09/21/16 REMEMBER, FAITHFULNESS IS THE STANDARD
A mistake is not necessarily a sin, but a sin is always a fatal mistake. A mistake does not indicate unfaithfulness, but sin is unfaithfulness.
To fail in an attempt to do good is not necessarily to fail in your endeavor to please God. There may be a number of failures on the path to ultimate success. The final outcome is that you have not failed, but rather you were in the process of succeeding.
Too often, too many people give in to their preliminary failures and they become final failures.
Even when we (including parents and pastors) fail to produce the end result we want, it does not necessarily mean we have failed to do that which is right and good.
2 Timothy 4:1-8
(1) I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
(2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
(3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
(4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
(5) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
(6) For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
(7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
(8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
God did not want Adam or any of Adam's children to sin or to reject Him or His offer of salvation.
God planned and provided a way for sinners to be reconciled.
God communicated His offer of salvation to sinners.
God has sought, and reached out to sinners.
But sinners continue to reject God and His salvation.
GOD HAS NOT FAILED; the SINNER FAILED
Faithfulness is the requirement. Whatever the outcome of our work may be, God requires us to be faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:2
(2) Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
If you cannot be productive or successful in a given task, you can still be faithful.
God requires us to be faithful in the minor issues as well as the major things.
Matthew 24:44-51
(44) Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
(45) Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
(46) Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
(47) Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
(48) But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
(49) And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
(50) The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
(51) And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
