Good morning, church. Two things, uh, before we jump into the message today. Number one, um, I just need to give credit where credit is due. I know that last weekend is kind of the Super Bowl Sunday, um, of all of the year, the Masters Sunday, if you would, of church life, right? Um, and I don't know if you know this or not, but it takes a lot of people to make happen what happened last week. To all the volunteers, to all the parking lot people, to all the worship teams, to all that were on stages and behind doors and in parking lots, I just think we owe every single one of them a big old appreciation. Uh, for last week, last week, man, man, man, man. Look, I, I don't know if you know it, but we had two plans. We had an outdoor and an indoor plan, and we were ready to go at any moment's notice on any of those.
And y'all better be really, really proud that I wasn't in charge, all right? No, I'm just kidding. That, that, man, great team, great team last week. And it was a great Sunday to celebrate the resurrection. Uh, number two thing is this. Um, for those of you that have been on this journey with us called All In, um, we've already mentioned that next week is our celebration Sunday. Uh, next week we're gonna be announcing where we are. I mean, and I'm just gonna, I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna say too much, but I'm gonna say a little bit, all right? We are going to be blown away. Uh, next week, we are gonna celebrate together. We're gonna give, um, our first fruits offerings to kind of kick off the three years next year, uh, for the next season of this church. And we're gonna see what God has done through all of us.
Um, but in that, I've had a lot of you ask me over these last couple of months, Matt, how's the plans coming? You haven't said anything about it. You haven't even brought anything up in months. I wanna take just a minute today and show you where we're at when it comes to drawings, where we're at, where it comes to the plans, what things look like. We're about 85% there, um, in the planning and we thought we would bring you in, uh, to where we're at. So let me show you some images today, all right? Real quickly, let me show you the outside, looking in from the, uh, top side where we're doing parking lot construction right here. Here is how the building is gonna fit right in to the front of our building to where this space is going to be. If you haven't been here for a minute, we're building a multi-purpose, 2,400 seat auditorium, worship space, lobbies, and it's gonna be just like for those of you that were here last Saturday evening, worshiping on the front lawn, just turn those chairs around and that's exactly where it's gonna be, all right?
That's exactly how it's gonna look. But for those of you that are like, "Matt, we just, man, we love the way the building looks from the road." What is it gonna be? Let me show you from the front middle what the new image is going to look like. Actually, I think it looks like, amazingly, like, man, they kind of thought this was gonna happen one day. Uh, right? It's exactly the same. And it just looks a lot, lot, lot newer and greater. It's gonna give us a great space. Let me show you from the kids' area looking over where we're at right now. This is looking that far left of the screen. If the, if it was there would be the kids' playground because we know that nobody comes to this church for the preaching, for the worship, for the groups. It's all about the playground.
Uh, so we're gonna show that from the road, right? Uh, there it is. You'll see that through that glass. There'll be a new entrance all the way on both sides of this building. So that gives you the outside from the road. That's looking from the main entrance right out here in the driveway. Uh, for those of you that are spatially like, I don't know where I'm at. It just looks pretty, right? That's all you need to know right now, right? There it is. But what about inside, Matt? How's that gonna be? Let me show you some images of what inside it's gonna look like of the building with a flat floor. It's gonna rise into the back so you can have just great vantage point, nowhere, no matter where you're at in the room. But it's not just a worship space, it's a multi-purpose space.
This is the next shot looking down with tables in it. We can fit 84 tables on the floor of this to host banquets, to host Wednesdays, to host anything we want to. But what does it look like on a Sunday from the rear looking down? Here it is on a Sunday morning, at least I hope there'll be more people there, but that's all they put in there for us, right? I asked them to fill it up. They were like, "No, that takes too long." Um, but there you go. That is kind of looking down from the rafters of, it carries the look that we've already established and looks like it has just been there forever and ever. But what about in the lobbies? 'Cause we love some lobbies and common space. This would be looking at the current outdoor children's entrance on the left. There should be a playground right through that glass if you're standing out there right now.
