This is “How to Finish Stronger Than You Started”. You can find the faith to overcome and finish stronger than you started! You can do better than you’re doing right now. In “How to Finish Stronger Than You Started,” you’ll see that how your story began is far less important than the direction you’re traveling now. Are you moving toward God, or away from Him? Just because you had a bad start, or made some poor decisions along the way, doesn’t mean you have to walk out that destination. You can change the course of your future today!
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>> Welcome to Kingdom
Connection.
I’m so glad that you’re joining
us today and I hope you
and your family had a wonderful,
happy Thanksgiving.
What a great time to sit back
and look at everything God
has done and remind
ourselves that He is faithful.
Well, let’s go right
into the message today.
I know God’s Word
is gonna speak directly
to you and I believe you’re
gonna find faith to overcome.
♪ ♪
>> And I want you to go
to Matthew 21,
and I’ll begin reading
with Verse 28,
and I believe the Lord
is going to speak to you
today in a personal way.
“But what do you think?”
Jesus speaking.
“But what do you think?
A man had two sons,
and he came to the first
and said, ‘Son, go,
work today in my vineyard,’
and he answered and said,
‘I will not,’
but afterward he regretted
it and he went.”
Verse 30, “Then he came
to the second and said likewise.
And he answered and said,
‘I will go, sir,’
but he did not go.
Which of the two did
the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them,”
they were pharisees.
They were there with
vicious intent, and He said,
“Assuredly, I say to you
that tax collectors
and harlots will enter
the kingdom of God before you.”
Wow!
I thought Jesus was
a sweet, kind —
“For John came to you
in the way of righteousness,
and you did not believe him;
but tax collectors
and harlots believed him;
and when you saw it,
you did not afterward
relent and believe him.”
What a powerful lesson
Jesus taught about two
sons and their father.
Most of the time we think
about the two sons
of the Prodigal story
of Luke 15,
and this is the forgotten
sons and the father,
but this is a powerful lesson
that I’m gonna share with you
today from this that
I want to try to really
get it into your soul,
into your spirit.
I’m preaching today
on “Finishing Stronger
Than You Started”
because you can do better
than you’re doing right now.
You can do more than
you’re doing right now.
You can finish stronger
than you are right now.
The two sons represent
two directions that
life can take you.
The father said
to both of the sons,
“Go into the field and work.”
The father represents God.
The field is the world,
the harvest field,
and he said to his sons,
“Go into the field and work.”
And the one son said,
“I will go,”
but remarkably the Bible said,
“but he went not.”
The King James put it that way.
He said, “I’ll do it, dad.
I’m in.
Let’s go.”
But when the dad looked out,
he wasn’t in the field.
The second boy had an attitude,
and he said, “I will not go,”
but the Scripture said later
he repented and did
the will of the father.
Two pathways.
Two responsibilities for
every person under the sound
of my voice at all
of our campuses and online
and by television.
You have two possibilities.
The one son is an example
of someone who started out well.
I’ll do it.
I’m in.
I’ll serve you.
I’ll work in the church.
I’ll work in the field.
I’ll work in the harvest.
I’ll use my talents,
my gifts, my resources.
I’m gonna do the will of God.
I’m gonna be a part
of the harvest.
I’m gonna sell my life out
for your work and your will.
He started out well
with right intentions
beginning the right way.
But then along the way
something happened.
He began to be distracted.
He made the promise he started,
but along the way he lost his
way and somehow he fell away.
There’s more than
one way to get lost.
The Bible in Luke 15 talks
about three lost things.
It shows us the three ways
that people can be lost.
There was the lost sheep,
there was the lost son,
and there was the lost coin.
Not all are the same
kind of loss.
The first one,
the lost sheep was lost
because it wandered away.
It didn’t intend to get lost.
it just started nibbling,
and it got away and got some
distance between the sheep
and the shepherd,
and it just started wandering
further and further away,
and somehow, it looked up
and all the other sheep
were gone and everything
looked confused,
and it was lost
and it was in wolf country
and it didn’t even
know how it got there.
It’s one thing,
you know, when you
do something intentional,
but there are people today
who are lost who have
just wandered off.
They go to church.
They’re sheep.
They’re not a goat.
It’s still a sheep.
It’s possible for sheep
to wander, to drift further
and further and further
all the way out onto
the turf of the enemy.
Have you ever been lost?
Now, many of you young
people won’t understand this,
but back before they had GPS
we used to literally use maps
to tell us how to get to places.
It was the craziest thing.
I know.
You’re used to Siri.
You said give me directions,
and it will tell
you exactly how.
She will.
Well, before Siri,
I had Cherise.
We used to travel in our
car as evangelists all
over this Nation.
