Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness
Galatians 5:22-23
What is Faithfulness?
In our culture: The opposite of “Unfaithfulness”
- Unfaithfulness is usually used in the context of marriage – to speak of an affair – going outside the marriage to find what should only be found within the marriage. – we vow to love & be faithful at the wedding.
- Unfaithfulness is more than adultery – If you are at your job, the pub, sports game, … when you should be home and present to the family, are you being faithful?
The Bible, particularly the Old Testament uses the analogy of marriage to describe God’s relationship with his people. So when the people worship other gods, it is described as adultery. God goes as far as calling his prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute to illustrate the unfaithfulness of his people.
Unfaithfulness is a descent into self – it is wholly about pleasing yourself, not your family, or the person you are unfaithful with.
Unfaithfulness to God may not look like worship other gods today in North America – it is relying on other things for things we should only rely on God for.
Fortune telling
Lotteries
Coercion
Faithfulness is much bigger than “the opposite of unfaithfulness!” – faithfulness has to do with being present, but it is also much more than that.
God’s faithfulness
God’s faithfulness is one of His main descriptors – second only to loving?
The Pentateuch
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
The Psalms – we sing about God’s faithfulness too
Psalm 36:5
Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
Proverbs 18:24
One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Prophets:
God will walk beside us no matter what the circumstance
Isaiah 43
1 But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
New Testament – God doesn’t change his mind on forgiveness – he will always forgive
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
His faithfulness doesn’t depend on ours
2 Timothy 2:11&13
Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
Faithfulness is a quality that seems important to God as well. Jeremiah often suffered from discouragement and depression – with good reason – God was always asking him to do weird things, and the people hated him. At one of those down points he has the audacity to question God’s faithfulness: Jeremiah 15:18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook, (wadi)
like a spring that fails.
God says, “hold on there Jerry, you straighten up & fly right, and everything will go fine.”
Pictures of faithfulness
David & Jonathan
Johnathan is faithful; to his friend David when it means that His father might kill him, and that he will not follow his father in being king.
David’s mighty men
2 Sam 23:1317
Once during the harvest, when David was at the cave of Adullam, the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rephaim. The Three (who were among the Thirty—an elite group among David’s fighting men) went down to meet him there. 14 David was staying in the stronghold at the time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem.
15 David remarked longingly to his men, “Oh, how I would love some of that good water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem.” 16 So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the Lord. 17 “The Lord forbid that I should drink this!” he exclaimed. “This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.” So David did not drink it.
Dexter’s family
How have you experienced a friend’s faithfulness?
How have you experienced God’s faithfulness? Have you ever questioned his faithfulness? How did that go?
The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness Within Us
Faithful to God
If faithfulness is more than just not running after other gods, or depending on other things when we should trust in God, more than just showing up… what does positive faithfulness to God look like? – ask congregation
Unwavering in our commitment to serve him – when we find something he wants us to do – either through scripture, or the prompting of the Spirit – we set to do it
Faithful to others
Dependability
Unwavering
This is what we are shooting for – faithfulness to God, faithfulness to eachother
How does the Spirit Grow Faithfulness within us?
Faithfulness breeds faithfulness.
By example – the Spirit is completely faithful to the Father and the Son
John 16:12-15
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."
By giving us a faithful heart
Ezekiel 36:25-27 (Today’s New International Version)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
How can we help cultivate faithfulness?
Meditate on God’s faithfulness – sing about it
God does not tire of us
God doesn’t say, “I just couldn’t get out of bed today.”
Get over yourself – Bruxy
Ask “what is the faithful thing to do here?” – we become faithful by practicing
Proverbs 3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and humankind.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