But this is looking from that entrance into the new lobby space. It wraps around the backside. That's from the kids' side. Let's look at it from the middle to where a new welcome desk will be over here on your left. It'll be kind of Burn Hickory Central. There'll be a new commons, like a new coffee space there, as well as some meeting rooms, next steps rooms, and just general space and lots of ladies bathrooms to the glory of God. Uh, we'll be there, um, all over the place. I just saw you guys standing in the hallway, just reminding me of that. Um, but what about from like the, the common side over here, Matt? We love the fireplace. We love how that looks. There's gonna be a full glass wall that looks back at that area through a courtyard and you'll come into a space that goes right into worship.
So I just wanted to kinda, I wanna be as transparent as possible to say this, we are moving forward. We're moving forward. We're planning on breaking ground in late August and then going as quick as we can to continue to do everything we can for this community. So let me say this, and we're gonna move on. Number one, thank you for staying with us in this journey. Number two, this week, if you haven't made your commitments to all in, which is not many of you, I will say, all right, that's all I'm gonna say about it. Not many of you. I will say this, make them this week so that we can celebrate them next week. It's going to be great next week. I can't wait for it. All right, there it is. Acts chapter 20. If you got a copy of scripture, hadn't heard that one in a minute, right?
Acts chapter 20 is where we're gonna be today. And what we're gonna do today is we're gonna join Dr. Luke in the backside of his letter called Acts. Now, if you look at the book of Acts, it's really, um, an amazing letter that actually starts right where we left off last week at Easter. The Book of Acts starts with Jesus walking in post resurrection and giving us our marching orders, giving us how we are to live our lives as individuals, as well as how we are to live our lives as a church under the power of the Holy Spirit. If you look at Acts really closely, you will see that Jesus walks into the scene. He encourages the believers. He promises us that he's gonna send the Holy Spirit and he does on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit falls and from that point forward, believers, we now walk in the presence of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you look at this letter, it's so amazing, all right? If you look at this letter in chapter one through about chapter 12, it's all about Peter. It's all about the disciples. It is all about the church growing and spreading from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and beginning to press out a little bit. You see that they not only grow, but they disciple people, they baptize people. You see the power of God moving and the churches started. But then when you fast forward over to chapters 13 through chapters 19 of Acts, what you begin to see is that Luke shifts from the apostles and Peter being the primary part of the story to this guy named the Apostle Paul. And we spent some time with the Apostle Paul a couple months ago and we saw that him, the apostle Paul, begins to show us what it looks like to walk in the power of Jesus.
We saw that he, the apostle Paul, began to plant churches, develop leaders, encourage people, and preach the gospel wherever he went. In fact, a lot of the gospel that you're holding in your hand, the New Testament, other than the, the gospel letters of Matthew Mark, Luke, and John, a lot of that is from the Apostle Paul writing back to these churches. Let me remind you something about the Apostle Paul, and that is that other than Jesus himself, in history, there has never been another person that has affected the church as greatly as the Apostle Paul. Why? Because he preached in the whole Roman Empire. He's started so many of the churches that we now are a result of the power of God moving in. In fact, if you look at Apostle Paul's life, you will see that he was faithful. We're gonna see this in a minute, and that he stood in the midst of any opposition for the name of Christ.
I, I came up with a theme verse this week for the Apostle Paul's life, and it would have to be at a Philippians chapter one verse 21. To where Paul says this, he says this at, toward the end of his life, he looks at this church of Philippine and he says, "For me to live as Christ and die is gain, for if I'm gonna go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what should I choose? I do not know. I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart, to be with Christ, which is far better, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body." And this encapsulates Paul's life. This says, "I want to be with Christ with everything in me, but I know that I have been called to preach, proclaim, and to herald the name of Jesus." Men, I love this because what Paul does in Acts chapter 20 for us, and this is how we tie all this together, is Paul is actually right at the end of his ministry life.
These next couple of weeks, we're gonna look at the end of Paul's life, in the end of Paul's ministry life. And he looks back at you, and he looks back at me, and he actually reminds us what the Psalmist would say in Psalm 90:12, when the Psalmist says to teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. What does that mean? Paul's looking at us in Acts 20, and we're gonna read it in just a second, and he's saying, "Listen, if you will just live like the end is in sight, you will honor God with all of your lives." So Acts chapter 20 is really Paul's farewell speech to this group of Ephesians elders. And what he does in Acts chapter 20 is he actually says, "Hey, pull out your notebooks. I wanna tell you what you need to say about me at my funeral so you don't have to worry about it.
