Dr. Rick Houk - Finish Well

0:00take your bibles and turn to 2nd or 1st Corinthians chapter 9, 1st Corinthians chapter 9. Well, you glad that midterms are over? Well, the birds said that the grades were up. Is that include midterms? Okay, because I don't have all my midterm tests in yet, so that may drop it. I don't know, but I didn't want to throw water on it, but all right, follow with me. I'm going to read beginning with verse 24. Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receive it the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every

1:01man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainly. So fight I not as one that beat at the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for the word of God and we do pray that you would speak to our hearts today. Lord, I pray that this might be a message that you'll use to encourage, to challenge, pray that the Holy Spirit would take his word and work in each of our hearts. And we give you the praise for it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. The words

2:06were spelled out in lights at the 18th Olympics in Tokyo. And here's what it said, the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part. Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is to have finished well. You know, the goal in the Christian life is to finish well. I think all of us, if we thought about it, we would want, when we get to the judgment seat of Christ, we would want to hear the Lord say, well done, that good and faithful servant. And yet, as that quote from the 18th Olympics said, there is struggle. When you think about finishing, there's

3:15a lot of things that that involves. It involves a struggle. It can involve setbacks. It can involve failures. It can involve battles, discouragement, discipline, study, dedication, commitment, patience, and we could go on with the list. All of those areas is something that an athlete would go through in preparation for the race or in preparation for his area of competition. And for the runner, his whole goal is the gold medal. That's what they're striving for. But for us as believers, it's a lot more than that. It is related to our walk and our calling in

4:16Jesus Christ through not only our salvation but then our service and our walk with him. So for the believer, we are not seeking a gold medal. We're seeking crowns that Christ will give to us at the judgment seat of Christ or what sometimes is called the Bima seat. Now, the Corinthians, they would know very well all about that. They would know about the Bima seat. They would know about the different races. They had several different races there every couple of years at Corinth. And the Bima seat was this large platform. And that's where the judges would sit. And when the runner or the racer that won, he would come up to that Bima seat and receive his wreath. That's basically what

5:17they get. Some wreath they put around their head and eventually would dry up. But when we come before the judgment seat of Christ, it's more related to receiving crowns that are everlasting. Now, I'm not talking about salvation here. I'm talking about our service and I'm talking about our walk with God throughout our life. And you know, you can look at many different examples in the Bible. You can look at Christians and other people who started off well, but never finished. And then there's others who started off well and strove and continued and finished. Paul was one of them. He said, I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. And we see others. But I want us to look this morning at three

6:19principles that will lead us to finish well. This isn't just to finish college or to finish the semester. This is talking about finishing life. Whether we go in the rapture or whether God takes us in death. Here are three areas, three principles. First of all, number one, look at verse 24. For you know, not that they which run in a race run what all. In other words, here's the first principle. Don't quit. I know that's a tough one. That's too big word you got to write down. Don't quit. And you think about that. Most people when they start off, whether it's a race, whether it's a new semester, whether it's a new ministry,

7:25whether it's a marriage, they don't plan to quit. At least I don't think they would. I think most people who, and probably most of you have been involved in some kind of maybe sports or competition or maybe with instruments or singing, whatever we had to find arts here a couple of weeks ago. And so when you prepare, you're not preparing to fail. You're preparing to finish. And so in order to do that, we can't quit. Now, first thing, don't quit because of adversity. Don't quit because of adversity. Any race or competition you enter, there will be adversity. I think of some of the longer runs, the marathons or the longer events, the mile run,

8:29or the 1500 meters, or even more than that. But you know what's interesting is that sometimes there is adversity, sometimes a runner may stumble and fall. But many times they get right back up, they keep going. And then sometimes they get fatigued, they get tired. And if any of you've ever been in long distance running, you know that what they're waiting for is the second wind. It's like all of a sudden the body gives you that second burst of energy. And you know, same thing here in college, in classes, you just got done with midterms. And for some of you, maybe that was difficult, challenging. Plus you probably had some papers do and different projects and so forth. And you might be tired. And that's the worst time to make a

