Finish Strong With Fearless Faith
Finish Strong With Fearless Faith
How To Finish Strong (Special LIVE event!) #82
Any athlete can tell you about the importance of “finishing strong.” Whether it is a race, a match or a game, the way you finish is more important than the way you start. It is that way in our Christian life. Our final years are the most important.
When we reach our retirement years, what will we do with our time and resources? We’ve decided NOT to retire to a resort or a golf course. We are working hard to tell others about Jesus Christ. Like the apostle Paul, we want to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14.
Pay close attention to this episode because we are going to show you how to Finish Strong. This is such an important topic that we named our podcast after it!
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You know, athletes want to finish strong. In other words, they want to be stronger at the end of a game or a race than they were at the beginning. That's our motto here at Fearless Faith Ministries. And it is, in fact, the title of our podcast. And it's interesting that our first live podcast on Facebook is about finishing strong. I'm Dan Wheeler, and I'm joined by these two wonderful partners, Brian Rowland, and Terry Steen. And our producer, John Matarazzo. Is making all this happen. We're so glad you joined us. And I know in a few minutes, you're starting to gather, we're going to be including you in our podcasts as much as possible. But we are going to talk about this theme. And this, by the way is our 82nd episode, but our first live podcast on Facebook. So guys, it's easy to start something much harder to finish and even harder to finish strong. Would you agree with that?
Terry Steen:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Many a to do list doesn't get that checkmark, does it? That's true. That's true.
Dan Wheeler:But well, until we get Brian, you and I can talk a little bit. You know, this is a strong theme in the Bible. finishing strong. Yeah. You know, Paul talks about a runner. In fact, Hebrews 12. One, let me read this, because this sets the pace Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. And I always thought that that applied to the saints that have gone on before us. It says let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. Yeah, that's yeah, we're trying to do run strong. And we'll we'll get Brian's mic up hill rejoin us, but
Terry Steen:well, you. You ran some in high school, right?
Dan Wheeler:Yeah. Yeah. My, my cross country career was was brief. And it ended when I had the flu that day of a race. And I was doing really well. Yeah. And then about 100 yards from the finish line, my legs turned a rubber. I ran close to the ground. People that were there said I, I fell down. I stood up, took a step. And then I woke up at the hospital. But I had the flu that day of the race. But you know, winning 100 yards out doesn't count, you got to finish,
Terry Steen:you got to finish for sure. I ran cross country to get in shape for basketball. I never gave it a lot of hard effort. But I did it. And I think back then we were doing two mile races. And if I made it without passing out, it was a win for me, no matter how I placed. And then in track, I ran the 440 because nobody else wanted to do it. And now they call it like the 400 meter. And it's basically just one sprint around the track one time. Yeah. And I gave it all I had usually about three quarters of the way through. I had one of these, as they say hit the wall kind of thing. And you're still working hard, but you're slowing down and you see people pass. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the worst feeling.
Dan Wheeler:Well, you know, in the mile race, it's interesting because there's a real strategy involved. The first two laps are usually the slowest. Yeah, the third lap is usually a little bit faster because people are jockeying for position. And then that last lap, they call it the belt lap. That's where you have to go hard, finish strong and have all that kick.
Terry Steen:That's the one you need. And for some reason on that 400 meter, I did not save enough to finish strong that is for sure. And so there goes my school record there goes the state record. Did you hold those records? Well, no, I said there
Unknown:any chance of having them? Yeah,
Terry Steen:one time I did win the 440. And someone had told that the coach the track coach said hey, how the 440 Go and one of the other players said we'll steam one. And the coach was like you what, what was running in that and nylon? That was his comment. It was like Thanks coach way to encourage me had no expectations of me when
Dan Wheeler:he might have thought they moved the finish line closer.
Terry Steen:That's what I needed. That's what I needed. Well,
Dan Wheeler:you know, it's that way, not just in a race, but of course you and I were baseball players. You want that strong last inning that come from behind win basketball. The fourth quarters the most important, it's not how you start. It's how you finish. So let's talk about how we've translated that kind of into what we're doing with fearless faith.
