passage that we're talking about this morning, I realized, you know, Paul is saying the same thing. So because he's older than me, I'll have to say I got it from him, okay?

But there are four things I want you to see in this passage that I think are really significant. Now, before we get into them, I wanna say a very important part about the first verse that we looked at, verse four. I am already being poured out as a drink offering. For me, that's the part of the passage I read through quickly so I can get to the good part. Fighting the fight, finishing the course, keeping the faith. But the drink offering is very significant, especially if you had a background in Judaism. If you were a professing Jew in the first century, you understood what the drink offering was all about.

And the significance of the drink offering, if I can just read a passage from the Old Testament where it began, Exodus chapter 29, beginning in verse 38, "This is what you shall offer on the altar," God says. "Two one-year-old lambs each day continuously. One lamb you'll offer in the morning, the other lamb you'll offer at twilight. And there will be flour mixed with oil. And there will be wine for a drink offering with one lamb. The other lamb you'll offer at twilight and shall offer the grain offering and the drink offering as in the morning. A soothing aroma and offering by fire to the Lord." You say, well, that's incredibly boring. Why are you reading me that verse? Here's why.

If you were into the rights and traditions and customs that the Jewish people adhere to, you realize when you say offering, you got a wide variety of offerings. You have an offering that's once a year. You have offerings that are once a month. You have offerings that are weekly. The drink offering is significant because it's daily, every day. So when we talk about finishing well and Paul's words about beginning with the end in mind, we're not talking about something we just dabble at. Yeah, once or twice a year, I ought to get really serious about these things. No, the drink offering is a daily offering. So what I want us to think about as we unwrap this familiar passage is what does it mean to put these things into our life every single day? Not just on a weekend at a service, not just a short-term mission project, or it's every day beginning with the end in mind.

Now, having said that, let's see what we can do on a daily basis. First, we see the phrase, I have fought the good fight. I have fought the good fight. The thing I love about Paul's final words here, if you will, is you can tie them into things he has said in other times in his life that are also kept for us in the New Testament. This passage makes me think of something he said in Ephesians chapter six, verses 10 and 11. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

See, if you don't understand Ephesians six, you don't understand exactly what he meant when he said, I have fought the good fight. He is not saying, I am an incredible soldier. Look at me, it's all about me. No, he's saying, I am honest enough to confess to you that I am nothing without the power of the Lord. That if there is victory to be had in my life in the battles that I face, it's because I'm leaning in to God. And it's that honest admission that you and I need to say as well. I mean, I'm not gonna be on top in life if I'm trying to do it all by myself. My power is weak. But if I honestly admit I need God in his power, then I can say I have fought the good fight.

What this says to me in terms of something I developed in my short list is that I choose honesty. I choose honesty. I'm not gonna shine you on and tell you how great I am and how wonderful it is to be me because I'm such a good person. I'm gonna honestly admit I need the armor of God, the power of God to fight every battle I ever face if I'm gonna be victorious. Honesty is such a basic thing. I really believe in this if for no other reason, I get so frustrated when people are dishonest to me. I mean, if there's no other reason to be honest, it's just to set a nice example for all the dishonest people in the world.

I had an experience several years ago. It marked me. I remember I was flying back home from somewhere. I think I was flying back from Chicago. And I live right by that little airport in Southern California with not one, not two, but three names. John Wayne, Santa Ana, Orange County Airport. So I'm flying back from Chicago to John Wayne, Santa Ana, Orange County Airport. And I spend half my life on an airplane. People always ask me, are you afraid to fly? I said, no, I'm not afraid to fly. I said, if I have one fear in this whole thing, it's that I'm gonna get on the wrong plane one day and nobody's gonna catch it.

And they said, oh, no, no, no, the computer will get it. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all been on planes. The door is just about to close. And all of a sudden you hear the flight attendant, is there Bob Johnson on fire? Mr. Johnson, we're not going to Omaha, we're going to Albuquerque. Would you please deplane? I'm thinking, he was like five seconds from going to the wrong city. So Chicago to Orange County, landed Orange County, get off, this is my home airport. And so pardon the pun, when I get off the plane, I kind of go into autopilot. I'm not even paying attention. I just get off the jet, I wander down the concourse, and I'm heading to the escalator to go down the baggage claim.

