Faithfulness (Fruit of the Spirit Part 7)

For those of you who were here last week, I have some good

news. Obviously you can tell my voice

is doing much better, but it was actually a really rough week.

I decided I wanted to get stronger, increase my one Rep

Maxes at CrossFit, so I started a steroid cycle the other day.

Thank you. That was a joke.

Well, that was truth, but part of it.

No, you see, I have a history of pneumonia, have had pneumonia

full blown pneumonia a couple times, walking pneumonia a

couple times. So once I get sick, you would

literally think I'm dying. It sounds absolutely horrible

when I start coughing. So I have been to the doctor so

many times over the years just to make sure my lungs are clear.

So the other day I went, they said OK, no you're good, but

hey, this is pretty bad so we're going to put you on a steroid.

So just took my last one of those this morning.

So I will now be returning to a weekend version of me no longer

on the steroids, but hopefully this morning I can get through

this without entering into a coughing fit.

If I do, my apologies. It'll be weird for both of us in

1983. Jonathan Cain wrote these words

on a napkin. Hwy. run into the midnight sun.

Wheels go round and round. You're on my mind.

Restless hearts sleep alone tonight.

Sending all my love along the wire.

They say that the road ain't no place to start a family.

Right down the line. It's been you and me loving a

music man Ain't always what it's supposed to be.

Oh girl, you stand by me. I'm forever yours faithfully.

Yes. Somebody sing it.

Thank you. I was going to attempt to sing

it, but I don't have that this morning.

Jonathan's desire with these lyrics was to express

faithfulness to his wife. Sure he was, he was on the road,

but his heart was back home with his wife.

Ironically, they divorced shortly after Journey released

this hit song. So what does it mean to be

faithful? To have this fruit of the spirit

of faithfulness as we begin, I want to make sure we understand

what we're dealing with. And there are three primary uses

of the word faith in Scripture. So I want to walk through those

first real quick. The first category of faith is

probably our most natural understanding of the word faith,

and this is belief in the gospel message.

This is belief in the gospel message.

We talk about placing your faith in Christ, trusting in him alone

for salvation, trusting him to deliver us from the power of sin

in this life and then from the penalty and presence of sin in

the next life. We've committed ourselves to

Christ as Savior and and Lord. In Romans 51, Paul writes.

Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We're no longer enemies of God because of the faith that we've

exercised in Jesus redeeming work on the cross.

So that's belief in the gospel message.

Second, the second version of faith or category of faith is is

the basic content of the Christian message.

Jude 3 refers to the faith that was once for all delivered to

the Saints in Galatians as Paul was giving a bit of a history

lesson on his life and recounting the churches, the

early churches hearing about him.

He said of the early church in Galatians 123, he says they only

were hearing it said he who used to persecute us is now preaching

the faith. He's preaching the faith he once

tried to destroy the people. I've heard reports of this man

Paul, and they were astonished because obviously his reputation

wasn't good since since he was known to be somebody who tried

to destroy the Christian faith, he wanted to destroy the content

of the Christian message. The third category for faith is

found in the fruits of the spirits, and this is of course

where we will focus our time this morning in the context of

the work of the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer.

Here's the definition Faithfulness is the quality of

being true, trustworthy, and reliable in all one's dealings

with others. Faithfulness is the quality of

being true, trustworthy, and reliable in all of 1's dealings

with others. For those who.

Paul used this word in his instructions to Timothy

concerning appointing church leaders and he says this about

these church leaders and what you have heard from me in the

presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will

also be able to teach others. These were these were men who

would who were faithful they were they were true.

They were reliable in their dealings with others and for

those who are called to serve as leaders of God's people.

Now as then faithfulness should be a defining quality of their

character. Can you trust them?

Are are they reliable? Are they, are they faithful to

what God has called them to? You see, faithfulness is far

more important than than success or recognition or popularity.

Now where does our own faithfulness comes from?

Of course, our faithfulness comes from God's faithfulness,

just as we've done each week as we've looked at each of these

fruits, we look at this quality exhibited in God's character,

God's faithfulness. His faithfulness is the source

of our own faithfulness. We can't produce it on our own.

Just like with all these virtues, we need the Holy Spirit

to produce these in US. Thinking back a few months ago

to Exodus 34 when when God was introducing himself to Moses,

most of you are here, but just as a reminder is said in Exodus

34, six the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord.

The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and

abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

This is how God introduces himself.

This is his character. He says, this is who I am.

