Stage Six: The Finished Product

Bill Connors

Renovate • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

0 ratings

· 11 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Opening

Honestly, one of the most difficult things to do in almost any project is to finish it. When I originally wrote this sermon series, I checked online, and at the time there was a guy who actually had a website entitled “The One Hundred Unfinished Projects Project.” And guess what…it wasn’t finished. It only had 56 on it, with the website itself being number 56. Now, there are so many websites dedicated to helping people decide what to do with unfinished projects, or to motivate them to finish unfinished projects, finding that one little website would be impossible. It’s probably gone by now anyway.

Well, the renovation project at my house was finally completed. Linda moved in to the back room, and everything was good. The last things to be completed were in the laundry room, and those were done shortly after Linda moved in.

Show pictures, before and after.

This is it: The last week of Renovate. Through this series, we’ve discussed how we need to be submissive to God as He works in us a renovation: a change.

We know that God has a plan, and that we need to have a plan, too: a plan to take personal action in being changed.

We talked about demolition: completely wiping out those things in our lives that don’t help us in being renovated.

We discussed the fact that we need godly boundaries in our lives: limits that we place around ourselves, and that we need godly brothers and sisters to stand in the gaps in our walls.

We’ve seen that unexpected things come up while renovation takes place. God can use those trials and struggles to strengthen us, or we can sit down on the floor and cry about it.

And last week, we talked about being “painted” in Christ: completely covered by Him and His righteousness so that He is all the world sees, with us just being the physical “texture” underneath.

Today, we’ll talk about finishing what we start, and why that’s important.

I don’t know why finishing a project is so hard…it just is. Wayne Tedford, while we were working on the project, told me that it’s all about momentum. If you stop and take too long of a break, you’ll never get back to it and finish it. Unfortunately, the same holds true for our spiritual transformations. But we cannot let that happen.

Teaching

POINT 1: Finishing a project brings the plan together.

Show the original plan.

At the end of the project, the room essentially matched this plan. It was nice to see the completion of what we started.

At the end, I could see what only existed in my mind back when we started: a nice bedroom with a ceiling fan and a fully functional bathroom, a big walk-in closet, and carpet you can squish your toes into.

Well, as you saw in the pictures, the transformation was pretty amazing.

It is God’s desire to do the same thing in you: to rework you in an amazing way. Unfortunately, we all have a tendency to back out of the deal when we hit snags.

We can’t do that! We’ll be unfinished.

James 1:2–4 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

(we looked at this verse 2 weeks ago) Perseverance must FINISH its work so we may be mature and COMPLETE.

(we looked at this verse in Stage 4: Dealing with the Unexpected ago) Endurance must have it’s full effect, it must FINISH its work so we may be mature and COMPLETE.

Revelation 3:2–3 CSB

2 Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. 3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.

This is written to the church at Sardis, who were giving up and falling away. We can’t do that.

Without being “finished”, we are incomplete. We aren’t mature, we aren’t done.

I don’t know what heaven will be like really, but what if God, while He’s judging our deeds, shows us what we could have been? How disappointing that would be!

So finishing a project is the culmination of the plan coming together. And it felt really good that I could look at this plan, and know that our finished product pretty closely matched that plan.

POINT 2: Finishing a project creates reward.

The reason it feels so good is that finishing the project is its own reward.

I remember after we were done and Linda had moved in, I would walk into that room and I feel like I’d accomplished something. I was proud of it: not proud like “Look at how good I am”, but proud like “I worked really hard on this, and I can tell that I did.”

Not to mention all of the experience and knowledge I gained in the process!

In our walks with God, being finished is a reward in itself too.

And it’s not a thing of pride and boasting, but being able to look at who we USED to be, and being able to point to who were are NOW, and saying, “God did this. I could never have done it.”

In fact, says, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” Boasting is ok if we’re boasting about Jesus.

Jesus even said that doing what God wanted was as important to Him as food:

John 4:34 CSB

34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.

· And Paul said this about the reward waiting for Him later:

And Paul said this about the reward waiting for Him later:

2 Timothy 4:7–9 CSB

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing. 9 Make every effort to come to me soon,

Paul was nearing his death for the cause of Christ, and that’s what he said.

· Paul was nearing his death for the cause of Christ, and that’s what he said.

Being finished creates reward.

The problem is this: if we never finish what we start, then we will never really see the rewards. We will never see God’s plan fully come together in our life. So there’s a moral to this whole lesson:

POINT 3: Finish what you start.

Finish what you start! Don’t give up!

If you give up, you waste all of the time and energy you’ve already invested.

If you give up, you will be like the man I talked about from Scripture during the first lesson:

Luke 14:28–30 CSB

28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Jesus finished what He set out to do:

· Jesus finished what He set out to do:

John 19:30 CSB

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

Paul said that his own life was worth nothing to him compared to him finishing what God had started in him:

· Paul said that his own life was worth nothing to him compared to him finishing what God had started in him:

Acts 20:24 CSB

24 But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.

And Paul had confidence that God will complete what He has started in us, too:

· And Paul had confidence that God will complete what He has started in us, too:

Philippians 1:3–6 CSB

3 I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

· DON’T GIVE UP!

DON’T GIVE UP!

Galatians 6:9 CSB

9 Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

CLOSING:

Closing

In closing, I need to share a story:

The Barcelona Olympics of 1992 provided one of track and field’s most incredible moments.

Britain’s Derek Redmond had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400-meter race, and his dream was in sight as the gun sounded in the semifinals at Barcelona. He was running the race of his life and could see the finish line as he rounded the turn into the backstretch. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain go up the back of his leg. He fell face first onto the track with a torn right hamstring.

Sports Illustrated recorded the dramatic events:

As the medical attendants were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. “It was animal instinct,” he would say later. He set out hopping, in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a large man in a T-shirt came out of the stands, hurled aside a security guard and ran to Redmond, embracing him. It was Jim Redmond, Derek’s father. “You don’t have to do this,” he told his weeping son. “Yes, I do,” said Derek. “Well, then,” said Jim, “we’re going to finish this together.”

And they did. Fighting off security men, the son’s head sometimes buried in his father’s shoulder, they stayed in Derek’s lane all the way to the end, as the crowd gaped, then rose and howled and wept.

Derek didn’t walk away with the gold medal, but he walked away with an incredible memory of a father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race.

Derek finished. He had the help of his father, but he finished.

We must do the same thing: finish what has been started in us, by leaning on and relying on our Father.

(MKJV)

Hebrews 12:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.