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Hello and welcome to Let's Talk About It Podcast. I am your host, Apostle Rosemary of RCN Ministries and OSGA Apostolic Network, along with my wonderful husband, Apostle Herbie. On last month in our Unshaken series, the topic was Faithful in the Fire. This month, today's topic will be Finishing Well, the power of completion. If there was a theme that we would put with this, Apostle Herbie and I, it would be this that God honors those who finish what they start. As we begin to reflect back on this full journey of what we've brought to you in season five, we would focus on today. Starting is common, finishing is rare, but it's powerful. Again, I want to I want to repeat this to you. You may want to write this down somewhere and put it on a sticky note, put it on your mirror, put it in your car, put it in your purse, your wallet, so that you can reflect back on this and know what it means to finish well. Because again, our topic is finishing well, the power of completion, because God honors those who finish is what they start. And so as we reflect back on what season five has meant to us in the Unshaken series, we need to understand this to focus on this one very thing today. That starting is common. Whatever you start is common. Many people they they veer out, they they begin to start a project, they begin to run with something, and all of a sudden they don't finish it. So starting is common, but finishing what you start is rare, not just rare, but very rare. But it is powerful. So the anchor scripture that we're going to be coming to you all with on today will be 2 Timothy 4 and 7.

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And I have it here, and it says, I have fought the good, unworthy, unnoble fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the peace, firmly guarding the gospel against error.

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My Lord. So in other words, we begin to see here in 2 Timothy 4 and 7, when he begins to say, I have fought the good fight. How many of us have had to fight and to contend for our faith? This is where we are people of God. But the important thing about that is that he did not give up, that he understood that at the end of his time that he had finished his course. But not only did he finish the course, but he also kept the faith. Amen. Amen. So ask yourselves today, with this being the key anchor scripture, people of God, 2 Timothy 4 and 7. Ask yourself have I fought the good fight of faith? Have I finished my course, my assignment, my mandate, my purpose? Have I been walking in my purpose to be able to fulfill the will of God upon my life? You got to make this thing personal. It's about looking at the man in the mirror, which is you, man of God, woman of God, and asking yourself, have I fought a good fight? Have I finished my course? And have I kept the faith throughout every adversity, throughout every turmoil, throughout every attack, throughout every infirmity, throughout every loss, throughout every one that may have come against you, whatever it is that you've had to endure, ask yourselves Have I accomplished the will of my father in heaven? Have I done that? Ask yourselves that people of God, and then we begin to say, The God of completion. Who is the God of completion?

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My God, we're going to look at Philippians 1 and 6, and it says, I am convinced and confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will continue to perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus, the time of his return.