Terry Steen:Yeah, yeah, we feel like we are in, we might be in the third lap. I hate to say we're in the fourth lap, we might is very possible that baton may have been handed to the fourth lap on a relay. I'm not sure.
Dan Wheeler:Well, if you live to be 100, then we'd still be the third lap. But yeah,
Terry Steen:but we're getting close. We're getting close. We are we understand the importance of kicking it right now. Yeah, and not letting up and doing what we need to do and, and putting that into spiritual terms. We need to do All For the kingdom we can because it's one thing to win a race and get your name in the paper. It's another thing to have the eternal rewards that Christ says waiting for us. That's what we want.
Dan Wheeler:Yeah. You know, Terry, I remember when I was leaving QVC. And I remember through the years seeing a lot of hosts that were, you know, one time really important and kind of stars on the network. And then suddenly, they were walked out by security or they were let go, their contract wasn't renewed. And I just didn't want that to happen. I always wanted to work hard. And I remember that last week, my last shows I wanted to be the best. So I worked extra hard. Yeah, and I did finish strong. I had some of the best shows the week and my last show us the best show of the mall. And my, my boss wrote me the next day and said way to go down way to finish strong, nice that much to me. So, go ahead,
Terry Steen:I was gonna say what we need to do is keep our eye on the prize, and it makes me think of Philippians the third chapter, and write 13th and 14th Verse. Before you read that. I
Dan Wheeler:want to welcome Brian back. Brian, how are you? Good to be back. Guys. Let's okay, we can hear and we missed you. Yeah, we'll go to Brian in a second. But what's your thought, Terry?
Terry Steen:Phil? Yeah, I was just gonna say in Philippians, 313. And 14, it says forgetting those things that are behind. And reaching unto those things that are before, we have to forget about the past, we have to forget about the failures and the sin and the mistakes and where we had our lack of confidence. And some of those times, it was like, Man, I am never doing that, again, all those things that we can carry as baggage we have to release, we have to let go forget the things behind and reach forward. And as we do that, how do we reach forward, we keep our eyes on Jesus that you were reading out of Hebrews 12, that second verses, keep your eyes on Jesus, the author. And the finisher of our faith and finisher also is Perfecter. So we can perfect our faith by keeping our eyes on Jesus. And that's the goal as we try to finish draw. Sure.
Dan Wheeler:Well, Brian, you've directed a lot of live TV. And tonight we didn't start out so strong with your microphone. Yeah, but these technical things. I don't know, it was working fine beforehand. And we've never done this live. And I was saying we've never even had this when we record it. We haven't had that problem. But we're going to finish strong here. And we're talking about all of course, all the sports analogies and then how we've translated that into fearless faith. I mean, that is our main theme. And Terry was talking about that we're at that age, we're probably in the last quarter of our lives. We want to finish strong. We want to go hard for the Kingdom. Tell us what that means to you.
Brian Roland:It means everything to me. Since you're right this year. We are in the last quarter. And that didn't you say it the other day? We were in the last half of the last quarter? Yeah, I
Dan Wheeler:did. I did.
Brian Roland:I looked at you. What are you talking about? Yeah, I don't want to hear that. Yeah. But it means that to me, you have to go all out. You have to give everything that you can. And at this time in our lives, we we know more than we've ever known, which isn't a lot. But we know where we've done more than we've ever done before. And we could share that. And we could share that with other people by mentoring them. But we've been in the word for a number of years. And there's little things that we've picked up to this long the way that I really find what their morning cup of inspiration sharing with people has just been wonderful. And of course I'm still getting little tidbits from my mom, you know, I showed my Bible and one of her Bibles I should say that I have and she always wrote all through them and just left all kinds of little messages that she was learning from sermons that she was hearing and I'm learning so much more even now you think that you think you Okay, I got this but you really don't and, and it just shows that the Bible is true. Is it true? Truly a living word, because every time I read it, I get something new out of it, so that I can share it with more people again. So that's what what means to finish going for me is just sharing that with what we have what we've learned.
Dan Wheeler:Well, Tara was just talking about Philippians and reaching forth. And you know, Paul, it was a common theme. And even near the end of his life, he was still finishing strong, wasn't sure.