This is my life." So here's what I wanna do today. I just wanna give you some questions from Paul's life to ask about your life, some questions that if you will ask these, and if you will walk these out in your life, you'll see this at the end, then, then nobody like me is gonna have to stand over you one day when you are in that box and make up a whole bunch of lies. Amen. That's what Paul does today, okay? He just says, "Here's how to live." Now, we're gonna read a lot of texts today, all right? Just gonna be honest with you out of the gate. We're gonna read a lot of Acts chapter 20 today, but really and truly, that's why we're here. Amen. If you don't like that, it's probably not gonna be your church. All right? I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you now, all right?
Here it is. Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, verse seven. Here's what it says. It says, "On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread and Paul spoke to the people, and because he intended to leave the next day, he kept on talking until midnight." There were many lamps in the upstairs room while they were meeting. Seated in the window was a young man named Uticus who was sinking into a deep sleep, like some of you right now, right? Deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound, when, when Uticus was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Now, you say, "Man, what does this have to do with the message?" Nothing, but I just could not preach through the book of Acts and not talk about this story.
So it's kind of a bonus for you. Let me give you a couple truths in my life from this, all right? They're not in your notes, but number one, friends, this is why you should never sleep when a pastor is preaching, all right? Never, never, never. Number two, if you think that I preach long, what about the apostle Paul? Amen. He's been going from the afternoon and this boy falls out of the window at midnight, all right? Some of you are looking at your watches when I'm like two minutes over. You're like, "Man, it's red. The clock's red. Why are we going? All right?" They've been there forever and ever. Number three, and I am not aware. Now, I'm, I, I'm not aware. That's how I'll say this. I'm not aware of anyone ever dying while I am preaching. So I'm one up on Paul, right?
Right now, one up on Paul. So what happens? This boy falls out of the window, asleep, dead. So next time your husband falls asleep, because usually it's husband, just punch him over there and go, "Hey, Eutica's wake up. All right. He falls out dead." And in verse 10, watch what happens. Paul went down and threw himself on the young man, put his arms around him and said, "Don't be alarmed." He said, "He is alive." What happens? Paul, not only is preaching, he runs out to this poor boy that falls asleep, falls out the window and dies, which by the way, you fall asleep and die. I ain't sure I'm raising you, all right? Number one, but Paul does right here, raises this brother from the dead. And let me tell you the best part of this whole story. Like Matt, the best part is not that this kid's alive.
Well, it is for him, but not for me. But watch this, okay? Verse 11, it says, "Then Paul," all right, he, he went upstairs again, he broke bread and ate and oh, watch it, church, watch it after talking until daylight, all right? Are you seeing this? After talking until daylight, he left. In other words, he's been talking from the afternoon before, all the way through the night to daylight, verse 12, "And the people took the young man home alive and were what? Greatly comforted." Two morals of the story, number one, don't sleep while I preach. Number two, you can't stop a preacher from preaching. All right, there it is. All right. What does that have to do with the message? Nothing, but look, skip down to verse 17, because here's the message, all right? Here's the message. That has nothing to do with it, but I'm not walking through acts and I got the microphone without saying that.
Here it is. Five questions. Let me give them to you. All right, five questions. Let me read you some texts and then give you the questions. Here it is. Acts chapter 20, Paul leaves that moment. He goes all the way just past the Ephesus. He calls the Ephesus Ephesian leaders in, these elders of the church that he spent so much good time with. And then he gives us his resume of how we should live. Let me read you a couple of verses and I'll show you what it says. It says this, from elitist, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. "When they arrived, he said to them, You know how I have lived the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the providence of Asia, I, I serve the Lord with great humility and with tears in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponent.
And you know that I'm not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but I've taught you publicly and from house to house. I've declared to you both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch what he says in verse 22. He says," And now, compelled by the spirit. I'm going to Jerusalem, Paul says. "In other words," I'm, I'm out. I'm going to Jerusalem. This is the last time, not knowing what will happen to me there. "Verse 23," I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given to me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.
"Now look, I know there's a lot more notes because I wanted you to have them in your notes, but Paul right here actually begins his legacy resume and he actually is giving us a charge and the Ephesians leaders a charge of this is how you live your life for Jesus. Let's turn it into five questions. Here's the first question that Paul would say from his life. Number one, you can write it in your notes. Number one, we need to ask ourself every single day of our life," Am I faithfully doing what God has called me to do? "That's what Paul does here, right? He gathers in these leaders. He gathers in this church of Ephesus to him on his way to Jerusalem. He knows that he's about to die for all of us. He knows that this is coming. He gathers them in and looks at them and says that, " I have been faithful.
