Faithfulness: A True Virtue - Tim Conway

I would like you to turn to Ephesians 1:1.

For a number of years,

I have been working on memorizing

the entire book of Ephesians.

And when I go out and I walk and I pray,

often times, I will just rehearse

chunks of Ephesians.

And as I was walking the paths

of Brackenridge Park on Monday,

I began in Ephesians 1:1.

And I thought I might just
go through the first chapter.

What's interesting is when you
memorize Scripture like that

and you go back and you rehearse,

it's amazing how the Lord can make

different portions of that come alive.

And that's what happened.

I actually started,

"Paul an Apostle of Christ Jesus

by the will of God

to the saints who are in Ephesus

and are faithful in Christ Jesus."

And I was stopped in my tracks.

I was stopped by the word "faithful."

And I just thought

out of all the things
that an inspired apostle

could have said,

undoubtedly, when you
have faithful Christians,

there's a lot of different things

that could be said about them.

Of all the terms,

of all the descriptions

Paul might have chosen

to describe these people at Ephesus,

he chose that word: faithful.

Faithful.

I couldn't get past that.

What a thing to have said of you!

You know what?

That is something to have that said of you

by a parent,

by an employer,

by somebody who is an officer over you,

the leadership in the
church says that about you.

That's something to have said about you.

But what a thing to have said about you

by an apostle of God under the
divine inspiration of God.

And what a thing to have said about you

in light of the fact that
many other things

could have been said about you.

To have this quality stand out

more than all other qualities.

And you understand,

Ephesus has been forever labeled

as faithful.

As long as the Bible stands.

There it is, preserved for us

in holy Scripture.

And I got to thinking,

oh, brethren, this is
not detached from us.

How you will long -

how all men will long

to bear that label in the final day.

Because you remember what Jesus says.

Jesus paints us this picture

of Judgment Day

where the Master comes to his servants

and to some he says,

"Well done, good and faithful..."

Faithful servant.

Oh, what sweetness.

I'll tell you, you want to
hear that said about you.

You want that, but brethren,
let me tell you this.

Jesus doesn't invent that word

for anybody just because.

Paul doesn't attach that title

to the Ephesians just because.

There's truth behind it.

You understand? There's truth

behind the title.

Jesus doesn't come along

and indiscriminately call people,

"Well done, good and faithful servant,"

on the final day, unless
indeed, they were faithful.

You have to be faithful
to be called faithful

by Him who is the true Witness.

He bears witness to the truth.

Have you ever read on Judgment Day,

the books are open.

What's there? Our works.

Jesus is not going to
come to the conclusion

that you were faithful,

unless when those books
were opened, you were faithful.

Paul doesn't make this up and just say,

well, just because they're Christians,

I'm going to give them this title

whether it applies to them or not.

It does apply to them.

It does describe them.

It is not an artificial title.

It has reality. It has truth behind it.

Brethren, I'll tell you this,

every one of you in this room right now -

every one of you -

there is a reality
about your faithfulness.

I want you to think
about that this morning.

Faithfulness.

Faithful.

I desire to flood our minds right now

with the beauty of this virtue

and the ways in which faithfulness

is demonstrated.

The title of my sermon:

"Faithfulness: A True Virtue."

So, let's think about this.

Faithful.

Okay, the word faithful in the Greek

is the word pistos.

It can have one of two meanings

in Ephesians 1:1.

This word is used in our New Testament -

I'll give you an example.

You remember when Thomas,

he said, "I won't believe unless..."

Right? "Unless I'm able to
put my fingers in there,

I'm not going to believe."

And then when Jesus shows up

and he does put his fingers in there,

he calls Him, "My Lord and My God,"

and he does believe.

And Jesus responds by saying to Thomas,

"Put your fingers here.

See My hands. See My side."

He says to Thomas,

"Don't be unbelieving, but be believing."

Right there is our word pistos.

It's a word that can mean

not just faithful like we understand it,

but full of faith.

It can mean a believing one.

It can mean somebody who is

full of faith - they're believing.

But, on the other hand,

like when Jesus says,

"Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little..."

There it does mean
what we typically think

of it having that meaning of loyalty.

Trustworthiness.

That idea that you stand

for something worth standing for.

That idea of being loyal to somebody

to whom you owe loyalty.

That's the idea.

Now the word here can
mean either one of those.

Or perhaps, Paul doesn't mean for us

to just choose one or the other.

