Castles - 2 Timothy 4:6-7

A little girl builds sand castles, and a middle aged man builds a business. Both are building a castle. The girl wisely knows hers will eventually die, and when she's done, she goes away and does something else with her life.

The man has no concept of his castle ever being washed away. He's concerned with preserving his castle. His whole life is tied up in it. But the little girl's hopes and dreams are not with her castle. She is the wise builder! 

We're all building castles. Some good castles, helping other people, helping the environment... But there are sinful castles... Built on stealing money, built on mistreating people, built on things like abortion. 

Our castle is built upon Jesus dying for our sins so we can have eternal life. 

Paul's trip to Damascus... When he's knocked off his horse, the other men near him saw the light and heard the voice but didn't understand it. Paul saw the person inside the light! He must have thought, how can I be persecuting God?

His castle was being built on religion.

Paul goes to Arabia and relearns everything he knew about God, after his whole castle is washed away. In every Bible story he read, he saw Jesus! He realized you can't have God without Jesus. 

Paul forgets the old castle and builds a new one on Jesus. He goes out and preaches Jesus to the crowds, their castles come down, and they build new ones on Jesus!

Acts 16... The Holy Spirit stopped Paul with Timothy and Silas from going to Asia and other places. God lets them go to Troas and on to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, let Timothy go to Ephesus and Paul go to Athens... no big church planned there. In Corinth, he's persecuted. He stays because God told him, and God protected him. He goes to Galatia, then to Ephesus, and people go from there to Collossi, Laodicea to spread the Gospel. 

In Troas, God opened the door for him to preach, but he left and preached at churches of other cities. 

Everyone builds a castle. Paul dies in prison. While he's there and finds out he'll be executed, he wants to see Timothy, the one he's closest to in the faith. 

2 Timothy 4:6-7... 

He says he's ready to be offered. A sacrifice unto God. He never lashes out against the government. He's looking past all that. He stays in prison, and is ready to die if it's his time. And his time is at hand.

V7... He's fought the good fight!

2 Corinthians 11:23-28...

He was persecuted everywhere. He definitely fought the good fight. He hated when people turned believers away from faithful teaching. 

Paul's castle was all finished. All built, nothing more he could add. He'd finished his course, and he'd kept the faith!

The greatest thing that can be said of our lives is that we kept the faith! We keep the faith because of who God is.

What castle are we building?

Is it built upon Jesus crucified and risen to Heaven? All that matters is not success, not people's opinion of you, but whether you kept the faith!