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Welcome to our look together at verses 6 to 8 of 2 Timothy chapter 4, incredible
verses in Scripture. Many people call these Paul's last will and testament. Some
people call this the Gettysburg Address type thing of the New Testament.

Of all the great speeches in human history, these verses 6 to 8, these stand
right alongside those great words, powerful words about what God does in our
lives and how we can look forward to the eternity that it has for us with hope.
All these things that Paul has been saying to his son in the faith, Timothy,
about living out a life of faith, they are done in light of what he has to say
in these verses. Let me read them for you.

2 Timothy 4 verses 6 to 8. Paul writes, "For I am already being poured out like
a drink offering, and the time of my departure it has come. I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing. " Incredible verses. For many of us,
familiar verses.

Paul writing to Timothy from a Roman prison cell just before his death. He knows
that he's going to be executed in maybe a few days, possibly a few months. And
it doesn't seem as if the Lord's going to intervene this time.

That makes a person think about what's really of value in life. And so Paul sits
in this perfect position to express to us the true value of knowing Christ. As
he looked back over the years, he was able to state that three of the most
elusive, wonderful qualities had infected his life because of his relationship
with Christ.

Now we're going to get to those in verse 8, but first notice how Paul describes
his current circumstances. He says, "I'm already being poured out like a drink
offering. " It's the idea of a sacrifice, in a Jewish sacrifice, and even in the
pagan Roman sacrifices, they would take an offering of a drink, and at the end
of the sacrifice, they would pour out this offering over the sacrifice, over the
altar.

It was a sign of the joy of the sacrifice. And Paul is here saying, "I'm
rejoicing in the fact that I was able to pour out my life in service for Jesus
Christ. And I can see that the rest of my life is being poured out now.

The cup is going to be turned all the way over. I'm going to go be with him in
heaven. I'm being poured out like this drink offering.

It is finished. My service is finished. I'm looking forward to being with him.

" And knowing this, knowing that the time of his departure was right ahead of
him, and that word departure, by the way, it means loosing. It's the idea of
loosing the ropes on a ship so that it can set sail. Paul says, "It's right
there.

I can feel it is so close. " Knowing that, living with that hope, Paul has some
final words. He sums up a life of faith on planet Earth.

As Paul approaches the end of his life, he looks back and he describes his life
of faith in three ways. And as he describes it, I see three qualities in the
life of Paul that I want, I desire in my life, I desire for your life. The
qualities of an overcoming spirit, of a staying power, and of an abundant life.

He talks about those as he says, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished
the race. I have kept the faith.

I have fought the good fight. " He's talking about an overcoming spirit. Life is
a battle.

And there's this picture of an athletic contest or of a military battle. Life is
a battle. And the word that Paul uses here as he talks about fighting this good
fight, it expresses it to us vividly.

It's agonizomai. The idea of agony is in this word. We tell ourselves sometimes
that we're going to really start living when we can stop battling.

But life in this world beginning to end, it's a battle, inevitably. Paul says
it's a good fight. It's a worthy battle.

It is a battle worth fighting. And in that battle, Paul says, "Not I faced the
good fight, but I fought it. " He had an overcoming spirit.

Jesus Christ, your relationship with him, he enables you to overcome. The words
that Paul uses here, they have this sense of "I did it. " You can sense the
finality, the victory in these words.

How do you react to the battle of everyday living? You can be a deserter in the
battle. You can be a retreater in the battle.

You can be an attacker in the battle. You can be a compromiser in the battle. Or
you can be an overcomer.

That's what Paul was. His vision, his faith in Christ, his relationship with
Christ, they changed a defeated spirit into an overcoming spirit. And God can do
the same thing in your life right now.

He can change your defeated spirit into an overcoming spirit by realizing, "I'm
going to fight the good fight. " He can change your fearful spirit into an
overcoming spirit. He can change your angry spirit into an overcoming spirit.

He can change your compromising spirit into an overcoming spirit. Just by
realizing, "It's no mistake that I'm battling. It's not something I've done
wrong.

It's what I'm here to do. I'm to fight the good fight. " And then he says, "I
have finished the race.

" Not just an overcoming spirit, but Paul also had staying power. Life isn't
just a battle, it's also a marathon. And I think sometimes it's harder to handle
the routine, the marathon of life, than the large battles of life.

More people's faith has been defeated by the details of everyday living than by
the big battles. I don't know if you've ever cut down a tree with a chainsaw.
Chainsaw you can cut through a huge tree, but if you let it get caught up in the
little branches, it'll knock the chain right off the saw every time.

