Setting Our Sights on a Lifetime of Serving Christ

Sermon Transcript

Maybe this is true about you too, but I find that the older that I get, the more I find myself saying things that I used to hear my parents say all the time. One phrase I noticed this week that I say, I’m starting to say more and more, is they don’t make things like they used to. I also find that I more frequently use words like junk, cheap, and rip-off.

I suppose it’s uh—and it’s—I started to analyze that it makes sense because the older you get, the more I—I suppose—you seem to appreciate things that uh, that are reliable and have longevity to them, right? I mean, if you just—you get when you’re a little kid, my kids spend all their, you know, allowance on all this junk. It doesn’t last very long, but their attention span is not very long, and they’re not that old. And so—but the older you get, the more you want things to last. You want things to hang in there for the long run.

Well, I was thinking about that axiom, and I thought, can you imagine that applied to God? I mean, the eternal one. I mean, he is the oldest one in the universe, you realize, right? Think about reliability and longevity from his perspective. Boy, that’s got to be a little different than ours. You can see where that would be at a premium for him. He would value that above, it would seem, almost anything else. And sure enough, when you open your Bibles, you find throughout the scriptures a lot of comments on that topic. The biblical word for it is faithfulness. And you see that throughout the scripture, God values that highly.

 

Passages like this in Proverbs chapter 20, verse number 6, from God’s perspective, he says, many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but a faithful person who can find. God’s saying it’s hard to find somebody you can depend on. It’s hard to find someone you can rely on, someone who’s consistent, someone who’s loyal, someone who takes a position and a stand and hangs in there.

 

It’s much like us, I suppose. We go and buy something, we spend good money on something, and we expect it to do what it’s supposed to do, and we expect it to keep doing for a long time what it’s supposed to do. As a matter of fact, if faithfulness is too much of a Bible word for you and it’s kind of defined in a misty way in your mind, that would be a good definition, a good two-part definition of the biblical concept of faithfulness.

 

To be faithful from God’s perspective is to do what we’re supposed to do and to keep on doing it. That’s what faithfulness is all about. And God says, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s what I want to see. And I expect to see that.

 

The third chapter of Hebrews that we’re about to get into for a number of weeks is all about faithfulness, and the concept of faithfulness—the faithfulness that God desires from us. But as you’ll see in Hebrews chapter 3, we begin with some templates, some examples. We see the gold standard, if you will, of faithfulness in this scripture.

 

So take your Bibles, if you haven’t already, and turn to the third chapter of Hebrews. And I want to spend a little time this morning—this morning. All of us are saying that from the stage. We’re going to learn. This afternoon—next week we change our clocks though, right? Isn’t that right? So it’ll be like dark right now next week, I think, so we’ll know it’s afternoon.

 

Hebrews chapter 3, we begin with a discussion here. We’ve already looked at verse 1, it was rich with insight, so we spent a whole week on that two weeks ago. But now he begins to speak about faithfulness, the faithful high priest, Christ himself. And in verse number 2 it says, he was—that is, Christ was faithful to the one who appointed him.

 

And then he uses an example, a comparative example: just as Moses was faithful in all of God’s house, Jesus hadn’t been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. And he parenthetically says, for every house is built by somebody. It’s a good verse for your evolutionist friend. But God is the builder of everything. That needs a whole series of sermons. We’ll pick that up another time.

 

Moses—then he goes on to say in verse 5, picking the argument back up—he was a faithful servant in all of God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future, but Christ is a faithful son over God’s house. And then he gets to where—just an introductory statement, bottom of verse 6—of where he’s going to camp for the rest of the chapter, and that is, if we’re his house, then we ought to be faithful.

 

The way he puts it here is, we ought to hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. We doing that—and it begins with our confession, our hope in Christ. If he is our great high priest, we ought to faithfully hold on to that.

 

But he begins by saying, you know, Christ is faithful. And what I like in this text is he uses for us an example that most of us are familiar with. A lot of us know intimately, and it’s helpful for us because we get to see faithfulness played out, not just on a divine dimension, but on a human dimension. And he picks up the concept of Moses.

 

Number one on your outline, if you found that complicated outline—and I know that scared you when you came in here this afternoon—but it won’t be as painful as it looks. If you just jot this down, number one—and we’re going to work down the column there on your left. We’re going to try to create a grid.

 

So number one on your outline, jot this down. What we need to see is in this text, the faithfulness of our biblical heroes. That’s such a big statement. It takes the lights out every time I say it. We need to note the faithfulness of our biblical heroes.

 

And specifically for them, the ultimate hero of the Old Testament was Moses. As a matter of fact, you can put in the margin of your Bibles, John, for instance, John 1:17, where the whole comparison of new covenant and old covenant are represented by two names, Moses and Jesus. I mean, that was the pinnacle person, the ultimate prophet, the one who was the first author of the Old Testament. And the verse I’m quoting is, law was given through Moses, but grace and truth, it comes through Christ Jesus.