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Look at that in Philippians 1 and 6. People of God, ask yourselves do you know this? Are you convinced? Are you confident of this very thing that He that the Lord our God, the King of King and Lord of Lords, that He which has begun a good work in you and in I that He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ? Can you relate to that? Can you really look at your life? And are you pleased with who God says you are? Are you pleased with your walk with God? Are you pleased with what you manifest in the open and in behind closed doors? Do you actually live what you preach at all times? This is a 365-day living in a lifestyle of consecration, fasting, and prayer. This is not a microwave thing, but this is where you have been broken, where you have been bruised, where you have been beaten, where you have been betrayed, where you have been lost, where you have been weary, where you may have had infirmities in your body. But ask yourselves, ask yourselves, people of God, am I convinced and confident of this very thing that God says about me? Because I know that He has begun a good work in me, and He's going to continue to perfect it, to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus his return. Ask yourselves, can you confidently say that? Can you confidently say, okay, God, I know you've got me. I know I messed up. I know I slipped. I know I went astray. I know I haven't been obedient. I know I got caught up in the rabbit holes. I know I got caught up in worldly things. I may have gotten caught up in sexual sins of the flesh. I may have gotten caught up in the monetary enticement of filthy lucre. I may have gotten caught up in whatever worldly system. But guess what? Be as David. David said, Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew in me a righteous spirit. Be like David, that sometimes you have to learn, like David said. David says, I encourage myself in the Lord. Stop looking for people to validate you and look for God to approve you. Look for God to say, Come on in, thy good and faithful servant, my God. Not for him to turn you away and say that I know you not, thy work of iniquity. My God, Lord have mercy. Let us not be like Moses. Moses toiled with these hard-headed, murmuring and complaining people for over 40 years. Moses went through hell in high water. Moses went through all kinds of things. And because he was so frustrated, he didn't just stretch out the staff, but he struck the rock. And that disqualified him from entering into the promise. Men and women of God, that's a bad feeling. Oh my god. 40 years he he dealt with these same people, and God took him up because of his faithfulness, allowed him to look over at the promise, but to never enter into it. My God, that'll preach right there, y'all. Somebody need that'll preach. Okay, let me go on. But God finishes what he starts, people of God. When God begins a work in you and I, God will bring it to a completion. Think about Jesus on the cross when he says it is finished. There is a reward and pushing through, not just beginning. We've got to understand the very barriers and the roadblocks, the things that come against us, the barriers to finishing strong. What are those barriers? The common roadblocks, the discouragement, the comparison, the burnout, and the distractions. What about that? Sometimes we get roadblocks. Roadblocks can be financial, it can be our mental health, it can be family members, it can be things that leaders are going through in ministry. Roadblocks come, it can be our children. Oh my God. It can be our jobs. Many times the enemy uses those very roadblocks to distract us. Sometimes it can be discouragement, people of God. Sometimes, you know, we get discouraged, and then we pull that scripture out where it tells us, don't get weary in well-doing. Because if you faint not, my God. Ha ha. If you faint not, people of God, stay the course. Don't get weary in your well-doing, but persevere. When you get discouraged, I just said it earlier. David said, I encourage myself in the Lord. My God, encourage yourself. Don't worry about the comparisons. You are unique. There is only one you. Your DNA, your fingerprints, no one else has it. No one has your fingerprints. Your DNA, you're going to share with family members, but no one else has your fingerprints. You are unique. You are one of a kind. You are tailor-made. That's good there, Apostle. You ready to jump in there and tag and preach that? You are tailor-made. So guess what? There is no one like you. No one can do the things that you do. Why? Because God gave it to you. I don't care how many people go ahead of you. I don't know. I don't care how many people come after you. I don't care how many people go and try to mimic the anointing and the grace of God upon your life. I don't