THE VIEW FROM THE END ZONE 2 Timothy 4:1-8

Introduction: I love to watch football match-ups and one of my #1 pieces of a ball game is the after game meetings. You know, they will talk with players and mentors from both the triumphant and the losing groups. The champs consistently say something like this: "Indeed, it was a decent day for football. We had the option to execute our strategy and everything just met up for us." The failures once in a while make statements like: "Indeed, it simply was certifiably not a decent day for us. We couldn't execute and our approach never met up like we figured it would. Those different folks just had a superior day."

Calling the game is a lot simpler when you're remaining in the end zone! It is consistently simpler to think back and see what you did well and what you fouled up. Life is a ton like that as well! It's difficult to look forward and witness what's going to. We as a whole go to the field to win, yet there are times when we should leave having lost the major event. As I read these stanzas, I am mindful that Paul is remaining in the end zone of his life and he is thinking back over the game he has played. These stanzas are just about as close as we will get to an after the game meeting with Paul. Notwithstanding, all things considered, his service is finished. He is sitting in a Roman jail, with nothing to anticipate except for his execution on account of the Roman government. Paul realizes his time is up, however he needs to give us a meeting before he leaves for greatness. I'm happy he did! Here is a man who played a decent game! He didn't bungle the ball. He had not been handled by the foe. He had staggered yet a couple of times and he has arrived at the end zone of his existence with his service and his declaration flawless. I figure he may have a comment that we may be keen on. I might want for us to tune in to these incredible expressions of the incomparable Apostle. He is, in actuality, composing his own commemoration. You know what a tribute is isn't that right? It is those words your friends and family, ideally they will pick the words and not your foes, have cut into your gravestone when you kick the bucket. I think about a commemoration I read one time that went: "Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a 44. No Les. No Moore." Or the gravestones I saw down in the graveyard of Gilboa Methodist Church. These elegance date from the last part of the 1,700's. On a couple there are hands with the forefinger highlighting paradise. Showing, I assume, where they figure the perished may have gone to. Yet, on a couple, there is the image of hands fastened together at the wrist, with the forefingers pointing down towards Hell. I think if Paul might have administered the etching of any engraving into his tombstone, it would have been the expressions of stanza 7. This incredible man composes his own tribute before his demise. In these expressions of these sections, we track down the after game meeting of an unwavering worker of Jesus Christ. He separates the whole Christian life into three flawless, clear parts. What he needs to say to us about his stroll with the Lord will assist you and me with our own stroll with the Lord, as we also inch nearer and nearer to our own end zone insight. Notice what was critical to Paul as he remained in the end zone of life. I. HE SPEAKS ABOUT THE WARFARE (Sick. The words "battled" and "battle" both come from the very word that gives us our English word "distress". They were utilized in Paul's day to allude to antiquated Greek games, where candidates battled one against the other for incomparability. The challenge that Paul appears to have as a main priority is the wrestling matches that were excessively famous in to the point that day. Paul's longing is to advise us that, as devotees, we are not on a jungle gym, but rather a landmark. In our Christian walk, we are occupied with fight and the best word to depict that fight, now and again, is "misery". We should perceive what he needs to say about the fights we face!) A. The Entry Into This Warfare - We enter the fight when we are "brought back to life". When an individual is saved by effortlessness, they become an otherworldly animal, 2 Cor. 5:17. Prior to their change, they were dead in transgression, Eph. 2:1, and were dead to the things of God. They were a willing member in progress and exercises of Satan. Be that as it may, when they are changed over, they become alive to God and His work. They are inhabited by the Spirit of God, John 14:17; 1 Cor. 12:13. The issue with this lies in the way that the elderly person of wrongdoing is as yet alive too. This makes gigantic profound struggle inside the existence of the devotee, Gal. 5:16-17. The old nature actually wants the old methods of living and the wrongdoings of the tissue. The new nature needs to satisfy the Lord and there is a battle that results. Add to this the way that Satan will do his absolute best to make you stagger and fizzle, 1 Pet. 5:8, and you have a formula for struggle and fights! I figure we would all concur that this life is loaded up with otherworldly fights, particularly in case you are looking to serve the Lord! B. The Enemy In This Warfare - Man is never the adversary! Man might be utilized by the adversary for