That last word is a met. I'm getting fancy here.

I'm putting Hebrew and Greek words up on the screen now.

So for those of you who want to see what these things look like,

there you go. That is the Hebrew word emet.

It is read from right to left. Now, emet can obviously be

translated as faithfulness, but it's actually also related to

the word Amen. And Amen is a transliteration of

the Hebrew word Amen and is a way to say that's truth or

that's right. But you see, faith isn't simply

theoretical. It also has to do with stability

and reliability. When Moses needed needed help

holding up his hands over over the battle against the

Amalekites, her and Aaron came up to him, put a rock under him

and they propped his hands up so that his hands are said to be

Emet. They were stable, they were

steady. When Emet is used to describe

people, that describes their reliability and and their

trustworthiness. When Moses appointed leaders in

Israel, they were to be people of Emet, people who are

trustworthy and who wouldn't take bribes or distort justice.

And then we come to the New Testament.

We also get a glimpse of God's faithfulness and 1st

Thessalonians 524 He who calls you is faithful.

He will surely do it. The word used here to describe

God is pissed off and it means faithful or reliable.

So when we take these words into consideration, we get the full

picture of who God is. God is truth.

He's steady, He's unwavering, He's He's reliable, He's

trustworthy and faithful. And it's with this understanding

that the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly call God a rock.

He is a rock. He doesn't change and he's

always consistent in his character, even when we

ourselves may be prone to changing and and fluctuating

passions. As we learn to depend more on

him, we too become a met. We become stable, we become

steady, we become faithful and reliable.

So this morning we're going to look at 5 examples, 5 persons in

scripture who who displayed this reliability and faithfulness.

The first person we look at this morning is Onissimus, and what

we learn from Anissimus is that faithfulness is characteristic

of the transformed Christian. Faithfulness is characteristic

of the transformed Christian. Who was Anissimus?

He, like the three other names on this list, is fairly obscure.

His name only occurs 3 times in all of Scripture.

He had been enslaved to a gentleman named Philemon and and

Paul had written a letter to short letter to Philemon.

Many of you are aware of that, but Nissimus was a Roman slave

who somehow managed to escape from Philemon in Colossae and he

fled all the way back to Rome. Now, it's believed that in order

to finance his trip all the way back to Rome, he likely stole

from Philemon in order to make that 1200 mile journey back to

Rome. Once in Rome though, you see,

Onissimus came under the influence of Paul's ministry and

he was subsequently converted to the Christian faith.

Naturally, Paul started discipling Onissimus and helping

him grow in the faith and as an Ismus group, Paul desired to to

send him back to Colossae to to Philemon.

Now the goal wasn't necessarily to send an Ismus back to be a

slave, but the goal was to send an Ismus back to be a partner in

the ministry. And Paul says a forgiving

brother in Christ. Paul then wrote to the Colossian

church and he sends this letter to the church with Taichakis in

Colossians 4/8 through 9. Paul says I have sent him that

is Taichakis to you for this very purpose, that you may know

how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

And with him, Onissimus, our faithful and beloved brother,

who is one of you, they will tell you of everything that has

taken place here. Sure, as a messenger, part of

Onissimus task was to tell the Colossians how Paul was doing.

But Onissimus wasn't simply a messenger.

Paul says he's a faithful and beloved brother, just like the

Colossians are. Onissimus had been unfaithful to

his master, Philemon. He'd stolen from him and left.

But now he'd become a follower of Christ, and he'd been

transformed by his new master, Jesus Christ.

So how did this happen? When Jesus enters the heart of

the Christian, when we choose to place our faith in Jesus, the

Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts home and and he

becomes the interior decorator, if you will.

As he moves in, he starts to rearrange everything.

Sometimes that means the furniture.

Oh, it's been there a long time. It has to go.

The walls need to be repainted. The closets have to be cleaned

out. The Holy Spirit takes over and

he transforms our lives so that our lives look more like him.

But you see, sin wants to keep us from surrendering every

aspect of our hearts to God. Sin keeps demanding rents of us

and and it'll keep us from faithfulness if we allow it to

stay and we aren't trying to root it out of our lives.

When we, like Onissimus, commit to rooting out that sin, then

we're transformed by the power of the Spirit working in us and

we become faithful to the cause and work of Christ.

Faithfulness LED Philemon to free Onissimus, and faithfulness

works in Onissimus, eventually leading him to his seems pastor

the church at Ephesus. Christ working in Onissimus made

him a faithful brother to Paul. So faithfulness is a

characteristic of someone who is accepted Jesus Christ.