It may be that he very
much has both in mind,

because I can tell you this,

if you're loyal to Christ,

you're going to trust Him;

you're going to believe what He said.

And I don't think we
want to separate these.

But brethren, today,

I am not so interested in talking

about the Christian as a believer.

What I want to talk about today

is our loyalty to Christ

and just what a true virtue that is.

Faithfulness to Christ.

Loyalty to Christ is a massive virtue

in the Christian life.

Brethren, I'll tell you this,

don't discount this.

Don't treat this lightly.

The Lord is watching you,

and this is something

that is very desirable and very precious

in the sight of the Lord.

Listen to Scripture.

Proverbs 12:22

"Lying lips are an
abomination to the Lord,

but those who act
faithfully are His delight."

When you are loyal to Him -

brethren, this is life!

This is where the rubber meets the road.

What He's talking about is this:

when you walk out these doors,

and you go off into this world,

and you're living your life

before your family,

before the watching world,

in your workplace, in your school,

wherever life takes you,

are you living in a way

that reflects loyalty to Christ?

Because He finds it very desirable.

Very precious.

That is not a small matter to Him.

Judgment Day bears that out:

"Well done."

What is it to live a life well?

It is to live a life faithful.

That's what He says:

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

You want to live a life well?

Not well in the sight of the world;

not well in the sight of the news,

the media, the politicians.

You want to live a life really well

in the sight of God?

Be faithful.

Faithful.

Faithful to Christ.

Faithful to Him.

That's the idea.

The Ephesians -

they were faithful in Christ Jesus.

Faithful.

Brethren, let me tell you
something else about this.

Faithfulness is a rarity.

It is not common.

Unfaithfulness is common.

In marriage, in the work place,

in the military,

among professing Christians -

unfaithfulness is the norm.

You know what? We could all go around

and we could take from our experiences

and prove that.

But Scripture itself bears witness.

Proverbs 20:6

"Many a man proclaims
his own steadfast love,

but a faithful man who can find?"

Did you hear what was said there?

It's common to find people who will boast

about themselves.

It's very uncommon to
find someone faithful.

Who can find?

The author of the Proverbs is saying,

"who can find it?"

It doesn't mean it's impossible to find,

but it means it's a scarce thing.

And did you catch the flavor of that?

What's true about a man who wants to

tell you about himself?

Oh, you get around people,
they talk about themselves,

talk about themselves.

They'll boast.

They're not faithful to somebody else.

They're faithful to their own reputation.

You know, we're all faithful to something.

What we're talking about right now

is faithfulness and loyalty to Christ.

So, what I want to do
is I want to consider

various examples of faithfulness

just because I want to flood our minds

with this idea here.

The first one is this:

A faithful wife.

Think of a woman who enters into marriage.

Now, brethren, here's the thing.

The church is the true wife.

We've got a lot of
husbands and wives here,

but that's the shadow.

That's not the reality.

The reality of the faithful
wife is the church.

Think about a woman who
enters into marriage.

Think about what characterizes

a really faithful wife.

You know what the proverb says?

Think about an excellent wife,

a faithful wife.

The proverb says

that the heart of her husband trusts her.

Why?

What is it that happens in a marriage

that causes the husband to trust her?

She does him good and not harm

all the days of her life.

That's what characterizes
a trustworthy wife.

Why does her husband trust her?

Well, because, he's the kind of husband

that can come home early from work

when his wife doesn't expect him;

he can come back early from a trip

when he's supposed to be gone longer,

and he can walk in

and he doesn't find his wife

doing something she wouldn't do

if she knew he was watching.

He finds her faithful.

He finds her doing him good

and not evil.

That's the sign of faithfulness.

Brethren, we're talking not
about the shadow here,

we're talking about our faithfulness

to Christ.

That's what we're talking about.

You know what?

A husband that can trust his wife;

a husband whose heart is confident

in her faithfulness -

you know what?

He's the kind of husband -

he can go outside and walk in the yard

and he can come up to a window

and he can look in there

when his wife doesn't
know that he's watching,

and he can see her doing the things

that please him.

Or he can overhear a phone call

when she does not know he's listening,

and he can hear her talk about him

and he recognizes right away,

she honors me.

In fact, she just was talking to somebody

about something that
if the truth were known,

I'm not the greatest example of,

and yet, my wife protected me right there

rather than gossiping about me,

complaining about me,

tearing me down in front of
whoever she was talking to,

she protected my reputation.