Every night of the week we’d
preach revival after revival
after revival after revival,
and I preached in almost every
state of this Nation,
and we’d get in the car
and go to another one
and go to another one
and go to another one,
and one time, my Siri,
who was Cherise because
that was her job.
My job was to drive.
Her job was to tell me.
So, I’m used to a woman
telling me how to drive my car.
But she fell asleep,
and she slept for several hours,
and I didn’t know it,
but I was drifting further.
Somewhere I took a wrong turn,
and we drove for hours
and when she woke up,
she said, “Where are we?
Why are we in,”
I forget where it was,
South Carolina,
when we were supposed
to be in North Carolina
or wherever it was
we were going.
I don’t remember,
but it was a whole
different state,
and she said,
“What have you done?”
And I remember when we finally
got back on the right interstate
it was the most wonderful
feeling to know that
we were back going
in the right direction.
Well, let me tell you.
That’s how a lost sheep feels.
A lost sheep got lost
wandering away.
It didn’t mean to get lost.
They don’t ever like being lost,
and that’s how you know
if you’re a sheep or not.
If you like being lost,
if you like your world
and your sin
and all your stuff
that you’re doing more
than you love the church,
let me help you out.
You’re either a sheep or a goat,
Jesus said,
and if you’re a sheep,
you don’t like being lost,
and when you hear a sermon
like this you wanna get back
quick to the shepherd’s arms,
but people who are not saved,
they’re not sheep.
They don’t want to get back.
They have no intentions
of getting back.
They’re okay living their
life far from God.
That means you’re not a sheep.
You’re a goat,
and unless you repent,
you’re going to die
and go to hell.
We need to hear
straight preaching.
We don’t have time
for games no more.
You’re either a sheep or a goat
and if something
in your nature —
here’s how you know
you’re a sheep.
Something in you if you feel
yourself drifting and you hear
the call of the shepherd,
it instantly even though
I have drifted,
even though I have
gone far away,
even though I shouldn’t
be over here nibbling
in this pasture where
there’s wolves,
I wanna get back.
If you don’t have a want to,
something is wrong
with your soul.
Now watch this.
The lost sheep wandered away,
but the lost son walked away.
It was intentional.
It wasn’t an accident.
He knew what he was doing.
He said, “Give me
my inheritance.
I know where I’m going.
I know what I’m doing.”
He went to a foreign countries.
“I choose to do this.
I’m not wandering away.
I’m not wanting to get
back on the right path.
I’m not missing going
in the right direction.
I like where I am.
I join myself to this
foreign country.
This is my new world.
These are my new people.
I don’t want that.
I don’t want the church.”
That’s the difference
between the lost sheep.
It wandered away,
but was glad to get back.
The other one,
the lost son,
walked away.
It’s interesting that
the shepherd was commanded
to go get the lost sheep,
but the father never leaves
and goes to get the lost son.
Now, listen to me
carefully because you
can’t find a lost son.
He has to find himself.
You can’t find a lost daughter
who’s been raised in this.
They have to find themselves.
There’s not enough
talking you can do.
And it was when the prodigal was
in the pig pen the Bible says
these amazing words in Luke 15,
“He came to himself.”
And when he found
and came to himself,
then he said,
“I need to go home
to the father’s house.”
But never did the father
go after the son until
he saw him coming home
and when he started coming home,
he ran with the coat,
with the ring,
with the shoes,
and covered his disgrace
and brought him back and said,
“Look what God has done.
My son is home.
Kill the fatted calf.
Let’s have a party,
and let’s never talk
about what happened again.”
I don’t know who
I’m preaching to,
but I’m praying today that
you will come to yourself.
You were not born
to be a drug addict,
an alcoholic,
somebody out in the world.
You are called
and chosen of God,
and you can come home today.
You’re welcome home today.
You need to turn around
and run home today.
And then there’s the lost coin.
So, you’ve got the sheep
that wandered away
and you’ve got the son
that walked away,
but then you’ve got
the lost coin,
and it was lost
and it didn’t go anywhere.
It was lost in the house.
The Bible said that there
was a woman who lost
the coin in the house.
It was there in the house.
It stayed right here.
We think everybody who sits
on these seats are saved
and going to heaven
’cause they came to church,
but you can be
in the house and be lost.
You can be in a Gospel
preaching church where
the Spirit of God is moving,
and you can be as lost
as a goose in a snow storm.
You can be lost sitting in house
playing religious games.
Many of you are cold
and indifferent
and you’re straying
and you’re going further,
and you never get stirred
up about it.
The Bible said the woman took
the broom and started sweeping
the house stirring the dust up
trying to find the coin
because the coin was there.
It had not lost its value.
It was out of circulation.
I’m praying that the Holy Spirit
will bring His broom into
this church, into my temple,
into your temple,
into our homes
and into our families,
and those of us who
are sitting here
and we’re still valuable,
but we’re out of circulation.
