Finish Well

Good morning everyone! My name is Matt Martinez and I am the pastor here at Renovation Church Shoreview.

At Renovation Church, we are passionate about sharing the Gospel with people in our area of the North Metro. It is our mission and calling. We are also passionate about sending people out to share the Gospel with people in the world.

And we are sending some people to different parts of the world this summer to do just that. We are partnering with the Renovation Church in Blaine who are also sending people, and starting in just a week and throughout the summer, different teams will be heading to all the places you see on the screen.

We look forward to hearing the stories about everything God does in them and through them when they come back. Let’s pray for them now as they are preparing to go. Stretch out your hands if you feel comfortable and pray with me for everyone on this stage.

Along with praying for these people, we also want to honor them. Can we give them a hand as they head off the stage? It is important to honor people who obey the call of God.

I also want to honor so many of you who faithfully follow God in ordinary life. I was just sitting with someone in the hospital the other day: he was sick, and yet, he was talking about Jesus with the nurses, praying with them, and encouraging them. So many of you live lives of faithful obedience to God, and it blesses me. Well done!

When I think about a life well-lived, I think about Grandma Marguerite—my wife Ally's grandma.

Ally and I hadn't been dating very long when I started hearing stories about her. Marguerite had been through a lot. She made plenty of mistakes before coming to faith in Jesus as an adult, and becoming a Christian didn

't suddenly make life easy.

But there was something different about her. She had a joy that seemed to follow her everywhere she went. In fact, if Marguerite was around, there was a decent chance she was about to tell you about Jesus. If you were already saved, you'd probably get saved again.

So when I was invited to visit her in the care facility where she was living, I was excited. I wanted to meet the woman behind all the stories. When I got there, it was clear that dementia had taken its toll. She was nearing the end of her life. Her family gathered around her bed and kept saying, "Grandma, you're going to see Jesus

soon." She couldn't really speak anymore. But every time they said it, tears would run down her face. I'll never forget that.

There is something about watching someone approach the end of their life that makes you think differently about your own. Because the truth is, most of us don't only face death once. We experience smaller versions of it throughout life. A relationship ends. A diagnosis changes everything. A child makes a decision that breaks your heart. You graduate. You retire. The life you knew is gone, and suddenly you're trying to figure out what comes next. Author Jim Collins calls this the "fog of life." And when you're in that fog, it's easy to start asking questions: What really matters? What am I living for? How do I live a life that counts? And maybe the biggest question of all: How do I finish well?

I think Paul helps us answer that question.Turn with me to 2 Timothy 4:6-8—page 814 in the Renovation Church Bible under your chair, page 731 in the Spanish Bible.

As we come to the end of this letter, Paul gives what is essentially his final farewell. In just a few short verses, he reflects on his life, his faith, and the hope that has carried him to the very end.

Let's read it together, starting at the small number 6.

2 Timothy 4:6-8

"For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing."

Paul is sitting in a prison cell when he writes these words. He knows his life is coming to an end. But these aren

't the words of a defeated man. They're the words of a man who knows where he has placed his hope. Paul's confidence wasn't in his circumstances. It wasn't in his accomplishments. It wasn't in himself. His confidence was in Jesus. And because of that, he was able to face the end of his life with peace, purpose, and hope. In these three verses, Paul shows us how to live well and finish well. The first step is…

1. Being Content in the Present

(verse 6) "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for

my departure is near."

When I was in middle school, a friend and I were playing basketball when we saw two kids playing basketball at the other end of the gym. We were convinced we were better than they were. So we came up with a brilliant plan. We would challenge them,play badly on purpose, let them think they had a chance, and then turn it on at the end.

Unfortunately, they were actually good. By the time we decided to start trying, we were already losing and couldn't catch back up. Looking back, it's a pretty good picture of how some people approach life. They assume there will always be more time. More time to take God seriously. More time to serve. More time to grow. More time to become the person they know they should be. Paul didn't live that way. He didn't spend his life coasting and then suddenly decide to get serious near the end.

Paul writes, "I am already being poured out." Not someday. Not eventually. Already.

