FINISH THE JOB!

“…so did Joshua; HE LEFT NOTHING UNDONE of all that the Lord commanded…” —Joshua 11:15

Dr. Bob Jones Sr., founder of Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, would exhort his students, “Finish the job!” God gave Joshua a job to do, he did it… and he did it thoroughly!

Too often, we leave things undone… Undone devotions… unspoken “thank-you’s”… unsaid prayers… unsung praises… unattended church services… unperformed ministries… unwritten letters… unopened Bibles… unfinished projects… ungiven offerings… unkept commitments… etc. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being meticulous over minor things and leaving the more important things UNDONE (Luke 11:42).

It took Joshua a long time to finish his work. “Joshua made war a long time with all those kings” (Joshua 11:18). It is estimated it took 5 – 7 years to conquer all of Canaan (cf. Joshua 14:7, 10).

Two things are required to finish the job: (1) STEADFASTNESS (1 Cor. 15:58). Don’t quit. Stick with the task until it is done. (2) PATIENCE. We don’t accomplish great things for God overnight. I remember how God taught me patience through our church building program. We purchased our church property in 1993. The entire project was finally finished in 2007! That was 14 years of working, giving, and learning patience.

Is there some “unfinished business” in your life? Well, FINISH THE JOB!

[NOTE: This is a excerpt from a sermon I preached last Sunday night (5/16/10). Here is the LINK to the full sermon outline: https://avhughes.com/13-finishing-the-job-5-16-10pm/.]