Faithfulness

Galatians chapter 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

We're coming to the end of this series.

We've been looking at the characteristics of the fruit singular of the Spirit of God.

And we've looked in detail, and last week we looked at the goodness of God and the kindness of God, and we talked about the kindness and the goodness and the integrity.

And how important integrity is in our life, and that we make that choice.

But today I want us to look at, as we look at, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, and then faithfulness, or the word in the King James is faith.

But the word there in the Greek is pistos, and it literally means faithful, trustworthy.

It means loyal, it means steadfast.

It literally means someone that can be counted on.

That's what it means.

It means that when everybody else walks out, they're still there.

And isn't that exciting to know that that's the way Jesus is?

When Jesus comes in, I'm about to, ooh, hey, when Jesus comes in, he never leaves.

He's steadfast.

And in Romans 8, 37 through 39, nay, in all things we've been made more than conquers through him.

And neither death nor any kind of human thing can separate us from the love of God.

John 10, 28 says, no one can pluck us out of his hand.

So today we're going to be looking at what faithfulness really is.

Faithfulness does not doubt God.

It does not doubt his salvation or his provisions or his strength.

Faithfulness does not begin with God, then back up and forget God.

Any man putting his hands to the plow and looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God.

Faithfulness does not walk with God, then give in to the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life.

There hath no temptation taken you, but such it's common to man.

But God is faithful and just who would not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able.

But with that make a way to escape.

And here's the exciting thing, and being able to preach to the graduates today, it could not have been a better message.

And I didn't plan this.

It was God doing it, because it just happens to be the next characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit.

But faithfulness is the key to every one of your group, every one of you graduates today.

If you're going to be successful, and I hope there's not a, by the way, you've just made probably the greatest first step in your life in the area of success.

You have graduated from high school, or you've graduated and you've graduated from college, bid.

Sumacum lawed.

If somebody said, What in the world does that mean?

That means you're pretty smart.

Now, Susan graduated Sumacum Law.

I graduated, thank the Lord.

I needed help.

And there's some of you right there to get saved with me.

Amen, preacher.

It's amazing what God can do with a little bit.

Little is much when God gets in it.

Can I get an amen?

So, faithfulness, by the way, God not only admires faithfulness.

Now listen, he requires it.

Not only does God admire faithfulness, but he requires it.

1 Corinthians 4, 2.

Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

God requires it.

You can't be faithful.

Hey, if you can't be faithful, and I really believe this, faithfulness is not your hey, abilities, it's not your personality, it's not your intellect or your hard work.

Faithfulness involves integrity that we preached about last week.

It involves honesty and truthfulness and loyalty.

That's what it really involved.

If I was to ask people here today, if you could get, if I needed somebody, five people to write a letter for me as being faithful.

Could you find those five people?

Could you find five people that could write a letter for you about your faithfulness?

Have you been that kind of example?

I asked myself that and I said, wow.

You know what I my first thought was?

I really hope that my wife and my children and my associate pastors or my our board or all the men that I've served with and worked with, I hope every one of them could write that letter for me.

That he was faithful.

That's powerful, folks.

Faithful people.

We need them if we've ever needed them before.

Gallup.

Gallup polls.

Gallup is the guy that polls everything, and he's a scientist and or scientific in all his measures.

He recently made this statement about integrity and about faithfulness.

He said, a recent poll he took that 40%.

Now listen, 40% of people call in sick when they're not sick.

That's not faithfulness, folks.

That's not integrity, folks.

And I don't want to tell you the statistic about how many people said it's okay to lie.

But it's over 85%.

That's not integrity, folks.

That's not faithfulness, folks.

So we are in a crisis in America.

We're in a crisis spiritually and we're in a crisis morally.

And it's evident this week.

And I had no idea what was going to be happening this week, but you see, what I'm about to preach is evident right now going on in America.

Where are our faithful people when we need them?

God help us.

Today we're going to look at three things that can change your life about faithfulness.

Graduates, this message is for you.

I did not plan it this way, but it's for you.

Church member, it's for us.

Because I'm convinced if we take what we're about to hear in this next 30 to 35 minutes and we live this in our community, we could see the power of God reach this community.

I believe that with all my heart.

And you'll see why I believe that here in a little bit.

When you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and we all will.

Can I get an amen?

Will you hear him say, Well done, thou good and what?