9:33decision. Don't quit when you're tired. Don't change directions or make a major decision when you're tired. A lot of times when you're running, I remember when we started soccer practice in Bible college. And all we seem to do the first week or so is just run. And I don't like to run. Okay, especially now. Now back then I was a lot skinnier. Okay. And but I hated running, but you know, it was an amazing thing. We'd start off, we'd run six laps around the soccer field and so forth. But I noticed after about a week or so, the soreness was gone. And the running was so much easier. Why? Because we were getting in shape. We were developing. And

10:38I found out I had muscles. I never knew I had when I went out for soccer. It was amazing. But here's the thing, adversity will come. Difficulties, challenges. Some of you may have some challenges right now and it may not be related to academics. It could be related to a lot of other things. It could be things at home. It could be troubles or could be your finances. Who knows? But that's not the time to quit. Secondly, well, let me give you an example here. Well, let me go on. I already gave you the example. I'm looking at notes here. I can't read. So that's good. Okay. Look at the second thing. Don't quit because others quit. Now think about this. Don't quit because others quit. Maybe you have a roommate, a sweet mate, maybe you have a

11:41friend and they're thinking about quitting, which I hope they won't. But if they quit, don't you quit? Can you imagine when certain people in the Bible that quit, others did not and as a result, there was a victory. I think of two shoe salesmen. They were both sent to the same country. The first salesman wanted to quit. In fact, he said, I'm quitting. Nobody here wears shoes. They all go barefoot. There's no market to sell shoes. The other shoe salesman, he called back to the company. He says, send more shoes. Nobody here wears shoes. What was the difference? Well,

12:48one gave up because he thought nobody buys shoes. The other one thought, man, this is a banner place. Man, I can sell thousands of shoes. The difference was the one gave up. The other one didn't quit. Think about this. Think about Joshua and Caleb. Now they were two of the 12 spies that went into the Promised Land. Remember this? And they came back. And 10 of them basically said, oh, yeah, there's big clumps of grapes there and there's all kinds of milk and honey flowing from the country. That's because there's big people there too. There's giants. And we're like grasshoppers. And they were all discouraged. In fact, they discouraged the people. But then Joshua and Caleb got up. And in numbers 14, in verse 6, Joshua, the son of none,

13:51and Caleb, the son of Jifuna, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. And they spank onto all the company of the children of Israel saying, the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. Well, the other one has told them that. But I love what they said in verse 9. Only rebel not against the Lord. Neither fear the people of the land for they are bred for us. Their defences departed from them and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. I love that little statement. For they are bred to us. Let me give it to you in English vernacular. This is not necessarily maybe in the Hebrew, but here's what he's basically saying. We can eat them up like biscuits and honey. That's

14:54what he was saying. We can go in and take them out. Now, did they want to quit because the others wanted to? No. And by the way, who were the only two that ended up going into that promise land 40 years later? Joshua and Caleb. Now, here's the thing. Don't quit because somebody else quits. You're going to have people say, well, we tried, but it can't be done. Have you ever heard people say that? We've tried, but it can't be done. I think of David. Remember David? I mean, his dad sends him to the front lines and he's excited. I'm sure to see the battle. And he's probably thinking, man, they're going to whip them Philistines and it's going to be great. And he gets there and nobody wants to go fight the giant. In fact, they've all given up.

15:59And David says, what's going on here? Guys, how come somebody's not out there fighting the giant? And of course, his big brother comes along and says, what are you doing here, Runt? Who's back there taking care of those sheep? I know the naughtiness of your heart while you're here. David says, what? Is there not a cause? By the way, he was there because his dad sent him. But here's the thing. David says, is there not a cause? 40 days, all those soldiers of the Israelites had an opportunity to volunteer to go fight him. Nobody would. They all gave up. They were terrified. They were scared. And David said, oh, I'll go fight him. Now, he wasn't, I don't think he was cocky about it. I think he was confident because God would be the one who would deliver the giant into his hand. And he did. And he became the hero. And I don't think that was David's intention. He just didn't like the fact

