you remember last week we were looking at the ironic benediction In numbers chapter six. And the focus of that message was primarily on divine blessing for the new year and our desperate need. If anything good is going to be accomplished this year, our desperate need for the Lord's own gracious intervention for the Lord's own blessing. And today, as we look at our texts, we're going to be considering the other side of that equation. Even though God's blessing and his working is at the bottom of it all, we come to consider more our side of things, our responsibilities as we come to a new year. And let me encourage you to be thinking about it this way. We are at the start of the year. But jump ahead 12 months and ask the question, what do you want to be thinking about your life at the end of 2015? What do you want, what do you desire to be your evaluation, your assessment, your conclusions about how things went and how you lived for the Lord at the end of 2015? Well, I want to begin by suggesting that with that kind of question, we can learn a lot from even people who are not believers. The year 1989 was a very influential one in my mind, primarily because that was the year I fell in love and began the relationship that would lead to getting married to Soraya. But in the publishing world, it was also a very influential year because it was the year that a book came out that turned out to be an international bestseller and it is called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People written by Stephen Covey. And the second of those seven habits goes like this, begin with the end in mind. Begin with the end in mind. What does that mean? Well, Covey puts it this way, he says, It's a healthy thing for you to visualize your funeral, to think about the end of your life, and to just imagine in your mind's eye that you are there, your body anyway, and people are coming by to pay their last respects, to comfort your family. And then in the service, people get up and they start talking about you. What would you desire that they be saying about you? If they were to sum up your whole life, if they were to capture what was the contribution of your life in theirs or in society or in the church in our case, what would you desire for them to be saying? And then he recommends that whatever it is that you conclude that you craft into a personal mission statement that you have before you as kind of the goal toward which you're shooting. If that's what you want to be said about your life at the end, the only way to get anywhere close to it is if you can verbalize what that is and if you can make progress to a stated objective, have a personal mission statement. And he goes on to say this, quote, To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. And can't you relate to this statement? It is incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap. in the busyness of life to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover that that ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy, very busy, without being very effective. How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us And keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most. Well, that bit of wisdom will stand you in good stead. I was just listening recently to a Christian man talking about marriage, and the question was posed as to how he and his wife resolve or work through disagreements, arguments. And he had some good things to say, biblical things to say about that, but he said the first thing is that he has to, as the leader particularly, to decide whether this is an argument even worth having. You only have so much time and energy and the question you have to pose to yourself is whether this is a hill worth dying on, whether this is going to contribute to my mission. That's what he said. God has us, has me and us as a couple on a mission. What is the relationship between this argument and the mission that we're supposed to be accomplishing, which of course is to glorify God, to serve him and represent him in the world, to make and to mature disciples of Christ. He says just asking that question gets a whole bunch of unnecessary issues off the table. And you come to realize that a great deal of what you fight about is petty. And it is not worth the energy. And it is distracting from this purpose that you have really focused in your mind. That's the sort of thing that we're talking about here. That's the application of having, that's one application of having this purpose in mind. Well, Stephen Covey is a Mormon. He's not a Christian. And yet by the common grace of God, there is a lot that he gets right in that book. And in fact, there is a lot of what he teaches that the Bible itself directly teaches about living the Christian life. It's been written down in scripture as the wisdom of God for thousands of years already. And we're going to get a little bit of it as we look at the way the apostle Paul coming to the end of his life, is able to reflect back on everything that went before, since he was a Christian, and is able to verbalize, really, the end, the goal, that all of us, I'm sure, as Christian people, desire. And that's in 2 Timothy 4, and starting at verse 5. As he is rounding out his exhortations to Timothy, he says, As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And then he is going to give a word of encouragement. as to where this is all going and what he ought to aspire to be able to say at the end of his life by taking heed to all these exhortations. It is Paul's own example. Do this because I am already being poured out. I am going off the scene. Somebody needs to take my place. And this is the path that you want to go. This is what you want to be able to say someday. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing very clearly. The apostle Paul is urging this other minister to nurture faithfulness. to stick with his calling, to pursue the ministry fully that the Lord has entrusted to him. And he is using his own experience and really his own sense of godly satisfaction at the end of his life to put a vision out there for this younger man to pursue so that he might be able to have the same experience. of coming to the end of his life and being able to say, by the grace of God, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And in dealing with that this morning, I just want to borrow Covey's language, and the title of our message is, Begin with the End in Mind. You and I, as Christian people, we want to be able to say, 2 Timothy 4, 7, at the end of 2015 and ultimately at the end of our lives. And let's just think here by way of introduction about the words of this verse, I have fought the good fight. Commentators will argue about whether that is a military image, talking about a battle between soldiers. I have fought the good fight in that sense. Or whether it's more of an athletic image, talking about the exertion and the perseverance that's required to win a contest, specifically a wrestling match or something like that. Either way. I think if I just give you the Greek root here, you'll get an idea of the meaning of this word. It's the word agon. That's the noun and actually the verb agonizomai is in here in this verse too. That is the root from which we get our word agony. And agony can happen in warfare. It can happen in athletics. It can happen in any number of areas of life. The important thing is not which precise image is going on here. The important thing is the emphasis, life is a struggle. If you were to define life, what is it all about? One of the Bible answers is, it's a struggle. It's a fight. You can't expect opposition. It is not easy. There is wrestling that is involved. Now, to talk that way might sound like I'm complaining. And I suppose I sometimes find myself complaining. But it's very helpful that when Paul says this, he says, I have fought the good fight. i've agonized the good agony the point is yes it's hard yes there's exertion yes there's blood sweat and tears but it is something worthwhile this is a hill worth dying on this is something that is worth all of the expenditure that i'm putting into it and in fact in another place for some of the six twelve he turns that language right around on timothy he tells him Fight the good fight of the faith. So Paul is able to keep all of that together that it's a struggle but it's a good thing and it's worth pursuing not just me but you Timothy as well. And then he says with another expression another image I have finished the race. Picturing the Christian life as a long term marathon. And evidently this was something that Paul had thought about before, right? This is at the end of his life, a good bit earlier in Acts chapter 20, when he is saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders at verse 24, he says this, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only, here it is, I may finish my course." Same terminology. And the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And here is a helpful fact about that statement. I have finished the race in acts 20. He's pursuing, he's wanting to finish it in second Timothy. He basically has completed it already. What is very helpful is that he doesn't say I have won the race. Okay. And the point is this race of the Christian life, we're not in competition against each other. And it is not that I got ahead of so-and-so and I won the race in that sense. It is not about winning. It is about completing it. It is about getting to the end of it. maintaining my confidence in the lord and pursuing his purpose for my life just finishing the race no matter who gets there first or who does better from a human standpoint is a matter of completing and if we are going to bring in other believers into it uh... really image we are to use is that of a relay race that's what he's doing in this book he is saying I finished the course and I'm Timothy passing on this baton to you so that you can take it up and you can finish it out and Timothy you need to find faithful men to whom you can teach these things and they can continue this whole process from generation to generation and then he says I have kept the faith The word the faith there with the article is talking not so much about his own faith in Christ is talking about the objective faith, the body of doctrine that God had given to him to preach to expound to put in writing. And to maintain pure, you're talking basically about the gospel message. And when he says, I have kept it, he means I haven't altered it. I haven't given up on it myself, and I have not surrendered it to other people either. I have fought for the sake of its purity. And this is helpful because it keeps us from looking at this language and somehow thinking that Paul is being proud when he makes these kind of comments. That somehow he's being self-righteous and talking about how great a job he did or something. What he's talking about being faithful to is the message that our standing with God is something that we receive as a gift, that we obtain not by our works, that it is something that has been given to us graciously through the love of God and through the work of Christ on our behalf. It is all by grace through faith. That's really the core of the message that he's trying to preserve here. And so, so far from this being self-righteous, it actually goes in the other direction here. He is saying, I have been able to maintain, committed to this message that it is all by grace through faith. Well, those are stirring and motivating statements, and probably you have found yourself encouraged by them in the past. But they are very general in nature, right? I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Actually, two of them are metaphors, so they're kind of abstract. And we might be wondering, what does that sort of life actually look like? Practically speaking, what would a Christian need to do to be able to say those kinds of things at the end of this year or at the end of your life? Well, we don't actually have to wonder because these statements, 2 Timothy 4, 7, they come at the end of this letter as Paul is wrapping up his exhortation to timothy is paul is facing his own execution in rome he is wrapping up his final comments in this letter and it is right before he makes some personal remarks just concluding everything in that statement those three statements really are a reflection back on everything he is taught in this letter their reflection back on everything he's been urging timothy to do If we want to know what it looks like to fight the good fight, to finish the race, to keep the faith, all we need to do is read the rest of 2 Timothy. All we need to do is to look at the content of that life that Paul is urging Timothy about. And we recognize that it is not just Timothy, that in principle these things are models for all of God's people. And so today what I'd like to do is to summarize the instruction of this entire letter under four headings by way of encouraging us to strive toward those statements, to strive toward those objectives. I'd like to summarize this letter. I'm going to read some passages. I'm going to summarize others. And I'm going to start with my least favorite part. Get out of the way, I suppose. And it kind of goes along with what I've already said about the struggle part. If you want to know what it means to fight the good fight, to finish the race, to keep the faith, Well, we would do well to consider this first idea lest we be disappointed by unrealistic expectations. The first element of this goal, what we ought to expect and what we ought to engage in and persevere in is that we ought to, number one, persevere in suffering. That is what this Pauline life looks like. That is what this Timothy life looks like. That is really inseparable from being able to get to the end of your life and say, I have finished the course. It is first of all, a matter of persevering in hard things and persevering in suffering. And that is clearly in mind when Paul comes to our text, because just a little bit earlier where we started in verse five, he actually says, endure suffering. Endure suffering. And that's not the first time he has made that kind of comment. Let me have you look at this theme as it occurs in every other chapter. Chapter 1. Go with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. And look at verse 7. Why would Paul need to say, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control, if there were not things out there in life, in ministry, that are intimidating? Why would he have to say, verse 8, don't be ashamed if you would not be tempted to be ashamed in the midst of a world that is hostile toward your Christ? And then very explicitly he says, don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. inseparable from the normal christian life is the experience of suffering he returns to inverse twelve which is why i suffer as i do but i'm not ashamed that's after one look at chapter two inverse three here is again share in suffering as a good good soldier of jesus christ look a little bit later at first nine That for this gospel I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect. Chapter 3 as well. Look at verse 11. As he recounts the ministry, the life that Timothy has observed in Paul, he refers to my persecutions and my sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra. He's got some details there, which persecutions I endured it from the Lord from them. All the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse. He did mention some cities, and alluding to certain incidents of suffering, you can go back to the book of Acts and read about some of that. Even in this letter, he actually mentions a name or two. He says, for example, in chapter 4 and verse 14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. You know what? I'll bet every one of us will be able to get to the end of our lives and put a name in that blank. So-and-so did me much harm. Maybe there's a whole bunch of so-and-sos. That will not be unusual. That will be reflective of the experience of even the Apostle Paul. And what will be most painful is that some of that suffering actually comes from professing Christian brothers. really a very sad letter in some ways because both at the beginning and at the end Paul has to say there are certain people that I was counting on that let me down they walked away from me in the time of testing when I most needed them I mean look with me right here in chapter 4 for example 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Luke alone is with me. And he's writing this letter partially to get Timothy to come and see him as well. All he's got is Luke at that point. And look at verse 16. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. And of course, just a few verses earlier, he speaks of Demas who forsook him specifically. This was the experience, and these are some of the things that come to the mind of Paul as he comes to the end of his life. People letting me down, people doing me much harm. And let us just put it on the table that 2015 will bring suffering, and I'm sure some suffering along those particular lines. Some of the suffering will be what we could call the normal effects of the curse, physical sickness, painful circumstances, disappointments in our family, perhaps even death. There may be as well a share of persecution as we are more and more living in a culture that is turning its back on the very basic things about the Lord and about morality that this country was founded on. And yet, the point of bringing all this up And the point of Paul's example is that this year we can end by saying I have fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith, and in the bigger picture it's been a successful year because I've been able to say that. This can be that sort of year. Not because the problems go away, but because we will have endured all of that without abandoning the Lord ourselves. Successful Christian living is not about escaping trouble. It is about persevering in suffering. And let me just make this one note to wrap up this theme. that even while there were those that Paul could name by name that caused him great pain, he can also speak of others. You think about your life, just all the people that had some impact, good or bad, in your life, and there are some that you might be able, that I'm sure you would be able, to say this about. This is chapter 1 and verse 16. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, whoever he was. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy. You all know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. The point is that one of the great resources that God uses to enable us to persevere in suffering is the ministry of our fellow believers. And this is something that I try to remind myself about, I'm sure I could do better, that every time we gather and that no matter what it is that I happen to be preaching or no matter what it is I'm saying and interacting with people, this church at any time is going to have hurting people. And they are people who may feel like they're hanging on by a thread. And they are people who need encouragement to persevere. May the Lord grant that Cleveland Park Bible Church be a place of refreshment for suffering Christians. May those kind of comments be said about us. Persevere in suffering, that's the first element here. Number two, going in a little bit different direction, What will need to happen for us to be able to say I finished the fight? Number two, persevere in avoiding wrong influences. Persevere in avoiding wrong influences. There really is a pretty strong, not just here in this letter, but in the other pastoral letters as well, there's a pretty strong aspect of militancy and separation from error and from sin. And the wrong influences that Paul is talking about, I think we could classify in two categories. Some of those wrong influences are erroneous religious influences. It's people that we could call false teachers. And part of the courage that it takes and part of the suffering that you face is a matter of opposing that which is undermining the truth of the gospel. So, for example, you have in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 16 these comments. Here are some things to avoid. That's why I say reject or persevere in avoiding wrong influences. Avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. Their talk will spread like gangrene. And he mentions another couple of names, people who have denied the resurrection and are thereby upsetting the faith of some. And it is with that false teaching in mind that at the end of verse 19, he says, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. In other words, iniquity is not too strong a word to use for somebody in this case who denies the doctrine of the resurrection, that kind of false teaching. And it's not the only place he says this. Look at verse 23 as well. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. You shouldn't be quarrelsome. You need to correct your opponents, verse 25, in compassion, but clearly with the spirit of courage for the sake of the truth. Well, those are some of the enemies that Paul had agonized against throughout his ministry. He named some of them. There could be others to be added, Judaizers, those who were leaning toward what would eventually become Gnosticism and any other number of false teachings that were an attack on the gospel, and part of the perseverance that enabled Paul to say, at the end, I have done my job, is that I have confronted erroneous teaching. Now, it's interesting that some of that teaching is denounced in such a way that we would say that's false. Some of it, as you read the pastorals especially, is maybe not called false but it is denounced because it is speculative and therefore distracting from that which is solid and edifying. In other words, Paul is persevering against not only false teaching but teaching that is hard to prove, teaching that only breeds confusion and dissension, teaching that is not ultimately edifying. And in that whole process, here's one basic, simple way to evaluate, whenever you hear someone giving an interpretation, whenever you hear somebody propounding some teaching, just ask yourself the question, based on the biblical data that is used to back that off, is this teaching possible versus teaching that is likely versus teaching that is certain based upon the kind of evidence that is given for it. Is it possible? Is it likely? Is it certain? Where the teaching falls in that scheme determines the amount of emphasis that ought to be given to it in the Church of Jesus Christ. And there is plenty of teaching out there that is not even possible, that is so out in left field, that is so speculative, that is the kind of thing particularly that Paul is talking about here, and he says avoid those kind of influences. If you do that and just find yourself focusing on that which is clear and solid and certain, that will be more than enough. To occupy your mind for all of your life and to feed your faith for all of your life. So you persevere in avoiding erroneous religious influences. And secondly, avoiding as well, just downright immoral influences. In chapter two, in the