Faithful servant.

You've been faithful over little things.

Hey, I'm going to make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of the Lord.

Matthew 25, 21.

Oh, that's our goal.

But on the other side of the coin, listen to what Proverbs 25, 19 says.

And it's in your outline.

It says, confidence in, and now what's this?

In an unfaithful man is, hey, in time of trouble, is like a toothache and a foot out of joint.

Wow.

Wow.

Isn't amazing Proverbs has the answer for everything?

So we see that.

It's unbelievable.

So here we are.

Three things this morning.

It's going to be good.

First of all, we're going to look at the marks of faithfulness.

Secondly, we're going to be looking at the motivation of faithfulness.

And then thirdly, we'll look at the methods of faithfulness.

Number one, the marks of faithfulness.

Where, hey, where should we be faithful?

A?

First of all, it has to start with our families.

We have to be faithful with our families.

Psalms 127, verse 1, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Psalms 127:1

Joshua 24, 15 says, choose you this day whom you're going to serve for me and my house.

We're going to serve the Lord.

Listen to me, gentlemen.

We're responsible to be spiritual leaders in our home.

And we have that moral, a responsibility.

We're to be faithful to leading our family in godly things.

We're to be faithful.

And hey, in teaching our kids, I've been visiting all week and I was talking with a family just this week.

I said, uh one of the things that we God laid on David in my heart, who God allowed us to start this church, is the vision of that 90 acres back there.

Somebody said, What are y'all doing?

I said, we are building a complex so families can come and right, wrong, or indifferent.

And I you know I don't hold any punches back.

And I and I know sometimes I offend some people.

I I don't do it on purpose.

But but I believe in the truth.

Amen?

And you should know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

And I tell parents all the time, dads, listen, moms, listen, the greatest thing you can teach your children, if you really want them to be successful, is to be faithful.

Can I get an amen?

But faithful in what?

Matthew 6, 33.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you.

Everything.

So what we do, and unfortunately, one of the greatest gods, do you know what?

Through this corner of coronavirus, I've watched it.

You know, there's a God in America, and it was called sports.

I have never seen so many people just, you know, and boy, they got hysterical when they started saying, no fuck no this fool.

But getting back to what we're building out here, we want to build a place for sports and upward basketball, upward soccer, upward flag football, upward t-ball, basket, uh, softball, basketball.

And for us seniors, no such thing, and we'll invent it, upward pickleball.

But but anyway, but children like it too.

Our grandkids are getting good too.

But hey, but what we're talking about is, hey, we want your sport.

You're looking at a sports fanatic.

I love it.

Um it saved me from drugs and all the garbage.

But but put it in its right place.

Can I get an amen?

That's all I'm asking.

Put God first.

Let's come to church and go play ball on Sunday afternoon.

That's what we've been doing.

Let's come to church on Wednesday, then go play ball.

Can I get an amen?

Come on, church.

Show your kids what means more than anything is seeking God, being faithful to Him.

We've got to do that.

And then not only that, faithfulness with our families.

And many of us sometimes we we and we talked about integrity last week.

We're faithful more to our jobs, we're faithful more to our careers, we're faithful more to our hobbies, our sports, we're faithful more to our money than we are our families.

Folks, you can't take the money with you.

But you can, your family.

Hello.

Eternal things are all that matters.

I got awakened one night and I was sweating.

You remember this, Susan?

We were getting ready to go to New Jersey and preach.

And the Lord woke me up.

We were fixing going to the church where this lady was preaching, and all the prostitutes, remember that, walking around, and this lady was right in the middle of all of it, preaching and preaching.

And I didn't know, I didn't, I said, what am I gonna preach?

And the night before the Lord just awaken me and said, Teach them three things, three questions I'm gonna ask everybody when they stand before me.

I never even opened my Bible, I just preached.

Because I said, question number one, Jesus is gonna ask you and me.

What did you do with my son, Jesus?

What did you do with him?

Just like the two thieves on the cross, did you receive him?

One did, or did you reject him?

The other rejected him.

What did you do with my son?

Second question.

What did you do with what I gave you?

Your time, your talents, your treasures, and your testimony.

What did you do with those?

And then the third question.

Did you come along?

Did you come along?

Do you realize the only thing you can take to heaven with you is your family?

Your friends.

Your community.

Your your your your people you work with, the people you go to school with, kid.