Brian Roland:Yeah, in his in his last hours, he was writing from his prison cell, of course. And in he'd been in there for a couple of years. But he says over First Timothy two, four, he said, who will have all men to be saved to come onto the knowledge of the truth? And he was focused on and how he can make the most out of his final moments. But when he says that you looked at it and going, okay, that's some words, but what does he really mean by it? So I did a little deep dive into it. And his message to Timothy was actually, don't just pray for the peasants and the farmers, and the uneducated, the people who, who were coming to the Lord at that time, in great numbers. But remember to pray for the kings and the very rulers in society, who are at this moment, persecuting the Christians, reminding him that Jesus can to provide a way to know God, and God also wants us to come to the knowledge of the truth. And John said so many times, in his letter is about a sound doctrine. And what that is, is that the idea of understanding what is right about God. And so, John, well, I mean, Paul was, was instructing Timothy was mentoring Timothy to never quit. You'll never stop that Paul refused to leave the live and self pity. He was at
Dan Wheeler:Bly and if anyone could have he could have went through his eating and shipwrecks.
Brian Roland:Exactly. And so pity happens when people feel that they've been unfairly treated, you know, they act and hope that somebody might feel sorry for him. That wasn't Paul. So centeredness is the root of the self pity. And it's something that Christians do not need to indulge in at all. I mean, Paul's perfect example of that. And when we wallow in self pity, we're actually complaining about the life that God has given us. And that's what I got out of what Paul was doing in that cell for the couple of years. He was in there in that filthy place.
Dan Wheeler:Terry, I remember when you were complaining, because that three pound dumbbell, you pulled something and you were just really
Terry Steen:wallowing and I realize you need to start lighter and then work your way up.
Dan Wheeler:But, you know, it really is our motto at Fearless Faith Ministries, even with our morning cups of inspiration, we're trying to inspire people our age, you who are watching that, you know, now's the time there is no tomorrow and boy, I had that hit home this week. Yesterday I found out dear childhood front of my one of my best friends growing up, passed away suddenly have a heart attack. And boy, you'd look at the guy and you think man, he looks great. But he knows insides weren't and his heart wasn't and he didn't take care of himself. But But why did we come up with this name because life is short? Because our time is short. You know, the Bible says your life has been a missed that James wrote that. He said we're here for just a little time. We don't want to retire the golf course. We've all retired now from our jobs, the three of us. We don't want to you know, Terry and I've struggled so much with our golf game. Brian doesn't want to go out with us because he struggles do I know. But we're like, why would we want to spend our time getting frustrated trying to hit that little ball? It's okay to go out one small but we want to do something that really matters. Let's accomplish great things. In our retirement years tear
Terry Steen:Yeah, yeah, I've I've been retired like seven or eight months now. And my game may be worse than it's ever been. I think that's probably telling me something there. But I think of the verse in Ecclesiastes seven eight where it says the end of a matter is better than its begin. Don't call this the golden years for nothing. You know, we're in our golden years. Like Brian mentioned it, we have more experience more wisdom or maturity. You know, this all comes maturity. Maturity. Okay, let me cross that off. All right.
Dan Wheeler:Just kidding, folks, actually were.
Terry Steen:But yeah, it's a great Solomon had a great word there. Yeah, he
Dan Wheeler:really did. We got to keep going, Brian.
