Begin with the End In Mind
by Darrell W. Johns
July 27, 2022 · Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:8, Ecclesiastes 7, Proverbs 14:12, Matthew 6:34, Luke 11:3, Luke 14:25-30, Philippians 3:13-14

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--begin-with-the-end-in-mind
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 8. Really focusing on first phrase, the end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. So I want to talk to you tonight on this theme, begin with the end in mind. God bless you, please be seated. Over the last few weeks, I've been teaching on decision making. I taught on a Wednesday night making excuses or making decisions. And then I taught a two-week series, two weeks on making wise decisions, 10 principles about making wise decisions. And then recently I preached on the subject if the Lord builds the house Sunday before last, and you might remember that Remington mystery house that was built without a plan, without a blueprint, without really any design of what it would look like when it was completed. So this is really not part of any series, but it's in the spirit of those themes. There was a leadership expert who's now passed away, prolific author Stephen Covey. He wrote a book entitled several books, but the book entitled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And the second habit was to begin with the end in mind. And that habit is based on the principle that all things are really created twice. They're created first in your mind, and then they're also created in the physical world. You work it out and actually do what was created in your mind. You begin with the end in mind. But then a long time before before Stephen Covey said that. Seneca, who was a stoic philosopher, wrote a piece on the tranquility of the mind. And in that work, he said, "Let all your efforts be directed to something and let it keep that end in view." This work is dated somewhere between 49 and 62 AD. Now, I met a much less famous person than Seneca or Covey, but his name was Scott. And he was a rafting guide on the Nantahala River in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. I was rafting with the senior class of Jackson College of Ministries. I was the class advisor, if you could believe that, at a very young age. And Tim Norris was the student the the senior class president. And they had raised a lot of money and they had a really great trip and my wife and I got to go along. We came to Atlanta, Georgia and went to Six Flags. And then we went up into the mountains and we went on a rafting trip on the Nantahala River. You may know this, but the Nantahala is a classic southeastern river. It may be the most rafted river in the country. It has mostly class two rapids with one rapid that is a class three at Nantahala Falls. It seems like I remember him saying the water was a little high and maybe that was a class four. It's probably a class eight that day when we went, you know, much worse than normal, I'm sure. It's notable for cold water that's released by a dam about 45°. It's very cold water. I have been in that water before on that rafting trip. So, on this rafting trip, we stopped to take a break and I was talking to Scott. I don't remember his last name, who was our guide. This was a long time ago. And I said, "Scott, I have a question for you. How do you run a rapid if you've never run that rapid before? How do you know how to navigate that rapid?" And I know there are various approaches. I've tried to read a little bit back then there was no real internet. You couldn't read a lot unless you went to the library and checked out books. So, I was a little interested in this in preparation for tonight, but Scott told me the best option. He said, "If you're going to run a rapid you've never been on before, the best thing to do is pull your raft or kayak over to the shore, to the bank, get out, and walk down to the end of the rapid." And he said, "Figure out where you want to come out. And once you know where you want to come out, then you can work your way back to where you want to start." He said, "Because sometimes in a rapid it may look like a certain place is the best place to to enter that rapid, but it may be a dead end. It may not be really the best path." He didn't say path or the route through the rapid. So, you go to the end, you find out where you want to come out, and then you work your way back to the beginning." I I've never forgotten that little conversation standing on the side of the Nantahala River because I I thought to myself that is a lot like life. You need to see where you want to come out. Later I would read Stephen Covey's book to begin with the end in mind. That you need to think about how you want to end your life, and then you need to work backwards to where you are today to know how to live today and tomorrow and every other day between now and then. So, I know that your life is not beginning. We are all somewhere on this journey of life between here and death and heaven, but I want to encourage you to not spend one more day living impulsively not knowing where you want to come out. I want to encourage you to live or begin with the end in mind. Always keep that end in view. But long before Scott or Stephen Covey or Seneca wrote their wise words about begin with the end in mind, the wise man Solomon wrote this in Ecclesiastes 7 and 8. The end of a thing is better than the beginning. Let's read that again. The end of a thing is better than the beginning. And really that second phrase is although it doesn't sound like you're navigating, but it does speak to life, the patient in spirit is better than the proud of spirit. And that brought to my mind another principle of scripture from Proverb from Proverbs 14:12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The way that seems right to the natural mind, to the unregenerated person, it seems right. Remember the book of Judges, everyone did that which was right in their own eyes. But the Bible said, this is another one of those great Proverbs, but the end of the way that seems right to you, that may seem right to me, only leads to death. So we need to live our lives