That's the only thing.

So it's so important.

Secondly, what's the mark?

Second mark.

Our families.

Second one is our finances.

I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I don't, I don't I guess we've got them in the outline.

Well, you've got them, but usually they'll throw them up.

Not worried about that.

Luke 16, 10 through 13.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.

And he that is unjust.

What's this?

And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous, then he says, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon.

Now mammon is the Old Testament word for the God of possessions, money, riches, who will commit to your trust the true riches, which are spiritual things.

And then he says in verse 12, and if ye have not been faithful in that which, hey, in that, I'm sorry, I tears in my eyes.

Faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

And then he goes on and says, No servant can serve two masters.

Okay?

So what is he saying here?

He's saying is how you and me handle our material possessions has a direct relationship with how God relates back to us through his blessings and his spiritual power.

Remember?

What did you do with the things that I gave you?

It's a direct relationship.

Man, if you can catch this, it's gonna change your life.

And that's when Jesus goes and he says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

And that's where he says, and that was in Acts, and then in Luke 6.38, given it shall be given unto you.

Good measures, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give back unto you.

And see, here's the test.

And the test, hey, hey, it's not about money.

Money just happens to be the test.

Amen.

Hey, God, let me just say this.

God doesn't need my money.

By the way, it's not mine.

Now that's the key.

If you understand that, then you you you're one step toward the right direction.

But what he tests you with is what you do with it.

Now, what's this?

If you could have a million dollars right now, taxes, everything.

I mean, one million dollars.

What would you do with it?

See, that's the test.

I have people tell me all the time, oh preacher, when we're building like the building and all, I'm I've if I could win the lottery, I'd give the church 50%.

You know what I ask.

All right, here's the real test.

I'm not interested in what you would do with the million dollars.

Okay?

Here's what I'm interested in.

What are you doing with the hundred doll you got right now?

Because whatever you're doing with that hundred dollars is what you're gonna do with the million dollars.

I know, I know you don't let it, boy.

You just turned me off.

Hey, I know I've been where you're sitting.

I don't like that.

Oh, the preacher, all he wants is my money.

I don't want your money.

God doesn't want your money.

You know what God wants?

God wants your faithfulness.

Can I get an amen church?

Come on.

God wants your faithfulness in what he's given you.

Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that gives thee power to get wealth.

Deuteronomy 8, 18.

Wow.

That's good, preacher.

That's it.

Now, quickly, watch this.

You gotta see this.

And you know I don't preach on money.

You know that.

You've been around me enough.

But every once in a while you need to understand it.

Go to 1 Corinthians 16.

I love this.

Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come.

First of all, who are the persons here that he's talking about?

Every one of us.

Everyone.

Notice he didn't say some, he said everyone.

He didn't say just for the rich.

He didn't say just for the middle class.

He didn't say just for the poor.

He said everyone.

Okay?

And then what is the period?

What is he talking about?

When do we do it?

The first day of the week, Sunday.

And then look at the plan.

What is the plan?

Lay by him in store.

You don't just come in here and emotionally think about what you're going to give or wait till you get there.

You already know in your heart what God's laid on your heart to give.

Susan, the first check we write every month is the Lord's check.

You know what we've been, we've been doing that all our life.

If you write the first check of the month, and by the way, it's the largest check we write every month.

It goes to the Lord.

He do you know what?

He has said, My God shall supply, oh, I'm about to lose it.

My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory through Christ Jesus.

He is obligated, he has made a covenant to take care of you.

And God can't lie.

Businessmen, you want a great business?

Give it to the Lord.

Put him first.

I know, I know hundreds of businessmen.

I've watched them write the big check for thousands of dollars.

But let me tell you where they started.

They started with the hey, with the hundred dollar bill.

Ten dollar bills.

That's where it starts.

You're going to see that in a minute.

Oh man, this is so good.

And then he says, here's the plan laid by in store.

And then what's this?

What is the proportion?

How much do I give?

Pretty simple.

Notice what it says.

Notice what it says.

In how God has prospered you.

If you've made much, you need to give much.

If you made little, you give little.

But what I've learned, when you got little and you give much, you get more.

I've learned that personally.

And that's what Jesus said.

Given it should be given unto you.

Good measures, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give back unto you.

Now I'm not talking about getting back money.

I'm talking about not getting sick.

I'm talking about somebody giving me this, somebody helping me do this, and not charging me.