So I'm on the escalator going down the baggage claim. And of course, you're all intimately familiar with John Wayne Airport. You realize, of course, as you go down the escalator, there is a wall to your right. But as the bottom floor becomes exposed, as you're going down, all your baggage carousels are to your left. So I'm going down the escalator, just like normal. And as the bottom floor becomes in full view, I see right in front of me, a banner, very professionally done, absolutely no reason to believe that this is a gag. There is a sign right in front of me that says, welcome to Boston Logan International Airport. And I freak, I think to myself, it's finally happened. I got on the wrong plane and nobody caught it. Not only am I on the wrong plane, I'm as far away in the continental United States as you can be.

So in my panic, I always do what I learned from my mentors, the three stooges, and do one of those, kind of shake it off kind of thing. And while I'm going, wall there, nothing there. But I see over here on the baggage carousel, the actor, Steve Martin, is being spit out of the baggage carousel like a piece of luggage. And there's a camera right behind him with the red light on. And I realized they're making a movie in the baggage area of John Wayne. And they're trying to convince me this is Boston. I was furious. You've been dishonest with me. I'm in Orange County. I'm not in Boston. And I was really ready to give it to them until I did some quick mental math and realized, you know that camera angle, I believe I am in this movie.

I had a whole new attitude. Boy, I waited the obligatory six months for it to get ready. And we were there at the premiere in our little town. And all I can say is that in some horrible, horrible editing decision, my scene was cut and put on the editing room floor. So then I got mad again. You've been dishonest with me. I was in Orange County and you said I was in Boston. Okay, a little wacky, but you know the point. None of us like to be treated with dishonesty. We need to live a life where we choose honesty. We tell the truth. We live life in an honest way. I have fought the good fight.

The second phrase that Paul uses is, I have finished the course. We've moved from a military term to an athletic term. In Acts chapter 20, verse 24, Paul says, "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself." So, oop, I just lost it. What did it say here? "So that I may finish my course," there it is, "and the ministry which I received." Finish my course, the athletic term. I'm going to do what I need to do to finish this race, this athletic pursuit, this game. It's all about doing what you said you were gonna do and having the strength and the courage to see it through to the end.

Now, we live in a world where we kind of put professional athletes up on a pedestal, and there's some good about that, there's some bad about that, but something that's very good that you can't deny is the courage that they show, the discipline that they show to do the very best that they can. My son-in-law is the basketball coach at a college, and I watch as he trains his guys. They aren't just dabbling at playing basketball. I mean, they're committed to it, they live it. They show courage, even when they're hurt or when they're injured or when they're tired. They push through and excel all the way to the end.

Val mentioned all the different types of speaking I get to do, I love what I get to do. And if you were to ask me what are my favorite speaking opportunities of all time, obviously I'd say number one would be Twin Lakes. But number two, as a diehard sports fan, I love the fact that I've been able to speak to 26 of the 32 National Football League teams. I love speaking to these guys. I mean, look at me, first of all, they realize this guy is not gonna take my place on the field. We don't have to be worried, he's not a threat, okay? And I love talking to these guys, and it's always four hours and 30 minutes before kickoff on game day, whether they're home or away, they always stay at a hotel.

So I go to the hotel, four hours and 30 minutes before the game, I get to speak to them. I've been doing this for years. And I remember the first coach, if you're an old time football fan, Miami Dolphins, Don Shula, I asked Coach Shula, why am I on four hours and 30 minutes before the game? He said, "Oh, that's easy." He says, "Because we always have the pregame meal four hours before kickoff. I don't know how long you're gonna talk, but you just need to know in 30 minutes, the entire team is gonna get up and leave. So knock yourself out, blonde boy." So I thought that was cool, and I did that, and it went on for a while.

And then I discovered, you know, they all come up and shake your hand afterwards, it's kind of a cool thing. I discovered there's kind of a secret handshake. If you do a good job, somebody on the team will kind of wink at you and say, "Would you like to come over and join us for the pregame meal?" If you get invited to the pregame meal, you've done a good job. And obviously, I'm mentioning this because I don't have to follow it up with, "You know, I've never been to a pregame meal. I'm excited to think that I get to go every once in a while. It's really kind of cool." And this one particular event I wanna tell you, they take over the whole floor of the hotel. There's security all over the place. But this hotel didn't have eating facilities, steam tables, it's on the same level as the meeting rooms.

