Here's How to Finish Well, Part 2

Most of as few January is the month designated to a fresh start. It represents beginning something new, making resolutions, and setting goals. And yet some of us find ourselves in the golden years. We're thinking about the last chapter of our lives, trying to finish well. In this final lesson, we'll examine the words of the Apostle Paul, recorded in the final chapter of Ephesians.

Paul was an exemplary model for finishing well. Jesus, the very thought of you with sweetness fills our breast, but greater far your face to see, and in your presence, rest. Our dear Father, we come today grateful for the rest that there is in Christ. Our souls for a number of years hit life like a wave crashing against a shoreline. And our lives were in tumult and disarray and confusion and chaos.

And then you came. And you brought us forgiveness and relief, and you introduced us to a wonderful four-letter word that has become for us a driving force in life—rest. Thank you for the peace that accompanies this rest. Thank you for the freedom from worry that you bring as we rest in you. Thank you for carrying the weight that we used to carry on our old shoulders, for giving us literally thousands of promises that become ours to live with and to grow in and to be comforted by. There's no way I can know the needs on a gathering of this size, filling this room, and on into an overflow room.

I couldn't if I tried. But you have the ability, Father, being who you are, to know each need of each heart, each concern in each mind. And we pause and relieve ourselves of those things that have strained and worried us long enough.

We give them over to you now. In doing so, we allow the Spirit of God to plow the soil of our souls so the seed can be sown and take root and be watered in time so as to produce a hundredfold. Thank you, Father, for the anticipation of our new church home, but we realize, being realists, there's no magic there.

Nothing really changes about us because we move a mile away. We bring ourselves with us. So I pray that in the transition of time that you would give us a harmonious relationship with one another. You would allow us to draw in the anchors of past offenses and hurts and give us the courage and the faith to forgive whoever may have offended. I pray also that you will meet the financial needs of this congregation through the giving of your people. We have no one else to call on but you, Lord, and you are the one who can prompt the generosity needed so that needs are met, bills are paid, and the funds are filled that are necessary for us to continue ministry. We rest in you for this provision, and now as we have the pleasure of giving, listen to our laughter, Lord.

It comes from deep within our hearts as we give with hilarity, deep down joy, albeit silent. We commit these few moments resting in you as we are again lost in wonder and love and praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Here's Paul.

I mean this respectfully. Paul is an old 65, 66. He calls himself in Philemon, verse 9, Paul the aged. He bore the marks of a stoning more than one whipping 39 stripes.

Can you imagine? Shipwrecked in the deep, here is a man who knew what it was to stumble along, severely crippled from the blows of his past. But he's now sitting in a dungeon, writing a friend named Timothy, who is some 30 years younger than he, and the apostle is encouraging him to stand firm. Look at these closing remarks of 2 Timothy 4, verse 6. 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.

Isn't that great? In fact, the object of each one of those phrases appears at the beginning in the original. The good fight I have fought, the course I have finished, the faith I have kept. The plan that God laid in front of me is the plan I've carried out with no plans of taking it easy. My plan is to finish as strong as I began. In the future, verse 8, 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, here's where we come in the picture, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Here's Paul, still mentoring, still ministering, still motivating younger Timothy to stir up the gift within him and to get the job done for the cause of Christ.

He finished well. Question, how do you do it? How do you do it?

We've got an Enoch on record who walked with God 300 years. How do you do that? We've got a Moses who does his best work from 80 to 120.

How do you do that? What's the secret of a Caleb at age 85 tightening a cinch in his belt saying, send me the mountain and let me take on the giants? And while I'm asking, how in the world does a man who has been beaten to the end of his life say at the end, I have fought a good fight, I've finished it, I've kept the faith.

Now Timothy, step up. The answer is found in the last seven verses of Ephesians chapter 6. And if I read this passage correctly on how to finish well, I find four guidelines, or if you like the word better, directions for finishing well. The first of the four beginning at verse 18 down to the early part of 19 is stay strong in prayer. People who stay strong in prayer finish well. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And by the way, pray for me. Staying strong in prayer, some have taught that there aren't really six pieces of armor, there are seven. Remember the last time we were together we talked about the belt and the breastplate and the boots and the shield and the helmet and the sword?

Perhaps we should have said there's another piece. John Bunyan writing in his immortal work called it all prayer with a hyphen. Add all prayer to the wielding of the shield or to the breastplate that protects you. All prayer. There's a third stanza that comes from an old gospel song the church sang for many years.