"I've been faithful doing what? Doing what God has called him to do. Now let me talk about this for a minute because what this means is not that Paul did what he wanted to do. It's not that Paul did what the culture said he should do. It's not that Paul said that, that he did what his family said that he should do. No. It means that Paul's life was moving in a direction to complete the tasks that God had on his life. Now, let me talk about this for a minute because this is so important, right? Let me, in fact, let me read verse 24 to you and show you what he says. He says," However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. "And watch what he says. "My only aim is to finish the task and complete, uh, to finish the race, complete the task that what the Lord Jesus has given me.
" I love when Paul brings this imagery in our minds about the race and the aim. Why? Because the aim or the true goal of any person's life that has been redeemed by Jesus should be to walk out what God has called them to do, to do. So what does this mean for us? Let me give you a freeing statement. Do you know this about life? You are only called to do what God has called you to do? L- l- let me, let me bring some clarity to this a little bit, because there's two sides to this coin. When Paul says, "My aim is to do what Jesus says to do. " Two sides of this coin. You are only responsible. I am only responsible for doing what God has called me to do. Here's what that means. That means you and I, I am not called to do everything.
Does that make sense? Say, man, why would you say that? Here's why I say that. There are parts of this body of Christ that has what I would just kind of call a Messiah complex that feel like that they are called to do everything. They're called to do everything. They're called to fix everything. They're called to come alongside everybody. They're called to redeem everybody, save the whole community, save all the orphans and feed all the planet. Listen to me, listen to me. You can't live that life. You will never fulfill that life, and you are not called to do everything. You're not. And I, and I just need to confess on behalf of some guys like me that stand up in places like this and say you're not. You are called to do what God has called you to do. What God has called you to do.
What does that mean? That means that yes, you're called to love God. Yes, you're called to love others. You are called to spread his name, but you're not called to be everything to everybody. And if you try to live that, you will never live out the calling that God has put on your life. But there's another side of this story and say this. While there's some of you that feel like you're called to do everything, there's a whole nother group of people that don't feel like they're called to do anything. What Paul is simply reminding us is this. We're all called to something. We're all called to do something. We're all given talents to do something. We're all given responsibilities to live out our faith in the gospel name of Jesus. So here's the question this morning. What has God called you to do? What has he called you to do?
He hasn't called you to save the world, but he's called you to something. He's given you some kind of gift to be faithful. And for Paul, Paul was called to preach to the Gentiles, right? He was called to start churches to the Gentiles. He was called to preach the gospel of Jesus to the Roman empire. For me, it's very clear. I am called to live as the pastor of this church, to equip the body, equip the saints, to do the work of the ministry. That's my job. I know that's my calling. I am called to take the word of God, preach the word of God, lead this church faithfully to serve this community and world, and I'm called to be the best husband and the best dad that I can ever be. I'm not called to everything else.
But what about you? What about you? You see, success in life is not being good at everything. Success in life is really and truly identifying what God's called you to do and being completely faithful in it. That's what Paul's saying here. Paul's not saying, "Hey, I'm, I'm, I, I can do everything well." He's saying, "But what I know I'm called to do, I'm going to do it. " So let me ask you some unbeliever. What are you called to do? And how faithful are you walking in it? That's number one. That's what he says in his resume. That's what he wants etched on his tombstone. I was faithful doing what God said I need to do. Here's number two though, Paul would say. Number two, he would say, "Here's a question for you. Am I proclaiming the truth of the gospel to others?" Number one, is am I faithful doing what God has called me to do?
But number two, Paul leans in and says, "Am I faithful proclaiming the truth of God to others? But wait a minute, Matt. Oh, I can hear the skeptics. What if I'm not called to do that? " Pro tip, you are. All right? Pro tip, there it is. You are. If you are a Christian, if you have given your life to Jesus and he has redeemed you, you are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're called to love God, love people, and speak the gospel. In fact, it's a primary role of every believer, regardless of your spiritual gifts and callings. It's to preach the gospel. I can't believe you, I can't believe, I can't tell you how many times I've heard somebody say, "Man, I'm just not called to, just not called to share the gospel. I ain't wrong." Yeah, you are. In fact, watch this two times.
