Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Acts 20:13-38, emphasizing the importance of finishing faithfully in one's ministry and life. He highlights Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders, urging them to lead well, live well, and love faithfully, even in the face of adversity. The sermon encourages listeners to reflect on their own legacies and commitment to the gospel, reminding them that true success is measured by faithfulness and love for others.
Welcome and Housekeeping
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Thank you, Addy, for that. What a great, powerful song. If you have a child that wants to be dismissed at Children's Church, they can head back. My wife is back there now. That was there for you and avail yourself to you.
Today will be in Acts chapter 20. We'll finish up Acts chapter 20 this morning. I've titled the message, Finish Faithfully.
Can you guys hear me out there? It is hard for me to hear up here. I'm just making sure you can hear me and that I'm on. Acts chapter 20, verses 13 through 38 is where we'll be at.
If you take notes at all, if you pay attention to where I preach at, you may notice that I've preached this passage before.
I preached this passage. It was my very first sermon here when I preached here two years ago on October of 2023. And this is not a repeat message. I'm preaching a completely different message.
But if you're taking notes there, you'll see that I have been in this passage before. And we're going to come at it from a different perspective. So if you found your place there, we'll stand out of reading God's word. Acts 20, 13 through 38 this morning.
And we'll read out of God's word as it says. When we went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Asis as where he was going to take place for Paul to board. Because these were his instructions since he himself was going by land.
He met us in Asis and we took on him on board and we went to Melita. Sailing from there, the next day we arrived off of Chisos.
And the following day we crossed over to Samos. And the other day and the day after we came to Melita. For Paul had decided to sell past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the providence of Asia. Because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem. If possible for the day of Pentecost.
Now from Melita he sent to the elders and summoned the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them, You know from the first day that I stepped foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time. Serving the Lord with all humility, with tears,
and during the trials that came from me through the plots of the Jews. You know that I did not hesitate to proclaim to you anything to you that was profitable for you.
And to teach you publicly from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks about the repentance toward God and the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Compelled by the Spirit
And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there.
Except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that change and afflictions are waiting for me.
It's a powerful verse there to think about. When I consider my life of no value to myself, my purpose is to finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. To testify to the gospel of God's grace.
And now I know that none of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.
Therefore, I declare to you that this day I am not innocent of the blood of all of you. Because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God. Be on guard for yourselves and all the flock which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers.
To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that my departure,
savage wolves will come in among you, not spare the flock. Men will rise up from you, even of your own number, and distort the truth and lure the disciples into following them. Therefore, be on alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each of you with tears.
And now I commit to you, God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among you who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone else's silver or gold or clothing.
You yourselves know that I work with my own hands and support myself and those who are with me. In every way I have shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this.
And remember the words of the Lord Jesus who said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. After he said this, he knelt down, prayed with all of them. There were many tears shed by everyone. They embraced Paul and kissed him,
grieving most overall of his statement that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the shift.
Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for allowing us to have this blessed book in front of us. I pray that you'll be with the preaching of your word. We thank you for what you've done. In your name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. Today as we look over these verses, we've got really five points that we're going to look at. And a couple of sub points that we're going to throw in there as well. But I want to look at the thought of finishing faithfully.
Paul's Final Moments
Paul, in his last moments here, as you probably can tell, the book of Acts is coming closer to an end than what we had behind us. And so we're just a couple of chapters away. And Paul is knowing that his time is coming to an end. He has even said in this passage,
Every vision that I get from the Lord, everywhere I go, the Spirit is telling me that there are going to be chains and persecution that are coming my way. And my goal is to finish faithfully.
And as we think about men, as I thought about men who I could give example of, R.C. Sproul, who finishes life well. Billy Graham, who finishes life well.
John MacArthur, one of the recent men who passed away, who I study a lot after, finishes life well. My mind went back to a story, a time of the Titanic.
And I came across this as history. I like history. And I was reading on Captain Edward Smith in 1914 when he was commanding the Titanic.
A lot of people don't know a lot about Captain Smith beforehand. But Captain Smith was very well respected of the seas. He had safely guided ships across the Atlantic for nearly 40 years.
