The Last Dance: Instructions on How to Die Well - Part B

Today's the reset button. After today, things can be different.

Remember, His mercies are new every morning. So from now on, you fight. From now on, you run. From now on, you are faithful to the truth.

From now on, you reach out to people and forgive and make friends or keep them. From now on, present circumstances and day-to-day worries can distract you from eternity. But it's important to keep your eyes fixed on Heaven.

Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can finish your race of faith well and leave an eternal impact. Before we begin, we want to let you know about an amazing opportunity you have to visit the sites where the prophets and kings in the Bible heard from God. Lenya and I are taking a group to Israel in 2022, and we want to invite you to join us. You'll visit places like Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb. And that's just a fly-by look at the itinerary. Find out more about the trip at InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Thanks, Skip.

Now, here's a resource that will give you more insight into God's character and nature by immersing you in His Word every day. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the reevaluation of priorities, life choices, and the path forward. This illuminates the question, what do I want out of life? Here's Skip Heitzig with some thoughts on priorities.

Don't we all want the life with a happy ending? A life marked by growth, a life marked by productivity and refreshment, and God's touch of blessing and prosperity and maturity upon it. Here's our special offer for this month for those who support this media outreach. The Daily God Book by Skip Heitzig, plus playlist, eight CD messages on significant Psalms. Start 2022 with Skip's Daily God Book. And they're both our way of thanking you when you give $35 or more today to help more people connect with God's Word. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com. Now, here's another playlist sample from Skip. When you pursue Him, when you pursue holiness, happiness tags along.

Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Okay, let's dive into today's teaching. We'll be in 2 Timothy Chapter 4 as Skip Heitzig begins the study. This man spent his entire 30-year spiritual ministry career answering the question, what does God want me to do? That's his passion.

That's why he can say, I'm done. Because he lived that way. He made the decision to be faithful.

Wouldn't it be great to look back over your life with absolutely no regrets, no disappointments, no misgiving, no sense of unfulfillment, nothing left undone. If you want that, then decide today that faithfulness is going to be your aim. Now, we read verse 7. Let me give it to you in the original language.

In the original language, the object is placed first for emphasis, the verb is placed second. So it literally reads, the good fight I have fought, the race I have finished, the faith I have kept. Why?

Because Paul looked at his life on those three tracks. I'm a soldier, I'm a runner, I'm a steward. And in all three categories, it's good. I'm good. No regrets.

Now let's just kind of dig through those just a little bit quickly. I have fought the good fight. It's a very descriptive language. It's the language of a soldier. Understand, you are in a fight.

You are in a fight. It's a very strong language even in English to say, I have fought the good fight. In Greek, it's even more emphatic. Remember the word I told you a few weeks ago, agonizomai?

It's used here. And listen to how it's written in the original. I have agonizomied the agon. I have agonized the agony.

That's his life. I have fought the good fight. This is war. The Christian life is not a playground, it's a battleground. You're a soldier, not a sightseer. You gave your life to Christ, peace, joy, forgiveness, and then you're in the army.

You're conscripted. Now I'm going to read to you a section of scripture. I'm going to read to you 2 Corinthians 11, not the chapter, just a couple of verses. But I'm reading it to you in a different translation called The Message by Eugene Peterson.

This is Paul talking about his past life with a little more detail. He says, I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count. I've been at death's door time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews' 39 lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times.

I've never been beaten with rods once. Pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and storm, sea storm, betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labor. Many a long and lonely night without sleep.

Many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. That sound like a fight to you? It does to me. That's Paul's life. So you know what he means when he says, my whole life has been a burnt offering and now this is where I get to make it a drink offering to the Lord. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. And just to note about that first one, I fought the good fight. I've seen many Christians give up the fight. I've seen many pastors quit the fight. Just, I don't want to fight, man. I don't want the battle anymore.

And so, so they quit. Here's what you need to know if you're thinking that way. Notice what it's called. Not just a fight. It's the good fight. It's the good fight. It means noble.

It means distinguished. If you are looking for a cause that is a worthy cause, more worthy than any political agenda, any monetary agenda, it's this cause. It is a good fight. It's a good fight. You don't come to the end of it and lick your wounds because it's been so hard. It's good.

It's a good fight. Then he says, I've finished the race. Now that's Paul's going back to the Olympics. He's the runner in the Olympics. I've stayed the course. A lot of people start the race.

They don't finish it. Paul's aim was always to finish the race. In fact, I've always loved when he came to Ephesus. He was going to Jerusalem. He stops off at Ephesus. He says to the leaders of Ephesus, and I'm going to paraphrase it, you know, everywhere I go, people tell me I'm going to get beat up and maybe even killed when I go to Jerusalem. And then he said this, but none of these things move me.

Nor do I count my life dear unto myself that I might finish my race with joy. How do you stop a guy like that? You don't. You let him run. And he ran all the way to the end. Then he said, I've kept the faith. Now he sees himself as a steward, and he's a steward fulfilling the sacred trust from God. Notice it's not called just faith, but the faith. Paul didn't say, I've kept faith, man. He says, I've kept the faith. And when you ever see the definite article before faith, it's speaking about a particular doctrinal stand. It is the body of Christian belief, the faith.