guided by the word of God to see how we want to end. Where do you want to exit this life? You need to begin with the end in mind. Now want to deal with a mentality, you know, that is part of life and that is people who believe that you should just live one day at a time. One day at a time, sweet Jesus. That's all I'm asking of you if you remember that old song. Now, when Jesus was teaching about anxiety about the future, he did address this idea. Matthew 6:34, the New Living Translation says, "So, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." What Jesus taught was not that you should live one day at a time without any forethought of the future. You know, we compare scripture with scripture, we can go to the ant who prepares for winter in summer. And there are principles about living your life looking toward the end of life and working your way backwards to today to see how you need to live your life. Jesus also taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 11:3 is a parallel passage, "Give us day by day our daily bread." So, there's an aspect of life where we depend on God from day to day today. But we don't live our life in an impetuous manner. We don't live our life not thinking about the future. We should live our life with the end in mind. We should begin with the end in mind. Living each day to its fullest and not allowing the fear of the future to paralyze us in the present doesn't negate this principle of living with the end in mind. The best way to live each day is to begin with the end in mind. Now, this scripture in Ecclesiastes was interesting to me and I'd actually taught on this passage in a baby dedication a long time ago over a decade ago. Never really taught a Bible study on this. So, I dug into Ecclesiastes 7 and I learned something that I didn't really know before and you probably got this a decade or so ago, but let me introduce you to a few things about Ecclesiastes chapter 7. It begins a new part of the book of Ecclesiastes. It's kind of another gut punch of the gloom and misery and the vanity of life. But, Ecclesiastes 7 begins a section of proverbs on things that are better. And I'm just going to overview them. It's not my main purpose tonight. A good name, he says, if you're reading along in Ecclesiastes 7, these will not be on the screen. A good name is better than precious ointment, he says. And then he says that the day of your death is better than the day of one's birth. Now, that's true because to be born is one thing, but at the end of your life to die saved is a better thing. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. He says, and I I've quoted this a lot in the last few years at funerals. He said that it is better to go to the house of mourning to the house than to the house of feasting. For that is the end or our destination for all men and the living will take it to heart. At a funeral, you think about death or you should, and it helps bring perspective on life. When I pray at the beginning of almost every funeral service, I pray for comfort and peace and strength, but in the last number of years I prayed for perspective because I saw this verse, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. It's better to go to a funeral than a wedding or a party." Some translations might say. And he said, "Sorrow is better than laughter for a countenance of the heart that is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." All of that is related to "It's better to go to funerals than weddings." And then he said in verse 5, 5 through 7, "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools." Now Now, no one likes to be rebuked. Maybe you do, but I'm not wild about it. I've had to be rebuked, needed to be rebuked, probably should have been rebuked more than I have been. But, Solomon says that it is better to have a wise person correct you, to rebuke you, than to have a fool sing. It doesn't say sing your praises, but just sing a song to you. Now, Solomon in this passage is talking about things that are better. It's better to do this or have this than to have another. And he goes on in verses 6 and 7 to talk about that. And that brings us to verse 8. Ecclesiastes 7 and 8 are text. Here's another thing that is better. The end of a thing is better than the beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud of spirit. So, I think you understand this. You don't need me to bear down on this too much. You can read it for yourself, and it's fairly simple in concept. But, Solomon wanted us to understand the importance of being patient so that something that you've started is also finished. Now, that's a good thing to begin. Wouldn't you say that? I know there are some people that procrastinate and they never even get started. So, it's it's good to get started. Get wound up, cranked up to begin something. Nothing wrong with that. Every January millions and millions of people start new diets, new exercise regimens, make new resolutions. Christians start reading their Bibles, determine to focus on prayer, set aside days of fasting. That's beginning. That's what we typically do in January. In and outside the church, people make a personal growth plan plan. Some people go to work to break a bad habit. Some all should vow to treat their spouse with more love and respect. We're we're approaching August. Sunday is July 31st. We're going to take time Sunday to pray for going back to school. But now that school start back in August for churches, for families, August has become like a second January. It used to be September. But now it's rolled back, encroached back to August. So, August in in this in this new school year that is like another January, another time to begin again. And I'll I'll be the first to say that his mercies are new every morning. You don't have to wait till August or January or Sunday or Monday or the first of the month. You can You can start doing good whatever day you choose. Amen. I think I've shared this with you before, but I remember talking to brother J.T. Pugh and he and sister Bessie Pugh were trying to stay in good health and you know, they ate really carefully. He said, but if I remember the day right, he said, but