 

I mean, Moses—if you’re going to talk about an ultimate prophet, an ultimate liaison, an ultimate Old Testament person who stands in the gap—Moses is the guy. And so for them, he starts at the top and he says, you know, you need to know that Moses was a faithful person. As a matter of fact, the way he puts it in the bottom of verse 2 is he was faithful in all God’s house. The label he earns is that he’s a faithful person.

 

And to put it in terms that we can use throughout this message and try and understand for our own lives, letter A—I put 1A so you don’t get confused as we work down the column—you need to recognize that Moses was someone who was faithful.

 

How was he faithful? He was faithful because he was loyal to God in fulfilling his role. Jot that down. He was loyal to God in fulfilling his role. And once you write it down, turn with me to Exodus chapter 3 and remember this whole interaction he has at the burning bush, as he’s standing there watching this bush and it’s burning and God all of a sudden now says, I got a job for you. Exodus chapter 3.

 

So turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3 and take yourself back to this old flannel graph story that most of us remember about Moses standing there in front of the burning bush. Now remember, he’s quite old at this point. As a matter of fact, he’d had this period of working for his father-in-law. And for all those of you who work for your father-in-law, well, we won’t comment on that, but it wasn’t Moses’ first choice. Let’s put it that way.

 

Verse 1: now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. This is Exodus 3:1. The priest of Midian. It’s out in the desert. Barstow, okay? Blythe, right? That’s my favorite desert town. And he led the flock to the far side—

 

And Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but it didn’t burn up. Now, I mean, he saw the bush on fire. He’s seen bushes on fire. But as he’s watching this, it doesn’t burn up. Something’s just supernatural. Something’s bizarre about this. So Moses thought, I’ve got to see this strange sight, why the bush is not burning up.

 

Verse 4: when Yahweh saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Now, can you imagine this? And here it comes. Here’s your name. Michael. You know, Michael. Moses. Here comes a voice out of a bush. Bizarre. And Moses goes, yeah, here I am.

 

And then God says in this voice in the bush, don’t come any closer. As a matter of fact, take off your sandals for the place where you’re standing is holy ground. You got the God of the universe right now talking to you. So straighten up here, Moses, and take your shoes off and understand who you’re speaking with.

 

And Moses says—verse 6, or God rather says in verse 6 to Moses—I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And at this Moses, he hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

 

Every encounter in the scripture, by the way, when you come face to face with God in some vision or—or—or apparition or whatever it is—uh, humble. God, get away from me, as Peter put it. Isaiah 6 comes to mind.

 

Verse 7: Yahweh says, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. As you’ll remember, Moses’ failed attempt to fix the problem. He says, I’ve heard them crying out because of the slave drivers, and I’m concerned about their suffering. So I’ve come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, so to speak—the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, blah, blah, blah, all the ites.

 

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I’ve seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. And he’s got a plan, and the plan includes Moses. And Moses is going to be the guy, and Moses is going to stand in the gap, and God says, I need you. And you’re going to be the person that’s going to lead them out, and I’ve got a calling for your life.

 

Now, if you know anything about Exodus chapter 3, you know there’s a little debate that goes on, but ultimately at the end of the chapter, he accepts the call. By chapter 4, we see Moses, with some reluctance, say, if that’s your calling on my life, I will do it.

 

The thing that earns the title faithfulness in Moses’ life is that he is willing to accept the thing that God has called him to do. I mean, we can call it obedience. We can call it responsiveness. The Bible calls it faithfulness. If you do what I ask you to do, then you’re a faithful person.

 

Second, 1B on your outline. Not only was he loyal to fulfill this, but go to the end of the book, Exodus chapter 40. The end of Exodus, Exodus chapter 40. The question is, how long was Moses willing to fulfill the role that God called for him? And I think you know the answer to that because you’ve read the story, you’ve seen the movie.

 

Let’s put it this way: letter B, the long run. Okay? Letter B: he was loyal to God for the long run. He wasn’t loyal to God for a few chapters. He wasn’t loyal to God for a few years. He wasn’t loyal to God, you know, just for half of his life. He was loyal to God from the time God called him to fulfill a role until God brought him home. And that was his entire life.

 

And here’s a remarkable chapter, Exodus chapter 40. After everything that Moses has been through, he’s now called to set up the tabernacle. In verse number 1, it says, Yahweh says to Moses, set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting on the first day of the first month, blah, blah, blah. And we got all this information for the next 13, 14 verses.