And she didn't even know I was listening.

Listen, if you come home and find out -

you've got certain
standards for the children -

and you find out when you're not at home,

your wife does not uphold that standard.

She only does it when
she knows you're watching,

but when you're not watching,

she tells the kids,
oh yeah, you can do that,

even though dad says you can't do that.

You see, the heart of a husband

who trusts a faithful wife -

he's one that he sees his wife

is seeking to honor him.

He can suddenly come around the corner.

He can suddenly show up at home.

He can suddenly walk in,

and his wife is not a hypocrite

who does one thing at one time

and another at another.

Says one thing and does another thing.

She's not that.

He can come home early
from work or that trip,

and you know what?

He finds his beloved about his business.

We're talking about the church.

We're talking about Christians

in their faithfulness to Christ.

Here's the second thing,

not just that she's trustworthy -

we're talking about a wife here -

but, she's always doing him good.

You see, it's one thing to walk in

unexpectedly upon your wife

and find her neutral.

It's a whole other thing when you walk in

and you find she is specifically

seeking to be your help.

She is specifically seeking

to do you good and not harm.

She is doing the very things she is doing

because they please you and honor you.

You know what?

I've come home from a long trip away,

and I've found my wife

had remodeled the bathroom.

And you know while I was gone,

I heard the stories later

about how she was working in that bathroom

and had all the children in there,

and they were talking about
when daddy gets home,

when daddy gets home.

You know, they're doing this for me;

to surprise me.

Here I am far away.

She's not just sitting at Starbucks

talking to another man.

She's at home.

And she's doing the very thing

that she anticipates is going to please me

when I walk through the door.

That's faithful.

It's not just the wife
who doesn't do the evil,

it's the wife who does the good.

That's what the proverb says

about this wife.

But we're talking about saints

who are being faithful to Christ Jesus.

Brethren, let us never forget that we

are in the truest sense the wife.

We're talking about the
beauty of faithfulness

in my life and your life.

Faithfulness to Christ.

We sang, "When it's all
been said and done..."

Do you ever stop and
think about that song?

When it's all been said and done...

what?

When everything you're going to say

in this lifetime has been said.

When all the things you're going to do,

the final period has been put there.

When you scan all of it,

does it speak of faithfulness to Christ?

I'll tell you something
else we think about

when we think about a faithful woman.

We think about purity.

She is true to her marriage vows.

Her heart is for one man and one man only.

Her intimacies are reserved for one.

She doesn't share herself.

She guards herself; guards her heart

from other lovers.

Brethren, hear me.

Those who are faithful in Christ Jesus

are faithful to Christ Jesus.

That is faithfulness.

Faithful, brethren. Faithful.

Shunning the advance of other lovers.

But this is speaking about us.

And this world is full
of many other lovers

who would seek to
take our affections away.

Are you faithful, brethren,

to shun the advances

of those other lovers?

A faithful wife.

Faithful.

She is a wife who is pure.

Brethren, I remember back

when we were going through Hebrews,

that drift that was warned about.

The drifting.

That which causes us to drift from Christ.

Why do people drift from Christ?

Other lovers. Always.

The faithfulness, the loyalty

begins to break down and the drift...

Brethren, let me tell you something.

Have you ever read about

how the high priest -

God said to Aaron and
to all the high priests

who would come from his lineage after him,

this was said,

"He shall take a wife in her virginity."

You know what a high
priest could never do?

He could never marry a divorced woman,

or a woman who had been defiled -

raped, abused, anything like that.

Never.

He could never take a prostitute.

"These he shall not marry,

but he shall take as his wife a virgin

of his own people."

I want you to remember,

we are talking about Christ.

Christ is the high priest.

We are the bride.

Brethren, do you hear Paul?

Do you hear Paul when he comes along

to the Corinthians and he says,

"Look, I have a divine jealousy,

since I have betrothed
you to one Husband."

I have betrothed you to one Husband.

"...That you would be
a pure virgin for Christ."

Pure devotion to Christ.

Pure allegiance to Christ.

Pure faithfulness to Christ.

Brethren, the psalmist says,

"The king will desire your beauty."

Do you know what the beauty is

that the King desires in you?

Listen to this - that's part of the verse

in Psalm 45.

But right before it it says this:

"Hear, O daughter, and consider

and incline your ear.

Forget your people.

Forget your father's house

and the king will desire your beauty."

Do you see what it says?

Where is the beauty?