Our next person that we're going to look at this morning is

Lydia. Lydia teaches us that

faithfulness is essential for spiritual development.

Faithfulness is essential for spiritual development for us to

grow. Acts 1614 says one who heard us

was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of

purple goods who was a worshipper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by

Paul. Lydia was a business woman and

and she sold purple clothing. This is noteworthy because

clothing made of purple material was quite expensive.

So since purple was expensive, this meant that she would have

had a rich clientele and she herself likely would have been a

woman of a means. She may also have been the first

Christian on the continent of Europe.

Then verse 15 continues, And after she was baptized in her

household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to

be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

And she prevailed on us. Lydia had a strong desire to be

discipled in the Christian faith.

So she begged Paul and Silas come, stay, stay at my home and

teach me more. She wanted them to know that she

met the criteria to be discipled.

She said, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, then

come to my house and stay. She's saying, hey, I've

demonstrated the sincerity of my faith with with my life.

You can see that I'm faithful. So please come teach me.

Lydia wanted to grow in the faith and and she knew

faithfulness was necessary for this growth to happen.

Doctor Howard Hendricks is one of the most famous Bible

teachers of all time. He was a professor at Dallas

Theological Seminary for more than 60 years.

Do we have any DTS people in the room?

I don't think we do. Has anybody met Doctor

Hendricks? Have you?

Doesn't surprise me. He's an outstanding man.

Throughout his time there. It's DTS.

He was able to disciple upper management, CEO types,

professional athletes and other notable leaders in the church

like Chuck Swindolla, Tony Evans, Joseph Stoll, Chip Ingram

and Doctor David Jeremiah. So he is influenced Christianity

significantly in the 60 years that he was ministering at

Dallas Theological Seminary. Now, due to the rigor of his

schedule, he had one very significant stipulation.

Gentlemen, if I'm going to invest myself into you, and I

can hear his voice, that unique voice that he had, I would try

to imitate it, but it would probably cause a coughing fit.

Gentlemen, if I'm going to invest myself into you, then I

expect you here at 5:00 AM on the morning in question, 5:00

AM. I have a very important meeting

at 5:00 AM and it is not with anybody, it is with my pillow.

But due to the rigor of his schedule, 5:00 AM was it.

You are to be here. You are not to be late.

You are not to miss. If you aren't here, then you'd

better be in the hospital or else at the morgue.

Don't call in sick. Crawl in sick sounds pretty

hardcore. He was a serious guy, but he was

absolutely loved. Some of these executives would

rearrange schedules and take red eye flights from business trips

just to be there at 5:00 AM in order to be discipled by

Professor Hendricks. He demanded faithfulness from

his disciples, but that's because his his faithful mentees

knew what it meant. To be discipled by Doctor

Hendricks. The biblical standard hasn't

changed, but the problem is that the 21st century church is

gradually lowering the bar when it comes to spiritual

development. In the last two years, Gallup

polls have determined that 30% of Americans regularly attend

worship services, but less than 10% of those are deeply

committed Christians. If we take that to be

representative of this this room, then only 1/3 of the

people in here are committed and faithful to Christ.

Now I'm hoping that we skew those numbers a bit towards the

positive, but you get the picture.

Commitment and faithfulness are part and parcel to being a

follower of Christ. Some questions to consider.

Are you faithful in your worship attendance?

Are you faithful in your relationship with God?

Are you diligent to make time for Him each day so that you can

grow in Him? If everybody in the body, if

everybody's faithfulness looks like yours, what would that look

like? Lydia had a desire for spiritual

growth, and this was demonstrated by her faithful

life. Next, you know this guy Paul.

Paul teaches us that faithfulness is required for

ministry. Faithfulness is required for

ministry. I heard about an unemployed

pastor who said I can tell you one thing, I'm faithful.

I am not a quitter. I pastored 3 churches and stayed

with all three until they died. He may have been faithful in his

ministry, but I'm not sure if it was the Holy Spirit's working in

him or if it was his own will that was working in those

congregations. One thing he did have right,

though, is that faithfulness is essential to ministry.

Paul wrote to Timothy in First Timothy 112.

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord,

because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Paul was grateful that because he'd been faithful to Christ,

God had given him the opportunity to serve on behalf

of the name of Jesus. Now, sometimes when we talk

about servants in the ministry, we talk about fat Christians.

Lest you be offended, fat Christians are faithful,

available, and teachable. That is what fat Christians are.

