S5 E33 - Failing To Finish: The Life of a Mariners Fan

I thought it was finally going to happen this year - the Mariners were only 9 outs from advancing to the World Series for the very first time. But in the end, they fell short once again. I guess I'll say what I've had to say ever year: there is always next season. 

But there is no next season with this life. We cannot fail to finish in our walk of faith. We must be faithful to the end to receive a crown of life. We must truly conquer, and to do so we have to finish the race. Don't fall short and miss everything you've set your hope upon. 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

How can you not be romantic about baseball? I’ll tell you how – be a fan of the Seattle Mariners. For the sports enthusiast who is #truetotheblue, baseball is pain – and that statement could not be any more true than it was this past week for all that have followed and rooted on this PNW team. I am a lifelong Seattle Mariners fan – as long as I can remember I have been cheering on what by and large has been a poverty franchise. While Seattle has produced some incredible players over the years that have left a lasting legacy, never before have they been able to field a team that has gone all the way. We’ve gotten close before, fielding teams with players like Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, or later on the pitching legend Felix Hernandez. Yet even with all these talented names and more, they were never able to take home that coveted championship trophy. In fact, the Mariners are the only team to not even make an appearance in the World Series.  But all that looked like it was going to change this year. 

The Mariners surged at the end of September to not only win the division, but to lock up the first-round bye and play the winner of the wildcard series between Cleveland and Detroit. After winning the best of five in dramatic fashion against Detroit in extra innings, the Mariners advanced to the American League Championship Series to play a dominant, star-studded lineup in the Toronto Blue Jays. I was nervous, but I knew the Mariners could emerge victorious in the series and advance to their first ever World Series if they played their best ball. That looked to be the case early on, as the Mariners came out hot and took the first two games in Toronto in a best of 7 series. With three games coming back to Seattle, the M’s seemed to be a lock for the World Series. But then they lost back-to-back games to even the series up. After some more back and forth, Toronto forced game 7 – it was a winner take all game, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. 

The Mariners jumped out early, and held a 3-1 lead going into the seventh inning. All that stood between them and their very first World Series appearance was 9 outs. I was starting to believe. I was excited. I thought I was watching history unfold right before my very eyes after waiting 35 long years to see it happen. That was until George Springer of the Toronto Blue Jays sent the second pitch he saw with two men on over the fence in left-center. Suddenly, the momentum had shifted, the Blue Jays held a one run lead, and they themselves were only 6 outs away from advancing to the World Series. In the end, the Mariners failed to produce a run in the 8th or 9th inning, and I watched my team once again fall short and fail to advance to the final series. They got close, but they couldn’t finish. I suppose all that’s left to say is what every Mariners fan says at the end of every season, “There is always next year.” 

Failing to finish is certainly a letdown in the world of sports, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not all that important. But failing to finish is an absolute tragedy when it comes to our walk of faith. Among many different religious circles today, there is a doctrine that essentially teaches that it is impossible to fail to finish. That regardless of how you live your life or walk in faith, you are absolutely guaranteed salvation – even if you have no regard for God and walk away from being faithful to him. This teaching is not of God, but of man – because the Scriptures are full of warnings and encouragement to finish our walk of faith strong – and not fall short in the very end. 

Over and over again as the Lord addresses the seven churches of Asia in the beginning of the book of Revelation, he will admonish the Christians in each church to “overcome” or “conquer”. We read the following to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:25-29, “Only hold on to what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations— and he will rule them with an iron scepter; he will shatter them like pottery— just as I have received this from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” Similarly, when addressing the church at Smyrna, we read in Revelation 2:10-11, “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.” Do you notice the commonalities between these two passages? To each church, the Lord implored them to finish strong in their walk of faith. To conquer was not to live faithfully for the majority of your life and then coast or give up at the end; it was to be faithful clear up to your very last breath. Jesus calls us to keep his Word until the end, to be faithful clear up to the point of death, and to not fail to finish. Even if we walk faithfully with the Lord for the majority of our lives, if in the end we walk away from him and are not found faithful, we cannot be seen as those who have conquered – and we will not be given a crown of life. 

Allow me for a moment to make a clarification, for those that might be startled by what the Scriptures teach about this. We cannot be saved by perfect obedience, for all have and will continue to make mistakes and transgress God’s Law at times in their life. We desperately need grace. But we are without question saved by faithfulness coupled with the overwhelming and everlasting grace of God. We read in Ephesians 2:8, “For you are saved by grace through faith.” But if we walk away from the faith, if we are found faithless, how then are we to be saved? We can walk away from salvation, throw away the hope of a crown of life, and find ourselves disqualified if through our faithlessness we fail to finish. 

This is exactly what the apostle Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, even concerning himself and his own salvation. He would write, “Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Paul states that he needed to be faithful to the end, that even he himself needed to run in such a way to attain to prize of eternal life. In no way was Paul suggesting that he would earn or merit salvation by doing so; but he clearly is teaching us that even for himself, an apostle of Jesus Christ, faithfulness is a condition for God’s gift of salvation. To bolster his argument, Paul would spend the next fifteen or so verses in chapter 10 looking to Israel – who failed to finish and walk faithfully with God, and as a result many would never enter the promised land. He would say twice, “Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.” (vv. 6) and again, “These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages have come.” (vv. 11). Paul calls for us to learn from Israel – do not fail to enter into our own promised land of a heavenly home by being found faithless. We must stay the course, we must finish the race, we must keep the faith all the way to the end. 

My friends, there is no “next season” or “next year” in our walk of faith. We get one shot at this life, and we must remain faithful all the way to the end. Let us conclude with some of the very last words of Paul, not long before his death, that are recorded for us in 2 Timothy 4:6-8; and may these serve as words that we can say of ourselves when the time for our own departure has come. “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.” 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 33 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped each Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.