on the 22nd of every month, we eat whatever we want. And I said, well, brother Pugh, why the 22nd? He said, why not? I was just his off-the-wall sense of humor. But you don't have to wait till school starts, and you don't have to wait till the apple drops, you can start right now. But we are beginning a school year for families that have kids in school, and as we begin this, you know, there's some parents that vow to pack gourmet lunches for their kids every day, all school year long, instead of microwaving a hot dog, right? Parents commit to waking up early to cover their children in prayer. Students, I'm fully aware that we have crowd tonight and Heights and all of our teams and young adults are are not in the sanctuary, so if you'll just repeat this to them, say, brother John said, if you want to really help them out a little bit. Students vow to make high grades, have perfect attendance, to not cave in to peer pressure, to reach their lost friends with the gospel, teachers and home school parents vow to keep a good attitude, not lose heart during the daily grind of the next 10 months. Used to be nine, now it's like 10, right? And I want to just say this as a side note, you know, the way our school schedules are now, as a church, when we're trying to plan events, there's winter break, spring break, summer break, this break, that break. Everybody and our counties are not all the same. So, one county's got a break this week, another county's got a break that week. And we'd love to plan around your school calendar, but it's virtually impossible, but we do look at it all the time. A lot of schools are starting back next week. And so, you know, I want to say about that, don't just live for a vacation or a break, because I know people that take a vacation and they come back to the same old grind and they're really not renewed in their spirit. They dread it just as much as before they left. So, I want to encourage you, you need a vacation, you need to eat a break, I'm all for that, but don't live for that. Let God renew you every day and live day-to-day to day, but live with the end in mind. Don't live with an escape mentality, like you're somehow going to go off for 5 days and come back and be a different person. Hopefully, you'll be rested. Hopefully, you'll get a better perspective. Hopefully, you'll begin with the end in mind. But, just live every day not dreading every day, waiting for this mysterious break. Make every day a good day. So, that's just kind of in passing. But, back to my thing. As glorious as it is to begin a thing, it's embarrassing to start and not have the resources to finish. Solomon said, "The end of a thing is better than the beginning." And that's why you should begin with the end in mind. Jesus spoke about this. I want us to just read through what Jesus said about this in Luke chapter 14 verse 25. I want you to see these verses. And I want you to see the context of this. Luke 14:25. Now great multitudes went with him and he turned and said to them, "If anyone does not come to me and does not hate or love less his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." So the theme of this passage is discipleship. It is about following Jesus Christ and loving him more than anything else and anyone else. A disciple of Jesus Christ takes up his cross, follows Jesus Christ. The cross is a task of complete obedience to the will of God. That is the theme of this passage Luke 14. Verse 27. "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Now it seems to me that this verse is not saying you're not allowed to be my disciple, but to me it's clear to say that you will not be able to be my disciple. Because if you love anything more than me, eventually that other thing or that other person will become an idol in your life and you will shove me out of your life like the stone rejected and that whole sermon about the cornerstone. You cannot be my disciple if you don't come after me. And then he gives this example. "For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first?" Now, I I have a penchant for planning. I like to plan. But, planning is a tool to me. And I'm not trying to to pat myself on the back. I don't have to I work at planning, but I don't have to work at wanting to plan. I like it. But, it is a means to an end. So, I visualize whatever it is that I'm going to do. If it's planning a big service at our church or an event, I try to see what that event looks like. And then, when I visualize what it looks like, it allows me to think about the components of that event. What needs to go into that event to make it successful. If you're going If we're going on vacation, or I'm going, you know, some of you know I like to hunt. If you don't like that, I'm very sorry. Just trying to make sure that we have fewer car accidents with game wild game. But, anyway, but I like to plan, and I've been known to have everything packed a couple weeks in advance cuz you never know what's going to happen that you needed and you didn't know that. Amen. So, Jesus says you should sit down first. So, I want to encourage you, whether planning is natural to you or not, these are the words of Jesus, not Pastor Darrell Johns. If you're planning something, you want to build a tower, build a home, build a business, build a life, sit down first. And then Jesus said, "And count the cost." What is it going to cost, depending on what you're planning, in time, money, resources? What equipment do you need? What people do you need? What do you need to pull together in order to build tower. He gives us a very specific construction project of building a tower. Count the cost whether he has enough to finish it. So, this man is going to see if he has enough money or whatever else it may take to finish building a tower. And then Jesus tells what is embarrassing verse 29. Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him. I think it's the New Living Translation says they laugh at him. They look at your unfinished product, your tower half built. And they laugh at you. They make fun of you because you didn't count the cost. You did not begin with the end in mind. And this is the mocking that they would say in verse 30. This man began to build and was not able to finish. Now, remember the context of this passage. And and let me throw this in. Scripture has one interpretation and many applications. So, the interpretation of this passage is about discipleship. That's why I wanted to give you the context. I wanted you to see the setting so you would see what Jesus was trying to say, not trying to say, what he was saying in Luke 14. But he gives us an example that has a lot of application in our lives about planning and beginning with the end in mind. Jesus says to count the cost. So, if you're going to build a tower a house or any facility, you have to count the cost. I have seen some unfinished building projects where money run out ran out before the project was completed. When I was typing this, I had in my mind a person I want to make this real generic in a in a large city that had a grand dream of an amazing church facility. But it was when the dot-com crash happened before '08, back whatever year that was, 2001-2, back there, and so many wealthy people in that congregation no longer had the resources to build that amazing facility. I've driven by it when it was a piece of land ready to go. I went by it on purpose later when you could see pipe out of the ground and concrete here and there. It was sickening to me because I wanted that friend of mine to see that project through to completion, but because of unforeseen circumstances, they did not have enough to complete it. After the 2008 construction crash or decline, whatever you want to call it in Atlanta and around our country for various reasons. There were entire subdivisions in our metro area that were sitting empty, unbuilt, because there was not enough money to complete the homes and no market to buy them. All the factors that went into that, and I know it was complex, banking regulation and all of that. But over a period of years, I remember, especially early on, on on an occasional trip flying in and out of Atlanta and making the circle and looking down and seeing many large developments, subdivisions, that were just bare, that red Georgia clay, where no homes were built, because for reasons maybe beyond a builder's control, they did not have enough to complete it. Back then, there were numbers of builders who took their life, who entered a deep depression because they began and not able to complete it. Now, Solomon did not say the beginning of thing is bad. He just said that there's something better than starting and that is finishing. And my message to you tonight is to encourage you to begin with the end in mind and make up in your mind that you are going to finish this walk with God, this thing we call a race of life, that you're going to cross the finish line and you're going to look back and say the end of my life was better than the beginning. It's better to finish. Amen. I thank God for every person who's born again in our church. This past Sunday in our halftime report, I reviewed our mission statement. Really evangelism and discipleship. Bringing lost people into the kingdom of God. Then after they are saved, helping them grow in the Lord. We believe strongly in the new birth, the birth of water and spirit, water baptism in Jesus' name, the infilling of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, a language you never learn. All of that preceded by a turning to God in repentance. But we also believe that a new birth should lead to a new life. Amen. That there should be something green and growing in your life. That's what Jesus was talking about in Luke chapter 14, that you should not start serving him with any intention to ever stopping, but you make up your mind in the beginning that whatever it takes, that whatever you have to do, that you will finish, that you will build because the end of a thing is better than the beginning and that's why you begin with the end in mind. The Apostle Paul was strongly focused on finishing. He was focused on the end of the race. One of my life passages in the Bible, Philippians 3:13. King James version, brethren and sisters, I count not myself to have apprehended, to have arrived. But this one thing I do. For getting those things which are behind. And reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press, verse 14. Now, I want to just pause because when he says this one thing I do, I think the one thing he does is to press. But there's a way that he is able to press. He forgets the past, both good and bad. He reaches to the things that are in front of him. For Paul, he had a past to forget. But he also spoke about being a Hebrew of the Hebrews and all the things that he had accomplished in the religion of the Jews. He was a somebody to them. He counted those things, the King James says dung or rubbish, that he would win Jesus Christ. So, he forgets the past, he reaches for the things that are before. Now, verse 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's pressing. Picture of a race, leaning leaning into the wind, straining ahead, reaching for that prize of eternal life. He calls it the the high calling, the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. So, that's why tonight I wanted to draw your attention to Ecclesiastes 7:8 to make sure you got this that the end of a thing is better than its beginning. Amen. So, I want to give you some application principles tonight. And I I'm was mindful and I mentioned this early. Most of our students are not in here. So, you'll need to maybe echo this to them or you could tell them to go to this point in the message, 31:18 on the clock and uh they could get this. Students that are all back there they need to think about how they want to end this school year. If you're in the process of schooling college or or school through K through 12 what do you want your GPA to be? On Sunday, this past Sunday, I spoke about going through high school and just kind of floating along. You didn't really have to try. There was not a high expectation and you could do okay without really working at it. When I got to Bible college, that was not the case and I had to learn to study all over again that I learned in elementary school, but I somehow forgot