Bunbury
Tues pm
25/01/2011
“Don’t worry – God finishes what he begins”
Intro: A great deal of our anxiety comes from worrying about things we really shouldn’t worry about.
Some people have a lot of confidence in themselves.
But their confidence is sometimes not well founded.
*** John McKay, of the NFL, tells a story illustrating the supreme confidence of University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant:
“We were out shooting ducks, and finally, after about three hours, here comes one lonely duck. The Bear fires. And that duck is still flying today. But Bear watched the duck flap away, looked at me and said, ‘John, you are witnessing a genuine miracle. There flies a dead duck!’”
I think his confidence didn’t serve him well on that occasion.
But you know the reverse is true too ….. sometimes we lack confidence when we have every reason to be confident.
Never is this truer than when it comes to placing confidence in God to do what He says He’ll do.
Life would be a whole lot easier for many believers if they would rest in the fact that God finishes what he begins.
Which is exactly what I want to look at tonight – ‘Don’t worry, God’s finishes what He begins’.
Text: (Phil 1:6 NKJV) being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
# 1. Confidence in God.
A. Sometimes our confidence in God fails!
1. I’d like to say that I’ve always trusted God & had perfect confidence in him – but it’s not true!
a.) It’s almost as though we don’t trust God to be able to do what he says he’s going to do.
*** Satchel Paige was a renowned black baseball pitcher who had incredible confidence in his own ability to be able to strike out a batter. On at least one occasion if not more he ordered all of his outfielders into the dugout while he proceeded to strike out the batting lineup. If only one ball he pitched had have been hit it could have been disastrous. But Satchel Paige was a man who had tremendous confidence that he could do what he said he could do. The outfielders willingly went to the dugout b/c they had confidence that if Satchel Paige said he could strike them out he would!
b.) Now that’s the kind of unquestioning confidence we need to have in God!
Numbers 23:19 (NKJV) 19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
c.) When we strip away the façade of what we are really saying when we lack confidence in God what we are saying is God have more confidence in your ability to fail than to succeed!
2. Failing to have confidence in God is a human habit.
a.) Abraham failed to have confidence in God ……. Instead of waiting for God’s time – a weekend fling w/ Hagar The Horrible!
b.) Moses failed to have confidence in God …….. talk to the Rock – he disobeyed & struck the rock.
c.) King Saul failed to have confidence in God …… Samuel promised to be there to offer sacrifice to God b/4 going to war – Saul didn’t wait.
d.) Peter didn’t have confidence in God ……… lopped off the ear of the high priest’s servant!
B. Maybe at times you’ve felt your own confidence in God failing!
1. It’s not that you don’t believe that God can do what He says but ……
a.) Things have gone wrong at times & not worked the way we thought / believed they should have & the result is a crises of confidence.
b.) You want to believe God but fear begins to take over whenever you think about taking that step of faith.
c.) You see one of the enemy’s strategies is to keep you under the dominion of fear.
d.) Fear of failure / fear of ridicule / fear of losing / fear of mockery / fear of criticism ….. simply b/c you believed God!
2. Maybe you like O/T King David find y/s asking God …….. How long O Lord?
a.) When am I going to have the boldness / confidence / dominion I need to be able to operate / live / function in a godly confidence?
b.) If you’ve ever felt like this don’t worry ….. you’re not alone.
c.) But …. Don’t give up either b/c God is in the business of transforming timid hearts into lions of faith!
Proverbs 28:1 (NKJV) 1The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
*** Former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau fought many duels with various rivals. On one occasion, he surprised his second by asking the attendant at a Paris railroad station for a one-way ticket to the duel. “Isn’t that a little pessimistic?” asked the second.
“Not at all,” Clemenceau replied. “I always use my opponent’s return ticket for the trip back.”
d.) We need to develop a godly confidence that b/c of who we serve we can / will win.
# 2. The God of beginnings & endings.
A. Here’s the thing that we can place our confidence in – God never leaves things half done.
1. Now the fact is that most of us have monuments of our lives that speak about unfinished business.
a.) Things we started & couldn’t bring our/s to finishing, things that were left undone / unfinished / incomplete.
b.) They’re usually the things we like to forget …. No one likes the idea of an unfinished idea.
c.) Even Jesus points this out when he gives us the parable of the tower builder & the king w/ an undersized army.