Brian Roland:Okay. I'm gonna Second Timothy four, seven, where Paul said, I have fought a good fight, a good fight. I have finished my course I have kept the faith. You know, again, the look into what he's saying. And it had to do a deep dive because Paul when he met so many words came out of just a little simples sentences like that. And he's saying true Christians should fear God At the most and the fear of what other people are thinking about them, and they should keep going and keep the race going until it's one. The very point of Paul's encouragement that Timothy is to remind him, how important is to keep the faith. And keeping the faith is like fighting a long and ambiguous war, you just got to keep going and keep going, keep going, the battle may still be there, you just kind of keep on going through it. And just to finish strong,
Dan Wheeler:but I remember so many times playing basketball, and that last quarter and just hoping for a timeout, you know, you could barely get air but you're pushing, you're trying to make yourself go hard, you know, get that still beat the guy down on the court. And it was a real test. But you can compare that athletically to what we face every day in life. You know, are we going to give up? And are we going to pass up opportunities? You know, finishing strong means taking advantage of opportunities. I was in a store today. And it's funny, I was talking to the lady. She was probably in her 40s. I said, How's it gone? She said, Okay, how's it going with you? And I thought, I'm gonna use this opportunity. I said, you know, I just found out one of my best friends passed away. And I grew up with him. And I said, it really hits home, and it makes you realize how fragile life is. And she goes, Oh, yeah. And I said, you know, it makes me realize you got to have Jesus in your heart and know where you're gone. And she said, Well, I don't know about that. Well, and I started walking. When I turned around. I looked, I said, Ma'am, I do. I do know about that. I know, it's Jesus. And she just went well, good for you. You know, I might have forced a little bit but I don't want to miss, I want to take the shot. I don't want to be wide open at the end of the game. No time on the clock and hold on to the ball. Right? Yeah, hold it high. Let it fly in and flipping three for 14, Paul. So this one of my favorite verses, I press on, toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God, Christ Jesus. And before that, he says, forgetting those things that are behind, if you're hanging on to guilt, you're holding on to failures. Those are weights holding you down. Do you guys remember when we used to wear ankle weights, and they kind of held you back. But when you took them off, you're like, wow, I've jumped so high, I've got so much speed. And it's kind of like that we got to get rid of anything that's going to distract us from our mission. And we have to keep pressing towards the press. Because our goal is to hear well done good and faithful servant when we stand before the Lord.
Terry Steen:Yeah, I remember taking those weights off, I could literally hit the net when I jumped. is unbelievable how Wow, fire that I ever saw you jump in college. You know, another thing that's a problem is as we get older, sometimes we lose our confidence. As we get older, we feel a little more shaky, and we lose our confidence in Philippians, one, six, here's Paul trying to reinforce the importance because the confidence doesn't come from ourselves. He says Being confident of this very thing that he which have begun to work in you, which is Christ will perform it until the day he returns. So we have to remember that we can have the confidence to move forward and finish strong. And that confidence comes from knowing he is working in us to help us perform what He wants us to do.
Dan Wheeler:Yeah. Hey, you know, if you're if you're watching, we'd like to know, if you're how you were finishing strong. What are your ideas? What are you trying to do? I hear we've got a lot of nice comments going you see there, how are you finishing strong? Ask yourself and maybe just type a comment, because we'd like to hear from you. And, you know, it's we had a little bit of problem here in the beginning. But here's Irene, I just got laid off at 64. But God placed another job for me. All right, yeah, that's good way to go. I read. Yeah, God does have something for all of us to do. You know, Terry, you've talked a lot about using what's in your hand. You know, you'd have to look at your talents and see what you can do.
Terry Steen:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And another thing is to not make excuses. You know, we have to move forward, that we can all do something, you know, so so many times we make excuses. And we don't realize that there's going to be something however, we may think it might be small or smaller than it was before. But it could be a prayer ministry. It could be calling people to encourage them. It could be baking something given a ride, doing some babysitting for a young couple. There's so many things that could be done. That would be a blessing to others, that we sit back and go we can't do anything. And here's
Dan Wheeler:Yeah, here's Jeanette says, she says she's learning how to disciple. That's a wow. Learning to do. And Tara, you met you mentioned babysitting, you know, Debbie will often call me and ask me if I can come up and babysit Brian for a while.
Terry Steen:Yeah. And he needs it to do at least now, the question is, can he change his own diapers? Now?
Dan Wheeler:He's gonna have
Brian Roland:to dance moving? I guess depends.
John Matarazzo:Oh,
Dan Wheeler:good, good. Well, Eliza says moving from agency work to a Christian private practice as a licensed therapist. Boy, there's a way yes, in a strong, you'll be able to really share your faith there.
Terry Steen:And there's a skill that she has we're God tells us that we have to take what we have and give it to him. I think of the boy with the five loaves and the two fish. Don't you think there were other out of 5000 men plus, ladies and children, you don't think there were other people there that had food with them?