So they said, "When you're finished shaking everybody's hand, get in the elevator, come up a few floors, the pregame meal will be there." So I shook some hands, I remember I ran out in the lobby and there was an elevator door just closing. I said, "Hold that elevator." And I jumped on just as the door was closing. I was on the elevator with eight offensive linemen. Now, if you don't know football, what I just said is, "I'm in an elevator with eight of the largest humans God has ever made." So you know where this elevator's going and it's not going up. Door closes and everyone goes, and we stop mid floor. And these guys freak out. And they all turn to me, "What'd you get on this elevator for, man? You made it too heavy."

And I'm looking at myself thinking, "Are you kidding me? This is the one time in my life I feel petite." And they're all getting upset and I realize I better ask these guys a question or they're gonna have me for the pregame meal. So I said, "Guys, guys, I've always wanted to ask this to a room full of linemen, an elevator will do. Does it ever bother you that you never get any press? I mean, people don't interview you, you don't get in the newspaper, the quarterback's always in there, the wide receiver, the running back. I mean, the only chance you have for press is if you mess up. You know, center hikes ball over kicker's head, playoff hopes are dashed." They said, "You don't get it, do you?"

I said, "No, tell me." They said, "Look, we just do our job and don't make mistakes and don't care who gets the credit." I said, "Wow, that's amazing." He says, "Our job's not to get into the paper, it's to get the other guys 'cause we do our job." And you think about the job of a lineman, it's courage. They're getting beat up, they're getting busted up, they're hurting and they just keep showing that courage to push through to the end no matter who gets the credit. I remember thinking, "Man, if we ever get out of this elevator, you could come with me to any place I speak, a corporate engagement, a church engagement, it doesn't matter, we all need to hear that. We just do our job, don't make mistakes and we don't care who gets the credit."

That's courage, that's an athlete who's gotta figure it out. Now, interestingly enough, I usually have stopped the, I've told this story a thousand times, I usually stop right there. You'd be amazed how many people come up to me afterwards and go, "Whoa, you never finished the story. Did you guys ever get out of the elevator?" And I'm thinking, "Do you wanna hear me say no? We all perished?" I said, "Look, you got a lot, you got millions of dollars in that elevator. If they had to use a can opener, they were gonna come get us. We were out pretty quickly, all right?" But the issue is, not only do I choose honesty, but I choose courage.

The third thing that Paul says is, I have kept the faith. 1 Timothy 1.5 says, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith." Faith is a broad term in scripture. It refers not only to that moment in our lives where we realize it's not about what I'm trying to do, but what God has done for me, and I put my faith in the Lord Jesus, that he can accomplish for me what I could not accomplish for myself. It's not only that moment in time, but then it talks about the life of faith, or what you and I might know more as a life of faithfulness. And that's the blank there for you. I choose faithfulness. I choose to lean in and trust God as my drink offering daily, every day, not just when it's bad, or not just when it's good, I trust God daily.

Maybe you're hearing the concept of faith is more of a new concept to you. I can identify with that. I actually grew up back East in a church where I was given the idea that it's really not about my faith, it's about the good things that I do. Good boys go to heaven, bad boys go to hell, was the message I was taught as a child with the clever followup line, Billy, you're a bad boy. And so I remember going through a period of time where I thought, you know what? If I go to church every time they have a service, maybe I can get in and God will think I'm cool. And I went to a church, this is way back before electricity. And if you went every Sunday for a year, they put a little pin on your blue blazer. And if you went every Sunday for a second year, you got a little bar that you hung on the pin. Third year, another bar. You know, I'm eight, I've already got them down to my belly button. I'm thinking when I die, they're gonna bury me in this suit. God's gonna say, why should I let you in? I'll show my metals, I'm a company man, you gotta let me in. And God's gonna be impressed, whoa, down to your knees, come on in blonde boy.

But the message of the Bible, it's not about what I do, it's about what He has done. That when Jesus died on the cross, He died for me. And all the stuff that gets in the way of me having a relationship with Him, all the sin, the dysfunction, the stuff, Jesus died for all that. And if I put my faith in Him, that is where I am declared righteous as God. 100% clean. And so I lean into that now every day. It's my honor to be faithful to God. Not just when it's convenient, not just on the weekends, I am faithful to God.

The last phrase that Paul uses is at the end of the passage where it says, those that love His appearing. And there's a word in there that I can't overlook and that is what I've put as the fill in, I choose love. I choose love. 1 Corinthians 13, 13, maybe the most famous verse the apostle Paul ever wrote. Now abide faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. The thing about love is in our culture, we talk about falling into it or it just kind of happened or you choose love. I choose to love God. I choose to love in my case, my spouse. I choose to love my kids, even if my kids for example, might be going through a phase of life that we would call, shall we say unlovable. Anybody have someone unlovable in your life right now? Don't raise your hand, they might be right here. But you know how difficult that is. You have to choose to love them when they are unlovable.

