Being Faithful In An Unfaithful World Series

Cell #19--

We struggle with faithfulness when we forget that we will ultimately answer to God in eternity.

Conclusion:

1. Faithfulness is the natural fruit of the Holy Spirit as He works in our lives. That doesn’t mean however, that it happens without us being a willing participant. God wants us to honor Him by being faithful to the things we know He wants us to do and be involved with in our lives.

2. As I alluded to a few minutes ago, nothing takes the place of being faithful to God. When we simply do our best to faithfully serve God right where we are, our efforts can accomplish more than we could dare dream. The launch of Pioneer 10 in 1972 was amazing. The craft was intended to photograph Jupiter & send the images back to earth. It went farther, at 1 billion miles it passed Saturn. At 2 billion miles, Uranus, Neptune at 3 billion miles & Pluto at almost 4 billion miles. However, the craft continued to operate even then, and it was still going in 1997 25 years after it was launched. At that point it was 6 billion miles from the sun but it was still sending signals to the earth. According to Leon Jaroff, of Time Magazine, those signals radiate from an 8 watt transmitter which about as much power as a night light. The signal reaches earth more than 9 hours after the vessel sends it. Pioneer 10 was more faithful to her mission than anyone ever dreamed when she was launched in 1972. The tiny craft kept doing what she was designed to do. I hope the same can be said about us, that we will simply be faithful to do what God designed us to do. . . namely, serve Him. 6

3. Prayer asking God to help us be faithful!

1) Bruce Barton, Linda Taylor, David Veerman, Neil Wilson, Life Application Bible Commentary: Galatians, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers) 1994.

2) Frank Gaebelein, Ed., The Expositor’s B ible Commentary: New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1976-1992.

3) Bill Hybels, Fruit of the Spirit, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1997.

4) Donald Guthrie, The New Century Bible Commentary: Galatians, (Grand Rapids, MI: The Wm. B. Eerdsman Publishing Company) 1973.

5) Timothy George, The New American Commentary: Galatians, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press) 1994.

6) Thomas Trask & Wayde Goodall, The Fruit of the Spirit, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 2000.

7) Philip Kenneson, Life on the Vine, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press) 1999.

8) Melvin Newland, A sermon. (Browsville, TX)

9) R David Reynolds, A sermon.