Faithful, available, and teachable.

These are the types of people that that we want in ministry.

Has the person proven themselves to be faithful in living for

Christ day in and day out? Have they made themselves

available to serve or is there response each time you ask them

to get involved? Oh no I'm sorry I'm busy that

afternoon. I need to go home and give the

cat a bath. Thank you for laughing, that was

a joke. Are they teachable?

Does this person want to grow? I would just like to say we've

never given our cats baths. They do that every day on their

own, so we don't have to do that.

It's really kind of nice. Anyways.

Do they have a desire to learn more and to be coached along the

way? Do they want to grow?

If someone's fat, then then they are perfect for ministry.

They're perfect for leadership and serving.

First Corinthians 4/2 reads. Moreover, it is required of

stewards that they be found faithful.

The steward is someone who has been entrusted with care over

God's resources. And here Paul says this person

needs to be faithful. Faithfulness isn't optional,

it's mandatory. Doesn't matter how intelligent

you are, how talented and gifted you are, or how charismatic your

personality is. If you weren't faithful, then

you can't be depended on. Most of us are familiar with the

operatic tenor name Luciano Pavarotti.

He was considered one of the greatest operatic tenors of all

time. Over the years, he had a number

of singing contracts with the Chicago Lyric Opera House.

However, he proved to be extremely unreliable and

cancelled 26 out of 41 scheduled performances.

The final straw was a season opening performance that he

cancelled less than two weeks before rehearsals were supposed

to start. You don't do that in the opera

world. The Chicago Lyric Opera House

had had enough and they banned Pavarotti for life.

If you're not reliable, if you don't do what you say you're

going to do, then your ministry potential won't be what it could

be if you were faithful. So let's step out of the

ministry context for a moment and consider what does it look

like to be stewards with our lives?

The first category where we need to be stewards is with our time.

We need to steward our time well.

Ephesians 5 verses 15 through 17 reads.

Ephesians 5:15–17

Look carefully then, how you walk.

Not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time

because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

What do you do with your time? Do you use it well or do you

whittle it away? Unfortunately, our phones have

become major distractions. There's Facebook X Instagram,

Snapchat, Amazon even. I know how it can be so easy to

lose so much time on Amazon. You start shopping for

something. The next thing you know that

carts full of like 10 items, right?

Nobody's going to agree. I know all these apps can

consume your day if you're not careful.

Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, YouTube, whatever your favorite streaming

service is. Do you spend a lot of time

bingeing shows? I can honestly say we do not

binge shows. I don't have the patience for

that. I like to watch something and

then leave it. We have never binged shows in

our home. It's great.

Makes me feel like I'm a little bit in control of this, right?

I don't know if we have any gamers in the room, but this is

another area that can consume hours of our time.

All our hobbies, all our forms of entertainment must be kept in

check. We need to have control over

over these areas rather than allowing them to control us.

So Paul tells the Ephesians, be careful how you use your time

because the days are evil. I don't know about you, but I

don't normally think of the day. Thank you God for this new day.

This day is evil. No, that's not generally how we

look at the day, right? But no, the day is looking to

chew you up and spit you out if you're not careful.

So how are you navigating your use of the day?

Verse 17 said not using our time well is foolishness.

So steward your day well and you'll be in a better place.

So we need to steward our time well.

We also need to be stewards with our abilities and gifts.

Stewards with our abilities and gifts.

First Peter 410 through 11 reads as each has received a gift.

Use it to serve one another as good.

Stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks

oracles of God. Whoever serves as one who serves

by the strength that God supplies in order that in

everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

For years I thought this thing that was growing inside of me, I

had somebody tell me 15 years or so ago that I need to be

preaching. I, I kind of kept kicking that

can down the road, but I would take all the opportunities I

could get to fill the pulpit when I was at Cornerstone.

And, and as I did this, the gift kind of began to grow in me.

Now, when we want to know God's will for our lives, one of the

factors that we consider is what does the body have to say?

Does the body confirm that gift? Each time I would feel the

pulpit, God would speak to me as the body would confirm what I

already knew in my heart. Someday God would Take Me Out of

the worship world and make me a full time preacher as a steward

of this gift God has placed in me.

Now I get the privilege of using this gift to serve Pleasant View

each and every week for years, perhaps even decades to come.

Just to be clear, that is my goal.

My goal is to be here. A long time.

Pastor Ed was told he would retire here.

Maybe I'll retire here. That would be 20 something

years. I don't know.