 

And then look at verse number 16: Moses did everything as Yahweh had commanded him. Drop down to verse number 19: spread the tent over the tabernacle. Put the covering on the tent. Underline this: as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 21, end of the verse: as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 23: put the bread out of the table, as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 25: he set up the lamps, as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 27: he burned the fragrant incense, as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 29: he burnt this burnt offering and grain offerings. He did everything he was supposed to do, as Yahweh commanded him. Verse 32: they washed whenever they were supposed to do their thing to get ready. They approached the altar. Great, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

 

And I love this. In verse 33, last chapter in the book of Exodus, after they put up the curtain, it says, and so Moses—I love this line—did what? Finished the work. He did. He did what he’s supposed to do. As Yahweh commanded him. He did it for the long haul.

 

Don’t you love that phrase at the end of the last epistle that Paul would ever write? He says, you know what? I finished the course. I’ve kept the faith. I’ve done it. I fought the good fight. I’m running through the tape. The thing that God wants from us is to fulfill our role, but not only to fulfill our role, but to fulfill our role for the long haul.

 

And a lot of us know people that do it like a flash in the pan, and Jesus tells stories about that. But the bottom line is Moses earns the title faithful not just because he obeyed God, but because he obeyed God for the long haul. And that’s the title of faithfulness. And faithfulness requires that. Faithfulness is to do what we’re supposed to do and to keep on doing what we’re supposed to do.

 

Well, what about it? How much did he do it? Well, he did it to the extreme. 1C on your outline—jot this down. He was loyal to God, and you need to understand this: this was not easy to be loyal to God and fulfill the role that God had for you. He was loyal to God at great personal cost. It cost him a lot.

 

And if you know the story of Moses, you know it wasn’t pleasant times. They weren’t just kind of rushing right into the promised land. They had a little detour that took a little while. You remember that? They were in Barstow and Blythe and Needles for a long time. Okay. How many years? 40 years. That was rough, wasn’t it?

 

Turn over to the book of Numbers. Numbers explains the wandering and the whole story about how they were out there in the desert wandering around. And guess who was called to lead these people? Now, when God said, I want you to lead the people into the promised land from Egypt, he didn’t explain to Moses that they were going to have a 40-year detour in Needles. He didn’t tell him that. But he expected him to keep doing what God wanted him to do. He expected Moses to keep fulfilling his role. And so he was going to do it, even if it cost him the big detour into the desert, and that would get really rough.

 

And if you remember the story of Moses in Numbers 11—did I turn you to chapter 11? Or did I not tell you what chapter? I like to keep those things secret to myself. But I’ll let you in on it. Numbers chapter 11.

 

Now get into the sandals of Moses here and feel his pain for a second. He’s doing what God asked him to do, right? He’s fulfilling his calling, and he’s been doing it for a number of years at this point, but it’s getting hard, and it was tough.

 

In Numbers 11:11—you can remember this reference, 11:11—here’s what Moses says. Jump in the middle of this discussion he’s having with God. Moses asks Yahweh, why have you brought this trouble on your servant? I love it when you start talking about yourself in third person, right? I mean, he’s torqued. Why in the world have you made it so hard for your servant—for me? What have I done to displease you that you’ve put the burden of all these people on me? What have I done wrong? See? And all he’s doing is doing what he’s supposed to do.

 

Did I conceive all these people? I mean, I’m not really fully responsible. I don’t like this role. It hurts. I didn’t give birth to them. Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries an infant to the land that you promised on oath to their forefathers—and I didn’t know it would quite take so long to get them here. Why do I have to bear all this? And now they’re wanting meat. They’re tired of the manna stuff. Where am I going to get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, give us meat to eat.

 

I can’t carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. Is this how you’re going to treat me? If it is how you’re going to treat me, then put me to death right now. There’s an intimate devotional time that Moses is having with God. If I found favor in your eyes, if you like me at all—I mean, if there’s anything going for me—don’t let me face my own ruin. I’m tired of this. I want out. Kill me.

 

It’s amazing if you look through Scripture, you’ll find that the servants of God fulfilling the role that God had called them to fulfill is often—it’s just lined with thorns and difficulty. God never exempts us from that. And the path of obedience, it hurts sometimes. You can nod at that if you want because that happens to a lot of us, right? The path of obedience is painful.

 

And here is Moses doing what he was supposed to do, but what you need to know is to fulfill the role that God has for you, it’s oftentimes a painful role, and it certainly was for Moses. But Moses is called faithful because, you know what? Numbers 11 is in the end of the book. He keeps on going. And God picks him up and helps him, and he puts some people on there to help him, but he stays in his path. He stays on the course, and he keeps going all the way to the end of his life.

 

1D. There’s one more thing we need to note about Moses. He’s called faithful in all of God’s house. A servant who is faithful. Great. Moses is faithful. But the question is, how faithful was he? I know that at times he went to the wall, even despising his own life. But letter D, I mean, was he perfectly faithful? No.

 

Letter D, jot this down: he was loyal to God, albeit imperfectly. He wasn’t perfectly loyal to God. And you and I know this. Although he’s earned the title faithful, if you look in scripture—and this is the great thing about scripture—the Bible never puts a high gloss on the servants of God, right? The people that are faithful, we still find out that there are problems punctuating their faithfulness. Was he perfectly faithful in every way? I think you know this.

