Faithfulness

I am so glad that our God has given us many promises and that He absolutely performs His promises. I have never been disappointed in the faithfulness of our Lord as He has been true to His Word time and time again in my life.

Preaching of the Word of God has been central for us. The Bible reminds us in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” God has chosen to change lives through the preaching of His Word. God uses His Word to build the lives of His people.

If you think it’s difficult to read through biblical genealogies, try preaching through one! I recently preached from Luke 3:23–38—a full sixteen verses listing the genealogy of Jesus. If it weren’t for the fact that when I began the Journey with Jesus preaching series I promised our church that we would cover every verse, I think I would have skipped these verses!

For the longest time, I thought faithfulness had died in our culture. I was so wrong. Faithfulness has not died; it has been misplaced. Every single person on this earth is faithful to something. The problem with our faithfulness is the object of our faithfulness.

Sometimes knocking on doors during your scheduled outreach time is the easy thing to do. Please do not misunderstand me. Our church strongly promotes knocking doors in our community in order to witness and invite people to our church. We organize the effort with highlighted maps, print attractive invitations, and try to hit every door in our community about four times a year. Yet the most difficult work is going back to the same person until he is saved and baptized.

The fifth book in our New Testament records for us the powerful and amazing Acts of the Apostles. Many of the chapters read like an ancient book of Ripley’s Believe it or Not! In Acts 2:41, we read of three thousand being saved, baptized, and added to the church. In Acts 4:4, another five thousand men are wonderfully converted.

In January of 1655, the Duke of Savoy forced a cruel choice upon the Waldensians of the lower valleys in Italy—either attend Catholic Mass, or move out of the valley within three days. In the dead of winter, some two thousand people journeyed across swollen rivers, snow-buried valleys, and ice-covered mountains with traces of blood marking their trail.

When sorely tried, stand still on the promises of God. When everyone but God is saying, “Move,” do not jump ship and wreck your family. Do not forsake in the dark what God has given you in the light.

If I asked you to define Job’s life, what would you say? Probably most would define it as suffering or sorrow, but God defines Job’s life as filled. We come to the end of the book (Job 42:17) and we read this phrase, “So Job died, being old and full of days.”

It was Memorial Day and my schedule had taken me to the beautiful Colorado Rockies for a week of camp with teenagers. I had arrived on Friday and spoken several times over the weekend to the staff and counselors and was ready for a great week.

A legacy of faithfulness is the accumulation of an entire life, and I know that I’m still a work in progress. But I am thankful for faithful men who have invested in me, and I would like to share what they have handed to me.

One of the defining moments in my life occurred at a restaurant table nearly thirty years ago. Across the table was a man who had been one of my childhood heroes. Years earlier, he had preached in our church and signed my Bible.

Some of the final words written by the Apostle Paul under divine inspiration dealt with the subject of loyalty and particularly the loyalty or disloyalty of certain preachers to himself. Second Timothy chapter four speaks of Demas as having forsaken Paul, of Luke as remaining with him in his last days, and of the fact that at his trial, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” Standing with Paul or forsaking him certainly appears as a theme in his final epistle.

Checkmate! Your game pieces obediently moved at your command filling you with triumphant joy. Finally, the game is over and you have conquered. The game of life continues, and God is in command. He is looking for obedient game pieces to move at His directive.

If you are a Christian worker of any kind, you have faced discouraging times. I remember when we were starting the Good News Baptist Church in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Several times when it was time for our evening service, I had the church cleaned, the chairs set up, hymnbooks laid out, music playing, my sermon tucked away neatly in my Bible, and threw open the door ready to quickly step out of the way lest I be trampled by the surging throngs of people hungry to hear God’s Word!

Last week, Terrie and I celebrated thirty years of marriage. It’s hard to believe that something that seemed too wonderful to be true on our wedding day is even better now!

Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post.

The following is a lesson I gave to our soulwinners at Heritage Baptist Church. This article will help you form a well thought out retention strategy and answer the following questions.

If you want to be an obedient Christian, you have one of two choices: be the pastor of a Bible-preaching, Bible-practicing church or help someone who is the pastor of a Bible-preaching, Bible-practicing church.

The Philippine Islands are a main source for expensive pearls including “The Pearl of Allah,” which was proclaimed to be the world’s largest pearl at the time it was discovered.