How to Finish the Year Strong, #1 | Mac Hammond
 
Recap
 
Pastor Mac gave a message entitled, “How to Finish the Year Strong.” We’re at the end of the year and many use this time as an occasion to pray about what the Lord would have them do in the coming year…to set their sail in Christ, so to speak. They want the Lord to help them identify the marks they are to press toward in order to finish their race. To that end, Pastor Mac spoke to us about “finishing strong.”
 
Dive Deeper
 
Pastor Mac shared that this message about “finishing strong” was part of his Christmas series. Though it doesn’t seem to be very “Christmasy,” he promised, “I think you’ll see that it is appropriate as we begin our celebration of one of two most important times of the year: Christmas and Easter, of course.
 
Finishing Strong…
 
In the natural, we consider winners to be those who “finish strong.” Winning almost always involves finishing strong on an overall basis. No matter the endeavor, the principles are the same to whatever God has called us to do. He sets for us marks to pursue His high calling for our lives in which we need to “finish strong.”
 
Failure, in Pastor Mac’s view, is equated with not finishing at all or finishing poorly (or weakly). There are some that start out like a “big bang,” but finish with a whimper… if they finish at all.  
 
At the beginning, many pursue their marks with enthusiasm. But as time goes by, the undertaking might start to become boring, old hat. And it feels like their undertaking doesn’t seem as important as it once did in the beginning. And they begin to lose steam.
 
That is why understanding the concept of finishing strong is significant—to finish your endeavor with the same enthusiasm you had at the beginning!
 
How does this fit in with a Christmas message? How do we finish strong? If we’re believers, that should mean we finish strong spiritually because this spiritual arena gave birth to the natural, physical arena. And so as we finish strong spiritually, it will affect everything else we undertake that we might view as being natural. Finishing strong spiritually is an understanding we have to cultivate.
 
How do we define what it means to finish strong spiritually? Christmas gives us a glimpse of how we’re to finish strong. God so loved the world that He gave Jesus. He introduced redemption to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. In this scenario, we see the place that love has in enabling us to be strong finishers in whatever we do.
 
Further, our covenant tells us we are to live by the royal law of love, which encompasses all of the law. All the Word of God can be fulfilled in that one mandate.
 
Finishing strong incorporates the understanding of what love is but also how we finish strong in the love of God. It will influence every other aspect of your life.
 
How do we finish strong in the love of God?
 
First of all, how do we define love? The Strong’s Concordance defines love as the Greek word “agape,” which means “to give.” Love is an act. It is the act of giving. Giving to whom? Giving to someone else’s best interests other than your own.
 
There are two directions that giving is to take. Jesus said the first commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like unto it: to love your neighbor as yourself. It is on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
 
Everything that comes to us has to be seen as a mandate to live according to the law of life. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus is a product of God’s love for us. He came to earth and brought that love to us, resulting in us becoming vessels for Him to use to bring that love to other people.
 
So first, you love the Lord and then you love other people. Therefore, love is two directional: it requires giving to the Lord and giving to people.
 
Read About It
 
1st Corinthians 13:4–8, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
 
Discussion Questions
 
Can you give a definition as to what “finishing strong” means?
Describe what it means to finish poorly, or weakly.
What is the royal law of love?
How is love two-directional?
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