It's like Jude, verse 3. The faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. That's the faith. Paul didn't just preach it.

He guarded it. And I see that as the role of a pastor. I'm not just a preacher.

I also am to guard the faith, guard the truth, defend the faith, put up a good fight for the faith. And when people are ditching Bible inspiration and source of truth, I want to get in that fight. And this is why it's always a pet peeve for me when it comes to preaching. Whenever people misinterpret the Bible or use it to serve their own purposes or wrongly teach it, I get upset at that. I don't like it when preachers stand in pulpits and just read a Bible verse, but you know, it seems like the method is read the text, depart from the text, and never return to the text. That's their homiletic method. Just throw out a Bible verse so people think, oh, this is a church, so I can kind of get away with saying my own opinion.

Paul preached the text, taught the text, guarded the text. And I cannot predict what happens in the next generation, but I can say I will faithfully pass down with integrity hopefully the truth to the next generation. Now, I can't think of any better way to live and die than that.

That's a way to leave this world. You know, most people when they think about death, they only think about the physical part of death. Will it hurt? Yeah, it might.

For most people, it's not pleasant. I mean, it's been going on for thousands of years. We can study it pretty easily because it happens all the time. So yeah, it might. But will it be a lingering disease? It might. Will it be COVID? Will I die from COVID? You might. But God will take you out whatever way God wants to take you out.

You don't have to be afraid of it. I think it's better that we start looking at death not in terms of will it hurt or any physicality, but in terms of opportunity. Because when you die, the opportunity is over. Right now you can witness to people. Right now you can teach Bible lessons and preach sermons. Right now you can share with your family how to get to heaven.

In heaven you won't do that. That opportunity is gone forever. So this is the time of opportunity. So get busy. Get active. Get in the fight. Get on the track.

Run the race. I've told you before, it's been a while, but about a woman who lived in the Midwest named Nancy. Nancy Jones was her name. She was a spinster, a widow. She didn't do much. She didn't get out much. She just sort of stayed at home. People knew she lived, but they didn't know anything about her because she just didn't do anything.

She didn't involve herself in the community at all. Well, she died. And the newspaper was tasked with writing not just an obituary, but something they could put on her gravestone. So nobody knew Nancy Jones, so they gave it to the sports editor to write something for her.

So I hear that there's a tombstone somewhere back there that says this. Here lies the bones of Nancy Jones. Her life had held no terrors. She lived an old maid.

She died an old maid. No hits. No runs.

No errors. I don't mind making errors as long as I can make a few hits and runs. Amen? So you only do that by deciding, I'm not going to stay back, locked down. I'm going to get busy for His glory and live my life, a life well lived. So face the inevitable. Try to be faithful.

Number three and four, we'll make this quick. Aim at the eventual. Look down the road. Paul does that in verse eight. He pivots from the present, then the past, now the future. Verse eight, all in one verse. Finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and not to me only, but to all who have loved His appearing. If you want to fight well, if you want to run well, if you want to be a good steward of what God has put in your life, then think of the end.

Go all the way there to that day. Now, Paul knows he's not going to get an earthly reward. He knows what's going to happen in a few days, weeks, weeks. He knows that nobody's going to put a crown on his head or a laurel wreath on his head. He knows that his head will be severed from his body soon. But he also knows he's going to get a resurrection body. He also knows that besides a resurrection body, that his Lord is going to reward him.

And he is aiming for one sentence that he wants to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. Aim for the well done.

Aim for the well done. For a soldier to fight well in a battle, the soldier needs to think about the victory parade at the end of the battle. When they would go through Rome to the temple of Jupiter, all the troops would be honored. If you're going to win the battle, that's what the Roman soldier thought of.

If you're in the Olympics, you think of the gold standing on that platform, walking away with the prize. Years ago, Woody Allen had a statement. And every time he made it, people laughed nervously because they understood the truth. He said, I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens. Sorry.

It didn't work that way. You will be there. That appointment, if you're late for every other appointment, you'll keep that one.

You'll be on time. You'll be there when it happens. But for the Christian, it is vastly different. Because our Savior said this, here's the promise, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die. And whoever dies, or whoever lives and believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. You say, well, what does that mean exactly? It means that when you die, you won't be dead long enough to know you died. It'll be instantaneous glory in the presence of God on that day. On that day.

And I love how he writes it. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that day. Imagine this. Us in heaven, He's going to reward us? He's going to give us some crown, some reward? Wait a minute. I mean, just being there is reward. No, but there's more. But wait, there's more. He'll reward you. The Bible talks about those crowns in so many places. When Martin Lloyd-Jones, another one of my heroes of the faith, when he was ill and he was on his deathbed and his family was around him, he said to them, don't pray for healing.