Where is the position you need to be in

that Christ would desire you?

It's forsaking your other allegiances.

Let them go.

The beauty He desires in you
is not a physical beauty.

It is a beauty of devotion.

It is a beauty of faithfulness.

You want to be attractive

in the greatest sense possible?

Faithfulness.

Faithful.

That is the attraction.

That is the beauty.

It is the beauty of forsaking all else

and bowing to Him.

Brethren, do you know in 1973,

many of the prisoners of war

who had been held in
North Vietnamese prison camps,

came home.

The Vietnam War was long.

Some of those men who came out

of what they called the Hanoi Hilton,

some of them that came home in 1973,

they'd been there since 1965.

They'd been 8 years in a
North Vietnamese prison.

Starved.

Tortured.

Beaten.

And they came home in 1973.

Do you know sadly, numbers of them,

their wives did not wait for them?

Some of those men got off those airplanes

and their wives were not
there to meet them.

Their wives had divorced them.

Some of those wives had been unfaithful.

But there were others who
had stood by their man

for all 8 years.

Can you imagine a woman -

she would not let the children

move the things on the bedstand.

She wanted them left exactly

as dad had left them the last time

he was there in that room.

Can you imagine that wife

who she did not wash the pillow case

on her husband's pillow for 8 years

because each night she leaned over

and she tried to smell
what he smelled like

if there was anything left there.

And when he got off that airplane,

he looked a lot older;

he was broken;

he had been tortured;

he limped;

but her heart lit up
because that was her man.

She had stayed faithful.

Brethren, we're talking
about faithfulness here.

Faithfulness. I would ask you this.

When you can't see the face

of your Beloved,

when He's hidden from you,

you can't smell His aroma anymore,

He's withdrawn, He's distant,

things are hard, things are dark,

do you chase after other lovers

and give yourselves to those affections?

You know what is so easy
for the Christian to do?

It is easy for the Christian

to get in a place where suddenly,

they can't find the Lord anymore,

he doesn't know the Lord's
blessings like he used to,

or she doesn't - things seem dark,

you start thinking things are unfair.

How come I don't have
what other people have?

Well, if God is going to
treat me like this,

and I can't find Him,
I can't be blessed,

I can't enjoy what I used to enjoy,

and have the fullness of this,

well, then I guess I'm just going to

chase after television,

or chase after sports,

or chase after money,

or chase after this,
or chase after that,

and I feel justified.

That is not being faithful.

Being faithful is when it's hard,

you say, "the Lord is my Beloved.

He is my Husband.

And I'm committed, no
matter what may come.

I'm committed."

Brethren, let's think of this.

A faithful servant.

Let's think about a faithful servant.

What would be one of the things

that would jump right out at you

as far as a faithful servant?

I would say undoubtedly,

the mark of a faithful servant

is obedience to the master's will.

Scripture's clear on this.

Listen to just a few verses.

Deuteronomy 28:1

"If you faithfully obey

the voice of the Lord your God,

being careful to do all His commandments

that I command you today,

the Lord your God will set you high above

all the nations of the earth."

Carefulness in obedience

is the mark of faithfulness.

That's what that text says.

Faithful to obey, to do.

Careful to do all that He has said.

Or how about this? 1 Samuel 2:35

"I will raise up for
Myself a faithful priest."

What does that look like?

"...Who will do according to what

is in My heart and in My mind."

Brethren, this is what I want to ask you.

Does that mark your life?

Are you faithful?

Are you getting on the computer and
doing things you ought not to do?

That is not being faithful.

Are you using your money
in ways that honor Christ?

And are being faithful to Him?

Are you using your time,

your home, your vehicle,

your mind, your hands, your feet

in ways that speak of
faithfulness to Christ?

Or are you being faithful to you?

Faithful to another beloved?

How about this? Psalm 101:6,

"I will look with favor on
the faithful in the land."

Who are they?

"That they may dwell with Me;

he who walks in the
way that is blameless."

That's the one.

That's what it is to be faithful.

And here's the thing,

it's not momentary or sporadic.

We've got lots of people who will

for a little season seek
to do what's right,

but the faithfulness is not
just a momentary faithfulness.

You know what the Lord says?

The Lord said,

"Who then is the faithful
and wise manager?"

Let me ask you this.

Who is the faithful and wise manager?

Do you know what Jesus' answer is?

The one who when I return

I find doing what I told him to do.

Guess what?

You know what the only way

to be ready?