Crew members had said this about him. He was steady under pressure. He was humble in his authority. And he was deeply loyal to those he led. And on April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck the iceberg.
Everything changed that day. This proud ship who was claimed to be the unsinkable ship that was Europe's greatest invention, Captain Smith took the helm of it and did not realize that this was going to be the end of this ship. And yet when the end came, he didn't run for safety.
He remained where he was at. He didn't hide in the lifeboats. He didn't try to save himself. What people said was he stayed and gave orders and directed the evacuation.
Helping women and children to the lifeboats. Survivors made this statement. The last time they saw him, he was standing on the bridge, hands on the wheel, doing what he had always done.
I thought that was so fascinating when I read that because he was leading faithfully until the very end. He never gave up.
He never let his hand off the wheel. He never gave up what God had called him to do as a ship crew member, as a captain of the sea. He was doing everything that he was called to do.
And that's what we see in Acts chapter 20. Paul, who knew that he was sailing towards suffering, likely would be his end.
Encouragement in Leadership
He didn't retreat. He didn't panic. He didn't abandon his post. Yet he calls for the Ephesus elders.
And instead of telling them about all the bad things that could happen, he encouraged them. He said, listen, there's some things that are going to happen. And you've seen my example. You've heard my message.
You've saw what I have done for the three years that I was here with you. You saw that I labored in pain. You saw that I cried. You saw that I was up at night. And I challenge you, don't just hear those things, but carry it forward.
And Paul is challenging these men that are there because he had his eyes fixed on Jesus, as Scotty said this morning, as we were in our Sunday school class, fixing our eyes on Jesus and focusing on that and
not seeing the problems around us, but knowing that we have a mission that is before us and we must love people for a purpose.
Acts 20 gives us this rare glimpse into the heart of a man, of a servant who is finishing well. You know, we don't always get to see or hear the heart of someone that is leading.
Oftentimes, they don't have time to write a book or things happen and you don't get to see the inside. But Paul, in this rare glimpse, he gives this farewell address to them.
He tells them how much he loves them and how much the Word of God was an example and how they should follow this. And in Paul's farewell address to the elders,
he tells them basically three things, to lead well, to live well, and to love faithfully until the very end. Which brings us to the very first part here, Paul's example. Verses 13 through 17, we see the example that Paul gave. He makes this statement,
Paul, as he's living his life, he is showing them the character that he has.
I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to be a man that is consistently in prayer. I'm going to be a man that's going to live among you.
I'm not just going to pop in, but I'm going to be here and I'm going to do the things that God has called me to do. And I'm going to teach the thing that God has called me to teach.
And I'm going to remain faithful even when circumstances, as we looked at last week, were facing of death and people coming against me and falsely accusing me. I'm going to continue to stay consistent in my character.
He looked at them and he said, There's an example that I want to be setting for you. I want to exhort you in these ways. And what I saw was this is he almost is telling them, I know I've preached and I know I've taught for you three years,
day and night. He's saying, Don't just look at my preaching, but look at the lifestyle that I've lived. Look at my life as a message that I'm giving you, that I'm modeling for you as you go through your life. This is how you respond.
And we get the voice of Paul as he tells these things, but then we can read over in Ephesians how he challenges them to put off the old man and put on the new man and live a way
that is challenging to the way that people in today's culture tells us for us to live.
And my mind over the last couple of weeks from when we went down to the beach with our kids and we're down at Fort Cowsville, there was a lighthouse and I kept wanting to go into this lighthouse. There were people coming in. I said, Allie, let's go.
And she said, You and the kids can go, but I'm not stepping foot inside of a lighthouse. It's this confined space and you're going up.
And she's like, I'm not doing it. I don't like small spaces, but if you want to go, you can. And we didn't go, but I'm always fascinated by lighthouses because they're such an example for us. Lighthouses don't change based on the weather around them.
When the storms come in, the light of the lighthouse doesn't say, Well, maybe I'm not going to shine my light today. When the winds of a hurricane come in, the lighthouse continues to stand strong. When the storms are crazy coming against them or when the seas are calm, the lighthouse is consistent.