Dan Wheeler:Somebody had to bring some fried chicken or some or something. But
Terry Steen:this boy was the only one to offer it to Jesus. And look what Jesus did with it, how we multiplied it. And that's what we can do is sit and hang on to what little we have and not offer it to the Lord.
Dan Wheeler:But you know, to look at Brian. Oh, we just Teresa retired as a chef after 50 years now clicks local Salvation Army preferring a week. Oh, perfect. What a great reward. And Joanne leading my church to telephone prayer. Man, are you good? Brian? Isn't it good to see these people finishing strong trying to
Brian Roland:hear this people? Sorry, I'm reading real quick as this goes up. Let's gonna say it was when we, when we go into something we're going to do. And we want to finish finish strong with it. We have to have patience as it's going to develop that may not like she's a woman was changing a job. And it may take a while to get it to build up again. But over and James one four, it says But let patience, have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. And I went back a little bit on that. I look James 1234. And I see that James has instructed Christians really to count for hardships as joy because such moments grow our faith. And even when we're heartbroken over what has happened, we can trust God to make us stronger. And he's going to continue to do that even as we venture out in the new areas to finish strong.
Terry Steen:Yeah, absolutely.
Dan Wheeler:Here's Kathleen finishing strong by eliminating the time gobblers keeping primary my calling guys we talk about that a lot the phone? You know how much time before you know it? You'd like I've been sitting here for 20 minutes doing nothing, just reading articles and writing people's Facebook pages. Man, we don't have time for that. No, we don't
Terry Steen:doesn't watch
Brian Roland:a football game. So he does it all the time.
Dan Wheeler:So Brian, how else can we finish strong? What can we do for for future generations?
Brian Roland:Wow. That's good question.
Terry Steen:Judy was talking about it right there. Yeah, my grandchildren have started asking me to pray with them when they go to bed. That's true. You know, they arch our children watched us when we were the parents, and they still watch us even in our old age and our grandchildren watch us.
Brian Roland:And it's you know, the Bible says Train up a child. And this is true. You learn right from the beginning. And not just I don't think it just leads to children. I think it means people in general people that we meet, we're we're sharing our faith with them, but they're watching they're watching what we're doing and where we're going and how we're projecting and more projecting Jesus, that's when they can see that and then that's all they're gonna say, you know, that's how you want them to see. And when times get short with tribes have trouble happen. They know where to go there. How many times have you gotten a call from somebody saying I can you pray for me for this or that because they just something's going on with a more or are visiting and there's somebody hurting and asking if we can pray for him. So we just lay hands on and pray for him. They know what we stand for. And then we lead them by our actions and what we're doing.
Dan Wheeler:And we're leaving an example for future generations. We're leaving a legacy you know, true failures is not trying look at Peter Wright. When he walked on water it didn't fail.
Brian Roland:No, you feel it I'm effect. Peter was known as the rock. Because you know, he was outspoken. He was excitable, headstrong, all or nothing type of guy you know, and is referred to the the one who succeeded. So PF Peter he. He got the word he You got the witness got firsthand Jesus firsthand. He, he saw, he saw him. He walked with him. He saw his teachings. He saw the crucifixion, he saw the resurrection.
Dan Wheeler:And he walked on water.
Terry Steen:on water, he didn't work on water. It was the other disciples that failed. Yeah. Because they were willing to try. You know, there's that old saying that if you have a choice between the easy path and the difficult path, take the difficult path. That's usually the path that God wants you to take in reality.
Dan Wheeler:Absolutely. I'm going to look up a passage of scripture here. Matthew 715 through 20. This is our final point tonight is that you got to bear fruit that's part of finishing strong. That's right. And we read Matthew 715. From the New International Version, Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ferocious wolves. By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears forth good fruit. But a bad tree bears bad fruit now, guys, what are they talking about? When he's saying bear fruit?
Terry Steen:seen results out of our life. You know, every year we have to spiritually plan, fertilize, weed, water, do all those things to allow fruit to grow. And God is the one that brings the increase, but we have to do our part.