middle of some of these other comments, he says, flee youthful passions. If I'm going to make it through 2015 to be able to say I fought the good fight, a lot of it is going to have to do with intentionally avoiding passions. He calls them youthful passions because they tend to be more characteristic of young people who haven't developed as much self-control. But on the other hand, I don't think that Timothy was a teenager at this point. You may have been relatively young compared to Paul, and it doesn't matter how old you are, any of us are still tempted by what could be called youthful passions. That will entail, whenever possible, even avoiding situations that could be overwhelming to me, avoiding activities and relationships that I know or that I suspect are going to flood me with these temptations. He says, you just, you just, you remember this is a race. Part of the race is running away from certain things. And that is vital if we're going to be able to finish the race successfully. And yet, it's so helpful how balanced of a statement this is that he doesn't say just run away from certain things. You can't succeed as a Christian simply by negativity. You've got to be positively pursuing other things. So even as he says, flee youthful passions, he says pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. There needs to be that positive pursuit of Christ-like virtue that ends up pushing out the inclinations to do the other things. Sadly, this is not what Demas did as he left the Lord and Paul because he loved the present world. Now talked about these two categories, religious influences, erroneous ones, immoral influences. When you come to chapter three, there's a big long list of things to avoid and they turn out to be a mixture of the religious and the immoral all wrapped up together. We're not going to take the time to look at all those details, but even while he's making comments like people being slanderous, brutal, reckless, lovers of pleasure, he says as well, verse five, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. He talks about people creeping into households, presumably to give some kind of religious instruction by which they get a foothold in the home to do some of these immoral things. And regarding all of it, notice the command in verse 5 at the end, avoid such people. Sometimes the religious and the immoral are mixed together, and we are being urged here to resist. the pressure of our carnal culture, whatever form it takes. I'm not going to say more about that because that is going to be, of course, one of the big things that we will consider when we go to Romans chapter 12. As the beginning of that passage urges us not to be conformed to this world. Now, I want to come back with our next thought here, and we're going to couple that negative emphasis with the positive once again. We are not only to persevere in avoiding these kinds of things, we are to persevere with the scriptures. Persevere with the scriptures. And probably, if there's anything you remember about 2 Timothy, it's a very famous statement that occurs at the end of chapter three. But that's not the only place it occurs. Paul tells Timothy chapter 1, follow the pattern of sound words. He tells him to guard the good deposit as though the scriptural truth is like a treasure to be protected. He says in chapter 2 verse 2 that part of the guarding of it, part of the devotion to scripture is the teaching of others who can carry on the right teaching. He tells them in chapter 2 verse 15 to work with the Bible and be so careful with it that you are able to stand before the Lord unashamed because God himself would bear witness that you have accurately unfolded the teaching of the truth of scripture for God's people. And all of that does come to a head at chapter 3, verse 16, which talks to us about God's word being breathed out and having these multiple ministries in our lives. Here is what you and I will need if we desire to come to the end of the year and be satisfied before the Lord that we have fought the good fight. We will need to be pursuing and to be receptive to and to be humble before the many-sided input of the Bible. Some of it will be positive teaching. Some of it will be negative reproof. Some of it will be correction. Some of it will be like a father teaching his child to walk and putting him through some steps or something to train him. and all of that vital for us to be able to be equipped for every good work. Now, lest we think that this is for Timothy only, and this is somehow restricted to the preachers in our midst, the passage goes right on into chapter four. And he tells this man that having experienced the Bible working in his life in all those ways, he is to turn around, verse 2, and preach the word, whether people want to hear it or not, whether he feels like it or not. In other words, what he receives from the Bible in all these different dimensions, positive, negative, the mixture of it to mature himself, he then is to take and turn around and preach it, proclaim it to others as the revelation of God for their lives as well. And I'm sure that this was a huge part of why Paul could say that he had been faithful to what God had entrusted him to do, because that is describing his own personal interaction with the Bible and his own faithful communication of it to other people. In fact, I think it's also the answer to another convicting statement at the beginning, where he says in chapter 1, verse 3, that he serves God with a clear conscience. Take a look at that. As he's introducing his ministry, he says, 2 Timothy 1, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience. How can anybody say that he serves God with a clear conscience? Please don't think that that is somehow beyond your reach. Please don't say that to talk this way