It goes back 150 years to a man named Duffield who wrote those words. When I quote them, some of you will remember. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you.

You dare not trust your own. Listen to this line. Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.

Where duty calls or danger be never wanting there. Put each piece on with prayer. Before the helmet, pray.

When strapping on the breastplate, pray. When taking the shield of faith, pray. When wielding the sword of the spirit, the prema of God, the saying of God, pray. Pray. The more you study this 18th verse, the more one word stands out. All, all, all, all. Spirit-directed prayer, consistent, persistent prayer, staying on the alert on our knees. Widespread prayer, all the saints, specific intercessory prayer. Pray for me, says the Apostle Paul. Let me, before we move to the next tip, let me mention something to two groups who are hearing me right now. And I pick this age arbitrarily.

There's no reason I choose it. I want to speak to you who are in your 70s or older. One of the greatest disciplines you can sustain is prayer. You may not have the energy you used to have. You may not have the vision you used to have. You may not even have what you would call the determination. My folks used to call it spitherengtem. Where did that come from?

Maybe you don't feel the spitherengtem that you used to have. But I want to tell you, you have prayer as a friend. Billy Graham says that the secret of his power has never been in his skills or gifts or the organization of his committees or team or even the location of the crusades. It has rested in the heart of one great older woman who has prayed for him throughout his years of ministry. I plead with you as an older saint to do us who are younger a favor. Pray. Spend those days you used to spend in your work or pursuing whatever may have been your dream.

Spend those days, those months, praying. I love to see prayer lists of older saints. And I'm always rejuvenated when I see my name on it.

There's something about knowing this saint is remembering me. Now I'll speak to a second group. All of you who are parents, the easiest discipline to neglect is prayer for our children. I encourage you to keep it fresh and current.

I encourage you to come up with a fresh list every month. Put their names before you, put alongside those names specific petitions and intercede for your children by name. As they're learning to walk, as they're reaching out beyond the home to choose their friends, as they're determining their direction and decisions for life, as they learn to drive, you automatically pray then and pray for others on the highway as they're learning to drive. As they go off to school, as they make their way on their own, as they get older to the point where you no longer have the right to correct them or warn them, you pray. You pray your warnings. You pray your corrections.

You name them before the Lord. Your children will be enhanced in their lives by that kind of prayer with perseverance. Furthermore, you'll finish well. Prayer will keep you engaged in what is happening. It will focus your time and energy on what God is doing. It'll get your eyes off yourself. It'll keep you from throwing so many pity parties. It'll remind you that life is to be spent on the positive side, not the negatives. Prayer never leaves me negative.

It always makes me positive. It gives me hope to go on, and so it will be for you. Stay strong in prayer.

You'll finish well. Here's the second. Be bold in courage. Verses 19 and 20. Be bold in courage. Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, he says again, as I ought to speak. Now, before we analyze what Paul wrote, stop and remember where Paul was.

Remember? He's under arrest. It isn't fair that they held him for two years.

It isn't right that they stuck him in that place and chained a Roman guard to him for those two years, but of course, never a complaint. There's not even a request that you would please ask the Lord to heal the raw, rubbed sores on my ankles and on my wrists from the manacles. He doesn't say, pray that I'll be freed from this unfair arrest.

His eyes are not on himself. What does he pray for? He says there are needs greater than these physical needs. I need to be bold. I need to have courage as I speak the gospel. That's my calling, that I would be bold and courageous to open my mouth and make the gospel known as I ought to do. See how verse 20 ends, as I ought to speak. You say, wait a minute, this is Paul. You're trying to tell me he wasn't bold? Wake up, Swindoll, this is the apostle Paul.

I mean, if anybody was courageous, Paul, really? Maybe you know something we don't know. He says he's not. Well, he's just trying to be humble.

Well, let's check. Let's see if he's trying to be humble. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 2. Let's see if this is really Paul or if he's jerking us around. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he's a little younger when he wrote this to Corinth, verse 1 of chapter 2.

Some of you are getting so old, you're not even turning. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. What are we doing here? 1 Corinthians chapter, you're kind of like, I guess he'll read it in a minute.

Return, turn. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Doesn't sound too nervous to me. Read the next verse. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

Say what? I checked it in the Greek. I have preached this passage on a number of occasions on the humanity of the apostle, and just like us, he came to Corinth in weakness and fear and trembling. You know why?