But I don't even know what retirement looks like.

Really. Like, I don't know.

I don't really have a vision for that.

A lot of actually, no, you're right.

I do keep hearing that from people.

Yes. I don't know how I ever,

however, lived, you know, the normal life is like I have so

many things to do now that I'm retired.

Yeah, actually, maybe I'll just stay working.

That's better that way. So how are you stewarding your

time? How are you stewarding your

abilities, your your gifts that God has given you?

Are you sitting on them kicking the can down the road as I did?

I do believe God worked in his perfect timing, though, right?

Because if I'd started looking down that road, I wouldn't be

here right now. And I believe God has brought

brought our stories together for a specific reason.

The fourth person I want to look at is Hanani.

You're like who you really had to pay attention when you were

reading through the Old Testament to know instantly who

Hanani is. He was the he was the prophet,

Nehemiah's brother. The book of Nehemiah details how

oh oh I should back up because I totally skipped over what the

actual point is. Faithfulness is rewarded with

advancement. Faithfulness is rewarded with

advancement. Which is also my opportunity to

take a drink of water. So Hanani shows us that

faithfulness is rewarded with advancement.

He he comes on the scene you see in Nehemiah.

Nehemiah and his construction crew left Babylon with with the

King's permission and the King's authority.

They left Babylon to travel 900 miles to Jerusalem to rebuild

the city walls. And as we enter the scene in

Nehemiah 7A, substantial amount of work has already been done.

Is God worked amazingly through Nehemiah and his crew, This

project suddenly has come to completion.

And Nehemiah 7 one through 2 reads Now when the wall had been

built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the

singers and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother

Hanani and Hananiah, the governor of the castle charge

over Jerusalem. For he, Hanani was a more

faithful and God fearing man than many.

He was a more faithful and God fearing man than many.

A new day was dawning for the Jewish people in Jerusalem.

The temple had been rebuilt. The wall had been rebuilt.

Homes were being rebuilt. The Jewish people had spent 70

years in the Babylonian captivity.

But we're now being permitted to return back to their homeland.

And before this, Hanani had only been a messenger.

However, he'd proven himself faithful in that task.

And because of this, and apparently he'd also proven he

was worth his medal, Nehemiah placed him in charge of the huge

Jerusalem gates. His job was to make sure that

the gates were opened and closed on schedule, both in the in the

morning and in the evening. And since he'd been faithful at

what he'd been assigned to do as messenger, he could be trusted

in this new task. And he was promoted to something

more significant. Hanani demonstrated the

principle. Faithfulness is rewarded with

advancements. He proved himself faithful in

the opportunities that were before him.

Which brings us to our points, the need to be faithful in our

opportunities. We need to be faithful in the

opportunities before us in Matthew.

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives us the parable of the talents.

A man was preparing for a journey, and he gives us 3

servants, 5 talents, 2 talents and one talents.

He goes away, He comes back. The man who had received 5

talents, you know the story. He has managed to earn 5 more

talents. The one who received 2 talents,

he also earned back two more talents.

The one who received one talent, he knew his master to be shrewd,

so he went and buried it, didn't even put it in the bank so that

it could earn interest. And the master in response to

the first servants, the master says to that first servants who

had earned back five more talents, he says, well done,

good and faithful servants, you've been faithful over a

little. I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your Master.

God is seeking servants who are faithful in the little, in whom

He can entrust to be faithful in much.

When I think about this, I think of my own story.

My time in the ministry started. This may be a little hyperbolic,

but it started where every pastor begins ministry as

Colonel Commode, the church janitor.

That's why I started. I was church janitor.

I don't even know how many years I was janitor.

It actually started in high school.

I started working for the school for the church while I was in

high school. Worked for the church all

through college. Even after I graduated college,

I still was working for a church.

Louvian and I would such a romantic way to spend your time

dating each other, cleaning the church.

She would help me clean on Saturdays.

That was where I started. Then as I entered formally

entered the ministry as worship leader.

It was without pay and as I was faithful, God would continually

give me more. I would be faithful in that.

God would continually give me more and more until I would

eventually become a full time associate and worship pastor

when we were in California. God would continually bless as I

would step out in faith and be faithful to what He had called

me to. By the way, I think this is a

perfect time to tell you that when we moved here from

California. There was a significant,

significant cost that we weighed.

You see, at that time, Chipotle was an hour away.

We said, OK, we can do this. We'll go to Iowa City once a

month, and we can do this just a number of months.