Brian Roland:And even what we're doing here with finished strong, we started by planting a seed for the strong. And today you guys might not know this, but we've went over 118,000 downloads. Oh, did we? Yes, we're
Dan Wheeler:we're I knew we were getting close. That's great. Yep. And that's, that doesn't even count YouTube, which now that we're doing video on our podcast, guys. It's on YouTube. And that's not even counted in the buzz, feed buzz browse where they track and by the way, finished strong finished in the top 10% of all podcasts on buzz broke sprouts last year, which were the Think of the 1000s of podcasts. So we're saying the Lord, thanking the Lord for that is God. Yeah. So what does finishing strong mean? For each of us? We talk about it. It's our theme we've been telling you about it. For me personally, I just don't want to look back. I don't want to waste time with undergrads. Because I've done enough of that. I want to press forward every day, I want to spend more time in prayer. And I feel like when I do more time in prayer and in the Bible, and I asked for opportunities, seems like the Lord puts someone every day where there's an opportunity. That's to me how I want to finish strong. What are you guys thoughts personally for you? Because we all
Terry Steen:have our areas we're working on? Well, I want to make a conscious decision to be proactive, that the easy thing is to not do anything. So I want to consciously be proactive, listen to God. And then once I hear, be willing to obey and take action, and then you leave the results to God. But you've got to take the action. So I want to be proactive, I guess would be the simplest way to say it.
Brian Roland:No, I agree with that. 100% and, and what I'm trying to do more this year than before is not wait to put stuff together as far as morning cups in that I'm diving deeper in their word I'm, I'm trying to do deep dives into each each passage that we talked about. And that is helping me to move forward. And what we're doing with finished strong to. It's just getting me closer getting me closer than ever that I've been to the word
Dan Wheeler:by a producer put up a great question, which we want to pose to you who are watching, whether you're watching it live or you're going to watch it as this will be up on our Facebook, you'll be able to watch it. So anyone who missed it. Tell your friends to tune in about finishing strong. Because we want to ask you what are you going to do next to help you finish strong? You know, I don't care what age you are. I don't feel like there's a lot of time left. We had Chris Michaelson on last week and this week and he was a great guest and the guys fired up. He's got a lot of energy, but he's going out there like it's the last inning every every day every time he preaches to millions and millions of people and you know, we all look back and say Man, I wish I would have done more with it and we have to stop that. What can we do now? What can I During the day, God only gives us today and it's a gift. That's why they call it the present. It's a present. So, you know, I don't know if we have any more comments we want to put up but guys, this has been kind of fun. We got all of our mics working and our cameras. Here, you know, when you add the element of video, it's a little different on the podcast. All Look at that. Brian, did you see Michael privet? Can we go back to the one just yeah, nice job. You know, this guy.
Brian Roland:He married them and I know him very well. All right.
Dan Wheeler:There he is. Thanks, Mike. And here's Eric McClary. I will finish my work day by reading the Bible for five to seven minutes when I get home. Good for you. Good start. Very good, Connie. Be kinder getting to know God more. You don't want guys when you get to know God more. You are kinder. You are filled with more love my products. Yeah, it is indeed. Yeah,
Terry Steen:that's a fruit,
Dan Wheeler:I guess. Yeah. So Well, this has been fun. Yeah, yeah. I always enjoy working with you guys. And we thank you for tuning in our first ever live to Facebook podcast. We'll be doing more of this. And we just so appreciate your support. We appreciate your comments, guys. This is a great when you read comments. On your morning cup of inspiration. People tell you Wow, that was for me today. That was just for me. How did you know? Well, well, no, it's you know, we pray about it. What should we do, Lord, give us ideas.
Terry Steen:Feel so good. Yeah, it
Brian Roland:always happens too. Because pray before everyone, or upload. And I'm thinking I have no idea what this is going. And then sure enough, it's people that God knows who it's meant to be was meant to reach so that's great.
Dan Wheeler:Well, guys, it's your it's fun finishing strong with you guys. Let's go hard for the Kingdom. Thanks for tuning in. God bless and share finish strong with others. We always post that link on Facebook usually on Mondays. This one now will stay up. And then next week we'll repost the link to remind people and now they can even watch the video on YouTube. And we'll put up that link as well. Thanks for being with us finish strong Godbless
John Matarazzo:Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finish strong and fearless faith. Check out their website F faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong