Gtcotr/ws122816
There
is something powerful about “Last Words”. I often say that first impressions
are important but last impressions are lasting impressions. Last words matter
because Last words last …
How
a life or a journey begins does not tell the whole story. Rather, as with each
movie, we judge a life or a relationship or even a holiday on how it ends. The
highest honors are most often reserved not for how a person lives their life
but rather for how a person gives their life.
Even
God waits until the end to judge.
Matthew 12:37 "For by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be
condemned."
Therefore
great care should be taken to insure we protect our last words and end our
story well. The only problem is … we don’t know when the end will be and if the
words we are saying right now might be the last words we get to say in this
life to that friend, family member, stranger, and our enemies or even to God.
Before
we end 2016 and draw any final conclusions, let’s look at some last words from
the Bible to see if we can discover a pattern to follow.
When
I think of someone who had a hard life and a difficult journey my mind runs to
Job. At almost any point in the 42 chapters of Job a person could stop and be
sufficiently and reasonably depressed for Job. However, those difficulties
didn’t have the last word. What was the last word?
Job 42
15 In all the land were found
no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave
them an inheritance among their brothers.
16 After this Job lived one
hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four
generations.
17 So Job died, old and full
of days.
What
put Job on his road to a better day? His attitude and his decision to not let
trouble and problems be his last word. Job acted like the man he wanted to be
instead of the way life and others described him. He defined himself instead of
letting disappointments define him.
Job 42
10 And the LORD restored
Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as
much as he had before.
11 Then all his brothers, all
his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him
and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for
all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece
of silver and each a ring of gold.
12 Now the LORD blessed the
latter days of Job more than his beginning …
Job
decided his future and acted like the person he wanted to be instead of the way
others saw him.
Another
person I think about when I think about not allowing the problems of life or
any one moment have the last word is the Apostle Paul. If you are familiar with
his life and ministry you know how many things he suffered. He was beaten
numerous times, shipwrecked, jailed, stoned, run out of town after town,
maligned, threatened, distrusted, betrayed and even lost his best friend over
an argument. Paul was acquainted with hardship. When he was about 62 years old
and in prison in Rome under Nero waiting to have his head chopped off we hear
an account from Luke which constitutes the last words in the Book of the Acts
of the Apostles:
Acts 28
30 ¶ And Paul dwelt two whole
years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
31 Preaching the kingdom of
God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all
confidence, no man forbidding him.
That’s
not the picture of a prisoner who has been defeated by life but a man who is
living in victory. Why? Listen to what we consider Paul’s last words which he
writes to Timothy from this Roman prison:
2 Timothy 4:22 The Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
Paul
is definitely not your ordinary condemned prisoner. He is an encourager who
prays for the grace of God to be with Timothy. Paul’s last words are meant to
encourage us all. And, we never hear from him again!
The
last word in Psalms also gives the upbeat message which runs through the
entirety of the Bible:
Psalms 150:6 Let everything
that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!
Even
the last words of the Apocalypse leaves us with a word of hope and
encouragement:
Revelation 22:21 The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
As
2016 comes to a close without respect as to how the year unfolded for you
personally, professionally or politically, perhaps we could harness our hurts
and focus our hopes on a better and brighter day for next year. Let’s not be
defined by what we have seen in the past but rather let’s begin speaking grace
and leave others with some better last words than perhaps the past deserves. Our
future depends on us not our problems.
What
if the words you speak to others today are the last words they hear or the last
words you speak? Would you want them to be words of hope or words of hurt? How
do you want to be remembered and how do you want to remember the last encounter
you had with them?
We
leave tonight together with the last word some of you will hear from me this
year. Therefore I’ll go on record and declare that although 2016 had its
difficult and disappointing moments, hurts and hardships were evident for many
and some experienced great losses that left us empty and wanting. Nonetheless
we are at peace and we have a growing hope for the future that outshines the
past. I pray grace and peace be multiplied to you in the coming year and may
the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen!