 

We could go back to Exodus 3, and perhaps you should sometime this week, and just look at how Moses struggled to accept the calling to start with. Argued with God to the point where the Bible says he made the Lord mad, and he got angry. As a matter of fact, Aaron was plan B in this whole thing. I mean, from a human perspective, Aaron wasn’t even supposed to be a part of this. But he had to because Moses was so frustrating to God in that initial opening calling that he had.

 

How about that Numbers 11 passage? Do you think that was a very stellar chapter in his life? Doubting God’s provision, arguing with God, wanting to die—he’s suicidal in chapter 11. I don’t think he’s proud of that looking back on it. I think he says, I really lacked faith in God at that point in my life. And he did.

 

And you know the whole story about speaking to the rock—that God said speak to the rock—and instead what does he do? Throws a little temper tantrum in front of everybody. And God says, you didn’t honor me enough to do what I said. You made me look bad in front of the people. As a matter of fact, there’ll be consequences for that, Moses.

 

Do you remember the consequences for Moses hitting the rock and having a temper tantrum? What was the consequence? He couldn’t even go to Canaan. Now, I’m saying I’m leading everybody into Canaan for 40 years, and now I don’t even get to go in? Nope.

 

Is Moses perfect? Not even close. But he earns the title faithful. Is that encouraging just a little bit for us? Because his track of faithfulness—though he does it for the long haul—he looks back at points in his life and he has regrets.

 

You ever have these people say, well, I have no regrets? I’m thinking to myself, what planet do you live on? Right? What’s wrong with you? What are you, perfect? Let’s bow down and worship you right now. I don’t get it. You have no regrets at all?

 

All of us on our path of walking the path that God has called us to, I’m assuming we’re looking back, wishing we could take an eraser out and just erase a few little short chapters there, right? See, faithfulness—you need to understand—even in Moses’ life and God’s—he’s a faithful servant in God’s house. It wasn’t perfect.

 

But you see, the passage begins not so much with an emphasis on Moses. If you’d go back to Hebrews chapter 3, the emphasis and focus on the passage isn’t really on Moses. It’s going to be ultimately for our application and our good, as we’ll see in verses 6b to the end of the chapter. But the real standard in the text is not Moses. The standard is Christ, who’s perfectly faithful.

 

As a matter of fact, take a look at the text again in verse number 2, where he says, if you want to talk about perfect faithfulness, here’s what it looks like. He—that is Christ, the great high priest—was faithful to the one who appointed him. Now, there’s a similarity and a kindredness to the fact that Moses was faithful too.

 

But Jesus, verse 3, was found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. In the margin, be sure you put next to that Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, because there’s the section where we learn that he is the creator of all things.

 

As a matter of fact, then we have the word God there in verse number 4, that every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. You should look back, by the way, just across the page or flip back a page and see how clearly the deity of Christ is represented.

 

And I know this is a little excursus, a little parenthetical section, but it’s worth looking at. Again, verse 1: in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he’s spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things—and now here’s the passage you have to underline—and through whom he made the universe.

 

The agent of creation is the Son of God. The eternal Son of God is the creation—or is the agent of creation—and in that regard he is the creator of all things, as the New Testament often says. He creates all things.

 

So in that regard, I mean, you want to talk about it. Moses was a pale reflection of the perfection of Christ, the creator. And God, if that’s a word you stumble over a little bit, he’s already used that word in reference to God, has he not, in chapter 1.

 

Drop down a few verses later where it says in verse number 8, about the Son—he, that is the Father, says—your throne, what’s the label he puts on him? Oh, God. Remember that when we studied that a few months back? He says about the Son, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.

 

Now who’s going to sit on that throne where the Son is? Of course, that’s what the whole passage is about, that he’s been anointed by the Father, but he’s called in this text God.

 

The point is that the faithfulness of God, the second person of the Godhead, the Son, the eternal Son—it’s going to be perfect. But we need to realize that the perfection of the Son, or the faithfulness of the Son, is lived out how in the triune Godhead. It’s lived out this way.

 

Number two—did we say two yet? Number two is that we need to note the faithfulness of Christ. And the faithfulness of Christ is lived out how? It’s lived out by letter A, 2A: it’s lived out by the fact that the Son fulfills his role.

 

He is loyal to God the Father by fulfilling his role, not by usurping the Father’s position, but by being eternally submissive in his role to the Father. And in that regard, even as the agent of creation, he is fulfilling constantly his role in the Godhead. And God looks at everything the Son does, and of course, by virtue of him being creator and God himself, he says, you do it perfectly.

 

And when it came to the specific challenge of fulfilling his role in the incarnation, which we studied at the end of chapter 2, I mean, that was the most challenging part of it at all—of all—what does it say? He was faithful to the one who appointed him.