Paul mentions this. Look at verse 20 and verse 27. In verse 20, it says this, "For, for you know that I have not hesitated," Paul says to preach anything that would be helpful to you. In other words, he didn't just pick and choose the topics that people liked. No, anything. But look at verse 27, this one really dr- really drills in. He says, "For I've not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God." Now I want you to circle that word proclaim because that word proclaim is an interesting word that literally means that Paul is saying that I have not hesitated to herald the name of Jesus. Now, the specifics matter here. So let me just kind of talk to you about the, the word proclaiming, the word heralding. To proclaim something means that you have been given a truth, taught a truth, or transformed by a truth, and you are doing nothing but passing that truth on.
What Paul is saying here in this is saying this. He's saying, "Listen, my role as a believer, and this is your role in my role, my role as a believer is to simply proclaim the word of God and then let God do what God is going to do. " Now let me let some of you off the hook a little bit, because some of you have never shared the gospel. You don't talk about the gospel and you have never shared the love of God in people's lives because you feel like you might mess it up. Here's what Paul is saying here. Our role is not to mess it up or to not mess it up. Our role is to proclaim the truth of God and let God work. The results are not up to you. This is so freeing right here. It's so freeing that our role is to simply to deliver not my truth or your truth, because those are terrible.
Our role is to simply proclaim the truth of God and let God work. You know what that means? That means this. If you present the gospel with somebody and they don't turn from it, it ain't on you. It's not on you. That's how Paul says this. Look at this in verse 26, one of the weirdest verses in all of acts. Paul says this. Paul says, "Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. " Now that's a bold statement right there, is it not? That sounds so morbid, but here's what Paul is doing. Paul is actually explaining right here that he, in every single case he can think of, has been faithful proclaiming the name of God. Therefore, what people did is not on him. Do you know that's how it works in life? Your role is not to save anybody.
You didn't die for anybody, and I guarantee you haven't risen from the grave. Your role is to simply give them the opportunity to love Jesus. Give them the opportunity to know about Jesus. Now, this text that Paul is actually preaching here is actually a mirror text of Ezekiel chapter 33. And I know you know that, but let me remind you of this. In Ezekiel, what God is doing is he's looking at Ezekiel and he's going, "Listen, if you don't warn them, the blood is on your hands. But if you do warn them, but God says about what I'm saying, hey, listen, that's on them. It's on them." So listen, church, our role is not to save anybody. Our role is to simply pull up at the end of our life and go, "Hey, listen, I was faithful. I was faithful and I simply spoke the word of God into people's lives." So let me just ask you something clearly.
Have you been faithful in your family proclaiming the word of God? Have you been faithful in your friend groups proclaiming the word of God? Have you been faithful in your workplaces, in your schools proclaiming the word of God? And this doesn't mean that you beat them over the head with it. It doesn't mean that it's what comes out in every conversation, but have you just been clear? Have you been clear? In fact, skip down to verse 19 and verse 31 of Acts and watch what it says. Paul says this. It's not out of anger, but what is it? He says that I serve the Lord with great humility and with tears. Verse 31 says, "Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you day and night with what? With tears. It's not out of anger. It's not out of spite." No. Church, he's saying that I'm literally, literally in tears because they don't know Jesus.
At the end of your life, will someone look at you and go, "That person right there loved Jesus and told people about Jesus." When's the last time you wept over somebody that doesn't know Jesus? So what Paul's saying here, I love what Spurgeon says about this. Charles Spurgeon, the, the, the pastor, he says this, "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap over, leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled with the teeth of our exerg- exhortations and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for. " Let me ask you something, believer, if today was your final day or if today was the final day of whatever the season of life that you're in, would anyone look at you and go, "Hey, listen, I don't know a whole lot about that person, but I know that they do what God tells them to do and they would not quit inviting me to know him." Here's number three, legacy question though is this.
Number three, this one's pretty short. "Am I pointing people to me or to Jesus first? "That's what Paul asks right here. This one stings a little bit, especially as leaders. Why? Let me read you what Paul says in verse 19. The first of it says this, that I served the Lord with great humility. What does that mean? What does that mean? That means this. Most leaders that I know wanna be seen as victorious, as out front, as seen, as joyful and as in charge.That's most leaders, right? We would all say that's who most of us are. But what does Paul say? Paul says," Listen, I am a word. I am a man of humility that literally stands with everything in my life, just pointing people to who Jesus is. "Believers, listen to me. The moment we point people to ourselves and not to Jesus is the moment that we step into sin in our lives.