17:04that here's a Philistine Gentile defying the armies of the God of Israel. Yeah, man, he went out. And he fired that sling shot. It says it hit him right in the forehead. Last thing Goliath probably thought was that enter my mind before. And then he went down. David didn't have any other weapons. So he took Goliath's own sword, chopped his head off, lifted it up. About that time, those Philistine generals said, listen, when they got some shepherd boy coming out there, taking care of their work, we need to get out of here. And he left. The victory was one. Why? Because David wasn't willing to quit. He wasn't willing to quit because others quit. Some will say, well, soul winning doesn't

18:05work anymore. You know what? Soul winning doesn't work anymore unless you go soul winning. Oh, that's a novel thought. Nobody uses the King James Bible anymore. Really? I think we're using it right now. You know what it is? Some people don't want to work and study. So they look for the easiest out. Don't do that. Don't quit. God's given us a wonderful book and He's given us a wonderful preserved book in the English language, our King James Bible. And somebody says, well, the words are difficult. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Boy, that's a tough one. You know? Yeah, there's probably some tough passages, but if you read them in other versions, they probably need to be just as tough too. The thing is, don't quit on what God

19:12has blessed for over 400 years. Or some of you're going to say, well, these projects are too hard and I'm behind anyway, so I'm just quitting. Don't quit. Man up. Woman up. Or whatever you want to say. But finish. Don't quit. Get caught up. Say, man, man, I got this project coming up and I haven't even started on it and it's a big one. All right. Well, then start on it. Oh, you say, but I got so many different classes and all these teachers, they want, they give us all these things like theirs is the only class that they have. Look, we've all been to Bible college, Brother Bird, did you come here? You did, didn't you? Did you have some of these assignments? Did you get through them? You didn't quit, did you? No, that's why he's a doctor now. Because you didn't quit. You think about it. You can get it done. By the way, there have been

20:27those who have quit. But don't even remember those. You remember the ones who finish, the ones who are out now serving God after they got their education. So, by the way, welcome to Bible college. This isn't high school. Mama's not going to hold your hand. Daddy's not going to help you with your homework. You have to do it. Through God's grace and power, don't quit. Thirdly, don't quit because of past failures. Now, there's anybody here who's never had total complete success. We've all had failed failures. Whether we lost a race or whether we lost a game, whether we failed in a class,

21:32we failed a test. You know what I'm trying to encourage students, let me tell you this. If you bombed and failed your midterm, does that mean you lose your salvation? Okay, so you failed a test. Brother, I've failed three or four in the same class. Well, make it up in some other way then. But here's the thing. Don't quit. Don't quit because you've had failures. Think about Abraham. Well, let me back up even before Abraham. I wonder how many years it would have taken to get an electric light bulb that worked if Edison would have stopped experimenting with different filaments after his 999th try. That's right. 999. I think it was his thousands or more

22:40than he finally found one that worked. What happened? He didn't quit. That's why we've got lights today. Now we've got all kinds of LEDs and all kinds of things. Think about Abraham. You know, before Abraham had the great victory with Isaac, think about this. He failed in his faith a couple times too. But he didn't quit. And God didn't quit on him. Samson, he fell morally. He did everything opposite of what he should have done as a judge. But even in his death, he did not quit. And he had more at his death that he destroyed of the Philistines than in his lifetime. I remember my first winter retreat as a youth pastor. This is up in Reno, Nevada. And the snow was deep. And it was a whole series of failures. I mean, we got up to the camp and there's like

23:48three, four foot of snow that has been falling. Okay. And they only had one cabin we could use. No heat. It just had a fireplace. And I've got, you know, all these teenagers, probably about, I think we had about 20 or maybe 30. And then we, you know, we're looking forward to supper. Okay. And we were going to bring ground beef up to make sloppy joes. Well, guess what? We left the meat in Reno. So somebody had to drive all the way back down to Reno, drive back up into the snowstorm so we could eat dinner. And then I really blew it because there was a young man in the youth group and he had two of his unsafe friends there. And they were doing some things that I got really upset. And I lost my temper. I mean, I lost it. I failed as a youth pastor. I failed those boys.