 

As a matter of fact, if you look back up in chapter 2, if you have Hebrews still open, it says, here he was being willing—verse number 14—to share in flesh and blood because that’s what we shared in, and his goal and purpose was to redeem us. So he comes in to destroy the power of death and him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free us who are all our lives in slavery to the fear of death. He helps the descendants of Abraham, human beings, not angels.

 

For this reason, he had to be made—verse 17—like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful—there’s our word—faithful high priest in service to God. And God looks at his service and goes, man, you did it perfectly. And what you did is you made atonement for the sins of the people. He fulfilled his role.

 

And if you think that’s easy, it wasn’t easy at all. As a matter of fact, we need to get to the place where we realize this is the most trying and challenging thing of all, was Christ fulfilling his role as our redeemer. But Christ did that perfectly.

 

Just to fill in our chart, just to be consistent, to sandwich this in real quick, you need to know, of course, being God and being the Son, eternally perfect, that he is loyal to God eternally.

 

2B: he is loyal to God the Father eternally. He, as John 8, verse 29 says, always does what pleases the Father. Can you imagine saying something like that? Moses couldn’t say that. You and I can’t say that, but the Son says, I always do what pleases the Father. Always. Perfectly consistent.

 

If you want an example of consistency, it’s Christ. And then Christ is presented in Scripture, who is the same yesterday, today, and today. He’s always pleasing the Father. He’s never stopped pleasing the Father, and he will always continue to please the Father. And if you want a picture of faithfulness—doing what he’s called to do, and keep on doing that—Christ is the best example of all. Christ is the ultimate example of that. He is loyal to God the Father eternally.

 

And what about the cost? How much does he—how far does he go?

 

2C: he is loyal to God at great personal cost. And underneath that point, at least jot this in that little box, that kind of semi-box you got there. Jot down Philippians chapter 2 and remember those words in Philippians 2, verses 5 through 11, where he is faithful to fulfill his role, even to death—obedient, even to death—and it says even death on a cross. And nothing’s worse than that.

 

And you remember that dilemma that he has in the garden, and he struggles in fulfilling this role. At least you see this torture and this torment of looking at the dread of the cross. And then he ultimately says, because I always do what pleases the Father, he says, not my will, but yours be done.

 

At the ultimate crossroads, when Moses sometimes checked out and did the wrong thing, Christ always did the right thing at great personal cost, was willing to die naked on a Roman execution rack and say, if that’s the path for me, I’ll fulfill the role no matter what it costs me. Christ is the ultimate example.

 

And when we pray to the Father through the Son and we say thank you for being our mediator, there was absolutely no redemption for us and no mediation to the Father unless he was willing to go to the wall and give it all up at great personal cost. And no one, of course, has paid the price, a higher price than what Christ paid for us.

 

2D: how well has he done this? Perfectly. Loyal to God with absolute perfection. You could have filled this line in. This is simple, right? He fulfills his role. He does it eternally. He does it at great personal cost, the ultimate cost of the cross, and he does it with perfection. There’s not a day when the Son does not fulfill his role perfectly.

 

Not only is our redeemer dying on a cross, but now interceding for us on our behalf as the mediator before the Father. He does it perfectly. And that’s why you and I have confidence every time we pray, every time we say, God, forgive me, every time we come and offer him praise. We have a mediator who’s never going to be unfaithful to his role. He’s the ultimate example of faithfulness.

 

And as you try and compare the greatest faithful examples of our biblical heroes in the Old Testament and compare Christ, there’s no comparison. You might as well be comparing the genius of the architect to the building itself. There’s no comparison. Christ is the ultimate an example of faithfulness.

 

Now, where the text is going, back to Hebrews chapter 3, is he wants us to be faithful. And we couldn’t deal with this all. I was tempted to try and squeeze it all in in one week, but you know me, I thought we’d stretch this out for 42 weeks. No, we’re going to do it for four weeks at least, to talk about where he’s going in the rest of the chapter, and that is that we be faithful. And that’s where the real emphasis of chapter 3 of Hebrews is.

 

And we are his house. Christ—he’s not a servant, he’s the Son, he’s the ultimate perfect faithful one—and we are a part of that house.

 

Look at the bottom of verse 6, if—now notice this—we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. We say we’re Christ. We say we follow Christ. We say we are his. Now we got to hold on to that. We got to do what we’re called to do, and we got to keep on doing it. That’s what faithfulness is all about.

 

Number three on your outline, third column there: be faithful. Just be faithful. That’s the call of our text.

 

And just to use the example, the template that was set up for us in the text, let’s just run through these real quick. I mean, you can fill it in.

 

3A. How do we—how are we going to be faithful? What is that all about? It means that you and I need to fulfill our role. You need to fulfill the role God has called you to fulfill. And the most fundamental role is that you are a truster in Christ. You trust in him. That’s what the text is all about. We hope in him. We don’t hope in ourselves.