is to be legalistic or to have some imbalanced perspective of your obedience. To say that you serve God with a clear conscience does not mean that you never sin. I would say that it involves at least two elements. It certainly does imply an earnestness, an earnestness to pattern your behavior according to the scripture. a willingness to be reproved or corrected, which implies that you've done wrong, the Bible is showing you what you have done wrong, and it implies as well that when the Bible convicts you, you handle it properly. You acknowledge your faults, you confess your sins, and all of those things are involved in the maintaining of a clear conscience it is not that you never fail and therefore you can say i'd always did the right thing it is that you were very serious about obeying the lord that when the bible convicts you of having done something wrong you you you recognize it and you confess it in reliance upon the blood of christ that your conscience might be cleansed from that offense and you do that all as a matter of consistency and as the habit of your life That is how somebody can say they serve God with a clear conscience. Do you and I want to end 2015 being able to say that? Then you and I need to spend this year immersing ourselves in God's thoughts. Our own personal meditation on scripture is a part of that. Our attentiveness to the preaching of God's word is a part of it. Our actually following through and doing it is a part of it. And thankfully, we're not alone in that endeavor. There's a neat passage in this letter where Paul is giving Timothy some of these metaphors and the meaning of them may not be apparent. And he says to him in 2 Timothy 2.7, think over what I say. Okay, meditate on it. Four, as you meditate, the idea would be the Lord will give you understanding in everything. So that God's own working and God's own illumination and God's own power is worked into this equation. of immersing ourselves in scripture and persevering with it. And that leads me to my last thought. What will it take to finish the course? It will take persevering and suffering. It will take persevering and avoiding wrong influences. It will take persevering with scripture. It will take, thankfully, I'd love to end on this note, it will take persevering by God's grace. Persevering by God's grace. I want to look briefly back at some of these verses we have already seen and highlight some comments that I kind of skipped over and left till now. Look at 2 Timothy 1 and verse 8. When he says at the end of that verse, share in suffering for the gospel, he doesn't stop there. He says share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. In other words, the ability to endure the persecution is coming from the gracious intervention of God ministering his power to help me to do that. Something like that as well in chapter 2. Look at 2 Timothy 2 and verse 8. What is it you're going to need to do this? Remember Jesus Christ Risen from the dead the offspring of David as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering The point is you get your courage you get your energy to endure the suffering through a Christ who has gone through that for you first and and who has come out alive on the other end of it, risen from the dead. And if he was able to conquer suffering to that degree, then there is no end to the grace and power he can minister to you to endure whatever you have to face. You and I won't be able to do any of these things we've been talking about if we haven't first recognized our absolute inability and if we haven't and are not regularly casting ourselves on the risen Christ. Chapter four, verse 17. Chapter four, verse 17. Here's how Paul was able to stand when others abandoned him. It's beautiful. No one stood by me, right, verse 16, verse 17, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it, so I was rescued from the lion's mouth. This is the difference between the Bible and seven habits of highly effective people. The difference is the risen Christ and the empowering spirit enabling you to live that way. The Lord stood by me and strengthened me. And to put it in one phrase, 2 Timothy 2, verse 1, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That's how this is gonna happen. That's how we're gonna be able to get to the end of 2015 and be able to say we finished the race is through daily, moment by moment, reliance on the grace of Christ for strength. Remember a famous statement of Hudson Taylor. He was thinking about missions, but it applies to everything, that the Christian is to go forward on his knees. that the way of progress is the way of humiliation and desperate dependence on the Lord, symbolized by being on your knees. It's kind of a weird image, right? Go forward on your knees like you're, have you ever tried kneeling to move, to make progress? You know, maybe when you were a baby, but it's not an easy thing. It's an awkward position to be in, to walk on your knees. I remembered a number of times being in Mexico and seeing people actually doing that. In their case, because they're, taking some kind of pilgrimage to a cathedral and trying to impress God by their devotion and their willingness to suffer to hopefully get his attention and his blessing. It's a horrible picture of a works religion. It's a very depressing thing to watch people doing that. But ironically, there is something right about it as well. Not that we're trying to impress God or earn God, but we're actually, for every step I take down this path of 2015, it is on my knees. Not that I'm trying to merit God's favor, but that I'm doing so in utter dependence upon his grace. And may we all be nurturing that posture as we head into this year so that by God's grace we can come to the end and say, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.