This weekend, my church is celebrating its 110th anniversary! I know, it is a big deal, and it is on a personal level a privilege to be part of it. One thing I am most grateful for is the legacy it is leaving behind which is one of faithfulness in the Lord. Not many of us in today’s culture can boast these many years of existence. Even companies that are top performing today cannot boast these many years of existence much less of enduring legacy, so it is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement. However, we know that this achievement is not something we the church can boast of, we know that the Lord himself has kept us and held us fast. Despite our history, our flaws and pitfalls, the Lord has been faithful to us and has allowed our local church to continue to flourish and be passed down from one generation to the other. Indeed, we have been here by His grace and His alone. It is a beautiful thing to be standing on the shoulders of giants, those that have done the work and you just come and enjoy the hard work that was done. This anniversary also makes me realize that our generation will soon be gone and so we have a responsibility to pass the baton to the next generation and we have to do so in a way that is honouring the Lord and keeping with His spirit. My encouragement today is a short and straightforward one, strive to be faithful, the people coming after you depend on how well you steward what the Lord has placed in your hands.
When things work, no one complains, everyone is happy. In fact, in such cases, no one even thinks about how the thing is running behind. For example, when you attend a great event and everything runs smoothly, as an attendee, you easily overlook what goes on in the background, you do not think much about those things and maybe you even go as far as thinking that it is an easy task to do. Why is that? It is because there was no issue and your host made it look easy, so you thought: “this is a piece of cake”. But if given the opportunity to do likewise, you’d soon realize it was not as easy as the host made it look. My point is, when things are going well, we are often quick to dismiss the effort that goes into making things work well. Particularly, in the world we live in, results have to be instantaneous, waiting is not part of the game so it can be difficult to realize that there is “long-suffering” involved in having to do something well. Part of stewarding well what we have is ensuring we are utilising what is in our possession in the most efficient and effective way. This will involve knowing what we have, protecting what we have, growing what we have, pruning what we have, sharing what we have and preserving what we have. One thing that Paul left Timothy when he knew his time on this earth was coming to an end was the legacy of his faithfulness to the faith in Christ. Indeed, Paul exhorted Timothy to “keep the faith”, to remain steadfast in the Lord, to be watchful for false teachers and prophets, to continue to preach the true gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ even if it meant going against the current of the world. He encouraged Timothy to continue to grow and focus on the Lord and on things above. This to me is the essence of faithfulness. When you are faithful, you do not give up (Hebrews 10:39). When you are faithful, you get back up when you fall (Proverbs 24:16). When you are faithful, you encourage yourself in the Lord (Colossians 3:16-17; Philippians 4:8). When you are faithful, the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). When you are faithful, your trust is in the Lord, and He gives you the strength that makes you fly on eagles’ wings (Isaiah 40:28-31). It is something remarkable when we remain steadfast in the Lord. The other beautiful thing that happens when you are faithful is that you leave a legacy and the Lord’s name is glorified. Not only is it glorified, but also many people get to know Him and follow Him. Our faithfulness is a blessing to us and to others. Being faithful in the Lord increases our growth because the more faithful we are, the more the Lord is able to entrust us with bigger assignments for His glory. How then do we remain faithful? And in what should we remain faithful?
My answer is simple. Remain faithful in the Lord and remain faithful in whatever the Lord has entrusted in your hand for that season. For example, if the Lord has entrusted you with a job, then be faithful in that job. Whether you like the job or not, be faithful in it. Even if you are looking and searching for something else, while you are still in the job, be faithful, that means, be consistent in producing good work, be humble and have a teachable attitude, learn what you do not know, become comfortable in it, prove yourself worthy or noble for the task, in short, do well what you have been given the privilege to do. Conduct yourself in a manner that is irreproachable. As you do that, your legacy will speak for itself even after you leave, and the beauty is that you would have carried that same faithfulness spirit unto the next assignment or challenge the Lord throws at you. Has the Lord entrusted you with children? Be faithful as a parent, honouring the Lord in your parenting, teaching your children the ways of the Lord, inculcating in them kingdom values so that the love of this world will not be on them to the point of stealing their devotion and allegiance to Yahweh. In whatever place you find yourself in, before wanting to give up remind yourself that there is grace for you to stay, there is sufficient grace for you to persevere. Like James tells us: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4). The idea of faithfulness invokes perseverance and perseverance tells us that it will not always be rosy. There will come a time when it is not appealing to remain, when it is not popular, when it is exhausting to persevere in doing good, when it is painful. That is why, James exhorts us to first consider it pure joy whenever we have to demonstrate such qualities as perseverance or faithfulness. Second, your faithfulness has a purpose, it is developing maturity in you, making you full and complete. The benefits of persevering and being faithful are not just so that you can leave a good legacy behind but it is also so that your own character can be worked on. It is a two-way blessing. As we pour ourselves unto others, the Lord ensures we too are being filled. Something I have learned and continue to learn is that I have to start small. The baby step I take, if I am consistent enough in those baby steps it will amount to much. I do not know if faithfulness is a term you think of often but let me encourage you to put it in your vocabulary because if you are in Christ, the Lord Jesus is calling you to be faithful. He often calls the church to remain faithful since many false prophets and teachers will come to sway the children of God away from the truth. Jesus also wondered when speaking with his disciples if he would find faith when he returned (Luke 18:8). In other words, would he find anyone being faithful to him? That question is still valid today and we who know the Lord Jesus Christ should strive to remain faithful in our faith, faithful in the truth, faithful in walking in steps with the teachings of our Lord and saviour Jesus and that as shown in the many spheres of influences he has placed us in.
I wonder, how will you start building a legacy of faithfulness today? What practical steps can you take to do that? How about practising the basic disciplines of prayer, bible reading and meditation? How about obedience, being intentional about applying the truth of God’s words to your lives? Indeed, there are many ways one can start building a legacy of faithfulness, but it requires discipline, it requires effort, and it requires killing your flesh, subduing that which is elevating itself above Christ in your life. Yes, it is demanding but it is also worth it. The world is dying to see men and women that are faithful in the Lord. Will you take the baton and follow in the steps of the great crowd of witness that has gone ahead of us? I pray you jump at the invitation and that you abide in Jesus as you learn to be faithful. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 