The picture he uses is significant. In the Old Testament, a drink offering was poured out at the very end of a sacrifice. It wasn't the whole offering. It was the final act that completed it. Paul is saying that his death isn't the beginning of his sacrifice to God. It's simply the last drop of a life that has already been poured out. For years he had served. For years he had suffered. For years he had obeyed. Now he was simply finishing what had already been happening all along.

And I think that's encouraging because most of life isn't made up of dramatic moments. Most of life is ordinary faithfulness. That's what I think of when I think about Grandma Marguerite.

She came to faith in Jesus later in life, and her husband wanted nothing to do with it.

Over time his resistance became harsh and at times abusive. Yet I never heard stories of Marguerite becoming bitter. Instead, she would tell her children, needs Jesus. We need to pray for him."

"Your dad And they did. For twenty years. For twenty years she kept singing. For twenty years she kept serving. For twenty years she kept pointing people to Jesus. Not because lifewas easy. Not because everything worked out the way she wanted. But because she had learned to anchor her life in something deeper than her circumstances. Now I want to be careful here. Some of you may be in difficult or unhealthy relationships, and I am not telling you what decision you should make. I'm not telling you to stay, and I'm not telling you to leave. Those are decisions that should be made with prayer, wisdom, trusted counsel, and God's guidance. What I am talking about is something underneath all of that.

The condition of your heart. Marguerite's joy wasn't dependent on her husband changing. Her contentment

wasn't dependent on her circumstances improving. It was rooted in God.

And that's really what Paul is showing us here. Contentment isn't something you discover once life finally gets easier. It's not waiting for you on the other side of the next season. Paul found it in a prison cell. Marguerite found it in a difficult marriage.

They both understood the same thing: Contentment comes from knowing who holds you. When everything else is uncertain, that is the foundation that remains. One simple way to begin cultivating that perspective is something I call the "first five and last five."

Before you pick up your phone in the morning, spend five minutes thanking God. Before you go to bed at night, spend five more minutes doing the same. Contentment comes from knowing who holds you. Let’s come back to Paul now and read verse 7 of our passage. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

The second way we live and finish well is…

2. Seeing God’s Faithfulness in the PastComedian Michael Jr. grew up with dyslexia. Reading was difficult for him, so he learned how to work around it. He would read the words around the word he didn't know. He would watch how other kids reacted to the story. He would look at the pictures and piece things together. Unconventional? Probably. But it worked.

Years later, the observation skills he developed as a kid became some of the very skills that make him such an effective comedian today. Michael says what looked like a setback was actually a setup. Most of us have parts of our story we wish we could erase or rewrite. But God has a way of redeeming things we would rather hide.

Paul knew that better than almost anyone. Before becoming a follower of Jesus, Paul spent his life hunting down Christians. He had people arrested. He approved of violence against the church. He wasn't simply someone with a rough past—he was actively opposed to the very message he would later give his life for.

Which makes his words here remarkable.

He doesn't say, "I hope I did enough." He says, "I have fought. I have finished. I have kept." Paul isn't bragging about himself. He's talking about the faithfulness of God.

Notice he calls it a good fight—not just a hard one. I think one of the deepest questions people carry is this: Does any of this actually matter?

Does the sacrifice matter? Does the suffering matter? Does the obedience matter?

Paul's answer is yes.

Not because every day was easy. Not because he won every battle. But because what he was fighting for was worth it.

Then he says,"I have finished the race."Anyone who has run a race knows there comes a moment when quitting seems completely reasonable. Your body hurts. Your energy is gone. Every excuse sounds

convincing.

The defining moment isn't when you feel strong. It's when stopping makes sense and you choose to take another step anyway. Paul knew that moment well. Imprisonment. Beatings. Loneliness. Suffering. And yet

he kept going.

But the phrase that ties it all together is the last one: "I have kept the faith."

Fighting is inspiring. Finishing is admirable.mnBut keeping the faith is what gives meaning to both. Paul's hope was never rooted in better circumstances. His hope was rooted in Jesus.