It is shining its light out and it is telling those ships, Hey, there is something here that you need to be aware of.
Living Consistently for Christ
And Paul was telling us in the same way, we must be consistent in our life. We must be steady. We must be faithful.
We must be pointing people to Christ in every area, in every stage or age of our life. When difficult times come, it's the Lord is going with me. So as we looked at this morning with Joseph's life, when problems come, Joseph was pointing people back to Jesus. He wasn't dwelling on his situation.
He wasn't dwelling on where he was at, but he was pointing people to Jesus. Would those that know you best describe you as faithful? Would those that know you best describe you as consistent in all areas of your life?
This is something that I strive for as we go through our life. Allison has to tell me often, James, you oftentimes will be nicer to other kids than you are to your kids.
Because we have shorter attention spans for our kids and shorter fuses for our kids.
And I was telling someone just this week, you know, I'll be around people and I'll give people grace and grace and grace. But oftentimes when I'm around my own kids, I don't give them that much grace.
And I know this is the flaw in my life because I expect so much more out of my kids. But yet, the Bible teaches us to be consistent in all these areas.
And so when those that are around us closest to us, would they say that you're consistent in your faith and your character? You see, Paul didn't just live faithfully, but he left behind a legacy.
Paul's legacy in verses 18 through 21 began to show what type of man that he was, but how we can follow with him. This is how we can begin to ask ourselves, what are we leaving behind?
But he says this, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations. I think there's some marks that we can see in these verses of how we can live our life and how we can leave a legacy. The first one is this, humble service. Paul was humbly serving.
He says, serving the Lord with all humility, all humility that the Lord has given us. I believe the true greatness of any man who's ever lived or woman, I'm just using the generic term man there. True greatness of any person is when they can live a humble life.
Some of your most favorite leaders or teachers that you had in school were those who were living with humility. I often think about my computer teacher that I had in school.
His name was Steve Schauble, Mr. Schauble. He had married a lady that was from Germany, and he had told me, he said, James, he said, I became a millionaire by the age of 20.
And I can just like, my eyes were opening up as a 15-year-old. I'm like, how did you become, tell me the secret of life of how you became a millionaire by the age of 20. Like, how did this happen?
And so he began talking about how he worked with Steve Jobs and how he had been around Bill Gates and how he'd been around these type of people that were just the Silicon Valley magnets of just great authority and wealth and all these people. And he said, I lived all this life.
And he said, I looked at the young generation that was coming up behind me, and I knew that they couldn't survive.
And he said, I was willing to give up all of that money and all of that authority and all that wealth that I had in my life to go and teach the next generation.
And my life in that moment, I'm like, dude, you were making all this money and you were doing all these things, and yet you were willing to give up all that just to invest in the next generation. This is what humility looks like.
This has been willing to give up everything just so that the name of the Lord can be lifted high, just so that others can know the Lord.
And this is this humble service of a legacy that when people look back and look at us, would they say the same thing? The second thing we see here is his bold teaching. The Bible says that he kept back nothing that was profitable unto them.
He stood with boldness and he said, this is what the Lord is telling me to say, and I can't soften the truth for comfort's sake.
I can't rein back what I've got to say just because I'm afraid to hurt someone's feelings, and I've got to tell you the truth so that you can grow in your life.
And oftentimes, we must be told the hard truth. We must be bold to go before people and say, what this is in your life, you've got to change.
Oftentimes, as a parent, you know this, you've got to go to your son, you've got to go to your daughter, and you've got to say, I love you too much for you to continue doing the thing you're doing.
And so you go and you tell them with boldness that this is what you've got to do to change.
Sometimes that's with a disciplinary spanking or some type of grounding, but you go and you tell them these things because you love them.
And Paul was saying, because I love you, I'm telling you these things so that you can be profitable to you. So he was bold in his teaching, but also not only did he have humble service and bold teaching, he had gospel clarity.
Everything Paul did was around the sake of the gospel.
The Bible says he was testifying repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything Paul did was for the sake of the gospel. If he was going to Asia, if he was going to Jerusalem,
if he was going to give an account back to the disciples, it was to tell them, hey, this is what the gospel is doing. This is how people are changing.