Luke 14:28 (NKJV) 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
d.) You see it was the builder’s intention to finish the tower but intentions aren’t the same as physical realities are they?
2. Again …… fear plays a role here b/c we know our own inclination to leave things half completed / unfinished.
a.) And b/c of this fear begins to grip us when we think about the things that God begins in our lives.
b.) Could it be that God won’t finish what he began?
*** The Asian financial crash a few years back now left a monument to inability scattered all over the landscape of Asia. In particular in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia still to this very day there are multistory skyscrapers that have been left half finished.
All good intentions were in place but an unforeseen crash in the value of the Rupiah meant that over night the cost of completing these projects was impossible.
c.) The point is simple ……. God isn’t affected by the limitations that bound our lives.
d.) God can cause bread to rain our of the sky / water to pour out of solid rock / an ocean to b/co dry land.
B. God never starts something He is not sure He can finish.
1. The very fact that God begins something is a positive indicator that it will be completed.
Vs 6. ……He who has begun a good work in you will complete…..
a.) God is not going to inhabit heaven in eternity w/ the memory of an unfinished / unfulfilled promise.
b.) And let’s remember that every one of us that He saves is a promise ….. a promise of purpose / of calling / destiny / glory.
c.) If God began a work in your life you can begin to …… & keep taking heart that what He began in your life will ultimately come to a day of conclusion.
2. God won’t be any man’s debtor!
a.) The Bible instructs us to not be at fault when it comes to unpaid / unfinished debt.
Romans 13:8 (NKJV) 8Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
b.) Now if God has commanded us in His word not to be a debtor to other men then it’s logical that He won’t be a debtor to us!
# 3. The final curtain fall.
A. You can only every evaluate life clearly from an eternal standpoint.
1. In other words what I’m saying to you is that God makes the standpoint of eternity to be only correct position from which we can truly evaluate life.
a.) Although it is difficult not to evaluate life from here & now ….. God evaluates our lives from the vantage point of eternity.
b.) Listen to what our text has to say here …….
Vs 6. …. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
c.) The Bible makes it clear that there are going to be many things that will only come into focus at the time of the coming of Jesus Christ.
d.) The parable of the sheep & goats clearly reveals this ….
Matthew 25:34 & 40 (NKJV) 34Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
40And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
2. There is going to be a final curtain fall when everything God is doing in the earth / church & personally in your life will be bought to fulfillment.
a.) You can’t afford to drop out of the race b/4 it’s finished b/c God hasn’t finished.
b.) There is a finish line that we are running towards ….. if you lose heart b/4 that finish line you will also lose the prize.
c.) God’s patient ……. You need to be too!
*** According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man’s feet and gave him food and drink.
The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, “Don’t you worship God?”
The old traveler replied, “I worship fire only and reverence no other god.”
When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his tent into the cold night air.
When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, “I forced him out because he did not worship you.”
God answered, “I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?”
Hebrews 12:1 (KJV) 1……. and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
*** The great New England preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. “What’s the trouble, Mr. Brooks?” he asked. “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!”
B. The final curtain fall is going to take place when Jesus returns for His church.
1. If I’m not mistaken the church He is returning for is a glorious church – a bride w/o spot / blemish / flaw.
a.) Looking around …… it’s not what I see at the moment but I also know what a radical transformation can take place to a woman who b/co a bride.
b.) And that’s what we’ve got to take confidence in that we are indeed the bride of Christ & even though we can’t yet imagine the glorious work he will accomplish – He can!
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NKJV) 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
1 John 3:2 (NKJV) 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
*** I’ll never forget the first time I saw some of the great sights of the world. Victoria Falls / The Eiffel Tower in Paris / The Opera House / Three Sisters. I had seen photos of all of these places but never did the photos do them justice in conveying the reality of what I was now seeing in real life. The photos were a mere shadow of the real thing that I saw w/ my own eyes.
And this is what eternity is going to be like ….. what we see now is a mere shadow of the reality that is still veiled until the last curtain fall when we enter into eternity.
c.) God is involved in each & every one of our lives in sculpturing us for the glorious live show that will be known as everlasting life.