And that's why even a prison cell could become a place of purpose.

Marguerite understood that. Before she met Jesus, her life was marked by plenty of mistakes. There was drinking, partying, and a pregnancy outside of marriage. Then she met Christ, and everything changed.

That didn't mean life suddenly became easy. In fact, following Jesus cost her some

relationships. But she never got over what Jesus had done for her. She kept the faith.

Why? Because Jesus didn't simply come to make bad people better. He came to save sinners. He lived the life we could never live and died the death we deserved so that our sins could be forgiven.

That's important because forgiveness isn't God pretending our sin doesn't matter. Forgiveness is God taking our sin so seriously that He chose to take it on Himself.

That's what happened at the cross.Marguerite didn't just turn over a new leaf. She met a Savior. She knew what she had been saved from, and she never forgot it.

And that same grace is available to every person in this room. The enemy wants us to believe that our failures define us. That we're trapped by our past. That our worst moments get the final word. But the gospel says something different.

A life well-lived isn't a life without mistakes. It's a life that has been forgiven by Jesus. And if you remember His faithfulness to you, you'll find the strength to remain faithful to Him. Let’s read the final verse of our passage today: verse 8. "Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing."

3. Having Hopeful Expectation for the Future

Remember where Paul is. He's sitting in a Roman prison awaiting execution. He has been judged unjustly by one of the most powerful governments in the world.

If this isn't the fog of life, I don't know what is. And yet Paul isn't discouraged.

Why? Because Rome doesn't get the final word. The final word belongs to Jesus.

That's why Paul calls Him "the righteous Judge".

Near the end of her life, Grandma Marguerite had lost most of her memories and much of her ability to speak.

But there was one song she still remembered:"Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love Him more and more."

She sang it until she could no longer sing. Then she hummed it until she passed away.

Her hope was anchored somewhere beyond this life. She knew the righteous Judge.

She trusted His promises. And she longed for the day she would see Him face to face. That is exactly where Paul ends this passage. The crown isn't only for Paul. It isn't only for Marguerite. It is for all who have longed for His appearing—for everyone who understands that this world is not their final home.

Just picture it for a moment. A man sitting in a prison cell. He knows he is going to die. He's not angry. He's not bitter. He's not trying to squeeze meaning out of the lastfew days of his life. He's at peace.

Not because life was easy. Not because everything worked out the way he wanted. But because he knew who he belonged to and where he was going. That same peace is available to anyone who puts their trust in Jesus. God made your life meaningful when He created you. He demonstrated your value when He sent His Son to die for you. And we do not finish well because of our own strength, determination, or resolve. We finish well because of what Jesus has already done for us.

That is why you need Him. That is why you can trust Him. And that is why you can follow Him all the way to the finish line.

There is a tension Christians have always lived with. Life is short. And life matters.

Come back to verse 6 one more time. Paul says, "the time for my departure is near." The word he uses is a picture of a ship leaving the harbor and setting sail. That's how Paul viewed death: a departure from this life into the presence of God.

Take a look at this rope. This little section right here represents your life on earth. Everything beyond that represents eternity. Most people spend their entire lives focused on this part. The next promotion. The next purchase. The next vacation. The next problem. The next season. And before long, this little section is gone. But the Bible teaches that what we do with this part matters because it echoes into all of eternity.

The question isn't whether your life matters. It does. God made it matter. The question is what you are doing with the life you've been given.

Paul spent his life following Jesus, serving others, and helping people find the hope he had found. And now, at the end, he is ready for departure. Not because he was perfect. Not because he earned his way into God's presence. But because he knew Jesus. That's the invitation for every person in this room.

One day your ship will leave the harbor too. One day your life on earth will come to an

end. The question isn't whether that day is coming. The question is whether you know the One waiting for you when you arrive. And if you've never put your faith in Jesus, today is the day to do that.

He lived the life you could not live. He died the death you deserved to die. He rose again so that your sins could be forgiven and you could have eternal life. And if you will trust Him, you can face the future the way Paul did—not with fear, but with hope.