This is what the gospel is doing. This is what your money efforts are going through. These are the things that you're seeing done because everything I'm doing is for the sake of the gospel. And we have to ask ourselves, is that our mentality?
Is every action, is every event, is everything that we're doing as a church for the sake of the gospel to see people come to know this life-changing message of Jesus.
John Wesley, a great preacher, a man who founded the Wesleyan movement, he said this. He said, catch a man on fire and people will come from miles to watch him burn. This is the idea that people are looking for something. They're looking for something different.
And when you begin to live your life, and as Paul was saying,
the fire of humility and the fire of this boldness was leaving a legacy that we're still talking about today, 2,000 years later.
Because Paul was so on fire for God, so on fire for seeing people's lives change, that people came from all around to see him and ultimately to take away his life because they were mad at what he was doing.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, what legacy are you leaving behind? What comfort are you leaving behind, or are you leaving behind a life of conviction?
Are you in humble service for the Lord and saying, God,
whatever it has for me to do, I want to do it to the best of your ability. I was sharing just a couple of Wednesday nights ago with a lady that made such an impact in my life, Marlena Van Sickle in Idaho.
Marlena was just this awesome lady who loved children, and at the age of like 70 or 75 or 80, she loved just sitting in there with the babies.
She would go in and she would take care of all the Sunday school time, and I can remember when Brody was just six or seven months old, they were sitting there in their high chairs, and all the little
kids had their high chair, and they all had their little stuff there, and they were all, you know, reaching for snacks. You know how little babies do, they're reaching for their snacks.
And she said, no, kids, before we have our snack, we've got to have our Bible time. And she gave each of them their own little Gideon Bible. And they would hold that Bible up, and they would say, I love my Bible. And, you know, they're just mumbling.
They don't even know what they're saying. They're not even saying words. They're just mumbling after her.
And so they're holding their little Bible up, and they put their little Bible down, and then she would give them their snacks out. And so before they got their snacks, they had their Bible, and they loved their Bible.
And you would see Brody, as he would crawl around, he would see a little book.
It may have not been a Bible, but he would hold it up because he thought it was a little Bible. Because she loved those little kids, and she lived her life in that way of conviction and clarity because she loved children, and she wanted to leave an impact on their life.
And now, 13 years later, I'm still thinking about Marlene and what she did and how she left a legacy in my children's lives. Paul didn't look backwards and say, what legacy am I going to lead?
He looked forward, and he said, I'm going to live with resolve, and I'm going to let the rest take care of themselves. Which leads us to number three in verses 22 to 27. Paul was resolved.
He had a resolve that was unlike many people that we see today. The Bible says that, but none of these things moved me that I might finish my course with joy. Finish my course with joy.
This thought of finishing your courses is something that I often go about, and I often think about is, how am I living in my life? How am I living my life for the glory of God and for the sake of God?
Determined to Finish Well
And am I determined to finish well? Am I determined in my life that I'm not going to let any situation or scenario overcome me, but I'm going to live my life in a way that's going to finish well? Paul was bound by the Spirit that he didn't choose comfort,
but he was following his calling. He said, God has called me to do this, and I know that he's telling me to go to Jerusalem, and everything is warning me, and we're going to see next week even more warnings, but everything is warning me not to go there because it's going to be the end.
But God has called me to go to Jerusalem and tell these people in Jerusalem about Jesus, and he was determined to finish well no matter what happens in our life. He had a clear conscience.
He had declared the whole counsel of God, and he said this in this passage, I'm leaving nothing for you to debate.
I have told you everything that the gospel has said. I've told you everything that Jesus has given me in these last three years.
I've told you all these things, and I'm telling you that under a clear conscience, this is the word of the Lord, and now you have a choice to say, what am I going to do with what's been given to me?
As the great theologian Peter Parker's uncle said, with great power comes great responsibility, right? Got a couple of chuckles on that.
He was not a theologian, but it was Spider-Man, and he said to Spider-Man, to Peter Parker, as he's there dying, he said, with great power comes great responsibility.
