What Matters Most Is The Finish

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Remember me

He takes the platform on the last Sunday of the year with a wave offering and a confession — "I'm not here cuz I had to be this morning. I'm here cuz I love him" — and thanks a church that has hosted him for months: "What a tremendous treat and honor it has been to be here the last few months. I love this church and I love your pastor and his family so incredibly much... anything he does, I seem to just automatically think it's cool and want to start doing it. I'm drinking tea that I've never drunk, drinking coffee I've never drunk." He thanks the pastor's family members by name and Sister Mandy Holmes "for accepting us these last few months." Then the text: "Luke chapter number 23, verses 42 and 43... this is talking about one of the thieves that was on the cross. And he said unto Jesus, 'Lord, remember me' — would you say, remember me — 'remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.' Here is this man that has no doubt lived an awful life... he had done enough to where at the very end of his life he's found himself nailed to a cross. Certainly not in a position to be deserving of any kind of mercy, forgiveness, grace. And somehow there was something in him... he did one of the craziest things that you'll read about in your scripture: after a life so marked and destroyed by sin, he lifted up his voice and said, 'Lord, would you remember me when you come into your kingdom?' Not because he deserved it, not because he was worthy of it. But right there at the very, very, very end of his life, Jesus looked at him and said, 'Today, you're going to be with me in paradise.'" The subject, as he announces it: "What matters most is how you finish." And the enemy's first target is hope itself: "When an individual... loses their ability and their hope to believe that their life can change... they're already defeated... Even some of you this morning as you got dressed for church, that thought came to your head: What's even the use of doing all this again? I'm in the same cycle... I'm telling you, in the Holy Ghost today, there's going to be hope that's going to be ignited in somebody's heart today."

Scriptures: Luke 23:42-43

The Atlantis landing

December 1988: the space shuttle Atlantis, only the second launch after Challenger, takes insulation damage 85 seconds into flight that tears up hundreds of heat-shield tiles. The crew sees the damage from orbit and understands what it means: "A damaged heat shield during re-entry into the Earth would almost certainly mean death for everyone that was on board. One of the astronauts would later famously say, 'We might as well enjoy the rest of the journey. There's no use in dying all tensed up.'" Four days later, at 3:36 a.m. Pacific time, "against every expectation, against every fear, despite all the damage... the Atlantis touched down safely. An absolutely perfect landing." The flight falls into three parts — a rough takeoff, a troubled flight, and a perfect landing. "It doesn't matter how rough your takeoff was. It doesn't matter how much trouble, how much turbulence has come along the journey. We serve a God today that has the ability to step in... 'I know you come from a broken family. I know you come from addicts. I know your mama was a drug addict and your daddy was an alcoholic, but I'm telling you, we serve a God that says you don't have to be what you came from.'" The devil's whole war is fought in the mind: "If he can convince you in this battleground that you're done and you're defeated, I'm telling you, he doesn't have to do one more thing... God is not through with you."

The day does not have to end the way it is going

He quotes Ephesians' word without a citation — "Be ye angry and sin not, neither let the sun go down on your wrath" — and preaches past the anger to the day itself: "The setting of the sun has always been symbolic of the ending of a day. And he's saying, you may be angry in the day, you may have problems in the day, but don't let the day end the way that it's going right now... God has given you the ability to end this thing better than the way it's begun." Exits carry the memory: "It has been stated that entrances are brief, but exits are eternal... People are not always remembered as much for the totality of what they did as much as how it was when they left. How many great legacies have been destroyed because of what happened in the sunset of their life?... But I want to tell you the opposite is also true. How many sinners have we seen come in and they lived their whole life for the devil... but one day they came in and they got baptized and they repented and got filled. You know how you remember them today? I remember when they turned back to God. Why? Cuz it is the finale that really counts." His own father's prayer stands behind it: "My dad was such a careful man, and I can remember him so many times preaching and talking and praying and saying, 'God, I can't afford to stumble right here at the end. I can't afford, after all the years I've lived right... to get right here at the end and stumble at the finish line.'" Jesus' word is quoted: "He that shall endure unto the end shall be saved... You may have messed up at morning. At noontime, you may have messed up, but I'm preaching to you, the day is not yet over. I know the sun is low, but we've still got time."

Mephibosheth, the prodigal, and Samson

Three lives that did not end the way they began. Mephibosheth, retold: "There were things that happened to him very early in the journey that were out of his control... damaged by the very one that was supposed to be taking care of him. The very beginning of his life, around 5 years old, he was dropped. The damage was so bad that this man would never walk again... When you've been hurt early in life, when you've been hurt deeply, you start believing that being broken is your identity." He lands in Lo-debar, "a place of no pasture... where forgotten people go when they thought that God was through with them. But that was not the end of his story... I read out the end of his life where he's there and he's at the king's table... I know you've had damage, but look at where you're at today. You're in the house of God. You're at the king's table. Not because we deserve it." The prodigal, retold: in the pig pen "it was like the light switch just flipped on in his life. And he realized it may be bad right now, but it does not have to end the way that it's going... He came to himself and he went back to the father's house and he received him with open arms. That's what God would do for you today, sir, if you'd quit laying there wallowing in your sin, wallowing in your mistake, wallowing in your regret, and would get up and say, 'It cannot end this way.'" Samson, retold, with the favorite verse quoted: "There's not a better story of redemption that you're going to find in your Bible. A man that was so mightily used of God... Boy, he fell. And he didn't just fall, but he fell royally... they shave off his hair and now he's working for the very ones that he used to conquer. But the Bible — it's literally one of my favorite verses in that entire book — says, 'Howbeit, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.'... Samson did more at the end of his life after he had fallen than he did before. I'm preaching to you: that is what happens when a saint of God decides it is not over." The switch is in the thinking: "Instead of saying God can't and God won't and I've messed up too bad... you switch it to say it's not about me. It's not about what I've done. If God used Samson, God can use me." And the blood covers all of it: "It was not blood that only covered some sins... It was blood that covers the darkest of the dark, the dirtiest of the dirty... There is no sin, there is nothing you have done, that if you would repent... I may not have started perfect, but I'm going to end perfect. I may not have begun well, but I'm going to end well."

Sun, stand thou still

Joshua's battle is retold for the close: "He looked up and he realized time is almost up. The sun's getting ready to set. And he lifted up his voice and he said, 'Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon.'... You know what he was saying? I haven't done everything I want to do. I haven't conquered as much as I want to conquer... I'm praying God gives us more time to conquer and to do the things that He wants us." The appeal steps out of the pews on that word: "If you've got backslidden family members, you ought to stand to your feet and say, 'The sun will not end like this. The day will not end like this.' If you're sick in your body, if you've got problems in your marriage, I wish you'd stand to your feet and say, 'It cannot end this way.'" At the front the confession is sung and shouted: "I'm not defeated. I'm victorious. I'm not the tail, I'm the head... It don't have to end this way." The segment ends inside the altar prayer, with his last exhortation over the music: "Let the end of 2025 be your strongest moment... Let it be the grand finale... Come on, reach over and turn to the neighbor. Let's pray together... Let the church be strong in its finish of the year, in the name of Jesus."