I Will Be Faithful To The End Series

I Will Be Faithful to the End

Introduction:

Over the past few weeks we have talked about different commitments that we can and should make. We have talked about being better witnesses, better stewards, better students of the Word and better servants for Christ. In all we do we need to strive to grow in our faithfulness to God and not just remain stagnant and not digress spiritually. Too many people are content with the status quo of a lukewarm life.

Our goal is to live a faithful life. I hope that the greatest desire that wells up within you is to live a life that is pleasing to God. In the world though there are many things that we may encounter which can remove us from the course that we are on. The Bible likens the Christian life to a race, and we are instructed to run in such a way as to win the prize. In other words we need to give our best efforts. Those things that may come against you may tempt you to quit the race or divert to a different course, but we must press on. Statistically speaking there are some here who will turn away from their faith, there are some that will die outside of the Lord. My encouragement to everyone here today is that we might make a commitment to be faithful until the end. Whether you know it or not at your baptism that is the promise you were making and sealing before God. The vows we make at our baptism are very similar to wedding vows. We promise to love and to cherish and to remain faithful no matter what outer circumstances come our way. Like with people’s wedding vows though, many times they are nothing more than mere words that sound nice, idealistic and poetic, with not one shred of truth behind them. I hope today you remember that promise, and though you may be tempted I hope that you are able to say firmly that there is nothing that can move me or divert me from my goal and that is seeing the Lord in Heaven one day.

In our society faithfulness and commitment to anything is hard to find. It is hard to find people willing to be faithful to their relationships, to their families, to their responsibilities and even to their faith. It seems that whenever things get a little difficult or when things don’t go the way one wants them to go the best response they can come up with is quitting and not perseverance. We though are called to persevere regardless of our circumstances. We have a duty and an obligation to be faithful to the end. However, there are many things, which can cause us to get off track, but we need to commit ourselves to being faithful.

I believe remaining faithful in a conscious choice that we make. Each day we make decisions about what we are going to do and how we are going to live our lives. We make choices of either giving into temptations that we face or standing strong against those temptations. We must make conscious choices in order to remain faithful though. We can see those choices naturally displayed in the life of the Apostle Paul near the end of His life. As Paul wrote many of his letters that we have in our Bibles he was in prison, and the last known thing Paul ever wrote was his second letter to his young disciple, Timothy. As Paul wrote this letter he was in prison awaiting his execution, he knew without a doubt that his time on this Earth was running out, and we read of this faith filled encouragement, which marks the end of a life dedicated to Jesus, a life which longed for His appearing, a life that Paul lived faithfully until the end. In this last chapter of the last known letter we have of Paul’s we see what made him faithful until the end, and that too should be our goal to be able to say what he did as we near the end of our lives. I hope that we all can strive to be faithful to God in every way and in every aspect of our lives.

Text: II Timothy 4:6-18

Paul spoke of how his life was coming to a close, and that he had fought the good fight, he had finished the course and he had kept the faith, will you be able to say that as your life draws to a near? What a beautiful picture of a life that God rewards!

The faithfulness, which we are called to, is faithfulness to the Lord in every aspect of life. This means we need to be committed to the church and the work of the church. We need to be committed and faithful in the way we live our lives even outside of the church. We need to be committed to obeying the commands of God.