 

And to fulfill your role before God is to maintain your hope in him, that you don’t ever get to the place where you say you don’t need Christ, that you don’t ever get to the place where you say, well, I’m looking pretty good now. God must accept me on my own merit. No. You always hold to the hope of Christ. You do what he says. And your most fundamental calling is to trust him.

 

And next to that, of course, in scripture, is that he calls us to be followers, right? He calls us to follow him. To do what God has asked us to do would have been easy if we lived in the first century. Don’t you sometimes read the Gospels and kind of wish that you lived there in the first century? Because then if you had a question about what you’re supposed to do, you could raise your hand and maybe eventually Christ would get around to saying, yes, what would you like, Mike? And I would say, I want to know what I’m supposed to do now. Wouldn’t that be great? And he actually would answer us with specifics.

 

See? I mean, he says to Matthew, hey, leave that table, come and follow me. That would be good to know. See, the specificity of the instructions of Christ. See, in our day, we don’t have that. And unfortunately, you and I cannot check in and have a personal conversation over, you know, at the restaurant with Christ to find out what’s next for us.

 

What he’s done is he’s given us the writings of the apostles. And he says, what you are to do is to obey my commands. And my commands are full of—just to use the paradigm that we’re using—the roles that I want you to fulfill. And he says, I want you to do that.

 

As a Christian, and then we can subdivide it. As maybe a father—are you a Christian father? As a Christian, does the New Testament have anything to say about that? Oh, it’s got a lot to say about that. A Christian wife—does the Bible have anything to say about that? They’ve got a lot to say about that. How about a Christian employee? Or a Christian employer? Or how about someone in a hostile situation where people are giving you all kinds of trouble for your faith as we talked about on Thursday night at our Bible study? Yeah.

 

I mean, there’s all kinds of instructions, and what God is saying is, I don’t expect you to just listen to the instructions regarding your role—James chapter 1—I expect you to do it, right? Isn’t that the whole point? Is that I am going to be faithful if I do what I’m supposed to do. And I won’t know what I’m supposed to do unless I start to understand, as a 21st century Christian person, what are the roles that God wants me to fulfill.

 

Were you here Thursday night—some of you not at—if you’re here Thursday night, we talked about the fact that one of the roles God gives you is to be a representative of him in the gospel. Remember that? Were you here for that? That we are not going to be ashamed of the gospel, that we are to represent the gospel to the world. We are his ambassadors. That’s one of the roles that you fulfill, and God is calling you to fulfill that, and to be faithful is to know what your role is and to say, I’m going to be serious about fulfilling that role.

 

If you’re a husband, if you’re a dad, if you’re a mom, if you’re a wife, if you’re a friend, if you’re an employer, if you’re an employee, you need to say, I need to know God’s word. That’s why the Bible has to be so important to us.

 

Our first value on the back of the bulletin is that we are going to be sure, as a community of Christians, that the Bible is central for us. Because we will never know the blessing of God and what it is to follow God if we don’t know what he says about what we’re supposed to do.

 

And since we can’t check in with him over at Denny’s, over a hamburger, we have to read the word that he left us. And the Bible says, if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. You’ll do what I ask you to do. And the only place we’re going to find that in some objective, propositional ways is within the pages of the New Testament.

 

So we study his word, we know what it says, and we say, for me to be faithful is to know what God has called me to be. And that’s why every day we should be picking up our Bibles and saying, God, help me to know what I’m supposed to be in the 21st century, fulfilling the role that I’m fulfilling today. How am I supposed to do it? Teach me. Guide me.

 

Be faithful. Be faithful in fulfilling the roles that God has for you.

 

And we’ll talk more about that in the weeks to come, and some of the key ingredients are coming up next week as we look at a bad example from the Old Testament.

 

How long should we be faithful to Christ? You can fill this one in, 3B. How long? The rest of your life. For the rest of your life. Okay? To the end, the Bible keeps saying. Okay? There’s a sense in which I won’t have to worry about it after the end.

 

The end is going to come in one of two ways. You’re going to die—letter A—or Christ is going to come back—letter B. And the Bible says your goal is to try and do what God has called you to do. Fulfill your role for how long? Until he comes back or until you die. From then, he’ll pick it up from there. And things are going to change, and I’m going to be changed, and the flesh is going to be redeemed, and it’s going to be a whole lot easier. I won’t have to worry about it.

 

But right now, my concern and compassion—or my passion rather—and my focus needs to be: fulfill your role. Just keep fulfilling it. Just run through the tape until you die or until Christ comes back. So for the rest of my life, I’m called to do that.

 

I love that discussion in John 21. These guys did not know what was coming for them. Remember the end of the book of John, and they’re having this discussion after Peter does the whole thing, do you love me, and he’s running away, and he’s frustrated about all that he’s been through—denying Christ three times in the courtyard and the slave girl. Remember all that?