We really aren’t praising God
and loving God like we ought to.
Lord, sweep the dirt out.
Sweep the world out.
Sweep ungodliness out until
we begin to shine again,
and God can reach down
and pick us up
and say I can use you now
that you’ve been cleansed.
Clap your hands
and say I want it, Lord.
Somebody shout I’m gonna
finish strong.
Say it again.
Get the dirt out of me.
I’m gonna finish strong.
I haven’t come this far
to be covered up in nastiness.
I’m done with the nasty life.
I want Jesus in the final
hour like I’ve never
wanted Him before.
Woo!
Hallelujah!
Now, I close this little
sermon with the second son.
He’s the late bloomer.
The Bible said the other boy,
now the boy who started out
strong is never seen again.
But then there was
that other son.
When his dad said go work
in the field, he didn’t play
and he didn’t pretend.
He said I’m not gonna do it.
He refused the call
of his father.
He said that’s too much
of an intrusion on my plans.
I don’t want that life.
I want my own life.
In other words,
he stumbled out
of the starting gate.
He ran with the wrong crowd;
fornicators, idolaters,
thieves, drunkards.
And I’m preaching
to people today,
and maybe you didn’t
start out well.
Maybe you stumbled at the gate.
Maybe you weren’t raised
in a Christian home.
Maybe you were raised a Muslim.
Maybe you were raised by some
other faith or no faith
by atheist parents,
and you didn’t’ start out well
or maybe you started
and something happened
and you stumbled at the gate.
Maybe a preacher hurt you
or maybe somebody did
something and you thought
they’re hypocrites,
and I’m done with the church.
You may have stumbled
at the gate,
but I came with a word
for you today.
You can start bad and end good.
That’s what this story proves.
The Bible said in Habakkuk,
“Your latter end shall
be greater than your former.”
Just because you
had a bad start,
just because your dad left you
or your mother wasn’t there
and you weren’t raised
in a Christian home,
just because you had a bad
start doesn’t mean that
you have to be that
the rest of your life.
Just because everybody in your
family had an addiction
and now you feel that
grip on your life,
it doesn’t mean that you
have to stay that way.
You can have a bad start but
have a great ending today.
Things happen.
You say, well, Pastor,
how does that happen in my life?
Something happened to that
boy who started bad
and without his dad chasing
him and without anybody,
he came to a place in his life
where he said I know
what I’m here for now.
I’ve tried all of this,
and it doesn’t satisfy.
I know where peace is.
I know where joy is.
I know where,
I know where I can
lose the guilt
and the condemnation
and the shame
and the disgrace on my life.
I’m just gonna get out there
in the field and surrender
to the will of the Father.
I’m just gonna do what
I can do for the glory of God,
and suddenly,
Jesus Himself says,
“Which one was greater?
The one who said it and talked
it and started it but fell away,
or the one who got a bad start,
had a bad start and got into
a lot of bad stuff,
ran with a lot of bad people,
got in all kinds
of addictions and problems,
but boy they end up right
in the plan of God.”
Jesus said,
“That one was the greatest.”
And he turned
to the pharisees,
and He said,
“Harlots and fornicators
and tax collectors,”
which they were known for
their thievery and dishonesty
under that system.
He said, “They will
enter into heaven,
but you pharisees who
talk the talk,
you’re lost right
in the house.
You’re not gonna make it,
but all those people who had
a bad start that they brought
to me their brokenness
and their failure
and their disgrace,
I’m gonna give them grace,
and they’ll enter
the kingdom of heaven,
and I’ll use them a whole lot
quicker before I would ever
use somebody like you
who’s lost in the house.
You still have value,
but you’re out
of circulation.”
God help us to have such
a spiritual temperature
in this church that
people cannot sit with
dirt all over them
in the house
and feel comfortable.
I know this is a strong message,
but we need strong
preaching right now.
How many of you are so glad
and you’d be honest enough
to admit how many of you
feel like you just
kind of had a bad start?
You didn’t know.
You didn’t know.
The only time you saw people
raise their hand in church
was when they were voting
a preacher out,
and you got so disgusted
with that you left,
and then you started
down another road,
and then you got
to an end to yourself,
and the Lord brought you back
and now here you are.
How many of you can truly
say I started bad,
but I’m gonna end good?
Let me see.
How many of you have made up
your mind that you’re not gonna
sit in the dust and let dust
collect in you in the house
of God when you got gifts
and talents and the world
is dying going to hell?
I’ve got something.
I can park a car.
I can volunteer.
I can lead a small group.
I can sing in the choir.
I can give.
I can do something for
the harvest to be reached
in this final hour when
the bridegroom is about to come.
Wonder how many of you,
the oil is draining out
and the fire is barely
flickering right at this
momentous hour just when
the bridegroom is about to step
out and blow the trumpet,
and we who are alive and remain.