I could go down.

It's just amazing to see my God work.

Amazing.

You wake up one morning and you get a check from the government.

How'd that get in there?

I'm telling you, folks, if you catch this faithfulness on using materialist, hey, the material things God's given us, not just our money, but everything.

Everything.

It'll change your life.

It'll change your life.

Man, that's good, preacher.

Number three, we've got to be faithful to our friends.

Our family, our finances, our friends.

A friend is one who comes in when all the world walks out.

Amen?

That's who a real friend is.

Proverbs 17, 17.

Friends love at all times.

All times.

All times.

They're there.

Be faithful to your friends.

D.

Be faithful to this fellowship or your fellowship that you're involved in.

The fellowship.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as you see today approaching.

Man, we need to be here.

Listen to what Romans 12, 5 says.

We being many are one body, members of one another.

We belong together.

When we meet and you're not here or I'm not here, hey, a part of the body is absent.

People say, well, preacher, I don't have to be a Christian to go to church.

Technically, that's true.

But can I say this?

I believe a spirit-filled Christian wants to go to church.

I've had people say, oh, Pastor, I'm so glad.

Even when we started doing the beep beep church in the parking lot.

People were just glad to get back on the church grounds.

Well, that's not the church.

I'm the church.

Yes.

But David said, I was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord.

That is so true.

And you're going to see why.

And here's why.

I really believe this.

Right now, we are in such a sad state in America.

Spiritually and morally.

Do you not agree?

We need each other right now more than we've ever needed each other.

We need to exhort one another.

We need to love on one another.

We need to be praying for one another.

Let me tell you what happens.

Here's what happens.

And I really, do you know what you are saying by being here in worship today?

Number one, here's what you're saying.

I love my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind.

I love my God.

Because the Lord asked me to not forsake the assemblings of ourselves together.

I can't.

I just love you, God.

Every time you walk in here and you're faithful, you're saying, Lord, thank you for being faithful to me.

I want to show this faithfulness back to you.

Amen.

And you know the second thing you're showing?

You're saying, Pastor, I love you.

I want to be faithful to you for the time and the efforts that we pastors put in in studying and getting ready to pour our hearts out to you, to love you, and to pray with you.

And like we did earlier, to come together and pray for our country.

I meant you're saying, I love you.

And I and you know whatever you're saying, the person's right now sitting next to you or distantly apart from you.

You're saying that you love them too, and they love you.

It's a body.

We are together.

We are faithful.

We are we're gonna laugh together, we're gonna cry together, we're gonna beat this together.

Now that's what church is all about, folks.

Can I get an amen?

That's what it's about.

And then E.

Need to be faithful to the faith.

You need to be faithful to the word of God.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Woo! Yes.

Romans 10, 17.

For the word of God.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, and the word was God.

Thy word is truth.

John 17, 17.

You don't need to listen to CNN.

You don't need to listen to Fox.

Listen to the B-I-B-L-E.

Woo! That's the book for me.

Amen.

Amen, kids.

Come on.

That's it.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said the chief danger in the 20th century.

Now listen, he made this statement almost 70 years ago.

Are you ready for this?

Watch.

The chief danger of the 20th century is going to be forgiveness without repentance.

Salvation without regeneration.

In other words, oh I'm saved, but there's no change.

I got a Greek word for that, baloney.

Religion.

Without the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine everybody's got a religion?

But not everybody's got the Holy Spirit.

And then heaven without hell.

Oh, we're all going to a better place.

Not all of us.

Uh-uh.

If you don't know Jesus, you're not going to.

Hello, read my lips.

I ain't going to a better place if you don't know Jesus.

My wife can't stand anything.

But hey, hey, listen.

There's a heaven, there's a hell.

And there's one way.

Oh, if we all, we all, we're all on the same road.

No, we're not.

There's a right road and a narrow road, and there's a wrong road and a wide road.

And only the narrow road's gonna make it.

Amen.

And ever, listen, if ever there, all right, young people, kids, look at me, graduates, look at me.

Right now, I'm gonna make a statement right here.

That if you don't stand in the gap, we are one generation away from paganism.

Are you listening to me?

One generation.

You gotta do it.

You can do it.

We need some Daniel Boons.

We need some Davy Crockets.

We need some that are stand up and be counted.

We need some Martin Luther Kings again.