24:56In fact, the one who was coming to our youth group never came back. And it was me. It was on me. And God taught me something. He taught me James 1, 19 and 20. Wherefore might be love at brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And I learned something that day. And I'm not saying my temper was perfect after that. But I learned some things. God taught me some things. And sometimes we learn more through failure than we do through success. So don't think, man, I'm bombing it. I'm not doing well. Everything's going wrong. Don't quit. The devil's going to want you to feel like a failure.

25:56I got news for you. They all failed. I mean, look at Peter. Peter failed. Did he not? He failed a lot of times. I think about Peter when he walked down the water. He was doing great. But then he started to sink. Remember that? Peter said, Lord, I won't leave you. I won't deny you before the night was over. He denied Jesus three times. And I think he was ready to quit. In fact, I know he was. From what it says, he was going to go back fishing. And Jesus, what did he do? He stopped them. He says, I'm not done with you, Peter. Okay, you failed. But Peter learned from the failure. And then, fourthly, don't quit because it didn't go your way.

26:57I think of Jonah. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were the arch enemies of Israel. And God told Jonah to go there and preach to them that they might repent. And Jonah didn't like it. So Jonah quit. Took a ship and went the opposite direction. Finally got thrown into the sea. He figured, well, if I got thrown in the sea, I'll drown. And I won't have to go to Nineveh. But whenever you want to run from God, there's always a whale waiting to eat you up. He swallowed them up, repented. He went into the city and he preached. And guess what? The people repented. Thousands were saved. He was still upset. Why? Because it didn't go his way.

27:59But don't quit because it didn't go your way. Don't quit because maybe you didn't make one of the summer teams that are going out or don't quit because you lost your job or don't quit because you just didn't do well. Because the devil is going to get you thinking and questioning what God's called you to. That leads us to the second thing. Don't quit. Second of all, keep your eyes on the goal. Keep your eyes on the goal. Look at the last part of verse 24. It says, but one receive at the price, so run that ye may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we and incorruptible. Notice he says, run to win the prize. What's the prize for us to finish? And please the Lord. When a runner runs the race, he's got his eye on one thing. He's got his

29:06eye on the goal to win. He's got his eye on the prize. So run, we run to obtain the prize. That word obtain means to lay hold of, to obtain, to make it our own, okay, to appropriate or to seize upon it. So run to win. Run to win. God has called you and God has saved us not to be losers, but to be winners, to be champions. Secondly, run with your eye on the goal. The worst thing that can happen to a runner is if he takes his eye off the goal and he's looking at those around him, especially in a short race like a hundred yard dash, a lot of races were lost because the leader turned for a moment. And that may have caused him to stumble or it may have caused somebody else

30:10to bypass him because he wasn't focused on the goal. So run with your eye on the goal. By the way, small goals, one, lead to large goals, one. You know, you look at that syllabus at the beginning of the semester and you say, there's no way I'm going to get this all done, all right? Well, don't try to get it all done in one scoop. Look at that and say, okay, here's what I need to do. I need to win here. I need to get this done and this done and this done. And by the way, get to the end of the semester. Guess what? You got it all done. So you didn't win just small win wins. You won a big one. Pass the class or some of you seniors you're getting ready to graduate. You're almost done. Don't get lazy. Don't get, you know, slacking off. Finish strong. Finish strong.

31:11Come on. Secondly, don't get sidetracked from the race. Keep your eye on eternal goals. Now, second Corinthians 4, 16 through 18, it says, for which cause we faint not, but though an outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is far more exceeding, worketh us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. You know, you look at the things around us and these are all temporal. What really counts is what's eternal. What can't be seen?

32:13Heaven. And think about heaven. It's going to be awesome. Think about the fact that one day we will be with our savior face to face. We'll be able to fellowship. We'll be able to walk with him for eternity. So don't get sidetracked. God has a purpose for each of our lives and he will guide you along. And I'll be honest with you, it's an awesome journey because, man, I never knew I would be where I'm at when I graduated from college. I had certain things I thought I was going to do, but God guided me through my life and ministry and I'm loving it. I'm loving being here. And tormenting you students, it's just wonderful. But remember what the ultimate prize and goal is. It isn't just a finished college, it isn't just to go into the ministry or to go serve where God has placed you, but

33:18there's an ultimate goal. And Romans 8, 29 gives us that. First of all in verse 28 he says, we know that verse, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. So what's his purpose? Well, verse 29, for whom he did for no, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That's the ultimate goal. That's the ultimate goal. That we would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and how he does that in your life and my life is going to be totally different. There are going to be some things that will be similar, but he is wanting to accomplish that. That's the ultimate goal. So keep your eye on the eternal goals. Reach for the goal. Reach for the goal. Look at what he says here. He says, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown.