It’s not enough
to start out on fire.
You have to be alive
and remain alive.
Remain stirred up.
Remain after God.
Remain with oil in your
lamp and fire in your soul.
We’re gonna be called up
together with those who have
died to meet the Lord in there.
He’s coming.
You just keep on smirking.
He’s coming.
You just keep on laughing.
You just go I’ve heard that —
You’re gonna be left behind
’cause something in you
is saying you need to get back
something in you ’cause
you’re a sheep right now
if you’re hearing this sermon.
It’s saying you need
to get back.
You need to get close.
You need to get out
of that pasture.
You need to get back
to where the shepherd
is so you can rejoice,
but if you’re a goat,
that means if you’re dying
on your way to hell,
you don’t want nothing.
You willfully walk
away from the love
and the mercy and the grace
and the favor
of the Father’s house.
God help us.
This is a serious thing.
I don’t know about you,
but I have decided
that I’m gonna end stronger
than I started.
♪ ♪
>> I’m so thankful, today, that
you’ve watched this program.
And I don’t think that
it’s an accident that
you’re viewing right now.
Because right where you are,
it can become a powerful place
where you invite the Lord
Jesus Christ into your home,
into your family,
into your pain,
into your heart,
into your trouble.
Pray this prayer today, say,
Jesus, I’m coming home.
I’m so sorry.
I really need your
grace and your mercy.
I really need you to change me.
I can’t do this without you.
I need you.
Save me, heal me,
help me, deliver me,
and restore my life
in every area.
I give you the broken pieces.
In Jesus’ name.
Now, I praise God for this
moment because the Spirit of God
is doing a miracle in your life.
And Lord, we pray that you
would release healing
across the land,
in Jesus’ mighty name.
We would love, today,
to agree with you
for your miracle.
And if you just
prayed that prayer,
I want you to let us know
by calling the number
on the screen.
We just enjoy hearing
back from you so much.
There’s also a website
that you can visit
and we will send you
our Salvation Journey Kit
and it’ll get you on a path
for the next 21 days
of devotion to God
and you will begin
to grow immediately in your
new walk with Jesus Christ.
Well, in our closing
moments together,
I want to say thank you
to everyone who is responding
to our ministry
with your generous support.
There’s only one way that
we stay on the air.
This is a 100% fully-supported
by our television
audience ministry.
And we do three things with
the money that you give.
We preach the gospel,
and buy air time,
to over 200 nations around
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Secondly, we produce
inspirational resources
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And thirdly, we go above
and beyond to support
projects just like
Operation Startup.
It’s solely directed
at bringing comfort with
grace to many Jewish people
who have been displaced
from Israel.
They’re scattered all
over the world
and we’re partnering with
Christian Friends of Israel
to bless Jewish people returning
to their homeland in Israel.
Many of these families
are traveling from
distant nations and they arrive
with nothing but just
a few belongings
and a little hand bag.
And we help these families
with their transition
by providing with, you know,
just the basic
necessities of life.
These are precious Jewish people
returning to the Holy Land.
You can be a part of that today.
Thank you so much.
We’ll see you next time
on Kingdom Connection.
>> God has been bringing
Jewish people back to Israel,
from all over the world,
for the last 100 years.
Especially so in the most recent
decades, since the miraculous
founding of Israel in 1948.
Some of the these precious
individuals and families
are from very poor nations,
where the Jewish people have
experienced persecution
for centuries.
Many Jewish families arrive
in Israel with little
more than the clothes
on their backs.
Many struggle to get
their feet under them,
and become established.
Jentezen Franklin Media
Ministries has partnered with
Christian Friends of Israel
Jerusalem to help these Jewish
people successfully make
the transition back
to their homeland.
Operation Startup will help
the poorest and neediest
of Israel’s newest arrivals
and their transition.
When you give, you are actively
helping fulfill the biblical
prophecy found in Ezekiel,
“For I will take you
from among the nations,
gather you out of all countries,
and bring you
into our own land.”
The ongoing regathering
of scattered Jewish families
back to the land of Israel
is a miraculous fulfillment
of biblical prophecy
in our lifetimes.
Let’s join together to ease
and comfort the transition
for these precious
Jewish families,
returning to their homeland.
Thank you for your continuous
support of Jentezen Franklin
Media Ministries.
With your generous gift to help
these Jewish families in need,
we have some special resources
we would love to send you.
Call now, or go online
to join Operation Startup today.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
>> We hope you’ve enjoyed this
teaching by Jentezen Franklin,
and thank you for your continued
support of this ministry.
Your prayers and financial
support make these
programs possible.
For more information about this
message and other ministry
resources, visit us online
at JentezenkFranklin.tv.
♪ ♪