We need those people.

Where are they?

When we need them.

Now.

Now.

We must have you.

One generation.

We don't pass our faith to the next generation.

Hey, they won't have it.

We are stewards of the faith.

Listen to Psalms 89 and 1.

With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.

God help us.

I promise you, young people, listen to me.

Till I die, I'll be the best cheerleader you've got.

I'm in my fourth quarter.

Hey, I'm I'm I'm I'm about ready to pass the baton.

But I guarantee you I'll be there.

Even in my wheelchair, I'll be doing wheelies.

Woo! Jesus is awesome! Go, boys, go.

Amen.

We need you.

Man, we need you.

Number two, motivation for faithfulness.

God's faithfulness toward us.

Two things.

You know why we ought to be faithful?

Because God's faithful to us.

Can I get an amen?

God is faithful to us.

Hey, He's delivered us from our sins.

What a beautiful song Susan just sang on being cleansed.

You and I are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

He has delivered us from sinfulness and from a place called hell.

That ought to be enough to make a Pentecostal and a Presbyterian both together shout.

It is.

And then secondly, he's delivered us from temptation.

He's delivered us from Satan's temptation.

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment.

2 Peter 2, 9.

Our motivation for faithfulness, thanking God for delivering us if we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Amen.

Amen.

And that he wards off Satan with the shield of faith and the pieces of armor that we put on every day.

And number three.

We've looked at the marks of faith, the motivation of faithfulness.

Now let's look at the methods of faithfulness.

How are we going to be faithful?

This is good, folks.

Get ready.

First of all, we've got to be faithful in the small things.

Doesn't start with the big things, starts with the small things.

Luke 16, 10.

Faithful in few things.

You know what big things are made of?

Big things are made of a lot of little things.

How many of you like to go to the beach in the ocean?

Most of us do.

I don't like to be in the sun long, though.

Do you know that big ocean is filled with a lot of small little drops of rain?

Do you know that?

And then I went on, and I'm not going to get too technical with my science, but those little raindrops, all those drops of water are molecules, and all those molecules are little items.

So there's a lot of little things that go into the big thing.

And then I thought, time.

Time.

This got my attention.

Time is made up of ages.

Ages are made up of millenniums.

And millenniums are made up of centuries.

Centuries make up years.

Years make up months.

And months make up weeks.

And weeks make up days and days of hours.

And hours made up of minutes.

And minutes of seconds.

And seconds of milliseconds.

Everything big is made of something smaller.

Is that not good?

Somebody say that's good, preacher.

So when you think you're insignificant and you're just a small little speck, guess what?

That's true.

But God sees a big boulder that He's going to take years to make.

But when you get there, you're just going to be rolling over Satan so big and so powerful and so exciting that God's going to use that little boy from Sylvester, Georgia to accomplish things that nobody thought he could ever do because of Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.

I was voted the most unlikely to succeed and the first to be locked up.

You wouldn't have been around me before Christ years.

As far as I'm going with that.

Listen, listen.

David.

David had to be a shepherd before he could be a king.

David had to take care of sheep before he could take care of a nation.

Hey, David had to kill a bear and a lion before he could kill Goliath.

But then he said, Come on, big boy.

Your head's gonna roll today.

Amen.

Y'all with me, church?

I'm getting so excited, I'm ready to charge coronavirus head on.

Let's go.

Listen, here it is.

Oh William Chapman said this.

A great evangelist in the late 1800s.

Here's what he said.

Listen to this.

All right, young people, please listen.

Graduates, listen.

He said, here's the rule that governs my life.

Anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away the taste of the Bible, the study of the Word of God, or cramps my prayer life, or makes my Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I won't do it.

Wow.

Wow.

Things are so important.

You know what our parents ought to do?

We ought to teach our kids.

Let me tell you what the Lord allowed me over all the years with our children and what we're starting to do with our grandchildren.

By the way, thank you last week for loving my grand.

My little grandson, Braden, sitting right there where John's sitting, he got saved last Sunday morning right here.

Can we give God a help?

Amen.

Ten years old.

But you know what we try to teach them?

Here's how you're successful by being faithful.

Faithful to hard work.

You ought to teach your children, hey, to work for their allowance.

Don't give it to them.

And then teach them with the jars.

Ten cents out of every dollar goes to the Lord's jar first, then to the savings jar.