 

And they’re sitting there after all this, and Christ is trying to motivate him to get back in the game. And he says, listen, it doesn’t matter what’s ahead. Just keep on serving me. It doesn’t matter. And they’re having this little debate.

 

And John is going to—this discussion about what John’s going to be. Let’s just turn there, okay? Hard for me to explain it all. John 21. Let’s get a picture of it. John chapter 21. I love it. It’s so clear. It’s so straightforward.

 

He’s talking to Peter. Peter’s standing there getting back into the game. He’s pulling them off the bench. He’s saying, come on, Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.

 

Verse 18, John 21:18: I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and you went wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. That doesn’t sound very good. Peter knew that wasn’t good.

 

And the comment here from John is, Jesus said this to indicate what kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Interesting way to describe it. Then he said, follow me.

 

Love that. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved—and that’s John’s way of referring to himself—and he was following them. This is the one, by the way, if you’re unclear because he’s writing the book, who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you? He wants to make sure you know it was him.

 

Peter, verse 21, saw him—you can see this—and he turns, he’s, Lord, what about him? Right? He’s now getting the scene to—the future for him is going to be hard. And he’s thinking, I don’t want to go out in the desert and go through this tough time. What about that guy?

 

And Jesus said this: if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? That won’t be your role. You—I love this—must follow me.

 

And see, part of our problem is, when it comes to this, you’re looking at other people’s lives. Don’t. Look at your life. And God has called you to be faithful in the role that he’s called you to be in, and you are to be faithful for the rest of your life.

 

And God has passed out all different kind of paths for all different kind of people. And you just continue to be faithful and do what God has called you to do. If that’s a path of singleness, if that’s a path of marriage, if that’s of medical problems, if that’s a path of good health, if that’s a path of an easy job, if that’s a path—or a hard job—if that’s a path on a stage, if that’s a path in a corner where no one sees you, keep doing it. Follow me. Doesn’t matter what everybody else is doing. Follow me.

 

I’m to be faithful for the rest of my life. You’re to be faithful for the rest of your life. And God says, just look at the tape. You’re going to run through the tape till you die or I come back. Just be faithful. Doesn’t matter about everybody else.

 

And that’s where we get thrown off because we’re running and we’re doing this the whole time. Don’t look at the tape and run through it.

 

Be loyal to God for the rest of your life. How much will it be hard? It’ll be hard sometimes. And maybe your path won’t be like John’s, who dies of old age on an island. Maybe it’d be like Peter’s.

 

Number three, 3C: be loyal to God irregardless of the cost. And you can get back to so many examples in scripture where Jesus, when he says, follow me, he has to tack on the fact that you’d better know that it doesn’t matter what the path looks like, right? Follow me.

 

If anybody would come after me, let him deny himself. What’s the next phrase? Take up his cross and follow me. No matter what the cross is, no matter what the cost is, just do it.

 

And if you want to worry about the cost so much that you’ve got to hang on to your life, he says, you’re going to then what? Lose it. But if you’re willing to say, no matter what the cost, I’m willing to lose my life—if that’s the case—then you’re going to find it.

 

And then you know what? Like in passages like Matthew 16, when Jesus is saying that kind of stuff to his disciples, he always seems to follow up with this statement: and one day I’m coming back and my reward will be with me. And he says, just keep looking at the cost—or look at the path rather—that you have irregardless of cost, and I will take care of you. It’ll always be worth it.

 

And if your path seems pretty steep and it’s a lot steeper than the next guy’s path, don’t worry about it. Just keep on plowing ahead. Every step and every trial will be worth it.

 

And as Paul said in 2 Corinthians, every single struggle, he says, are light and momentary afflictions. Because by way of comparison, that’s what they are. They’re producing for us an eternal weight of glory. So just keep on going.

 

Is your path hard? Is your path harder than the next person’s path? Big deal. You know what? The glory that you’ll receive is going to be even bigger. Just hang in there. Be faithful.

 

Be loyal to God in fulfilling your role. Be loyal to God for the rest of your life. Be loyal to God, regardless of the cost.

 

3D. Well, I can’t be Christ, I don’t think, right? I don’t think I’ll do this perfectly. Moses—yeah, I’m probably more like that. But you know what? Moses—I’m looking at a snapshot of his entire—how do I see it from this perspective on the timeline?

 

Here’s the goal, 3D: you and I, we need to shoot for this. We need to shoot to grow in a faithfulness in our life. I put it this way: be loyal to God with a growing consistency. That ought to be our goal.

 

And 2 Corinthians puts it this way. We’re already in that text in 2 Corinthians 3. It talks about the fact that we are to be growing from one level of glory to the next. To be constantly more and more conformed to the image of Christ. It’s the path of sanctification.

 

And maybe in the last 12 months, I was this faithful, but in the next 12 months, I should be more faithful. And the next 12 months after that, I ought to be a little more faithful. I ought to be faithful with a growing consistency where you can look back and see my spiritual progress.