The moment that we point people away from the love of God and to us is the moment that we step in to live in a lifestyle that opposes who God is. Now, this can be in our speech, this could be in how we present ourselves, this could be in our attitudes, this could be in our platforms, whatever it is. The moment we take the spotlight off of everything in me, doing nothing but shining the light on Jesus is the moment that I walk in sin. I love what Paul is saying here because Paul's saying," Listen, this, this Christian life is not about extraordinary men and women of faith doing extraordinary things that should be praised. Paul is saying no. It's about an extraordinary savior that no matter what anybody says at me, all I do is point to him. All I do is point to him.
Let me ask you, how much of your life points to you in your desires and your wants and what you deserve and how much of it points towards King Jesus, the one that can radically Save us from our sins. Or, let me ask it like this, the moment at the end of our lives when we're in this wooden box with flowers all over the place. Will somebody look at you and go, "That person pointed people to Jesus." Number one, am I faithful doing what God has called me to do? That's what Paul said. I am. Number two, am I proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to others? Paul says, "I did." Number three, am I pointing people away from myself and to Jesus? Oh, and here's one of my favorite ones. Number four, Paul would say this, "Am I working towards finishing strong? Am I working towards finishing strong?
Let me teach you a little life lesson here, and this is biblical as well as just in life. One of the most effective ways to ensure that you will end up in a location that you want to go is to never stop walking toward it. " Now, I know that's so simple, but it's profound, is it not? Here's what that means. The moment you hit the pause button is the moment that you go backwards. Say, "No, no, no, no, it's not bad. Okay. Let's do a little, a little case study right here. And, and let's just say working out, all right? Being physically fit. Remember, remember those days when we used to be physically fit? Remember those days, right? Um, remember what it was like when you felt good about yourself? Like, man, I'm there, right? I, fitness wise, I'm hitting my goals. I'm there.
I'm, I'm all over this thing, right? I'm encouraged where I'm at. I'm feeling strong. My endurance is better than it's ever. And remember what happened that one time when you just kind of fell off the wagon and you liked ice cream more than working out, right? And you did that for like six weeks without working out. I mean, come on, you've done it before, right? Remember when you got motivated again and you picked up your workout journal and you started trying to do what you used to do? Remember what it was like when that guy had to pick up those weights off of you in the gym, right? That's what Paul is saying here. He's saying the minute we hit the pause button, we don't just stay still. We actually move backwards. It doesn't just happen for working out. It actually happens in the gospel.
It actually happens as we walk out our faith. Oh, church, this is true with walking to Jesus. When, when most of us, we have this plan to start so well. Oh, I can't tell you 28 mil- years of ministry, how many people I've just seen have this radical, encouraging, life-changing moment. I mean, they have come to church. They have bought the biggest Bible I've ever seen in their life. I mean, they have the prettiest journal. They got 12 colors of outlying colors, right? They've done the whole deal. They're sitting on the front row, no offense to you front row people, but they're sitting on the front row. And then you look up in like nine months, they're like, "Hey, anybody sing Greg?" Paul would say this, and I've said this to my boys pretty much their whole life. Nobody cares how you start, but everybody cares how you finish.
What did Paul say in verse 24, "My only aim is to finish the race and to complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given to me. " Listen, I get it. I get it. Some of you are like, "Matt, I'm like 16 years old. I don't, I don't plan on checking out at any moment, right?" Let me put it like this. This doesn't just mean finishing this life and moving on to eternity. This means this. What are you doing right now to finish this season? Listen to me, high school senior. What are you doing right now to finish well in your high school career so you don't look back onto the rest of your life and go, "Man, I wish I would've." College student, what are you doing right now to finish this season to where you look back on this life later on and you're like, "Man, I did it.
