_______________________________________________________________________

My grandmother used to say all of the time "if something is worth doing, then it is worth doing right!" And if you are going to start something, then be sure you finish it. Grandma probably had no idea that her little saying was keyed into the very depths of human nature and the Word of God.

When we first became pastor, I noticed that when we had a church function, there was always a myriad of people who were available and eager to help set everything up, but after the function, it seemed that nobody wanted to help clean up and help recover. The glamour and the excitement is in the beginning of the event and not in the follow-up. {I thank God that our church is not like that anymore and many of you always help clean up} It's human nature, I guess, because the beginning of something new is exciting and yet to see anything through begins to seem a bit like work. Most people tend to start things in life that they never finish. Take my remodeling of our kitchen -- well, maybe we should change the subject!

We must be careful lest such an attitude creep into the things of God. In fact, there is a very important theme found throughout the Bible of the importance of finishing what you start in the kingdom of God. Think about David and the familiar story with Goliath. The sling went round and round and the stone hit the giant square in the forehead, but it only knocked him down and out for a time. Had David not ran up and gotten his sword and cut the head off of the enemy, Goliath would have likely risen to fight another day. We glamorize the slingshot throw and the stone and the faith, but just as important was the following up and finishing off with Goliath's own sword!

Recently I began to take a fresh look at a very familiar event in Jesus' ministry that we read as our text:

We always focus on the fact that he knocked the tables over, and that's the beginning part that is so glamorous. When we preach about it, we always grab a belt and act like we are kicking things and taking authority over it, but actually that is only one third of Jesus' actions that day because Jesus actually did three things when He cleansed the temple, notice:

1. He knocked over the things that had been set up against His Word.

2. He drove out the things that had set the bad things up.

3. He guarded against anything else coming in that would set the stuff up again.

Number 2 and Number 3 above were just as vital as Number 1! Because if He had merely knocked over the tables but not drove the ones out who had set the tables up, it would have been a very short time and they would have simply righted the tables and continued on in their business. So Jesus continued on to drive those responsible for the travesty out of the temple. And then He didn't stop there, but went to the entrance to the temple and refused to let anybody else come in who would set up such things again. Jesus was giving us a powerful lesson in how to finish what you start!

There is much for us to learn here. Sometimes the Word of God from the pastor is a well-placed stone to the situations in our life's head. We come and the combination of faith, anointing, and Word knock things over in our life like the Giant and like those tables in Jesus' day. But we leave church satisfied that we have gotten the victory and we let it go at that. And because we did not remove the things that led to what we had to get the victory over, we don't realize it but as we are driving home that night, what we got victory over in our life, is already setting itself back up.

Or maybe we go home and get things out of our life that caused the issue in the first place in the temple of our body, but we don't guard the entrance to our lives against similar things slipping in and so although we got victory over one issue, another lust or sin is sliding in the door to take it's place. Sort of reminds me of Jesus' teaching in another place when He said:

It's the importance of finishing what you started! It's not good enough to get deliverance in the temple of your body if you do not let God move in to take the evil's place! If you leave such business undone, then the end is a worse condition than the beginning. Deliverance under the power of the Holy Spirit is only great in a person's life if they make up in their mind to follow through and keep God first in their life. Our bodies are the temple of God, therefore we would do well to learn from Christ's example:

Jesus knocked over the offending things, He drove out what had set it up the offending things in the first place, and then guarded the entrance of the temple to make sure that nothing else against God's Word could get in and set itself up for business. And the startling thing is that this happened in the third and final year of Jesus' ministry but in the 2nd chapter of John, we find that back in the first year of Jesus' ministry, He had already cleansed the temple once before and then He had kicked over the tables and drove them out, but He had not guarded the entrance to keep others from coming in. And so He had to come back a second time and finish what He started!

And so let me remind someone here of the lesson -- and we better had learn it well! If you want to keep the victory in God, then you've got to keep fighting for the victory. He that endures to the end shall be saved. He that keeps on fighting the fight of faith will receive the crown of righteousness. He who "finishes the course" will one day hold the prize. And so we've got to finish what we started! It's not enough to just receive the Holy Spirit and get victory over sin in the temple of our bodies for a short time, but we must make sure that we keep victory over sin! We must do more than just let the Word and the Spirit of God kick over the sinful things in our life, but we must drive out whatever caused it to gain a foothold in our life in the first place. And then we must guard lest those things return and slide back in our life and begin to set up those things again!