care how many people try to preach the way you preach. I don't care how many people try to sing the way you sing. Guess what? You are tailor-made, and the fingerprint of God is on you that belongs to you and only you. Yes, the word of God says there are many members, but we are one body. And guess what? We are to complement one another. There must be synergy in the body of Christ. My God. Burnout. Leaders, learn to take time off. Men and women of God, learn to shut down. This is for me personally, y'all. People of God, we have to know when our body needs to rest, when we need to step back, turn off the fold, take a power nap, rest, stop going all the time. Understand that. Understand that you know what? I've got to do this for me. I am a firm believer. And guess what? Healthy boundaries. I remember over a year ago, the Lord had to start dealing with me, and that thing, a lot of our brand across our social media, you'll see if you're connected to us, you'll see on my personal page on RCN Ministries and also on OSG and on our website, different places. I don't think I put on the website, but I've put it, I've had it put rather, different places. But when you look at it, access denied, meaning that people just because they know you and they may have a past relationship with you does not mean that they are to be granted access to you. That'll that'll preach there. We'll get that a whole nother time. Then we talk about the distractions that come, and we named some of those earlier. And yes, leaders in ministry have distractions. We have to learn to prioritize our mental health care. We have to learn to unpack, we have to learn to take care of ourselves, we have to learn to nurture ourselves, and while we're setting these healthy boundaries, we need to learn how to shut everything off. Because we're no use to the kingdom if we're burned out, my God. We're no use to the people of God if we're burned out. We cannot pour if we have nothing to give. If you look at a well, and if there's if you dig a well and you don't and you hit water, and this well is filled, and all of a sudden everybody's drawing from the well, but nobody's reciprocating, nobody's pouring back into that well, and after years of people drawing from that well, that well begins to dry up. Why? Because everyone was taking out, but nobody was putting back in. Nobody was replenishing the well. See, it's about having covenant relationships that you're connected to when you have a call of God upon your life for kingdom works, and you can't do this work dealing with people that are standing on the shoreline because the deep calls into the deep. All right. So the enemy's tactics is to make us quit too soon, to make us give up, to make us get to a place where we doubt ourselves, we doubt our capabilities, where we doubt who God has called us to be. This is one of the main tactics. And I tell people all the time, Apostle Herbie and I do, we tell people, is that the number one battleground is the mind, because the enemy knows that if he can get into the trenches of your mind, if he can get up there and start whispering all kinds of crazy stuff and telling you all kind of crazy stuff, and you start getting worn down mentally, then the emotions follow, then after the emotions follow, then all of a sudden you begin to feel the fatigue in your body, your physical man begins to have issues and palpitations and all kinds of things begin to happen with you because the enemy is trying to wear you out. Also, people of God, listen to this that finishing requires grit, grace, and God's strength. Understand this that you cannot do it on your own. You cannot. We've got to stop thinking that everything that we do for the kingdom is all about us. You know, people make brands and they put their names out there and and they begin to say, I, I, I, I hate to hear the I mentality. You didn't do anything, it's never about you, it's about the works of God, it's about the kingdom, and so that's the that's the issue, right there. So many people get out and you get you get to hear it. This I did this and I did that. What did I do? I didn't do anything. God enabled us and strengthened us to be able to do what we do, but at the same time, we want to always take on and say, I, I, no, it's never about I. It's about it's about being able to allow God to do a work in us. That's what it's about, people of God. That's what it's about. So if we look up the word grit and the the biblical uh uh perseverance and endurance is what it means. When we have the grit, it means the perseverance and the endurance, a spirit that is empowered with determination to remain steadfast, obedient, and faithful to God. Even listen to this, y'all, even under pressure, opposition or delay. Some key scriptures for you all is James 1 and 12, when it says, Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial. Galatians 6 and 9 deals with, let us not grow weary and well doing. And then Hebrew 12 and 1 comes in there, segues its way in there and says, Run with endurance the race set before us. You cannot give up, people of God, you've got to keep pushing forward. Grit is not about self-powered, stubbornness, it is endurance produced through faith and refined by trials. It is the ability to keep moving when everything in your flesh starts to quit. My God, somebody needs to screen right there. God, give me grit. Give me grit, Lord. Then we think about the next one here. It said grit. The second one was grace, and then it's God's strength. We're gonna go over that. Grace. Grace is the unmerited favor and divine enablement. My God, unmerited favor. God did it just because it because of nothing so fabulous that we've done. It was unmerited. That means that when we look at that in the biblical context, it is God's unearned favor and supernatural empowerment given to us, uh-huh, by God, to do what we could never accomplish on our own. That's good, right there. Somebody needs to say grace, grace by God. Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 9. Um, and I'm just giving y'all the key scriptures. You can go and read it at your leisure. Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 9. It deals with for by grace you have been saved. If it wasn't for God's grace, where would we be? 2 Corinthians 12 and 9. My grace is sufficient for you. That's what God tells us when we're going through, y'all, when the pressure is on, when all hell is breaking through, then we get back down when God tells us that my grace is sufficient for you, son. My grace is sufficient for you, daughter. I have come to encourage you, I and Apostle Herbie, to tell you today that God's grace is sufficient for us globally. Don't look at the madness that we see going on in politics all over. Don't look at all of the death, don't look at all this war and the rumor of wars and all of this maliciousness and all of this lawlessness and all of this hate and division, all of these things. Just look up, just look up. Because Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through 12 tells us that grace teaches us to live godly lives, my God. Are we living a godly life? Listen here. Check what you're doing, check your oil, check what you're living, check what you're saying, check how you're loving, check what you're preaching, my God, and adjust your life accordingly after repentance if it's not lining up with scripture. Because anything that is not rooted in love is not rooted in God, nor is it of God. I don't care how many people try to prophesy lie and take scripture and twist it for political gains. The devil is a liar. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. All right, biblical insight to this grace is not just pardon, it is power, it enables obedience, sustains you in weakness, and carries you when your strength runs out. My God. Then we look at God's favor. My God, biblical definition of that is divine power and might, the supernatural strength of God working in and through believers, enabling them to overcome, to endure, and to fulfill his will. I want y'all to hear that his will, not your will, not my will, but his will. The key scriptures in this is Isaiah 40 and 29, chapter 40, verse 29 to 31. And it tells us that he gives power to to the faint. You got you getting weary? God says, I got you to be able to enable you to overcome and to endure, to be able to fulfill my will for your life. Philippians 4 13 tells us that guess what? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Ephesians 6 and 10 says, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, because God's strength is not human resilience enhance, it is the value. Power impart it. Oh, that's powerful right now. It's it often shows up for us, people of God, most clearly when you are at your weakness. My God, my God, listen to this. Listen to this. How do they work together? This is a kingdom blueprint. Grit, you keep going. The grace of God empowers you to keep going. God's strength, the actual power sustaining and carrying you through. Grit without grace leads to burnout. Grace without application leads to passive passivity. And God's strength is the source that makes both effective. Listen to this. Yes, Lord. You need to check what you have, people of God. Check what you have. Check what you have. Check what God is saying to you in your life. Check what God is showing you. Adjust your circle accordingly. This is not the time to be connected, but this is the time to be covered and in c this is the time to be covered and in covenant. Covered and in covenant. This is not the time to be playing around in this hour. There's too much going on, people of God. And we've got to get ourselves together. Amen.