And then Susan went and spoiled my outline and added a third jar, the government's jar.

Right now, we'll I don't have a whole lot of confidence in our government.

I'm sorry.

But that's another message for another hour.

All right.

But they still take it.

I know that's called thief.

But no, I'm sorry.

But but see, don't get me on the rabbit.

All right, here we go.

And teach them.

Teach them to work hard and give and help people.

Be faithful in everything they've got to help the Lord's work.

That's what you teach them.

And they'll be very successful.

I promise.

I promise.

Secondly, not only do we have to be faithful in the little things, we've got to be faithful in the secret things.

What does that mean?

What you are in the dark is what you are when nobody knows.

That's what you really are.

Here's a test for your character.

What would you do if you knew nobody would ever know whether it's good or bad?

What would you do?

Or what, hey, or what you are in secret, nothing more, nothing less, that's what you are.

Be faithful in the secret things.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding evil and the good.

And watch this.

Psalms 139, verse 1, you have searched me and know me.

Psalms 139:1

And then verse 2, you know my thoughts afar off.

Oh! Do you know God knows your thoughts before you think them?

I don't know about you.

That frightens me to death.

Hello.

That's why he cried out at the end of that chapter.

Search me, O God, know my heart.

Try me, know my thoughts.

And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.

And the last thing.

Be faithful in the sacred things.

Keep your heart warm and right with God.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23, 7.

And then verse 26 in that same chapter he says, My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my way.

Isn't that good?

I want to close with 2 Timothy 4.8 with the apostle Paul.

Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, can we get there?

2 Timothy 4:6

Benji, I'd like for him to read this with me as I close.

This is so good.

Paul said in verse 6 and 2 Timothy 4, for I am now ready to be offered in the times of my departure at hand.

He's writing this in a dungeon, in jail, ready to be beheaded.

They're about to behead Paul.

They're about to kill Paul.

He writes the joy book of the Bible.

Now listen, I'm ready.

Verse 7.

This is put a star by.

I fought a good fight.

I finished my course.

I kept the faith.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearance.

And here's what that literally means to also all those that remain faithful.

It's time.

It's time, Paul.

You're about to be executed.

We must go.

He opens the prison door and the guard's there with Paul and he brings him out.

And they're walking toward the gallus, where the guy's there with his mask and his big sword, ready to execute the apostle Paul.

We see Paul as he reaches back and gets that old ragged coat.

We watch his little stump body as he's walking.

Because he's been stoned.

He's been shipwrecked.

He's been left for dead more than once.

His little quinchy eyes can't see.

And they're walking, and Paul's humming a song.

That guard says, Are you singing, Paul?

He said, Yes, I'm singing.

He says, What?

What are you singing?

He says, I'm singing it'll be worth it all when I see Jesus.

It'll be worth it all.

When I see Jesus.

He said, You're a weird dude, Paul.

You're not afraid to die.

He says, No.

I die daily.

I'm used to it.

Then they bring him up, put him, kneel him down, and he puts his head into that block.

And as that executioner is about to chop his head off, he says, Paul, is there anything you'd like to say?

He says, Oh yes, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Jesus says, Lord.

Bam.

Next thing.

Paul standing before Jesus.

How do I know that?

Because Paul wrote it to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5.8.

And I think I know what happens next.

I think Jesus grabs his hands, and I think Paul says to Jesus, he says, you know, I was not a very good-looking guy.

Didn't have the best personality.

Wasn't real strong.

But Jesus.

I fought a good fight.

I finished my book.

I kept the faith.

Then I know what Jesus did next.

He said, Paul, you've been faithful over little things.

I'm gonna make you ruler over many.

Paul entered into the joy.

And I believe old Jesus just grabs Paul.

And I think he gives him the biggest hug and kiss he could give anyone.

This man wrote 13 books of the New Testament.

What a man.

I think the only one more popular than Paul was John the Baptist.

So, friends, as I close this morning, I'm gonna read the words that Paul said to me and you.

Here's what Paul is saying right now to me and you as I close this message.

Here it is.

Acts 20, 24.

Paul's saying to you, graduates, to church at CCW.

But none of these things move me.

Not the coronavirus, not the turmoil, nothing that's going on.

None of these things move me, neither count I myself dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.

And the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Everything you do is a minister for God.

Finish it with joy.

Please be faithful.

Every head bow, every eye closed.