And Paul, in that same way as uttering, I have given you all that you know and all that you need in ministry and all that you need to go out and to reach other people, you have been given
the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you using that in the way that you're going to have a great responsibility when you stand before God one day? And he says, look at what I gave you. Look at the technology that I gave you.
Look at the roads that I gave you. Look at the vehicles that I gave you. Look at the ability that I gave you to travel all across the world to tell people about Jesus. And yet, you didn't use that with great responsibility.
I think back often, Lord, why didn't Jesus come in today's society?
Where someone can make a TikTok video or a Facebook reel, and within moments, millions and millions of people can see it. It goes viral.
The news media covers it. I mean, they say that when a politician says something today, that within moments, about 80% of the world population can hear and know what has just been said.
When a peace deal is struck, when things happen in the country, we know about it, we talk about it, we share these things around about it. And yet, God chose through the foundation of the world to come 2,000 years ago when word didn't travel like that.
It took days and months and weeks for things to go from one village to another, and yet, we have the ability to share the gospel so easily and so freely.
And I fear that as a generation, God's going to look at us and say, I gave you so much, and you just smacked me in the face, and you didn't use it for the sake of the gospel.
Church, what are we doing with our resolve to say, I want to share the gospel with other people?
I've shared the story before of John Okwari from Tanzania who went to the 1968 Olympics, and as he was in the Olympics, and he's running, and he fell, and he hurt himself, and he bruised his leg, and he's
bleeding, and yet, he comes to the finish line, and he didn't quit, and he stands up to the mic bloody, and blood's coming down his face, and they asked him, John, why did you finish your race?
And he looked at the reporter, and he said, my country didn't send me 5,000 miles to start my race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish my race. God didn't send us here just to start our race.
He sent us here so that we can tell us about Jesus, so that we can stand before him, and when he looks at us, he's going to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
As Paul was challenging here to say, I am going to stand, I'm going to do what God has called me to do, no matter the cost, are we having that same resolve to finish well, and what does that
look like in our life? Are we just so determined to do what God has called us to do that we have a clear message, a clear mission, and we're challenging to be urgent in what God is calling us to do? The fourth thing we're going to look at today as we quickly move through this is Paul's charge.
Verses 28 through 35, a larger portion here, Paul charges these men who were there with him, and he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all your flock.
He's telling them, he said, there's some things that you need to be aware of. He said, first you've got to pay attention to yourself. First you must be spiritual leaders who are guarding your own hearts.
Before we can worry about someone else's desire to follow Jesus, or before we can worry about someone else's goals in life, we must be determined ourself and be worried about what God has called us to be.
Preparing for Communion
As we look at communion today and we go before that, are our hearts clear before we come to communion? Have we repented?
Have we said, God, I want to come before you with clean hearts and clean hands before I take a part of this? Because Paul is challenging them, before you can go and be faithful to others, you've got to be faithful to yourself.
And then he transitions and he says, now you must pay attention to the flock.
You've taken care of yourself, and now as a shepherd has now been a watchdog for his sheep, you have been a watchful people over the people that God has put in charge of you.
As you look back and you look around to the people that God has put under your discipleship and put under your realm of responsibility, are you been faithful to leading them well as you've led yourself well?
And then he says this, which I think is so vital for us today in our society today. He says, be alert of the threats.
He says, there are wolves around you that are there that are seeking the time where the guard is down and they're going to jump in and they're going to attack and they're going to attack the church.
As there's so many documentaries out right now of wolves in the church and people who are seeking the church just for fame or popularity, we must be aware of those things and be aware, is this person someone who
is faithful to the word and faithful to loving me and faithful to loving God and loving others? Or we alert to the threats that are around.
Any good coach will look around and say, these are the threats and the weaknesses of our offense or our defense and we're going to have to put certain people in these places so that when this team comes in,
they're not going to be able to take advantage of our threats, of our weaknesses.