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Amen.

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Okay, apostle, gonna let you grab this one for us, please, sir.

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How to finish well. Stay connected, stay in God's word, and stay in community. To stay clear, keep the vision visible, and the and the why in front. Stay consistent, even slow steps come when you are headed towards purpose. Third breath, milestone, even small ones.

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Uh-huh. Now, listen, that's powerful. That's powerful. What apostle was just reading to us. That is so powerful. Now, a lot of times when we're going through, people find themselves wanting to disconnect. They want to disconnect and they will go back into what has been for familiar for them. What does not challenge them, what does not prune them, what does not correct them, what does not reproof them. Because the enemy will make men and women feel, and people of God in general, he will make them feel that people are coming against them when they're not. Remember, the the enemy wants to play with the mind of the people of God. Because if he can twist who's really there, who he's really put in your life to bring about the deliverance, the healing, and the restoration, the restoration that you need to fulfill the purpose of God and to cause you to go back and do your first works over because you jumped the gun and you disconnected from what God had purposed in your life to keep you going forward, then that is the plan and the plot of the enemy. And so it's so important, people of God, to be mindful, to be mindful and to know that it's God and God alone who is able to do what nobody else can do, what no man could do. And so we must know this, we must understand this, and we must be clear to know that it's only with God that gives us the ability to accomplish his works. It's nothing that's so great that we've done, people of God, because we've never done something so great, but it's about accomplishing the will of God. So as Apostle has told us, the three different keys he's given us here on how to finish well, the three keys he said to stay connected. Stop trying to um um allow the enemy to pull you out of alignment. See, alignment leads to covenant, covenant needs to pushing you towards or thrusting you or changing the very direct your very trajectory towards the purpose that God is calling you. You got to stay clear, you gotta be able to keep the vision, you gotta know why I am doing this, what is your why? And you got to be consistent, you got to stay consistent, you got to. So, a challenge is this what do you need to finish in this season? Ask yourselves what is it that you need to finish in this season? What has God told you that you're not doing? What is it that God has shown you that you're not doing? Why are you not doing it? What has God said to you? Okay, that's the challenge. So encourage yourself. Why? Because completion brings glory to God. Don't settle for halfway, don't settle for, well, I started, I'm gonna make a resolution and I'll do it again next year, and next year I'm gonna get it done. Next year I'm gonna accomplish it. But what are you doing now? What are you doing now to accomplish the will of God? What are you doing now that is going to be pleasing unto God? So, you know what? We have to have gratitude. Have gratitude towards what God has already begun in your life and look forward to what God is going to do in your life. Stay in prayer, faithful, be faithful, very faithful. Don't give up. God is not through with you yet. God still has a work for you to do, and not only does God have a work for you to do, then you got to understand another thing. You know what that other thing is? You gotta understand that finish what God gave you. Did God assign it to you? That may be what God has called them to do for the body of Christ, but is that what God called you to do? Is that what God told you? Did God tell you that's where He's calling you to? Did God say that's what He wanted you to do? Did God tell you that? Is that something you're just doing for yourself? Ask yourselves this. Okay, all right. So then let's think about this finishing well and the power of completion. Don't just start but finish, people of God. The key verses that we gave you on tonight, excuse me, the key verses that we gave you this morning are 2 Timothy 4 and 7, as well as Philippians 1 and 6, and John 19 and 13. John 19 and 30. Y'all pray for me this morning. It's serious. John 19, chapter 19, verse 30. Thank you, apostle. Our main quote is starting is exciting, but finishing, people of God, is divine. Now let's find out and think about this. Don't just say it and don't do it, don't just read it and meditate on it, but apply, uh huh. Apply what the application is key, applying it to your everyday life. Ask yourself, what assignment have I paused that needs finishing? What is it that God has asked or told you to do? What assignment have you laid to the side? What have you been procrastinating on? What is it that God has called you to do? Have you gotten so worldly minded that you're no kingdom good? That's an old saying I used to hear older people say when I was younger. And think about that. If we get so engulfed in what's going on around the world, we need to stay just that focused, even a hundred times more on the things of the kingdom. Get your mind out of the world and put your mind back in the kingdom. That's where God is calling us to in this hour. This is where He needs us. He needs us pulling on heaven, he needs us praying and interceding for the people globally. He needs us to be the standard of what it is to be a child of God, to be a disciple. Apostle Herbie, we don't even use the terminology. We may use it every now and then. I think we've totally, if people say, Are you a Christian? We are disciples. We are disciples. That's who we are. Because the word Christian has become so interchangeable, and there's so much hate that has been connected with the identity of being a Christian that it grieves the hearts of the remnant and the people of God, the authentic, not the counterfeit. So let's think about these. Okay, this other one. Another reflecting response. These are two reflecting responses. The one that I just told you, think about this. What assignment have I paused that needs finishing? Okay. Number two, what helps me stay motivated to complete what God gave me? Not what God gave somebody else. If God gave you a ministry, then guess what? You need to do what God gave you. If God gave you some other type of a job, it may be that you have your own agency, and all of a sudden somebody says, Oh, we got a job over here, they're paying five dollars more an hour. But then God give that to you. Stay on your assignment. If God gave someone else an assignment, let them complete their assignment and you stay on course of yours. Whatever God gave you to birth it, don't just take it and hide the talent under a bushel or in the sand, but accomplish what God gave you. Not everybody else, but what is yours? What is it that God had you to start? There's too many people in the body of Christ starting, but not bringing it to completion. You quit too soon many times, people of God. We quit too soon. Okay, let's do a four QA. Apostles gonna take question one for us.

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Why why is finishing so hard sometimes? Yeah, says, Because the the closer you get to completion, the more the more resistance show up, but that is also when the reward is closest.

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All right, you go with the first two.

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Number two is what if I have dropped the ball on something God gave me, and says, pick it back up. God is not done with you, his grace is fresh and your and yours, yes, still matters.