 

And people ought to say, man, he’s a whole lot better at speaking to the rock and not smacking the rock when God tells him to later in life than he was earlier in his life. You ought to be able to see some growth, some consistency. And the goal should be for us to grow in that regard.

 

2 Corinthians 3 I quoted, but turn to one last passage for me. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The theme has already been presented for us: keep growing. But then he says this in chapter 4, which is one of the greatest lines in all of 2 Corinthians.

 

After this whole discussion, which the verse I just quoted, by the way, was verse 18 of chapter 3, look at verse 16 in chapter 4. He says, therefore—with all things said—I love the word therefore. Paul uses such a—here’s the punchline. He says, therefore, we do not lose heart. Are you with me, 2 Corinthians 4:16?

 

Though outwardly—you know, here’s the thing about growing old—we’re wasting away. Have you noticed that? Yet inwardly—I love this—we are being renewed day by day and week by week and month by month and year by year. And to quote verse 18 of chapter 3 again, we’re being transformed into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory.

 

Hey, I’m glad that every picture of every leader in the Bible is a realistic picture, and I realize perfection for Moses was not the reality. But here’s the thing. In light of God’s faithfulness in Christ, I want to be as faithful as I can possibly be.

 

And I’m not going to let the failures get me too torqued. I’m going to confess it. I’m going to get God’s forgiveness, and I’m going to move on and say, next time I’m going to be more faithful than I was this time. Though outwardly we’re wasting away, inwardly we’re being renewed day by day.

 

I’ve told you many times I’m not much of a green thumb, right? So don’t buy me a plant because I don’t do well with those. And I’m kind of stupid too when it comes to plant life. Because sometimes when I do have to buy a little something to go in a place where there’s nothing because the last thing I had there is dead now, I try to go for cheap, and that’s never good.

 

I once went somewhere, and they had these two trees on sale. I said, what’s wrong with these trees? Carlin’s laughing because she knows. He says, well, they’ve been diseased, but they’re better now.

 

Well, I saw the price tag. I said, well, this is a bargain. So I bought both of them. And I put one in one corner of my lawn, right outside the lawn in the planter, and put another one over here. I need two trees here in these barren spots. This will be great.

 

And you know what? We’ve been praying for years for those trees. And it’s been a tough go. As a matter of fact, they didn’t look good. They were diseased. The leaves would fall off. It looked a whole lot better in the pot at the nursery than it ever looked in the ground until last year.

 

And I remember looking out there just the other day as I was eating—our little kitchen table looks out through the window at these two trees in the backyard—and I said, wow, that thing’s growing now. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know how I’m going to deal with it, because there’s a part of it that’s just shooting right up to the sky. It’s about 50 feet tall now, just one—there’s one little part of the tree that’s healthy—and it’s just, it’s going. It looks—it looks ridiculous, but here’s the thing. I’m looking at that tree going, yeah, it’s going now.

 

Now, I know I’ve been to some of your houses and seen your yards, and you’re really good at all this, but you know what? My trees are growing. They don’t look like yours. And they have a lot of challenges, but they’re growing.

 

And you’ve got to say that the goal that God has for me is growth. And you ought to be seeing it in your life. And don’t be discouraged because you’ve got some leaves in your life that aren’t looking so good. Let’s just start growing.

 

And there are a lot of mistakes that we make. Next week and the week following, we’re going to look at those in this text. But just know the goal is—and our prayer should be this afternoon—God, we want to grow. We want to be more faithful this year than we were last.

 

And if that’s your heart’s cry, let’s ponder that. Let’s get that in our minds. Let’s pray about that this week and then come back next week and bring somebody with you, and let’s talk about being faithful and what it’s going to take.

 

Pray with me.

 

God, we do want to grow. Day by day, week by week, month by month, we want to make more progress. And God, sometimes in our pride, we can just be so frustrated at the failures in our lives as though we expect some kind of perfection better than Moses.

 

But God, I pray we’d be realistic today and realize that all the failures of our past are in the past, and it’s time for us to move forward. And if there’s failure, if there’s sin, if there’s problems, it’s time for us to move on. And we want to look toward growth.

 

And God, like those trees in my backyard, it may be only a part of the life right now that is showing vibrant progress. But God, it is our hope as we cultivate and work and pray and cheer on our spiritual growth in you that we’ll see the whole thing come into a healthy reality. And I pray that for our spiritual life.

 

God, what you’re looking for is for us to do what we’re called to do and to keep on doing it. And we’re gonna need the endowment of your Holy Spirit to make that a reality for us.

 

So God, I pray that we’d be receptive. We’d understand something about the calling to be faithful, and that God, in the next few weeks as we study this text, you would help us be just growing in just leaps and bounds in the next year.

 

God, we wanna make progress. We wanna move from one level of reflecting the glory of Christ to the next. God, day by day, month by month, and step by step.

 

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.