Don't try to hold me back from the glory. Years ago, when I was single and living in a house in Huntington Beach, I had a roommate who had a girlfriend named Barbara. They were talking about marriage and they were then planning their marriage.

They were just so much in love. And I'll never forget one day, Barb said to me, because she was really looking forward to marriage, but she heard at church people talking about Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming soon. And so she turned to me and even gritting her teeth, she goes, I hope Jesus doesn't come back before I can get married. And I remember turning to her and go, did I just hear you say that? Did you really just say what I think you just said? Because obviously you do not understand the reward that is awaiting for you.

I mean, marriage is great, but come on. Rewards in heaven, hello, different level. And it's this view of death that sustains us in life.

And I've discovered something. I believe this to be true. Whenever you see a Christian fail morally, run out of steam, they fall. It's not that they just fell in that moment. They lost sight of the end. That's what happened. They lost sight of the end.

They lost sight of this on that day. So facing inevitable, decide to be faithful, aim at the eventual fourth ingredient to dying well, become more relational. Become more relational. Die with friends around you. Be connected to people.

Restore relationships that are broken. Swallow your pride. Reach out. Ask for forgiveness.

Make peace before it's too late. Verse 9, he writes to Timothy because he's alone. Be diligent to come to me quickly. He longed for his fellowship. He wanted somebody around him. Be diligent to come to me quickly.

For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica, Cretans for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me, his friend, the doctor. Get Mark and bring him with you.

For he is useful to me for ministry. Do you remember Mark? He had a falling out with Mark. First missionary journey, Mark left, went back home, too scared. Gotta go find mama.

He went back home to mama. That never sat well with Paul. There was a rift from that day forward between Mark and Paul, and even between Paul and Mark's uncle Barnabas.

They had to split company, and they did for years. But eventually the text would indicate there was a reconciliation. He's useful to me.

Bring him. We've made peace. Become more relational. I've discovered that as people get older, it's harder for them to make friends.

Sounds odd, but it's true. When we're kids, we're friends with everybody. We pour our hearts out to everybody. We become more guarded. We want to be safe. We've been hurt before. We put up the walls.

We put up the guards. And it's harder. Somebody once said everybody's talking about the miracles of Jesus.

No one talks about Jesus' miracle of having 12 friends in his 30s. Something to be said for that. The early Puritans talked about dying well.

They said everybody should make it an aim in life to die well. And before you say, well, I've already blown it. There's too much water under the bridge. I've gone so far down the road, and I'm much older now. Again, today's the reset button. After today, things can be different.

Remember, his mercies are new every morning. So from now on you fight. From now on you run. From now on you are faithful to the truth. From now on you reach out to people and forgive and make friends or keep them.

From now on. Now, that's really the end of this message, but I want to take you to the end of Paul's life. Paul was in the Mamertine prison.

I told you about that. He's in his second imprisonment. The prison he was in in his second imprisonment was vastly different from his first. In his first imprisonment he was in a house, basically. In his second imprisonment, this letter was written from the Mamertine prison.

Solitary confinement. Mamertine prison was a hole in the ground, in the rock. There was no windows. The only light was above him.

There was a hole above him and they could lower food through a rope. And it was in that setting that the apostle wrote these words with this kind of hope. Soon they would lift him up out of the Mamertine prison. Soon he would stand in the Basilica Julia, a building built by Julius Caesar. There he would be read his final sentence, a death sentence.

I'll let A.T. Robertson, the New Testament scholar, take it from here. The crowds flowed into town. Some were going out. Paul was only a criminal going to be beheaded.

Few, if any, of the crowds would know or care anything about him. At a good place on the road, some miles out, the executioners stopped. The block was laid down. The executioners stood ready, axe in hand. The men stripped Paul, tied him, kneeling upright to the low pillar, which exposed his back and neck. The lectors beat him with rods for the last time. He groaned and bled from his nose and mouth. And then, without a hint of hesitation, the executioner frowned as he swung the blade down swiftly, hitting its mark with a dull thud. And the head of the greatest preacher of the ages rolled upon the ground.

In that moment, the soul of Paul was instantly taken from the imperial city of Rome to the eternal celestial city of heaven. At that moment, he was unshackled. He was unloosed. He was free. He was like, ah, whew. Yes.

That's the way to die. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series now streaming. Now, here's Skip to tell you how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's Word.

You know, we all have a past, a time when we tried to live life on our own terms. The good news is that when you hand your life over to Jesus, He redeems your past, gives you a future full of hope and joy. We want to share that great news with more friends like you all around the world. And you can be a part of that work to change lives. When you give a gift today to keep these messages from God's Word going out, you can help redirect someone's eternal future. Here's how to give. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tomorrow, Skip shares about the unique and diverse family you're a part of as a believer. Right now, no matter what you're going through, dear Christian, you are accepted in heaven. If you have lost your health or you're feeling that loss of health, you are accepted in heaven. If you are excluded by a circle of friends, so what? You have been accepted in heaven. If you've been cast out by your family, you're accepted in heaven. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.