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My Lord, you hear that? Your yes still matters, so don't give up, people. If you drop the ball, don't give up. Your yes still matters. Pick it up, like Apostle said, run the course, run the race that God has given you. The third question is this how do I stay committed when motivation fails? That's where the community comes in, that's where getting connected to leaders who can pour into you, to leaders who can pick you up in the spirit, who are interceding for you, but they know when something is off with you in the spirit. You know, there's a little picture I put up once before with some scripture, and and this is what happens when a lot of times to us when the blind leads the blind, and that's the sad thing about it. We need to be led by men and women of God who can truly see who God has called you to be. Amen.

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Amen.

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My God. Is finishing really that spiritual? That's the fourth question. Yes, God is a finisher. Word of God says he is the author and the finisher of our faith, and so are his children. We're the king's kids, people of God. If our father finishes, then guess what? We also have to finish what God has given us to do. Amen. It's a reflection of his nature and a testimony of your obedience to the will of God. So we need to understand that finishing well is the power of completion, and that God honors those who finish what they start. People of God, remember completion brings glory to God. So we don't settle for halfway. Finish what God gave you. Don't give up, don't throw up your hands, don't turn in, don't throw in the towel. Finish what God gave you. Stop procrastinating, stop playing around with it. But get into it, jump down into the trenches, begin to dig out what it is that God has given you. Stop allowing yourselves to go astray. Stop allowing yourself to become stagnated. Stop allowing yourselves to get into a place where you're frustrated, you're aggravated, you've thrown in the towel, you've thrown your hands up and say, God, I don't even know if I can go any further any further. I don't know if I can go any further. But you know what, people of God? This is when you say, I know I can. God, I know I can. I know I can go further. I know I can go harder. I know I can go deeper. I know I can push in. I know I can, I know, I know, I know. You've got to get that I know mentality, people of God. You've got to do that. You have got to do that. Oh my God. You know, Apostle Herb and I, we have so many different topics to minister to you guys on. The one thing that we're going to go ahead into our season six, we haven't even talked about it. We were sitting here, and as I'm sitting here talking to you all, I'm looking at something that God has given Apostle Herbie and I for the people and for the body of Christ. And one of the things is this that we have to understand is how we're we must learn and master how to live strategically in God in a divided world. We've got to learn to do that. We've got to learn to persevere, we've got to learn to carry on, and we've got to learn to stand in unity and love and in oneness to move the needle forward into what Christ is telling us. So for season six, we're going to kick it off with Christ over culture, living a counter-cultural faith. We need to know how to live in our current time and situations that we have. We cannot play with this, people of God, but we've got to stand firm as the voices of the church in a divided world, and we have to be the church, amen. So let us leave this with you all. A few things here. All right, I'm gonna go here. We have to understand, people of God, that we must submit our ways and our lives to God. We must be obedient to his will and his will alone. And this means losing people, uh losing association, and being left alone. But Lord help us, Jake. Listen, when you read scripture and you read the word of God, there were so many that had encounters with God that were indescribable, but they were only able to have it when they were left alone. So sometimes God has to remove everything and everybody from around us and quiet the clutter and the noise in order for us to truly hear from God and know who He is and what He is saying. Amen. Amen. So in our close, I want to leave you all with just this just a little nugget of an apostolic summary. That grit is your commitment, grace is God's enablement, and God's strength is the power that endures to finish. People of God, do not give up, dig in your heels, persevere, keep going, do not get discouraged, do not throw in the towel, but know that God is doing a work in you. God is aligning you and realigning you. God has activated his grace, he has released his strength to carry you through what he has called, each and every one of you to. Amen. Apostle Herb, you got anything else you want to add, honey? No, he said he's good. All right, may God bless you and keep you on this morning. You all have a wonderful, wonderful day. And remember, um, starting out with season six here, we're going to be going into dealing with the voices of the church in a divided world. And the first topic here, dealing with faith and culture, it's going to be fire, y'all, is going to be Christ over culture, living a counter-cultural faith. Huh. How do we do that in a divided world? The voices of the church must arise globally and preach the unadulterated word of God in season and out of season. Call a lie a lie and let the truth be told. God bless you, God keep you. We love you, and may his grace continue to shine upon you. God bless. Have a great, great day.