his motivations, however man is never the foe, Eph. 6:12. Accordingly, we need to figure out how to pardon each other and stroll in affection as the Lord has instructed us, Matt. 22:37-39; Eph. 4:32. Frequently, we are blameworthy, in our energy to battle what we see as malevolent, of battling each other and that is a circumstance God can't favor, Gal. 5:15. May we be mindful so as to zero in on who the genuine adversary truly is! He is Satan and he comes to us dressed as a heavenly messenger of light, 2 Cor. 11:14. That is the reason he is so fruitful. He conceals his genuine nature, while he makes us battle to wrong foe. An individual might be an instrument in Satan's grasp, they might express Satan's words, they might do Satan's business in the congregation and to you and me, however that individual is never the adversary. Regardless, they need our petitions like never before! C. The Energy In This Warfare - Notice that Paul says, "I have battled a decent battle." Paul isn't assuming the acknowledgment for his effective service, yet he is repeating a similar idea he communicated in Gal. 2:20. He might be the one in the fight, yet his energy comes from the person Who lives inside his heart! Fortunately, we don't need to take on the profound conflicts in our own force, however we can battle them on the off chance that we will figure out how to remain in the force of the Lord, Eph. 6:10. On the off chance that we can at any point figure out how to remain an option for Him, we will actually want to arrive at the end zone of our life and say with certainty, "I have battled a decent battle!" D. The Equipment In This Warfare - Just as an update, the fight we are battling isn't carnal in nature, nor are the weapons we are to use in the fight, 2 Cor. 10:3-5. Licentious individuals employ lewd weapons! The stinging bolts of tattle, the remorseless lances of individual assaults, the sharp swords of compromising words and the cruel whip of weakness and duplicity are the weapons of wickedness. The weapons of our fighting are intended to empower us to remain in the main part of the fight while our Lord battles them for us, Eph. 6:11-18! Indeed, every one of our weapons are guarded in nature, aside from the Word of God and supplication! What's more, each of these should be utilized appropriately and for the greatness of God. II. HE SPEAKS ABOUT THE WALK (Sick. Paul abandons the wrestling field to the space of olympic style sports. He has at the top of the priority list the sprinters in the Greek games, who were needed to run huge spans with expectations of being the victor. Here, Paul gives us some understanding into the race we are running.) A. He Mentions The Race - "course" in a real sense alludes to a "vocation or a race". Paul just advises us that we each have a competition to run! This contemplation is repeated in Hebrews 12:1-3. There region few contemplations I might want to pass on with regards to this race we are occupied with today. 1. This race is individual in nature-I am not contending with you, nor are you going up against me. We mus recall this, or envy will sneak in and cause us to stagger! 2. I can't run your race and you can't run mine - The singular course that we are to run has been arranged out by the Lord. He chooses whether the way is simple or troublesome. He chooses where we run and how long we run. In this way, everything thing we can manage is stay in the paths that God places us in and run our own race. I will have enough to deal with any consequences regarding whatsoever day's end for myself, without clarifying your race too. 3. There is just a single individual to watch in this race - We are not to watch each other, but rather we are to look to Jesus. He is the one in particular Who matters! 4. Regardless of whether your race is short or long, you can complete well - The adjudicator won't pass judgment on us dependent on how another person ran! Our own race will remain solitary! B. He Mentions The Reality - When Paul utilizes "completed", on the off chance that you listen intently, you can nearly hear the witness say "Golly!". (Sick. Paul is alluding to the old Marathon in the Greek games. In 490 B.C., the Athenians prevailed upon a pivotal and unequivocal fight the powers of King Darius I of Persia on a plain close to the little Greek waterfront town of Marathon. One of the Greek officers ran constant from the combat zone to Athens to convey the information on triumph. In any case, he ran with such open exertion that he fell dead at the feet of those to whom he conveyed the message. The long distance race races that are so famous today are named for that combat zone. They likewise are a recognition for that fighter, the length of the run being founded on the surmised distance (a little more than 26 miles) he ran in his last most extreme exertion for his country. He had finished his course, and there could be no nobler way for a man to pass on." He had completed his course when others around him hadn't, v. 10. The truth of the matter is this: The race is troublesome on occasion and it is not difficult to stray course or drop off the radar. That is the reason we are forewarned in Heb. 12:2 to dispose of whatever would upset us from running a decent race! I don't think about you, yet I might want to complete well! No