To be faithful when the Master

may arrive unexpectedly at any time?

Brethren, I'll tell you this,

the person who is not faithful

but has an idea:

"well, I'm going to be
faithful when He comes,"

they will never be faithful when He comes.

The only one who will
be faithful when He comes -

because He's coming
at an hour we don't think;

He's coming unexpectedly;

He's coming like a thief -

you know what?

You know who is going to be the only one

who is going to be faithful

when He comes unexpectedly?

It's the one who's faithful all the time.

That's it.

He's not looking for
sporadic faithfulness.

He's looking for a constancy.

Brethren, let me ask you something.

Imagine you're entering a company.

Tomorrow, Monday, you drive

to some company somewhere.

You walk through the front doors.

And there's the offices,

you know, full of a bunch of cubicles.

And you were to walk in
and you were to look over

and you see like 5 of the employees

of that company, and
they're all over there,

and you see them standing at the opening

of one of the cubicles,

and you can see they're laughing

and they're hooting it up.

They're frittering the time away

with a bunch of useless gossip.

And suddenly, you're standing there

and you're watching this,

and suddenly, some guy
walks through the doors

and he walks right past you,

and you just see the people scatter.

Who do you think that was
that just walked by you?

The boss.

Have you ever seen that?

I've seen that happen.

Have you ever been one
of the people in the group?

You know what that speaks of?

You're not being faithful.

Because you're doing something

you would not do if you knew

the boss was watching.

And the thing is the Boss is watching.

When we get negligent,

we start to think He's not,

and we get careless.

Brethren, you know who you want to be?

You want to be the one that says

I'm loyal.

I'm loyal to this company.

I want to be trustworthy.
I want to be honest.

While I'm on the clock,

I'm going to give my employer 110%.

And you know what?

That's a faithful employee.

That's faithful.

Let me tell you, the
idea of a faithful servant...

do you know the term deacon?

It's basically a fancy expression

for the term servant.

In one sense, we're all to be deacons.

We understand the distinction

when somebody holds the office.

Brethren, let me tell you something.

I know a deacon in this church

who made some kind of banking mistake.

Maybe he didn't make deposits

as soon as they should have been made

or something happened,

and fees were incurred,

that would not have happened

if he would have done what
he should have done timely.

And he knew it was his fault.

And he didn't lay that burden on you.

He paid for it out of his own pocket.

That's a faithful servant.

I know a deacon of this church -

(incomplete thought).

I saw today when I put mail that comes in

in there first thing in the morning,

and I looked in there and somebody

had just emptied their pocket
full of change in there.

And I can remember back in the early days,

sometimes some of the kids would go up

and they would stick two pennies in.

And you know, when you're dealing with

bills and checks,

and then you have to keep
track of these two pennies...

but I know that our deacons

have been sensitive in their consciences

to not just throw those in the garbage

or put them in their pocket

or hand them to a child going by.

They have made certain
they got all the way

to being deposited in the bank.

Why? Brethren, I'll tell you this.

If you're faithful in little,

you'll be faithful in much.

That is the kind of man you want

to handle your finances.

Because that's somebody who is faithful.

That's what we're talking about, brethren.

You have been given even little things.

The little things in life are not trivial.

Because how you deal

faithfully or not faithfully

with the little things
God has given to you

will show what you will
do if He gives you more.

Bank on it.

That is a spiritual principle.

Faith in little - faithful in much.

If you are faithful

with what God has given to you,

you will be faithful if He gives you

ten times as much.

Brethren, are you faithful?

Because everybody in this room

has been entrusted with something.

Are you faithful in Christ Jesus?

Are you faithful with your time?

Brethren, there is something
said in Scripture;

there is something said about the person

who does not give,

and it only ends up to his own poverty.

He withholds what he should give.

What do you with your money?

Do you just use it for yourself?

Again, are you faithful to you?

Or are you faithful to Christ?

Think about that.

Jesus comes along and He says,

"Sell your possessions
and give to the poor."

Jesus says, "Don't store
up treasure here."

Jesus says, "Give..."

Jesus would have us to be aware

of the needs of others.

Let me ask you something.

If we took your money

and we looked at how you used it

just from January 1st to right now,

would it declare that
you're faithful to Christ?

Or faithful to your own pleasures?

To your own self?

To your own agenda

and to your own desires?

Brethren, you are not going to hear,

"Well done, good and faithful servant,"

unless you've been good
and faithful to Christ.

