Be Faithful to the End sermon by Rev.Osofo Mawutor Buamah

SCRIPTURES:

       Psalm 93

1st 2 Sam. 23 : 1 - 7    

2nd Rev. 1 : 4 - 8

3rd John 18 : 33 - 37

HYMNS

Hymn of Praise 492

Hymn of Prayer 314

Hymn of Assurance 478

Sermon Hymn 155

Closing Hymn 316

LITURGICAL COLOUR: Green

THEME

Be Faithful to the End

Wɔ nuteƒe yi ɖase nuwuwu

To be faithful means to be firm and loyal in commitment to. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Faithfulness is one of God's chief characteristics. It refers to his reliability in keeping his promises. For example, recall that, the fulfilment of God's promise to give Canaan to the descendants of Abraham and the keeping of his commitment to never reject his people completely. The most outstanding example of God's faithfulness is his sending of his own son, Jesus Christ who fulfilled all his promises.

God is faithful, his word is also faithful and trustworthy. As a result of God's faithfulness, we ought to depend on God and trust him completely. God want all Christians to be faithful as He is faithful. We are to imitate the faithfulness of Christ to get the crown of life which lead us to the theme for the day Be faithful to the end. Hallelujah.

Beloved in the Lord, Our first reading from 2 Samuel brings us some words of King David, the great but very fallible second king of Israel, as he reflects back on his life. He acknowledges his dependence on the God who exalted and anointed him, and who gave him his Spirit. And he also acknowledges that a good ruler, a good king, who rules with justice, who seeks to serve God as well as his people, is a great blessing indeed. And he acknowledges God’s everlasting covenant: David was not able to build a house for God, a temple in Jerusalem, but God did indeed build a house for him, a family, a dynasty to faithfully lead Israel over the generations and over the centuries. David also acknowledges that those who turn against God and his ways will ultimately be rejected by God: they will be useless in serving his purposes. Sadly too many of David’s descendants did turn away from God, and the dynasty eventually failed.

Beloved in the Lord, the Kingdom of Jesus is one where God wins the hearts and minds of people with his love. God’s love means God is the one who is killed. God is offered up as the sacrifice to destroy evil. Someone once floated the idea that he would like to arrange for captured soldiers to be treated like kings, and fed the best. As word spreads of the way captured soldiers we feted and glorified, the soldiers would soon do their best to be captured, and all wars would soon end! Jesus treats those who surrender to him better than anyone ever deserved or hoped to be treated. It is the way God wins people over, not by force, but with his love. On the cross Jesus even prays for his enemies.

Brothers and Sisters, the kingdom of Jesus is a spiritual kingdom, and involves life in a different dimension to a mere earthly life.

Beloved, the second reading outlines worse things that can happen in even the cruellest of earthly kingdoms. Earthly rulers can destroy bodies, and vegetation and the landscape. But there are evil powers and forces at work in the world that can destroy people and spiritual life. Against these powers Jesus is number one, untouchable. This is the area where Jesus is King.

Fellow believers, we live under the rule of this earth and the laws for a time. There is no harm in that. It is one of many different ways God rules people on earth to spend time here in relative peace and safety. What God is more concerned about is that you and I are never destroyed spiritually. We live in human bodies but we are spirit people. To be destroyed spiritually is the worst that can happen to one. The temptation is to choose the earthly kingdom alone, as though that is permanent and all that counts.

Beloved, One can be emptied of the Spirit and lose the new life from Jesus. We weren’t born with the Spirit in us. So the Holy Spirit sees to it that we are born again, in the waters of baptism. This time the Spirit implants Jesus in us and we begin a new life in God’s love. We are spirit filled people, led by Jesus.

We have a choice. We can turn our back on God and his love and live only for this world, as though this is all there is. And we will become poor and lose everything when death calls. Or we can choose to live in the spiritual kingdom under Jesus and live forever. 

Beloved in Christ, to be faithful to the end as Christians, we know we cannot fall from grace, but we do fall into grace! God’s grace is an unearned, unmerited gift to the believer and thankfully, God never reneges on His gift to those who truly believe. What can we do to stay faithful to our God who loves us so generously and freely? We can purpose to be informed, insulated, and involved. Jude 1:17-25 tells believers how to remain faithful in their walk with the Lord. The chapter ends with God’s exciting promise to keep us safely by His side.

Fellow believers, Abraham remained faithful to become the father of all nations, Moses was faithful from the beginning to the end. Timothy was faithful, Onesmus was faithful and Silas was also faithful. All believers were faithful and served the Lord with commitment to obtain the crown which Lord reserves for the faithful ones.

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, Jesus is the first born form to the death. Christ demonstrated his great love by setting us free from our sins through his death on the cross which guaranteed us a place in His kingdom, and make us priest to administer God's love to our neighbors.

Let us be faithful in serving and witnessing to others and also remain faithful to be counted among the sheeps when the Lord returns. 

And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

ŋutifafa namí

Osofo Mawutor Buamah

EPCG Abutia Teti District