The 25 Percent

The Statistics of Ending Well

I read a lot and listen to a lot of podcasts and a recurring theme recently has been finishing well. Obviously the theme comes up every time we hear of mistakes being made by prominent leaders and it makes us question again what went wrong? It looked like they were running so well, yet they were hiding that? How does that even work?

I imagine, like me, you want to make sure you finish well. It’s a good desire and intention, but what does it require?

I came across some research recently that intrigued me. A Bible university professor studied scripture extensively, looking at individuals who were called and commissioned by God throughout the old and new testaments. He found that 75% of the people God chose had their effectiveness cut short due to some kind of poor decision and most of them didn't finish well.

We can think that we’ll be like the majority, and manage to make it through life well, but actually this shows that according to the accounts in the bible, the majority actually don’t end up finishing well. 

I’m not saying that’s the case today, I really couldn’t say whether it feels like it would be more or less if I’m honest, all I know is that we don’t drift into finishing well. Actually, finishing poorly tends to be our human default. 

Those individuals in the Bible who were called and commissioned by God would have also been equipped by him. Many would have been given great influence. Most would have heard very clearly from God what their purpose on earth was. And yet none of those things prevented 75% of people from finishing poorly.

I’ve started with quite the warning haven’t I? I don’t say it to scare you though, I share this in love. I want you to finish well. So how do we do that?

The Pattern

We start by noticing the patterns.

Let me give you some examples to look at. 

Moses: He leads a nation out of slavery, experiences God’s miraculous provision and guidance, he speaks with God in ways few people before him ever had. 

Exodus 33:11 (NIV)

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. 

And yet pride got the better of him and he disobeyed God late in life. Never making it to the promised land before his death.

Numbers 20 tells us the story.

Numbers 20:7-12 (NIV)

The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

It’s tragic really. He began to trust in himself instead of God.

Solomon: He is given unmatched wisdom, builds the first temple of God, and leads Israel into some of their best years.

1 Kings 4:25 (NIV)

During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree.

And yet he drifts into idolatry, despite God’s many warnings.

1 Kings 9:4-7 (NIV)

As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 

He knows God, he’s been given wisdom, he just needs to walk with integrity and observe God’s decrees and laws. But 1 Kings tells us how that goes.

1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV)

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

His love of something other than God led him astray and completely changed his legacy.

These aren't minor characters. These are influential leaders.

Notice when the downfall happens, it’s rarely at the start. The beginning of the story is often one of humility, and then as time passes, success comes, and in some way they lose sight of the power of God and lose their fear of Him. 

It starts well, it goes even better, there’s a temptation or a drift, and then there’s the fall.

Which is why Scripture repeatedly warns us "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord." (Deuteronomy 8:11)

It’s easy to remember it at the beginning, most of the leaders that didn’t end well forgot it at some point in the middle, after lots of success.

There are of course leaders who did end well: Joseph, Ruth, Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, Deborah, Paul to name a few. We’ll look at those too.

Why It Matters

Over the next few episodes we’ll look at a few pitfalls we can avoid on our quest to finish well.

But to end, here are a few reasons why how we finish matters.

First, we don’t retire from following God. There isn’t a switch off point. As tempting as it can be to coast after many years of success, letting our history speak for our present, this isn’t true, authentic, or honourable. And, I’m not even sure how to explain it really, but why would we not want to finish well?

With an earthly mindset, I can think of lots of reasons why: the pulls of comfort, influence, compromise, a nice easy life. The only thing that can pull against those temptations is a genuine and intimate relationship with God. If I’m comparing those things with a stagnant, meaningless relationship with God, they will win.

So why finish well? Because God deserves nothing less than our ultimate worship. But that will only be true to us if we truly know, or at least know as much as we can, the awe and majesty of the one we serve.

Second, because there are eternal rewards at stake. This could sound a little selfish but it matters because it matters to God. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 9. He says he disciplines his body and keeps it under control so that after preaching to others, he himself won't be disqualified. He's not talking about losing salvation. He's talking about running in such a way as to get the prize. There are rewards we can lose by not finishing well.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Third, because of what psychologists call the peak-end principle. We remember a person's or an event's peak and the ending more than any other part. The ending can redeem or taint the whole experience. That's why when leaders fall, it almost undoes all the good they've done.

There's grace, of course there's grace, but I want to finish well. I want the lasting taste, the lasting legacy, of my walk with Jesus to be positive and reflect the goodness of God. If we end poorly we diminish the impact of our whole life, not just the end of it.

What We Need

So what does it take to finish well? Different things, but the root of most of them is a holy fear of God. We’ll look at what that means in more detail in the episodes to come.

If we want to finish well, we can’t just think about doing so at the end. The decisions we make today make finishing well more likely or less likely. In other words, to finish well means I have to live well today.

If you’ve listened for a while, you know I’m not one to promote behaviour management. So that won’t be the point of this series, just ensuring you do all the right things. Because we can do all the right things yet remain far from God, and that makes finishing well even less likely. 

To finish well we need an intimate relationship with Jesus that transforms who we are. That’s the angle we’ll approach this from.

Question

As always, let’s finish with a question and prayer.

Question: To end well later, we have to live well now, what does that mean to you at the moment?

Prayer

Lord thank you for your word, that shows us ways to live and ways not to live. We ask for your discernment as we work those things out, for your wisdom, for the power of your Holy Spirit to enable us to walk in truth, and ultimately for the transformation that comes only from you, which leads us to look more like you, Jesus. In your precious name Jesus amen.