The faithfulness of God
Galatians chapter 5:22
Introduction-
Galatians 5:22-
We continue to look at the series “Fruit of the Spirit.”
We have determined that love; joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are characteristics of God.
They are the characteristics that should be active in a believer’s life.
Today, we are going to look at faithfulness.
We will look at the faithfulness of God.
We will look at our faithfulness, and come up with a plan so that we can be more faithful to the things of God, more faithful to the things that are important.
It does not take long to look at the tabloids that the answer to faithfulness is not Hollywood. Hollywood almost tells us that if a couple stay’s together a couple of years that that was a successful marriage.
They imply that faithfulness has a time limit and that you have a right to keep changing as different circumstances come up in life.
Mad at God- Don’t talk to him anymore; create a god that you want.
Mad at the church- Stop going and blame all churches for their problems.
Marriages with prenuptial agreements- all they are is escape clauses.
The attitudes of kids and parents- and the destruction of family.
Hallmark has a card that fits the mood of this generation.
“I can’t promise you forever, but I can promise today”
That is about as deep to commitment as people want to get.
The world does not have a clue what faithfulness really means!
In a day and age of quick, anything that requires time or effort is soon thrown to the wayside for a new and easy one.
Let me say this!
You cannot use the world’s definition of faithfulness. It is flawed, it is very selfish.
You must use God’s definition and must go to God’s Word to define it.
Webster- “to follow through with a commitment regardless of the difficulty.”
That is a good definition. The problem is most people do not apply it to their lives.
God’s Word (hold it up) tells us how to live faithful lives, because God’s Word tells us about a faithful God (repeat)
God’s Word tells us that we cannot do that in our own strength, but that God has to be the initiator and guide to have that happen.
God word tells us
Ephesians 6- To be faithful in service to God and others.
1 Cor. 4- to be faithful in giving.
Timothy- to be faithful in our marriages and family relationships.
Romans- to be faithful in prayer and communication with God.
Revelation- to be faithful unto death and that we will receive the crown of life.
You have to read it and believe it and live it! It is in there!
God’s word gives us directions to be faithful to things that are most important in our lives.
God loved you before you loved Him
God saw you when you did not know which end was up.
God reached for you when you were lonely and needed a hand.
God is faithful and He can lead our lives so that we can be faithful!
Psalm 25:10- “All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful”
Psalm 89:10- “O, Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O, Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you.”
1 Thess. 5:24- “the one who calls you is faithful.’
Deuteronomy 7:9- “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to the 1000 generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
Illustration- (Sermoncentral)
In the country of Armenia, in 1988, Samuel and Danielle sent their young son Armand, off to school. Samuel squatted before his son and looked him in the eye. “Have a good day at school, and remember, no matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” They hugged and the boy ran off to school. Hours later, a powerful earthquake rocked the area. In the midst of pandemonium, Samuel and Danielle tried to discover what happened to their son but could not get any information. The radio announced that there was 1000’s of casualties. Samuel then grabbed his coat and headed for the schoolyard. When he reached the area, what he saw brought tears to his eyes. Armand’s school was a pile of debris. Other parent’s were standing around crying. Samuel found the place where Armand’s classroom use to be and began pulling a broken beam of the pile of rubble. He then grabbed a rock and put it to the side, and then grabbed another one. One of the parents looking on asked, what are you doing? Digging for my son, Samuel answered. The man said, your just making things worse, the building is unstable, and tried to pull Samuel away from his work. Samuel set his jaw and kept working. An s time wore on, one by one, the parents left. Then a firefighter tried to pull Samuel away from the rubble. Samuel looked at him and said, won’t you help me? The firefighter left and Samuel kept digging. All through the night and into the next day, Samuel kept working. He picked up a beam and pushed it out of the way when he heard a faint cry. Help! Help! Samuel listened but didn’t hear it again. Then he heard a muffled voice, papa? Samuel began to dig furiously. Finally he could see his son. Come out son, he said with relief. Papa, I’m sending the other kids first, and fourteen kids came out of the rubble. “Papa, I told the kids not to worry because you told me you’d always be there for me.”
God’s faithfulness means that anything he says is certain.
He is faithful.
He is reliable.
100 % of the time.
God does not forget about us.
He says what he means and means what He said.
Some people don’t like that, but God us faithful.
It is His characteristic,
It is His nature to be faithful to the things He has committed to us.
He demonstrates His faithfulness to us every day.
Every time you see a rainbow. God is faithful. Though some have said with this flood, Every time you pick up a Bible- His Words shall never pass away.
Every time you gather to pray- where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am with them.
Song:
Great is thy faithfulness, O, God my Father
Mourning by mourning new mercies I see
All I have needed they hand hath provided
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Let’s pull this a little closer to our lives.
God is faithful, like it or not.
Like it or not, He expects us to live our lives faithful to Him and faithful to the principals He has laid out.
The question is “How do we develop that kind of faithfulness?
First, stop looking at the world for the answer.
As spirit-led believers tied to Jesus Christ, producing the fruit of faithfulness is the natural thing to do.
Apple trees produce apples because that is what they do!
Believers produce fruit from the Spirit of God.
We don’t have to analyze that- we need to just do it!
We get detached from Him and we won’t produce fruit.
Temptation will come but you can be faithful.
This nation is not a Christian nation and we are being tempted to be un-faithful to the things of God.
The world is knocking us down, mocking God, and we are not getting up. We are being knocked out of the game
Second, way to be developing faithfulness is to start.
It may seem strange, but you have to start somewhere and be determined to start.
You may get discouraged, you may at times be disappointed, but faithfulness will not let go, it says that I will not quit. I will keep looking to God for answers.
Faithfulness is not based on circumstances; it is based on determination and the spirit of God working in your life to give you victory in your life.
2 Timothy 4:7-
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearance.”
Get started and be determined to finish. You don’t have to be first, you need to finish well.
Hebrews 12:1-
“let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
We need to maintain our focus if we are going to finish well.
Being a Christian is not easy- it is the fight of your life. You must fight and persevere.
Third and final way to develop faithfulness is to study God’s word and be faithful to be in God’s house to hear God’s word.
When you don’t:
1. You will drift from God-
Don’t read His Word and don’t hear His message for you- you will drift!
How many messages have some missed because they weren’t here to hear it.
The most dangerous words I hear is “I don’t need to be in Church to be a Christian.” That is rebellion against God! And is as crazy as a fish saying that it don’t need water to live in!
2. You will doubt-
You get away from His Word and you have doubts.
You start listening to outside sources that are not of God.
People let you down, teacher let you down, pastor let you down, and you are not in church for God to lift you up and encourage you.
3. You will backslide-
Backsliding begins when you get away from the things of God.
If you are not growing, you are backsliding.
None can remain neutral, people in neutral fall backwards.
Closing-
One night a diver went to an indoor pool at the college he attended. The lights were off, but the moon was bright, so there was plenty of light to practice his dives. The young man climbed up to the highest diving board and as he turned his back to the pool on the edge of the board and extended his arms out, he saw his shadow on the wall. The shadow was in the shape of a cross. Instead of diving, he knelt down and asked Jesus to come into his life. As the man stood upon the diving board, a maintenance man walked in and turned on the light. The diver gasped in horror because the pool had been drained for repairs.
God has been faithful to us!
We need to be faithful to Him.
For some, the water is gone in your life and you are dangerously on the diving board.
Some of you, it is like walking the plank.
God wants to do something about that this morning.
Maybe you’re here and you are struggling with your walk with God.
He desires to help you this morning if you will let Him.
Take a moment and search within this morning, focus on the cross and fix your eyes on Jesus!
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