in junior and senior high. But, what do you want your GPA to be? Will you proudly know that you did your best regardless of your GPA? If you're academically adept, if you're pretty smart and you see gold cords around your graduation gown can you see some merit scholarships offered for academic achievement, high test scores, involvement in various things that count for scholarships. What about the job offers that come for people who show a lot of initiative and do their very best because any good business is looking for the best of the best, the brightest of the best. And if you can't get the brightest, I'll take the person who's got a lot of of willpower, who's got a great attitude, and an incredible work ethic. Because talent can run out if you don't have discipline to go along with it. In our world, there there's a there's a lot of hopelessness in our world. There are a lot of young people and young adults that believe the system is rigged against them, that they can't become anything in life. And so they resort to drugs and alcohol, to crime because they have lost hope. In the church, we offer hope. We know that the gospel lifts you, that it teaches go and sin no more, that you may come from nowhere, but you're going to somewhere, and God can help you, and that it doesn't matter where you come from, it's where you're going because the end of a thing is better than the beginning. We want to offer that hope to lift our world out of despair, that God can do something great in your life if you bring the grit to go along with the grace that God provides. We also have in our world a sense of entitlement. People that feel sorry for themselves, that you know, they're just going to life's going to be handed to them, and that will take you nowhere, son. You need to begin with the end in mind. As we begin this second January, this August, and I say this to everyone, but this part of my message primarily focus on parents and your students, your children who are going to school. By faith, we want to see our kids' friends, our fellow students brought to the Lord through a peace 7 Bible club or to the witness of your children. One of our kids in our church asked me to pray for his teacher, so I pray for Mr. Carter. He's on my prayer list because [name redacted] asked me to pray for him. Now, [name redacted]'s got him for a teacher because we want to see a revival in our community, in our schools, in our city. We pray, we fast for that. We want to see the gospel reach them. The end of a thing is better than the beginning. So, we take time to cultivate friendships. Share our testimonies. We work hard to become like Jesus Christ. Daily incremental growth. But the end, as Paul said, to grow up into him in all things, into the stature of the fullness of Christ. If you know if you want to know what you can be, then look at Jesus in the Bible and he's called us to be like him with the hope of actually being like him. It is not an empty hope, but you can grow up into the stature and fullness of Christ. So, that's why every day we put off the old nature and we put on the new. We see ourselves becoming like Jesus Christ. To everybody in families. We have a lot of wonderful singles in our church. Elders who are single again. But in a family the daily grind can wear you down. But a vision of what could be and what should be will keep you going in the right direction. You need to see your family staying together and praying together. You need to see your kids being saved. Being saved, staying saved. Being spiritually strong. And then if that's where you want to end up, then you need to go back to where you are today and build a process that navigates through the rapids of life so that you can put the right stuff in your family so that they can be what God has called them to be, so they can grow up to be like Jesus Christ and be saved at the coming of the Lord. That is the end of all things. That's what we're aiming for. Amen. Praise God. All of you families, you work long days, kids are in school, you make the drive to church Sunday, Wednesday, all the money invested in the kingdom of God, all the time given in ministry, so many volunteers are on Wednesday night in Wednesday night church. I want to remind you of what the Bible says over and over, that the end of the thing is better than the beginning. And if you see yourself ultimately saved, then today you will be motivated to live for God. Not be discouraged and walk away. The end of a thing is better than the beginning, and we begin with the end in mind. Finally, I would like for you to see yourself holding that prize that Paul talked about that is the crown of life, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, that upward calling. Maybe he was referring to the catching away of the church. We call it the rapture, the parousia, maybe that that moment, twinkling of an eye, when every one of us will be changed, the dead in Christ rising first. I would like for you to see yourself in the new Jerusalem, that holy city coming down from God out of heaven. John saw it prophetically, the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. Beautifully dressed like a bride coming down the aisle for her husband. He saw this kingdom of God that shone with the glory of God. It sparkled like a precious stone, like a jasper as clear as crystal. He said the wall was made of jasper and the city was pure gold as clear as glass. The angel showed him a river of water of life, clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and from the lamb. No night there, no need for lamps for the Lord God will shine on them and they will reign with him forever. You see when you come to a place in your life that you're being tempted or you're being discouraged, if you will begin with the end in mind, if you will say to yourself and say to your soul, "One day I will stand inside the gates of that holy city and my feet will physically stand, my immortal body will stand on a pure gold street forever and ever and ever and I will be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and rule and reign with him." The end of a thing is better than the beginning. So, we begin with the end in mind.