Unwavering

Good morning again Church! Judging by the dip in the temps, Fall has finally arrived! It seems like every season this year has been late! We had a late spring, summer just about never showed up, now it won’t leave! Some of you have mixed feelings about this. I know Bob is happy, as long as it is warmer, we are not spending money on Heating oil! But I know Ms Margaret, Ms Ricka, and myself can’t wait to see those snow flakes fly by our windows!

Seasons can be late and unreliable, but do you now what isn’t? God. God is never late. He is always right on time. Perfectly reliable.

As we jump back into the book of Acts we find Paul in chapter 20, Paul is wrapping up his 3rd missionary journey and is anxious to return to Jerusalem. He is behind schedule and running late to get back for the Festival of Pentecost. This feast was 50 days after the Passover feast, and he had already missed that important event, so he is rushing back to Jerusalem as fast as he possibly can.

But he has a number of stops on the way back that he has to make, a number of people he has to meet and give last minute instructions to. Paul knows in his heart that this is the last time he will see many of these people, because God has told him that he will have a tough road ahead.

Before we jump into the main body of our text, I want to encourage you to read this chapter, chapter 20, on your own and really spend some time in it. There is a lot to unpack. Obviously, we do not have time to hit on it all this morning. But there is great stuff here. We have long winded Paul preaching a poor young man literally to death, raising him back to life, and then preaching some more! I don’t want anyone here ever calling me long winded!

Throughout history, moments of farewell have often been the backdrop for some of the most profound and heart-rending speeches. Moments when leaders, knowing the weight of their impending departure, imparted wisdom and guidance to those they were leaving behind. One such leader, Sir Winston Churchill, the indomitable Prime Minister of Britain during World War II, once stood before his people during the bleakest days of the war and proclaimed,

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” — Winston Churchill

These weren't just words for the masses; they were his personal mantra, guiding him through the darkest nights of the Blitz.

Similarly, but with eternal stakes, the Apostle Paul stood before the Ephesian elders, not facing the threat of bombs or an advancing army, but the knowledge that he would likely never see them again in this life. He had given them everything for the last 3 years—every ounce of wisdom, every teaching, every warning, and every encouragement. And now, as he prepares to depart, he delivers one of the most poignant farewells in all of Scripture, a charge that reminds us to never give in to the challenges of this world, but to persist in the faith and the calling that God has placed upon our lives. Let us journey together into Acts 20 and glean from the wisdom of Paul's emotional and passionate farewell.

We see Paul making stop after stop, encouraging, instructing, discipling, doing the work of the ministry! I want to look at what he deemed the most important things to share with these church leaders and see what we can learn from it today. I believe that though times change, maps change, cultures church, languages change. There some things that do not. God never changes. His Word never changes. His desires for His people never changes. His commands and His expectancy for our obedience never changes.

So what do we need to do, according to the Holy Spirit guided words of Paul, to persist in our faith and accomplish the calling of God? What do we need to do be successful in this life?

Let’s start with Verse 17.

Acts 20:17–21

 ESV

17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia,

19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;