34:21Paul said it like this in Philippians 3, he says, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do for getting those things which are past and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, Paul saying, Christ apprehended me and saved me and I am going for what he apprehended me for. And part of that, ultimately, is that we would be conformed to the Savior. But just think about it. You know, sometimes people in the world, they don't understand, they don't have purpose. Why?

35:24Because they don't have the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he has a purpose for us. So don't quit. Don't get your eye off the goal. Now, that requires discipline. Notice the word temperate there. They're temperate and all things. That means to be in self-control, to govern yourself, to have discipline. You know, it takes discipline to sometimes leave your friends and go to the library and do study. And some of you don't get your assignments done because you're wanting to spend time with your friends and that's great, but you have to have priorities. You have to discipline yourself to sit down and study. You have to discipline yourself to read and stay awake when you read.

36:25Now, when the athletes trained back in Greek times, they trained, they gave up so many things. They gave up the wine, the food, they gave up fleshly indulgences, why? So that they could win the race. It was in order to master and discipline their bodies to be successful. There are disciplines for us in the Christian life. Simple things. They're not hard. Disciplining and reading and studying the word of God. Discipline in prayer. Discipline in our walk daily, our conversation, our yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. But it does require focus. Now, they do it, as it says there in the text, to obtain a corruptible crown, we do it to obtain an incorruptible crown. In other words, we're living in our goal should be

37:31towards eternity in the future. We mentioned about Peter walking on the water. As long as he had his eyes focused on Christ, he was doing fine. But he may have turned around to wave at his friends or something, and he lost track of where Jesus was. And then he saw the waves and the wind, and he's probably thinking, what am I doing out here? And he begins to sink until Jesus pulled him up when he cried out to him. So don't quit. Keep your eye on the goal, and then last thing, remember your purpose. Remember your purpose. Very simple. Stay the course. Look what Paul says there in verse 26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beareth the

38:32heir, or beateth the heir. This first statement here, he doesn't run uncertainly. In other words, he had a direction to go. Now, can you imagine a runner who doesn't run on the track, or he doesn't run the route he's supposed to run in the marathon, he's going to be disqualified. And so we have to keep our course. We have to stay the course based upon the purpose for why we're doing what we're doing. He didn't run uncertainly. In the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tanzanian runner, Stephen John Stephen Akari was the last runner to finish the marathon. He came in an hour and a half after the winner had crossed the finish line. But during that, he had suffered adverse things. He

39:37had fallen. He had skinned his leg. He had hurt his knee, and it was bloodied and bandaged as he entered the stadium. And he finished. And when he finished, those that were left there, they saw what was going on. And they cheered him on and gave him a standing ovation as he finished the race, even though he didn't win. But he finished. And he was asked afterwards, you knew you weren't going to win. So why did you suffer all that agony to finish? And to keep on going? He says, you don't understand. My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start a race. They sent me to finish it. God didn't send you here to West Coast Baptist College, and God didn't work in your life

40:40up to this point for you to quit, but to finish. I don't know what he wants to finish in your life. And you may not know the full picture yet, but don't forget the purpose of why you're here. Fight for that purpose. He said, I don't beat the air, but I have a purpose in the punches I throw. And what was what was Paul's purpose? What was his goal? He says, I don't want to be a cast away. He's not talking about losing salvation there, but he's talking about, I don't want to be no good. I don't want to be a failure in the ministry. I want to finish for what God called me to do. And young people, I would challenge you today. Don't quit. Don't quit. Keep your eye on the goal. And remember your purpose. If you do that, you can finish by God's grace and power.