And so we as a church must also look and say, where are we weak? And God, give us the strength and the fortitude to strengthen those things so that we can be ready when the attacks come. And then he ends with this one little great statement. And it's basically this,
give more than you get. As he makes this statement, he says, he reminds them, Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
How often is it that we look at what we have and we say, God, I just can't afford to give. I want to challenge you. You can't afford not to give.
When God has given us so much, the only thing we can do is say, God, I just want to give something back to you.
I know it's not all. I know it's not what I should give, but I'm giving something. And I want to challenge you. God is not a taker. He is a giver.
When we give back to the Lord, he gives back to us more than we can ever think or imagine or dream. The Bible says that God will give us our heart's desire. When our heart's desire is true and proper and aligned right, he gives us these desires back.
Oftentimes we have to give God our desires for him to give them back to us. And God is challenging us in this moment.
Are we so aware of what he's given us that we're giving back to him? I was reading a book this week about a pilot and the pilot said, they were asking him, what is the most dangerous time of flying? I love the idea of flying.
I love the idea of getting up in a plane. I don't like the idea when I actually think about it, like you're confined in this little sardine can and you're miles and miles above the land. But was asked, what is the most dangerous part of flying?
And he said, the most dangerous part is the taking off and the landing. He said, it's not while we're in the sky as the sky is changing. He said, but the most dangerous is the taking off and landing. He said, because our attention drifts.
When you're taking off, you're looking around at other planes and you're making sure you're staying in the lines.
And he said, when you're going to land, you've got to make sure all these things are checking the right switches and everything is right. And he said, your attention is not completely focused on the windshield in front of you.
And he says, this is why many planes crash is when they're taking off or they're landing. And I began to think through that.
I began to think this is why many spiritual leaders crash as well, because not for lack of knowledge, we have technology and we have books and we have knowledge beyond belief, but it's because we have stopped paying attention.
Our resolve and our charge has been taken away from what God has called us to do.
And the message of the gospel has been taken away and we have lost our vision for what God is calling us to do. And this is why oftentimes failure happens.
And Paul is charging them and he's challenging them. Listen, don't give up in the last final parts of your days, but continue to go strong and continue to seek the Lord and continue to see what God has for you.
Paul's final words were not lofty theological words. As I was reading through this, I was almost expecting again, just this strong theological statement that was going to come out like, hey,
every once in a while, you hear these catchy statements. Like I was waiting for that, but this is what it came to. It was Paul was sitting there with tears in his eyes, with love toward these people.
Paul's parting tears is how I challenged his last three verses. It says that as he was telling these final verses, as he's telling these final words, as he's about to board the ship to go to Jerusalem, he's telling these things and he says that they all were weeping sorely,
sorrowing most of all for the words of which he spoke that they would never see his face again. In this moment, Paul, with the tears in his eyes, with the love that he had toward them,
is saying, I want to care for you. I want to weep with you when you cry. I want to be there when things are hard, because not because of the loss of the position, but because of the loss of the relationship that was there. Relationships matter.
We are relational beings, and God has created us with relational purposes, and oftentimes God is telling us that we must be vulnerable to be around people,
to live a life where we are connected to people that when one hurts, the Bible says that we all hurt. We're all one body of Christ, and we all suffer affliction when one is afflicted, and we all hurt when one has been hurt. But ministry that is faithful to Christ
is faithful to the point where it leaves a heart print on their life. I don't know.
I've been in ministry 13 years, and the longer I'm in ministry, the longer people have lived around me, the more text I'll get, right, on pastor appreciation, birthdays, different things, where someone just a couple of weeks ago, I
had a former teenager who texted me a picture of when he had gotten saved and when I had the privilege of baptizing him. And he sent me a picture, and he said, I'll never forget this day.
The day that changed my life, when you poured into my life, just a moment of time at camp or whenever it was, and it just reminded me, we invest so much into other people, and oftentimes they hurt us, and oftentimes when we're vulnerable,
we're going to see that hurt, and we're going to see the time that's difficult, but the time of loving and caring for those other ones is so much greater.
And I would give 100 of those versus the thousands of difficult times because as Paul was saying here, listen, difficult times are going to come, but don't forget the good things.
Don't forget what God has given us and how they wept sorely because of their love for one another.
Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, and Terry can come during this time, the prince of preachers said this to one of his congregations, asked him, if you had one sermon left to preach, where would you preach and what would it be on?
And anytime Charles Spurgeon spoke, I've got several of his books, I pay attention. This is what he said. If I only had one sermon left to preach, I would preach it to my people because I have loved them the most. I often thought, man, you know, today's day and age, right?
You talk to preachers and they say, I want to preach to the millions of people. I want to have the stage and the glory and the lights and the cameras and everything great.
Charles Spurgeon, who pastored faithfully, who was there, who only lived for just 40 or 50 years, he stood up and he said, if I had one message to preach, I would preach it to the people that I love
the most. It reminds me of Jesus. Jesus in that upper room as he's sitting there with his 12 disciples, his final teaching here on earth. He didn't stand up on a mountainside with 4,000 people around. He didn't do a miracle. He didn't do anything flashy or anything fancy. He just sat down and he taught them.
Then he said, these are the things that are about to happen as we finish walking through that.
And I think the Lord is leading me to maybe preach through that the first part of the year. But be thinking about what are we doing and how are we impacting the people that we have with the time we've got.
Tears happen and heartaches happen, but who are you investing in deeply enough that if you were gone, there would be an absence around your life?
Begin to ask yourself, are you impacting people that way where as Paul was leaving, they are just like, God, I don't know what's going on.
I don't know how we're going to live life. Are we doing and we're living a life in such a way that there are these tears of love around us? Paul's life was not marked by success as the world marks success.
The world says success is when your name is in lights and you've made it to this point of your life. But Paul's life was marked by his faithfulness,
his tears, his courage to speak truth and not worry about the consequences and ultimately the love that he had for the people. The love that he had for the people that were around him reminds us that life is not making a name for ourself.
Life is not about how big our name can be, but it's about making a difference for the gospel and for the sake of Christ. And it's finishing our life the way Paul says here,
I count it all joy to finish my life this way. Are we looking at our life and we're saying that this is the race of joy that we're living? Are we going to look back at our life and say, I wish I would have done things differently? And trust me,
whether it's the next five years of your life, the next 25 years of your life, or the next 75 years of your life, there is never a moment where we can't say from this day forward.
As Joshua, as he's writing in the book of Joshua says, from this day forward, I don't know what you're going to do, but from this day forward, I'm going to serve the Lord.
You choose of your life and your family's life, but from this day, I'm declaring and I'm deciding that we're going to serve the Lord.
And maybe it's a declaration today for you and your family to say today, we're going to be faithful.
Closing Prayer and Commitment
Today, we're going to love the Lord more than we ever have. Today, we're going to finish well today.
And when tomorrow comes, we're going to take care of tomorrow. And when the next day comes, we're going to take care of that. Forget about what's happened in the past.
As Paul says, forgetting the things which are behind, but pressing toward the call of the great calling of Jesus Christ. Are we committed to moving forward for the sake of the Christ and for the sake of God? Lead and serve and love like Paul did. And one day, church,
one day, we're going to stand before Jesus and we're going to see him face to face. And I don't know about you, but when I stand before God face to face, I want to say, God, I've done everything I could possibly do to lead well.
I've done everything I could possibly do to love people well.
As hard as it is sometimes, you know, as a husband or a wife, you know it's hard to love sometimes, but I tried my best, Lord. I tried my best to love and to lead well. I know I'm human, but I tried to lead well.
I'm trying to lead with the gospel's sake and I'm trying to take the teachings of Paul and say, this is what the church is built like and this is how we need to be as a church and I
want to be faithful to that so when I stand before him, I can have clean hearts and a clean hand by saying, God, I did everything you called me to do. Is that how we're living our life? Are we been faithful that way?
Lord, we love you. We think of what you've done. Help us in this time of invitation before we go into our time of communion to have clean hearts.
Lord, as we are challenged by the apostle Paul here of as he's evaluating his life, he's seeing his life coming to an end and he sees the value of what he's done. Help us to follow you faithfully.
Help us to make a decision today that we would be faithful to you as you've been faithful to us. In your name we pray. Amen.
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