We can get caught up in the little things. It's the marathon of life that makes
me feel like succumbing to temptation, that causes you maybe to want to give up.
Give up on your marriage.

Give up on your kids. Give up on your life. That brings a sense of tiredness to
life that makes us want to give up on everything and everyone.

This is where our relationship with Christ makes all the difference. Your
relationship with Christ enables you to endure. Finished the race.

Staying power. A lot of people are in on the excitement and the start of the
race, but all too few are there to the finish. If you've looked at yourself and
thought, "Why can't I stick with anything?

" You need a power. You need a power to endure that only a God-given vision,
only a relationship with God can truly give you. You need a purpose that will
grip you.

God's vision, God's relationship with you. The key for Paul was finishing the
race. It wasn't being first in the race.

It was finishing the race. For Paul, life was not a matter of competition, but
of completion. Now there's a simple truth that might transform the way you're
living.

Maybe you've been trying to win the race instead of just finish the race with
faith. We spend too much time trying to beat those around us in the hundred-yard
dashes, and so we run out of energy for finishing the race in the real marathon
of life. Focus on that and God will give you endurance.

The value of your relationship with Christ is the ability to endure. I fought
the good fight. I finished the race.

And he says, "I've kept the faith. " That's a picture to me of abundant life. I
have kept the faith.

Life is a gift. It's a wonderful gift. Faith is a wonderful gift, but it's also
a challenging gift.

I don't know. Maybe as a child you might remember getting a puppy some
Christmas, some birthday, and your parents sat you down and said, "Now, you have
to walk it. You have to train it.

You have to feed it. You have to clean up after it. " And you may have thought,
"This isn't a gift.

It's a responsibility. " The word that Paul uses in this phrase, "kept," "I have
kept the faith," it relates to the responsibility, the stewardship of a servant
who's left in charge of a household in the absence of the master. Jesus told
parables about this, a parable of the talents.

Master goes away, leaves talents, says, "I want you to invest them wisely. " And
really the question behind this phrase in my life, in your life, is how do you
handle the responsibility of living? Your relationship with Jesus Christ, it
enables you to enjoy that responsibility.

The relationship you have with Christ, it is the difference between being
overwhelmed by life and overjoyed by life. The difference between anxiety and
genuine joy. God's purpose puts life into perspective.

It frees you to experience joy. That's why Paul could say to the Philippians,
"Rejoice in the Lord always, always," again I say rejoice because you always
have this gift of abundant life that God's given to you and you get to steward
that gift. You see, I tend to, and maybe you do too, we look in the wrong places
for joy.

We try to find it in a possession. You can find happiness in a possession but
not joy, not deep soul joy. We look for it in various pleasures of life, little
things that we do.

You can find happiness there but not joy. True joy is the outgrowth of God's
life being in you, abundant life that he's given to you. I have fought.

I have finished. I have been faithful, fought, finished, faithful. That's the
kind of believer I want to be.

That's the kind of believer that I want you to be. The kind of life that I want
to have in Jesus Christ. And you and I, we look at the apostle Paul and we say,
"I could never be like that.

Same Jesus who lived in him lives in you. The same spirit who empowered him
empowered you. " If you read the life of Paul carefully, you find that life
really was a battle at times.

He faced discouragement. He faced depression. He faced times when he thought it
was all going to fall apart.

If you're feeling right now in your life, "I don't have the strength to fight
one more day. I don't think I can finish. I don't know if I can keep this.

" I'm here to tell you that because of who Jesus is in you, yes you can. You can
keep fighting. You can keep running.

You can keep the faith because Jesus Christ will hold you up day by day. Trust
in him right now. Find someone you can talk to about this so they can lead you
to trust in him.

And I believe, I know because of who he is, that what happened in Paul's life
can happen in your life too. Jesus Christ, thank you. Thank you that you did
this in the apostle Paul's life.

An angry man. An angry man who was running away from you. And as we read his
story, a man who often faced discouragement.

Often faced circumstances that were not of his making and that he wished would
not be happening in his life. But Lord, he finished. He fought.

He was faithful. Lord, I want that. I want that for every one of us that's
praying today.

God, would you help us to trust in you today? All we have is today. Help us to
trust in you today.

To fight today. To run the race today. To be faithful to you today.

We ask this in your name. Amen. Join us tomorrow.

Paul's going to talk about the people in his life as he faces the end of his
life.