ACTS: Finishing Well

It doesn’t matter how you start; it’s how you finish that matters. At the Olympics, they don’t hand out medals at the starting line, but at the finish line. The Super Bowl trophy is not awarded at the beginning of the season, but at the end. The World Series is not played in April, but in November. Grades are given when a syllabus is distributed, but when the semester is over. Degrees are not conferred, nor are diplomas handed out until all the course work has been completed. It doesn’t matter just how you start; it’s how you finish that matters.

Every Christian life is a complex variety of trips and destinations, ups and downs; most seem ordinary － things that simply have to be done － with little or no spiritual purpose. But throughout the Book of Acts, the apostle Paul viewed every trip and every destination as part of the call of God. During the last ten years of his life, every arrest was part of God’s purpose and every trial was part of God’s plan. Our call as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives meaning to the mundane things of our lives and purpose to our problems along the way to Heaven.  

In the last several chapters of Acts from the life of Paul, we discover (at least) seven ways to finish this life well as a witness for Jesus Christ regardless of our circumstances and situation.

sermon by: Larry Murray
date: 11.26.2017