Figure it out. He had just been to Athens, and he left with his tail between his legs. No church was ever established in Athens. He met all those eggheads on the Areopagus, and there was no interest in the gospel, and he left with a few people saying, let me listen to him sometime. And he comes to Corinth, which is a vast city of Gentiles. He's a Jew raised apart from Gentile. He's a Pharisee in his past, out of Tarsus where they make tents out of sheep's wool. And he stepped into the streets of fast Corinth, which is a little bit like moving from Toadsock, Arkansas, to Los Angeles.

And you move out into the real world, and you step into a place where the traffic is fast and the lifestyle is fast, and everything is moving fast, and you find yourself quarreling in doubt and disbelief and suddenly you're in the synagogue preaching and you're standing there and your knees are knocking, or you're a liar. The apostle says, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message was not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That's Paul. We have this weird idea that the man never, ever was down. In the beginning of the second letter of Corinth, he said, I despaired even of life. I think he was given to depression.

I think the pain in his body at times was so strong, he wished he could just check out. That's why in Ephesians chapter 6, he says, pray for me that I have the courage to speak what I ought to speak. You know what's great to see in older people?

The boldness to speak for Christ. I love it. I know when you get older, you start thinking, well, I need to pull the blinds and put another lock on the door and not bother people. I know you could get crotchety.

You don't want to do that. Somebody said, Lord, you know better than I know that I'm growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject in every occasion. Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all. But you know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end of life. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details. Give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pains and help them endure them patiently, and on and on the poet goes. Boldness, not busyness. We need you bold and old. The youth of today long for it. You say, Chuck, wait a minute. The youth of today is so with it they don't even wait. I know what I'm talking about here. I run a seminary where I see men and women in their 20s and 30s and 40s on the edge of their seat when people like Donald Campbell, age 74, Howie Hendricks, past 75, J. Dwight Pentecost, past 80, John F. Walford, past 90, stand to preach.

And the notebooks are opened and the kids are on the edge of their seat, including this kid. And we're writing it down as fast as we can write it down because it's the wisest stuff we've heard this month. They're old and they're bold, and they're giving the truth. You're old, your enemy is telling you you're over it.

Get past it. They don't care. Yes, we do. Oh, yes, we do. The apostle says, pray for me that I would be bold, and I'm an ambassador in chains that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Let me tell you something. If the apostle Paul ought to speak boldly at his age, so should you and I. Not tactlessly, not offensively, boldly. You've lived long enough to be heard.

You have earned the right to be heard. I read back into Exodus chapter 32. Won't take the time to turn. I found Moses coming down from the mountain, okay?

He's now past 80. He's coming down with the tablets. Hendricks said the other day, if he came down today, it would be tablets of aspirin and Tylenol. But in these days, he's coming down with the tablets of stone, and he sees the people of the Hebrews dancing in front of this golden calf, and he is enraged, and he slams the tablets down, and he takes them on with both fists. He confronts Aaron and says, what happened? Aaron says, oh, no, you know these people are evil. I mean, they just threw all this gold in a pot, and out came this calf. It's in the text.

That's what it says. Moses goes, get a life, Aaron. He confronts Aaron. He confronts the people. He has them drink after grinding up this golden calf and pouring it in the water.

He makes them drink it. He says, you will never do this again before the living God. This is a man in his 80s confronting the Hebrews in disobedience, and there's not a person in the group to take an issue with him because he's bold, standing for what is right. You never get so old that you're not that important, and you'll finish well if you stay bold in courage.

Quit talking yourself out of speaking up for Christ. Do it. Do it.

Do it. Bold counsel coming from Moses, another model of aging gracefully. You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll titled this final message in our study of Ephesians, Here's How to Finish Well. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. There's one more program devoted to Paul's letter, and we urge you to join us again next time. And then remember that Chuck will begin a brand new comprehensive study through the New Testament book of Matthew. This is the first time in Chuck's preaching ministry that he's presented a series in Matthew, and we're confident your love for Jesus will intensify as you walk alongside him from his birth in Bethlehem to his Great Commission. By now, you've likely heard me mention Chuck's commentary on Matthew, which was recently released. Actually, because of its scope, the commentary comes in two hardbound volumes, and they're ready for purchase right now. These books will serve as a natural complement to what you're hearing on Insight for Living in the weeks and months ahead. To purchase Swindoll's Living Insights commentary for Matthew, go to insight.org slash store.

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