We arrived in February of 2011. By the fall of 2011, God

rewarded our obedience. And there were then at that .2

Chipotle's to be found in the Quad Cities.

You're welcome. So we need to be faithful with

the opportunities given to us. I do hope you know I'm speaking

just in fun. But God does reward obedience.

The last person we want to look at this morning is Antipus.

Antipus shows us faithfulness in our witness.

Antipus was a member of the church at Pergamum.

This was one of the churches John wrote to in the opening

chapters of Revelation, Revelation 2 verse 13, Jesus

Revelation 2:13

says to the church at Pergamum, I know where you dwell, where

Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name, and you did not

deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness,

who was killed among you or Satan dwells.

This church was located in a difficult region and was

considered Satan's Thrones, or maybe Satan's headquarters if

you will. Pergamum had temples to Zeus,

Athena, Dionysius, and Asclepius who was the Greek God of

healing, who was symbolized by a serpent on a stick.

On top of this, there were other Pagan temples there, as well as

temples dedicated to worshipping emperors Augustus and Trajan.

This was a very Pagan place. The Christians who live there

faced specific and dreadful challenges to their faith, yet

they did not deny Christ even on fear of death.

They were faithful in their witness and Antipus proved

himself faithful until death. Antipus was faithful until

death. Historic tradition holds that

Antipus had been brought before Caesar and and told to confess.

Caesar is Lord. Antipus responded.

No, Caesar, you aren't Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Caesar's executioners then placed Antipas inside a large

brass bowl that was heated with fire until he was literally

roasted to death. Something I want to highlight

here is Jesus calls Antipas his faithful servants, his faithful

witness. Sorry and witness is actually a

translation of the word Martus, from which we get the word

martyr. However, you see, Martus was

originally understood to refer to someone who testifies to the

existence of someone or, or something.

The word Martus is used numerous times in Scripture to say I

testify to this or I witness to this.

I, I bore witness to this person.

That person is giving evidence or proof as a martyr.

They're giving proof that someone or something exists.

Matthew 1017 through 18 reads Beware of men, for they will

deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,

and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake

to bear witness before them. And the Gentiles.

Jesus told his followers they would be dragged before kings to

it literally, says Martyr Ray. Oh, that is to testify.

You'll be dragged before them to testify to the life of Jesus.

Now, as Christianity continued to spread throughout the known

world in the 2nd century, persecution began to increase.

And as persecution increased, so did dying for one's faith.

And it was only then, in the 2nd century, that the words Martus

and Martoreo began to refer to someone who died for their

faith. So in a scriptural sense, being

a faithful martyr means to be a faithful witness in our living.

In a scriptural sense, being a martyr is being faithful in our

living. Antipus lived a life that

witnessed to the authenticity and power of Jesus Christ

working in him. Later in Revelation, John wrote

of how believers overcome Satan. He said, Revelation 12/11 They

have conquered him Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the

word of their testimony. That is their witness, for they

loved not their lives unto death.

That word is martorious, their witness for Christ.

Their word and lives speak to the power of Christ working in

them to defeat Satan. This is their faithful witness,

faithfulness and living out their witness before others.

The pinnacle of Jesus faithfulness is found in his

sacrificial death on the cross in Mark 1045.

Jesus said even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to

serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

This profound statement encapsulates the sacrificial

nature of Jesus mission on earth.

The cross represents the ultimate act of faithfulness as

Jesus willingly offered himself for the redemption of humanity.

Believers then are called to reflect the sacrificial love

with a faithful life that it aligns with the transformative

power of the cross and and it shares the life saving, life

saving message of the gospel. That is what a faithful life

does. It aligns with the power of the

cross and and it shares the message of the gospel.

Now, faithfulness isn't always easy.

Sometimes it calls for sacrifice, putting others before

ourselves, and giving generously, just as Jesus gave

his life for us. But if we are faithful, we'll

find that it was worth it. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes. God, we come to you this

morning. Our desire is to live lives that

are that are evidence of the Holy Spirit working in us.

You working in US, Holy Spirit, to to transform us, to bring

about that, that characteristic that that virtue of

faithfulness. May we continually give evidence

of that fruit in our lives. Would you grow in US a desire

for spiritual developments? Would would you grow this

faithfulness in us for ministry? Would would this faithfulness

even lead us to opportunities for promotion and advancements?

As we're obedience to you, May we daily, day in and day out be

living witnesses for you. It's in the power of Jesus name

we pray these things. Amen.