How about a faithful son?

Let's think about that for a second.

A faithful son.

Three things jumped out at me

as I thought about a faithful son.

Brethren, you know why
I'm hitting on all these?

Because what God did so beautifully

is He created a wife,

and He created servants,

and He created sons,

all as a shadow.

We are the wife.

We are the servant.

We are the sons.

And do you know what is the hallmark

of beauty among all of these?

Faithfulness.

And we are the truest
expression of these things.

Think of a son.

You know the thing that jumps out at me

concerning a son is this:

He honors the family name.

You think of this - Revelation 2:13,

"I know where you dwell..."

This is said to Pergamum, the church,

by Jesus Christ.

"I know where you dwell,

where Satan's throne is,

yet you hold fast My name."

You hold fast My name.

He said this in Revelation 3:8

to the church at Philadelphia.

He says, "I know you
have but little power,

yet you have kept My Word

and have not denied My name."

Brothers and sisters, are you
faithful to the family name?

I would ask you this.

When you go out these doors

in the sight of this world,

do you compose yourself

and carry yourselves

as sons of the King?

Because here's what Jesus said,

when you go out these doors,

the world is going to know you

and the family you belong to

by the way you live.

That's what He said.

He said if that world
out there looks at you

and sees you loving one another,

by that they're going to
know you belong to Him.

There's a way to live to be known

that you're attached to Christ.

Brethren, for you to call
yourselves a Christian

and to go out here and
live like mere men -

do you remember the
message we heard from Ryan

at the conference this year?

Living like mere men?

This is what Paul told the Corinthians.

He said, "you're living like mere men."

And you know what?
That was not a compliment.

When you who call yourselves Christians

live like mere men;

when you live like the
people in this world,

that is no compliment.

When you live a life that
does not rise above

what you used to be;

when you live a life that
does not distinguish itself

from the life of everybody else out here,

you are living like mere men

and that is not a
compliment for the Christian.

That is not a compliment.

That is a rebuke.

Do you carry yourselves
in the way you speak

that proves you faithful?

The world may not like what you are,

but they cannot deny it

that you look like Christ.

They may hate you
because you look like Him,

and they will hate you,

and you have the promise
that they will hate you,

but do you bear the family name well?

Do you hold fast to that name?

Do you honor that name?

Do you not deny that name?

Do you know what He said to Philadelphia?

"You have little power."

You may be weak; you may be insignificant,

but you know what?

That doesn't mean you
can't honor His name.

You most definitely can.

Are you being faithful?

Here's another thing about a faithful son.

He honors his father's friends.

Proverbs 27:10 says,

"Do not forsake your friend
or your father's friend."

Now let me just tell you something here.

Do you know when you go into the Proverbs

and you find sons being talked about?

Again, I'm telling you, it's a shadow.

The author of Hebrews says when you find

sons being written about in Proverbs,

guess who that is?

He says, "Don't despise
the discipline of God."

Doesn't the Proverb say concerning sons -

doesn't it say, "you've
forgotten the exhortation

that addresses you as sons"?

Really? That's addressing
me as a son of God?

It sounds like it's addressing
the son of a man.

When you go back and
you read in the Proverbs,

and it's speaking about
a father and a son,

it sounds like a physical father

and a physical son in this world.

And undoubtedly, it did mean that.

But what the author of Hebrews says

is you've got to look beyond that.

There's a spiritual reality beyond that.

You are the sons.

And you know when it talks about sons -

honor, they respect, they don't forsake

the friends of their father.

I'll just ask you this.

When you come across somebody

that is a friend of your Father in Heaven,

will you embrace that person

even though it would
cause you to be despised

by some of the highest
in this world in rank?

in authority?

I mean this,

you're in a situation

where the wealthy, the famous,

the important people in this world,

where they're watching you,

will you defend one
of Christ's little ones?

Even though it will cause you

to be despised by them?

Would you stand up in
defense of a Christian

in the sight of the important people

in this world?

In front of your boss?

In front of your family?

(Incomplete thought)

I've said this before.

You think of the cartoon

the Voice of the Martyrs created

concerning Perpetua when her father

is ready to strike the slave girl.

And Perpetua stands in the way

and says to her father - he says,

"What are you doing? She's a slave!"

She says, "She is my sister."

Will you stand up for
your Father's friends?

That is to be faithful.

Faithful.

To be a faithful son is to be faithful

to my Father's friends.

