Finishing well
1968, Olympics, Mexico City
Marathon - John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania fell badly cutting his knee and dislocating the joint. Rather than quitting the race he continued running. By the time he entered the stadium at the finish of the race the winner had already been declared and medals presented over an hour before and only a few spectators remained. With his leg bloodied and bandaged the lone runner hobbled around the stadium and crossed the finish line while the small crowd roared their appreciation.
Afterwards, a reporter asked the runner why he had not retired from the race, since he had no chance of winning. He seemed confused by the question. Finally, he answered: "My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish."
He finished 57 th, also known as last place. Interestingly 74 runners began the race so 17 didn’t finish at all. He is probably more famous now than the man who won the race!
“They sent me to finish.” Finishing well is important!
King Asa – quite a detailed account of his life in the Bible
2 Chron. 14:1-7 A good start
14:9-13 A battle won in the power of God
15:1-19 A time of reformation – they sought God and found him and received peace (v15)
16:1-6 Bought victory over his enemy
16:7-14 Not a good end to his reign – war replaced peace as he acted foolishly
King Asa – in the ratings system of Kings and Chronicles he was definitely a good guy!
14:2 Did what was good and right
15:17b Heart fully committed to the Lord all his life
Did you know that good people can still get things wrong?
Do you know that good people can still make big mistakes and mess up their lives?
Ever got yourself into a sticky situation?
Almost certainly didn’t begin with a conscious decision to do something silly
Didn’t wake up one day and think…
“How about a trip to casualty – I know I’ll have an accident”
“How about some relationship troubles – I know I’ll work hard to upset people today”
“How about a new car – I’ll just crash my old one today”
“How about some financial hassle – I’ll see if I can spend more than I earn this month”
“How about a ride in a coastguard helicopter….!”
King Asa was a good person who started well but didn’t finish well – how did it go wrong?
Three key areas of failure – three “L’s” to remember them by…
1. Self reliance - didn’t Lean
14:11 Total reliance on God
16:2-3 Asa had a plan of his own
The human body reaches its peak of fitness (potential fitness!) round about the age of 25 – until that time you are getting faster and stronger – after that time you are getting weaker and slower
The pattern is a simple one – as age increases fitness increases, peaks, then declines
Not just how fast you can run – other things follow a similar pattern – how fast you can type, how fast you can do mental calculations, how quickly you can get back up after tying your shoelaces
Most human attributes fit this pattern
Many non human things follow a different pattern…
When I get a new car it always seems to be better than the one before – more powerful and also using less fuel
When I get a new mobile phone it is smaller and can do more than the previous one
When I get a new computer it is incomparably better than its predecessor
When you look at the life of many Christians you will see a peak – you will see a growth in spirituality, a growth in faith, a growth in fruit and then a decline – typical human pattern
When you look at the life of other Christians they don’t follow the typical human pattern – they go from increase to increase
How do you break out of the human pattern?
Reliance on God rather than on self!
God does not peak!
God does not get tired or forgetful!
God does not lose passion!
God does not lack energy!
If he is your source of life then your later years will not be years of decline but of increase!
Does not mean that you will be heading for the Olympics – most of us are too old for that now! – does mean that you will live out Psalm 92:14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green
Naturally speaking Asa would have been much more dangerous with a sword in battle in his youth than in his old age but that is not why he won an amazing military victory when he was young and brought peace to the land while he suffered war in his old age
When he leaned on the Lord he prospered – when he became self reliant he failed
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimates over 200,000 accidents a year are caused by DIY!
Are you leaning on the Lord or trying to do it yourself?
2. Unteachableness – didn’t Learn
15:8 Responded to the what he heard and changed his practice – he removed from the land the things that he had previously tolerated
16:10 “how dare you tell me what to do!”
Family gathering – nieces and nephews, cousins’ children – all have learnt to do new things since I last saw them – walking, talking, looking at books etc
Children learn all the time
Many adults rarely learn anything – not real learning – not learning new skills – not behaviour altering learning
Picking up a bit of information by reading the paper or watching the box doesn’t really count – learning is not just “I never new that” or “that’s interesting”
Learning is when we engage ourselves with what we hear or read or see and it produces a result in our lives
As we grow older there is an increasing risk of feeling that we know all that we need to know and we become closed to new ideas
There is also a danger of not receiving new things unless God himself sends an angel to speak them to us
In his youth Asa was willing to receive the words of a prophet whereas in his old age he was not
Is it possible that an old king was not willing to receive a word from a younger prophet?
Is it possible he considered his position as king or his life experience allowed him to disregard what some unknown person brought to him?
Are you a mature Christian? Are you ready to receive God’s word through a new Christian or a child?
Have heard those who say “If God wants to say something to me he will say it himself – he doesn’t need to use anyone else”
A question…
Do you ever feel that people don’t listen to you?
Do you often feel that you have some good things you could speak into a situation but that no one takes your view seriously?
One of the first things you lose when you become unteachable is the right to teach others
The world contains quite a few slightly (or sometimes severely) grumpy older men (and sometimes women) who are wondering why no one ever listens to their opinion any more when in times past their words were respected and people were happy to learn from them – the reason is often that they themselves stopped learning from others a long time ago
When did you last learn something new?
If you don’t know then do something about it!
3. Insensitive – didn’t listen
15:12 covenanted to seek the Lord with all their heart and soul
16:12b even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord
This time last year I was fit – running over 20 miles a week
Had quite a lot of time off and it has been hard to get back into the habit!
Legs that could run 12 miles and still fell quite good were now struggling with 2
If you don’t use it you’ll lose it!
Listening to God becomes easier the more you do it and harder the less you do it
First time I spoke to my father in law on the phone it was very difficult – began to tune into his accent though over time
You can tune into God and you can also tune out
Asa tuned in as a young man and tuned out as an old man until God finally switched off the power – pulled the plug!
Every time you choose not to listen to God you become a little less sensitive to his voice
God in his great mercy does continue to speak for a long time even when people ignore him but it is a dangerous path to walk on
Early in his life Asa sought God wholeheartedly but later on not even a severe illness was enough to point him back towards God
The implication here is that God would have healed him if he came to his senses and cried out to him but Asa had allowed his heart to harden and missed out
Back problem – physiotherapist checked feeling and reflexes in my legs – loss of sensation meant something was badly wrong
Have you lost sensation? The disease my be severe but you can still cry out even now and see the power of God