I finished it. That was my goal. Young parent. What are you doing parenting right now that when you finish this toddler, oh, to the glory of God, you finish this toddler and get them out of that mode that you look back on and go, I finished it well. Parents of teenagers, what are you doing right now to parent well in this season, to finish this season? Oh, you empty nesters. What are you doing to finish well? Oh, you that are just retired. What are you doing to finish well? All those of you that are, that are one step in the glory. We know who you are, right? One step there. What are you doing to finish well? Not coast it out, because if you're coasted and you're going backwards to finish well. And in my experience, there's only about three reasons people don't finish well.
Number one's pain. Number two's fatigue. It's either too ... It hurts too much to finish. Nobody's with me. It's fatigue. I've done everything I can do and nobody's with me. And in both of those cases, Paul would just go, "Listen, I know what it feels like, but just finish well. Just finish well." In fact, listen to what he says in one Corinthians 15 verse 58. Paul says, "Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor is not in vain." Man, I beg every single one of you to go home today, look at whatever season of life you're in and go, "What does it take for me to finish this well?" Third reason people don't finish well is just a divided heart. And that just means that there's things in our lives that take prev- precedent over the things of God's life.
And before you know it, I look up and I haven't been anywhere in the presence of God since I can remember.
That's not how it works. In fact, the Psalmist David says it like this. It says a divided heart never pushes towards God. Watch what he says in verse 11 in Psalm 86. Says, "Teach me, teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name and I will praise you, Lord, my God, with all my heart and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love to me. And you have delivered me from the depths and the realm of the dead." Church, how about you? Are you finishing well? I don't know what your finish looks like, and actually I don't even care if you look at how to finish for the rest of this world. Here's what I want you to finish. I want you to finish today. Today, one of the biggest questions in my quiet time over the last year that has really began to spark some new thinking in my life is asking myself the question, God, how can I finish the day strong for you?
You know why? Because I get a little bit antsy thinking about tomorrow sometimes. I get a little bit antsy thinking about finishing my whole work career sometimes. But what God has called me to do is simply take a step today and a step tomorrow and a step the next day. And before you know it, I'm looking like Paul at the end of my life going, "Hey, boys, listen, I'm finishing strong." What about you? Number five, it's pretty short. But Paul looks at the end of his life at what he's done for everybody else and how he's offered up his life and he asks the question, "Do I give more than I take? Do I give more than I take?" Now, before you go into this motive, oh gosh, here we go. We're back into the money thing again. That's not even what I'm talking about right here.
What I'm talking about in life, am I seen as a person that gives or am I seen as a person that takes? Am I seen as a person that adds value to others? Or am I seen as a person that always needs something? You know those people I'm talking about when their name hits the phone, you're like, "Ooh, they need something," right? Do we live in such a way that all of my being is about me or is it about giving God glory and walking with others? I love, I love, I love what Paul says here. Look at these last verses in Acts 20, verse 33. It says this, Paul says the Ephesians leaders, he says, "Listen, I ... " Verse 33, "I've not coveted anyone silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak." Remembering the words the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." You know what Paul says here? Paul says, "Listen, I'm doing everything I can do. I'm living out the gospel in my life. I'm proclaiming the gospel in my life. I am pointing other people to Jesus. I am walking around other people's life and I'm working towards finishing strong." And Paul pulls up at the end of his life and says, "I like to think. I like to think that my life has not always been about taking, but it's been about giving." To which I would say this, in your marriage, do you give more or take more? In your family, do you give more or take more? In this church, do you give more or take more?
I love what Paul does here because he actually pulls out a playbook right from Jesus' life. Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, pulled up his disciples around the table. Yes, they had the Lord's supper together, but he also bowed down in front of them and he began to wash their feet, showing them that Jesus came to serve and not be served. You know, the interesting thing about that moment is that the king of the universe showed us what it looks like to give more than we receive.
What about you? You know, if living for Jesus is just about us hoping to get something, we're always gonna pull up short. If living in our families is always about our families doing something, we're always gonna pull up short. See, living for Jesus is simply about us serving him faithfully until the day he takes us home. And in the day he takes us home, there's gonna be some preacher like me that's gonna stand over you. And the moral of this message is this. Don't make it hard for them to say, Old Greg. He loved Jesus. He loved people. He walked out his faith. He was always giving. And he pointed all the glory to God. But what about you? Does Paul's resume describe your resume? Next couple of minutes, what I want you to do is I just want you to walk through a little mental checklist of God, where am I?
What does this look like for me? I just want you to ask yourself, what's one or two of these this week that I need to take from Paul's life and I need to put into my life?