Or a faithful son here -

he honors his Father's instruction.

Proverbs 1:8, "Hear, my son,
your father's instruction."

You know what a faithful son does?

He's got the voice of his father

ringing in his ears.

Brethren, are you hearing Scripture

when you live your life?

Are you constantly thinking

about the things you do,

the things you do with your money,
the things you do with your life,

the things you do with your time,
the things you do with your home,

the things you do with your vehicles,

the things that you do with
what God has given to you,

the things you do with your
giftedness, your abilities?

Are you constantly thinking

what does God's Word say?

How should I be living my life?

Is this squaring up with Scripture?

Brethren, I'm asking
myself that all the time.

You know what?

A faithful son has the
instruction of his father

ringing in his ears all the time.

That is to be faithful.

That doesn't mean we live a perfect life.

Listen, I can tell you this.

I think of Carlos sometimes

when he addresses his sons.

He says, "my boy."

Can you imagine him
saying to his youngest son,

"my boy, bring me a glass of ice water."

And he watches Nathan and he goes over

and I don't know if he's got an ice maker,

but I watch James sometimes -

he goes over and he pushes the ice maker

and that thing just blasts out ice

and it overflows and goes on the floor.

You can imagine Nathan doing that.

Boom! And the ice goes on the floor

and then he fills it up

and he's walking over.

He's small and he's
bringing that to his dad

and he sloshes water on the floor.

And you know, what does a daddy think

when he's got a small son?

The daddy can look at his son and knows

that son is trying to please me.

Yes, he got ice all over the floor.

Yes, he sloshed water all over the floor.

But you can see in the son,

there's a delight in
doing his father's will.

Brethren, is that not how our Father is?

It's not a matter of whether
we live our life perfectly,

but it's looking to see

are we faithful to Him

because we want to do what pleases Him?

You know what?

There's no father on earth

that's going to look at that son

and say, "you were unfaithful!

You little wretch!"

The father's going to smile upon that.

Why? Because that is faithfulness.

Why? Because you know the son is trying

to do what he believes
will please his father.

That is faithfulness.

Brethren, that is faithfulness.

You know what?

We don't always remember

everything God has said,

but when we're living our life

and we're thinking about
what we can remember

that God has said,

and we think I'm doing this

because I know my God has said this -

now somebody that's wiser may come along

and say but you know,

God also says this over here.

And we look at this and we say, well, yes.

But I'll tell you this,

if you do the wrong thing in this life,

but you're doing it because
you're thinking about

something that God has said,

and you're wanting to please Him,

and as best as you know

this is what's going to please Him,

brethren, is that not
the spirit of Romans 14?

Whatever you do, you do unto the Lord.

And that pleases the Lord.

That doesn't mean we can't
do wrong things sometimes.

But brethren, you know
what I'm talking about.

Or think about this.

Think about a faithful soldier.

A faithful soldier doesn't
vacate in the battle.

Or think about a faithful ambassador.

I can remember times

when I'm using interpreters
in other countries,

and they don't say what I say.

That is not a faithful interpreter.

We are to be ambassadors of Christ,

which means we are to
take the message to them

and speak to them what
God says in His Word.

That is being faithful.

And again, I just want to remind you all,

brethren, all these things -

we are ambassadors.

We are soldiers.
We are sons.

We are servants.
We are wives.

And all of these, a good one

in every one of these categories

is characterized by faithfulness.

Those Ephesians -
faithful in Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I just want you to think,

does that represent your life?

Are you faithful?

Are you faithful?

You know what?

Let me ask you something.

A faithful servant, a faithful ambassador,

you can depend on them.

Faithful son? I can depend on him.

Why? Because he's going to go

and he's going to represent me well.

He's going to do what I've asked him.

He's going to be concerned about my honor.

I want to ask you this.

Can the Lord depend on you?

Don't say yes or no just because

you want yes to be the answer.

But I mean by your life.

Does your life speak of one

who the Lord can depend upon?

Can He trust you to
protect His reputation?

Are you reliable?

Are you faithful to one Husband?

Devoted?

Can you be depended on to stand firm

and not waver, not flinch,

in your devotion to Christ?

Does your life exude faithfulness?

That's the question, brethren, that I ask.

This is a virtue highly to be sought.

A faithful man who can find?

This is rare.

But I hope that it will not be rare

among those who meet within these walls.

Father, we pray for the reality of this.

I pray for it in Christ's name.

Amen.