My kids are all adults now, I have 11 grandchildren and I see them raising their kids and I remember when they were the age of the grandchildren and I'd be speaking 28 years and I have them all lined up on the front row and I talk about, you know, you have to choose to love even the unlovable. I look at my kids, I say pick a stage, any stage of life, we can talk about the unlovable. How about loving them when they have those dirty diapers? How about loving them when they're a teenager? How about loving them when they're 43 and still living at home? You gotta choose to love them, you know. A friend came up to me one time, they go, whoa, you really go after your kids. I said, I know, I know, but actually I get all this stuff approved by them before I go public, they're cool. I said, okay.

But then he asked this follow up, he said, have you ever asked your kids if they've ever had to choose to love you 'cause you were unlovable? I thought he was kidding, I remember I laughed. He was serious, he said, you should talk to your kids. So I did just to keep him out, I put the kids together, I said, this shouldn't take very long, but here's the question. Have you ever had to choose to love me because I was unlovable? Holy mackerel. Like six hours later when we had to stop for other commitments, they were just getting warmed up. And I was thinking, oh, I thought, oh no, dad, we had to choose to love you at that time. I mean, you were about as unlovable as they get, big guy. And I'm thinking, wow, it's all over the place, it's rampant, because that's the way we are, we're all messed up, we're all sinners. Choosing to love the unlovable.

Now, it's a nice little outline, but let me give you a couple of bullet points to put in as we finish this up so that we can make it more personal to you and to me, rather than just this nice little list that a Bible character put together one day. The first bullet point says, to finish well, I must choose to apply these qualities in my life. You're getting to see the redundancy of the word choose and choice in this outline. This stuff doesn't just happen, you have to choose it, and you have to choose it on a daily basis. It's the drink offering. I choose to apply these qualities to my life.

Secondly, just so that you can write in what we've mentioned several times already, to finish well, begin with the end in mind. We have all ages and stages represented in this room this morning. Some of us are at the beginning, and we can make decisions now that will make a difference in the way we end our lives. And all the way up to people who are close to the end of their life. We don't know when it's gonna be. All the technology going on, all the medical, I mean, what is it? 90 is the new 21. I mean, it's just out of control. And so we think about making these decisions wherever we are in our life right now. It's never too early, it's never too late.

And the third bullet point is wherever I am in my life, these qualities are worth applying. Take it from just a sweet little outline into something that makes a difference into your life by putting it into practice. Even just getting ready for this this weekend, I was in Denver Thursday working on a project and my best friend from childhood lives in Denver. We both grew up in Philadelphia. But I said, "Hey, are you available Thursday night? You wanna have dinner?" He said, "Yeah." And I specifically wanted to talk to him because I knew just a couple days before, his father had passed away back in Philadelphia.

And I said, "How you doing?" And it was an amazing time. We talked about some of the difficult last days of his father's life and it was pretty emotional and we were both pretty upset. And I said, "Well, tell me four or five things that you remember about your dad throughout his whole life that really made an impact." And his countenance just lit up and he started sharing all these different things about his dad. And I realized as we were laughing and crying and talking through these things, he was giving me his dad's short list, the things that he remembers about his father. I knew it, my dad had passed away years before and I was asked to preach his funeral. And I remember thinking about how I had to put together what I saw in my dad's life.

And it was after that that I realized, you know what? I'm articulating my dad's short list. You and I have a short list whether we realize it or not. Some day someone is gonna talk about how they remember you. And while you are still alive, you have a chance to influence what that list is gonna look like. I fought the good fight, I've kept the faith. Oh boy, all good stuff. Honesty, courage, faith and love. That's a short list worth copying. Would you bow your heads with me?

Lord, take these truths and drive them home into each and every person's life this morning. Those of us who are in a good place in life, those of us who struggle, I pray that you would make this very applicable and that we would go away and not just forget it, but put it into practice. I pray for folks who just need the encouragement that only you can bring. Would you just wrap your arms around them and help them see that you care about them. Thank you for being a God who models these qualities. This short list is not from humans, but from you, we are so grateful. So Lord, bless us now. Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.