February 5, 2001
Guard life to finish well, Draper urges
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANTONIO--Former Texas pastor Jimmy Draper urged vocational evangelists to so guard their lives and ministries that they finish well.
___Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., spoke to about 140 people attending the annual session of the Conference of Texas Baptist Evangelists during the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference.
___He noted that as he has reached normal retirement age, 65, he has begun thinking about things he never thought about before.
___"My prayer is that I want to finish well," he said. "I want to give my life to something worthwhile and not come to the end and mess up."
___The former pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless said he knows ministers who started strong but ended poorly by compromising themselves.
___"Sometimes we are victimized by our own gifts so that our greatest talent comes to be our greatest enemy," he said. "Sometimes a man's gifts may take him places where his character can't sustain him."
___He drew a biblical text from 2 Chronicles, where the story of the Hebrew king Joash is recorded. Joash, Draper said, started well and "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." Under the guidance of High Priest Jehoiada, the young king rebuilt and refurbished the temple.
___"But Jehoiada died, and there came the time when Joash listened to the wrong people. Ultimately, he was murdered in his bed by his own servants and was buried apart from the heroes of the land.
___"How does a man go from doing right in the sight of the Lord to ending up in disgrace," Draper asked. "We all know a person who has served God well, but then something happens and he ends up in disobedience and disgrace."
___The key to finishing well is to remember the tremendous power of godly influence, Draper suggested.
___Joash listened to the wrong people and then abandoned his faith in God, Draper said. "There is tremendous power in godly relationships, but we must never forget that ungodly relations also have tremendous power. Ungodly relationships will drag you down before you can pick them up."
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!