If you go back up to verse 11 of the 11th chapter of Mark from which we took our text, you'll find that the day before, Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the express purpose of just entering into the temple and taking a look around to see how things were. And then on the following day, He entered and drove out the moneychangers and thieves the second time. Sometimes we need to return a second time to areas that we earlier conquered just to make sure that they are still conquered! Maybe you got the victory over that last week, last month, or last year, but what is the status today? Is it still out of the temple of God? Is it still clean, or has something else entered in that area? God didn't give you the Holy Ghost and die on the cross and give you truth so that you could have victory for a short while. But rather, He moved into your life so that you could have victory for forever! Whatever you do, don't live beneath your status in God! Don't sell yourself short! Go back and frequently check the areas of your victories just to make sure! Because there is a great importance to finish what you start! Lest a worse thing come back and take the place of what you thought you had gotten the victory over. Finish what you start!

_______________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, I must preach to you that the Bible teaches us through example after example that there is a tendency in the people of God to not finish completely what they started in spiritual endeavors. For an example, let's go back to the book of Joshua and our other text this evening. Most of you know that Joshua took leadership of the people of Israel at Moses' death and through the mighty hand of God helping them, led Israel into conquering the Promised Land. The first twelve chapters of Joshua read like a powerful testament to God's mighty power to deliver and chapter after chapter, foe and enemy king after foe and enemy king was vanquished and more and more territory was conquered. And when enough territory had been conquered that the people of Israel can begin to dwell there, Joshua called the elders together and they began to divide up the land of Promise.

After the land was doled out, it was the tribe's responsibility to get complete victory over the remaining enemies in their section of God's Promised Place, but it is here that in chapter 13 of Joshua, that I began to find a smattering of troubling verses. For in the many victories that the tribes won in finishing their fight, we find verses like these:

And then as we read in our text in chapter 17:

What troubling verses! It's time to finish what they started and claim everything that God had for them, but yet we find such phrases as "could not" and "did not." And "therefore." The writer is looking back and writing "this is where it started." If you know your Bible history you know that the book of Joshua is followed by the book of Judges, a largely dark and somber book detailing the many idolatries and sins of Israel in quickly turning away from the very God who had given them the land in which they now dwelled, and yet all of the travesty and horrors and backsliding of Judges and 1 Samuel, and even further down the road in 2 Kings and the books of Chronicles can all be traced back in root to these verses where Israel did not finish what they had started.

So it is with us who are a part of the kingdom of God. The second Joshua, in the Greek known as Jesus, has brought us from the death of Moses' law and into the promised place of God's grace and mercy, but the tendency of human nature is still to -- once we enter into living in such a promised place -- to lay back and ease up and for whatever reason, not finish what we started. And if a person backslides or if a person grows carnal or ends up missing out on the things of God or having issues and problems that seem to distract them from God's purposes in their life, then we must admit that like Israel of old, such things can always be traced back to the failure to finish in God what we started! Such is the importance of what I am preaching to you tonight: it's not just another pretty sermon, but truth that drives into the very core of where and how we live for God today. We must finish what we start for God!

Now notice that the similarities between our day and Joshua's day don't end there: the same reasons that the Israelites then did not completely finish what they started in the Promised Land are the very reasons that many Christians today don't finish what they start in the things of the Spirit. Grasping that, let's spend the remainder of this sermon looking at why the Israelites left their spiritual business unfinished in the Promised Land:

Remember why Joshua took over for Moses? Because Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years while everyone who had been over twenty at the time of their disbelief died off. When Joshua marched into the Promised Land, he did so with a spiritually "young" generation. These were new warriors with new blood. The entire generations of Israel with the exception of Joshua and Caleb were young.

In Judges chapter 8, we find the story of Gideon facing some worthless men who deserved to die because of their sinful actions and he turned to his son to perform the rightful justice. The Bible says:

Jether wouldn't finish what had already been started because "he was still a youth!" And that is the devastating tendency and nature of the young -- whether they be young in age or young in God or both -- they tend to not kill everything that they should in their lives as they should because of their youth and their lack of realization of just how serious it is. "I'll ask for forgiveness now and get temporary victory by knocking something down in my life, but to totally get that out of my lifestyle seems a bit extreme!" And so young Christians -- people who have not been in this for a while -- tend to have to come and have the same battle and the same thing knocked down over and over and over and wonder why they can't get the victory over that when all they are doing is knocking it down and not driving out completely what has brought it into their lives in the first place and not guarding for other things that would slip in and replace it in their lives. They just don't realize the seriousness of finishing spiritually what they started!

Going back to the book of Joshua, it is startling to realize just how much the very real and lasting effects of each of these people that were not conquered was devastating to Israel. I don't have time to give you an in depth study of all of this, but of all those verses that we just read every one of the enemies that were not wiped out that should have been, came back to hurt and haunt Israel. I'll just give you a brief glimpse. For example,

The Geshurites -- David eventually married a Geshurite offspring and with her had Absalom who would rebel in every way against David and God and caused nothing but grief and heartache for David. In his rebellion, the scriptures say that Absalom went back to the place of his mother's grandfather -- in other words back to the Geshurites (2 Samuel 13:37)!

The Maachathites -- Not only survived but grew in such number and opposition that eventually their army joined with the Ammonites to fight against King David (2 Samuel 10:6).

The Jebusites -- they were allowed to remain and when David wanted to build a temple to Jehovah God, he had to purchase the temple mount from a Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:18). That may not sound like a big deal but he had to purchase something that God had already supposedly given Israel!

The Canaanites -- were allowed to survive and it was their gods that Israel whored after in the book of Judges. After causing Israel many years of hardship and judgment, they would only go away by David having to fight them much later to conquer them (1 Samuel 27:8).

The towns mentioned in our text in Joshua chapter 17 are no exception either and the long-lasting effects of Israel not finishing what they started can be found throughout in scripture. For example:

Beth-shean was the Philistine town where the corpses of God's anointed king, Saul and his sons were fastened upon the wall as an open celebration of Israel's failures.

The towns of Ibleam, Dor, Taarach, Megiddo, and Endor became a who's who gallery of places that signaled Israel's worst moments. From Judges 1:27, we are told that the enemy became so strong in these towns that Israel was never able to drive them out. Furthermore Taarach was the headquarters of the army of Sisera that Deborah had to fight against in the 5th chapter of Judges (Judges 5:19). Endor became such a stronghold of evil that when Saul -- as a God reject -- tried to find a witch to talk to, it was at Endor that such practices and abominations were still going strong (1 Samuel 28:7). And Megiddo! The King Josiah in his foolishness would be killed there. King Ahaziah died there also. The city and valley became known in the Greek as "Armageddon" because it will one day be the place where the final physical battle of earth will be fought, with all of the evil forces of men coming against the King of Kings and His saints! Megiddo was such a stronghold that it will be the final stronghold of evil men to be overcome by our Savior, and yet it started with a young Israelite tribe not realizing the importance of getting complete victory in their walk with God and not realizing the great importance of finishing in God what they had started! Jesus is coming back to finish what He started on the cross, and yet the final two battles will have to be for the territory that would have been conquered a long time ago if Israel would have just finished them off when they had the opportunity!

Hear me young people -- whether it be in the Lord or in age or both -- you'd better not play around with sin and take the attitude that "I'm young and have all the time in the world." Because what you let live today will get such a stronghold in your life now that when you are older in the Lord it will be very, very difficult to get complete victory over it then! The reason that the pull of the world is so strong in your life is what you allow to get a toehold in your life now will define the presence of the enemy in your life forever more. Get the victory now. Get out of the world now! Stop giving in and using your youth as an excuse! Be like David and say "I'm may be young, but I'm going to be zealous to kill the giants in my life that have been knocked down!" Get the attitude and determination to finish what you started. Generations of others and your very eternity depend upon it! What you don't finish now will come back to hurt and haunt you!

There is also another reason why Israel of Joshua's day did not finish what they started and that is:

God didn't let Joshua and the entire army of Israel just thunder easily through the entire land in complete victory at first on purpose. Listen to the Word of God that Moses told the people before they ever entered into the Promised Land:

"God will clear away these nations before you little by little." God started by giving them victory over the biggest foes, and then it was His will to gradually clear out the smaller pockets of the enemy. But the Israelites took this gradual cleansing as an excuse to back off and not be aggressive and reason to put off till tomorrow what they could have done today.

So it with us when we come to God. God works biggest to littlest and He does not ask you to change everything overnight. But He does keep working little by little. Unfortunately too many Christians take that gradual work as a sign that the other, smaller areas, are not big deals to God and that they can be slack and lazy in obedience in those areas. And so they get stagnant in the things of God and they say "well when I'm a mature Christian, I'll do that and obey that command and get this out of my life," and yet the years go by and they keep using that as an excuse so that they don't realize that God was trying to work on those things. And they end up not finishing what they started and it destroys them!

Let us be like Joshua who went as far as commanding the sun and moon to stand still so that he had time to get complete victory over his enemy in that same day! Let us be zealous to clear every thing out that we possibly can and not hold nothing back until tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. And if we will finish cleansing our temple totally today, we will find that God is working on another area tomorrow that we didn't even realize needed help. But we will only realize what He is wanting to do if we are willing to by all means to finish what we started today!

And finally,

The troublesome verses of the people of Israel not finishing what they started began with this first verse of the 13th chapter of Joshua:

Joshua took them across the border into the promises of God. He led them through their first victories and taught them to trust the Word of God. He brought them to a place of consecration where they made a promise to serve God faithfully. But there came a time where each tribe and each man had to define his own limits in God's promised place and each man had to make decisions to trust God in faith and fight on their own.

It was the same in Moses' day. He could lead them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and get them to a place where Egypt was out of them and God's Spirit dwelt in their midst, but when the day came for them to have to step out on faith on their own, they refused to trust God and then blamed Moses for their not being able to enter into everything that God had for them, but it was not Moses' fault that they doubted but rather their own.

You see, the man of God can lead you out of this world and He can lead you to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and he can lead you to the waters of baptism in a red sea of forgiveness and he can do much to help get Egypt out of you and the Spirit of God in you. He can also help feed you for a while and like Joshua, even assist in helping tear down the greatest walls in your spiritual life. But ultimately there comes a time when you are no longer waiting on the man of God, but you must decide "either I'm going to get everything that God has for me and possess it or I'm not." The man of God can't make that decision for you. You make up in your mind whether or not you will compromise on everything that God has promised. You make up in your mind whether or not you will gain ground in God from this point on.

There are some of us here tonight that you are waiting on the man of God to put a love of prayer in your life. You are waiting on the man of God to take you to the next level. Some of you are blaming me -- I haven't heard this with my physical ears, but I'm telling some of you where you are in the spirit -- you are blaming me for your lack of having everything that God has promised you. And you are waiting on me to come down with the magic anointing and preach the magic sermon that cleanses your temple, once and for all. But God is waiting on you. There's only so far that I can take you. God could only help David knock the giant over and it was then up to David to decide how much he wanted complete victory. Joshua took them so far in their inheritance and then it became between them and God. You still need a shepherd to feed you daily, and to guide you, but in going to that final level of being what God wants you to be, it is up to you not me! If you want it, then stop using the excuse that I haven't personally grabbed you and helped you there and get up and go get it! But whatever you do, finish what you started! Many of you have reached a place where I can tell you what you should do, but it's up to you to perform it and grasp it!

_______________________________________________________________________

It is very noteworthy that these very tribes that failed to drive these enemies out in our texts in Joshua were the first tribes to be conquered by the Assyrians and carried off from the Promised Land NEVER to return! And so we are once again reminded of the sobering reality of the importance of finishing what you started! What they did not finish when they had the opportunity, caused them to forever lose out on the things of God. I'm not preaching some trivial thing tonight but rather a message of utmost importance!

In closing I present to you to very different men. Saul and Caleb. One is famous for finishing what he started, and the other is known for being destroyed by what he did not finish. And all of us will be like either one of these two men in our spiritual life. Either Saul or Caleb will be our example.

Caleb didn't get to attack the giants when he was one of the twelve spies before Israel's doubt and had to wait forty years until he was eighty years old or so before he could go into the Promised Land. Despite his age, he requested the territory that had the biggest giants and the fiercest enemies and he went in and won the battle trusting in the Lord. Despite having to wait a generation for the opportunity, Caleb finished what he started!

King Saul didn't. When told to destroy the Amalekites utterly, Saul kept some of them alive and the sheep and the cattle and the king. Years later, as a God reject, Saul was struck by an arrow in battle. He wanted his armour bearer to kill him but the armour bearer would not do it so Saul committed suicide. In 2 Samuel chapter 1 we find a man goes to King David who had come across Saul's body and who though that bragging to King David that he had killed Saul would bring some reward. Quite the opposite happens. King David asks "why were you willing to strike God's anointed?" And then asks who the man is. The man it turns out is an Amalekite -- one of the very people who Saul spared the life of when God had said destroy utterly! And so King David kills the Amalekite, but the sad truth is that if Saul had performed zealously everything that God had commanded him, such a thing would not have happened. It's important to finish what you start in obeying God's Word completely!

Saul and Caleb. Two very opposite men with two drastically different eternal destinations. The difference was in their tenacity to finish what they had started in God. May we learn the lesson well!