“The Faithfulness Factor”
(The Fatherhood of God Pt 13)
Introduction
We live in a world of unfaithfulness; unfaithfulness in marriages, business dealings, friendships, church relationships, and family. People fail, falter, forget, forsake their commitments on a regular basis. The only thing we can expect to be faithful is unfaithfulness. People fail, things fail, plans fail, dreams fail, society fails, nature fails, life fails. Everything fails at some point in this fallen world. Every dad fails at one point or another. Some of those failures are inconsequential, others catastrophic. Some are forgotten over time, others scar for a lifetime.
IX. The Faithfulness Factor
We entrust our souls to Dad’s immeasurable faithfulness
A. What is faithfulness? Description
Faithfulness is a characteristic that can be best understood by enlisting a number of other synonyms. We would describes someone as faithful, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, steadfast, a person of their word, true, loyal, committed, consistent, unfailing, unwavering.
The core concept has to do with dependability and trust to carry out what is promised.
It could apply to people or things or animals.
Faithful Ford - Trusty knife - Faithful marriage - Loyal dog - Dependable Maytag washer
Faithful servant - Trusted friend
B. What causes unfaithfulness?
A number of factors enter into lapses in faithfulness.
? Lack of interest or commitment
? Lack of knowledge or insight
? Lack of ability or skill
? Lack of authority or influence
? Lack of energy
? Lack of time
? Lack of focus
? Lack of memory
? Lack of discipline or self-control
? Distraction
? Oppression
? Sin and selfishness
Unfaithfulness may be intentional or unintentional. No matter the reason, the result is the same.
The person did not provide the desired or expected benefit when we needed it.
C. What makes God faithful?
None of these factors affect God. His divine love eternally commits Him to Himself and His creatures and creation. His omniscience enables Him to know everything about everything at all times. His omnipotence provides all the necessary energy and power to carry out His word.
His eternity eliminates the limitations of time. His sovereignty gives Him absolute authority.
He is disciplined and focused. His holiness eliminates the sin and selfishness factors. He can’t be distracted or oppressed. He never falters, forgets, forsakes, forfeits His word or fails.
He is absolutely faithful. It is His character. He does not change. He must be faithful; He can be nothing else.
He is faithful in all things at all times. Psa 33:1-5
He says what He means and does what He says. Deut 7:7-11
His faithfulness is forever. Psa 100:4-5
His faithfulness is immeasurable. Psalm 36:5-9
His faithfulness is GREAT! Lam 3:19
He is clothed in faithfulness. Psalm 89:1-8
D. How do we know God is faithful?
1. Creation declares God’s faithfulness
Psalms 89:1-8
The universe continues to function in absolute precision. The fact that we still have air to breathe and food to eat on this planet testify to God’s daily faithfulness.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22
The rise of every sun and the turn of every season continually testify to God’s faithfulness.
2. The Bible records continual accounts of God’s faithfulness
Every historical event in the Bible testifies that God always does what He says He’ll do.
Answers to prayer, precise fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies, healing, deliverance, direction given, promises made, all testify to God’s faithfulness. Sarah considered God faithful to do what He promised and her womb was opened and she conceived well beyond her child bearing years. God said it wouldn’t rain and it didn’t rain. God said death would result from sin and death came upon all men. God told Israel He would take them to the Promised Land and He did.
God promised judgment for sin and judgment came. The core of faith has to do with a fundamental belief in God’s faithfulness to His promise.
Romans 4:20-25
God promised deliverance and He delivered.
3. People tell stories of God’s faithfulness
Volumes have been written recounting stories of God’s faithfulness.
4. We personally experience God’s faithfulness
The fact that you got up this morning is a testimony to God’s faithfulness.
5. Scripture declares God’s faithfulness in spite of circumstances
In spite of the extensive Biblical accounts of God’s faithfulness …
In spite of the volumes of testimony shared by people throughout history…
Even in spite of our own personal experience of God’s faithfulness…
…we can’t help but struggle with the times it seems God hasn’t been faithful. Yes, He is faithful, but ABSOLUTELY faithful? There are times when it seems God faltered. There are times when it seems God forgot. There are times when God forsook us and took a break. There are even times when we feel like God didn’t honor His word. What about the times when it felt like God failed to act on our behalf? There have been times when God seemed to be no different than my dad. It seemed I was all on my own. I have felt abandoned, forgotten, ignored, and sometimes forsaken. How can I proclaim that God is faithful when I sometimes feel the opposite? I am not alone. First listen to one of the most powerful and glorious declarations of the faithfulness of God.
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." Lamentations 3:22-24
This sounds like the testimony of someone who has had a glorious answer to prayer. These are the words of unflagging trust in the faithfulness of God by experience. Now listen to how this same writer felt just moments if not seconds before this statement. Lamentations 3:1-18
God called Jeremiah as a young man. God called him to be His spokesman during one of the darkest times in Jewish history. He was called to an awesome task. Jeremiah 1:6-10
God even promised his protective hand along the journey. Jeremiah 1:17-19
What more could a pastor ask for? What more encouragement than the promise of God’s presence? How can he lose? In the years that followed, Jeremiah would experience imprisonments, beatings, loneliness (he was even forbidden to marry), rejection, attempted assassinations, public ridicule, and – most painful of all – the apparent failure of God’s faithfulness. There were moments of deep joy and enthusiasm increasing the confusion and disappointment of the current circumstances even more. Jeremiah 15:16-18
At the time that Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, he had just survived the siege and fall of Jerusalem. It lasted a year and a half – eighteen hellish months that must have seemed like a decade. Food ran out. Water was scarce. Thousands starved. Disease ran wild. Mothers cannibalize their own babies. Jeremiah himself was despised, branded as a trader, tortured for declaring the word of God. And then it was over. The Temple destroyed. A city dead. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah, now literally skin and bones, sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, overlooking the devastation of his once a beautiful city: city of David, the capital of Solomon’s glory, the queen of the kingdoms. With tears streaming down his gaunt, deeply creased face, he wrote Lamentations 1:1-2.
NOTE: Much of the description of the circumstances was adapted from David Needham’s book “Close to His Majesty”.
This was followed by the words of excruciating emotional pain read earlier ending with the declaration, “my strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.” God, you did this. You have forsaken us. You failed me. You turned on me. This was Jeremiah’s state of mind moments before his glorious declaration of God’s great faithfulness. What happened? Did Jeremiah experience some glorious vision? Did some unrecorded miracle transpire between verse 18 and 19 that renewed his faith and restored his hope? What did Jeremiah “see” that transformed the declarations of his soul from despair to hope? The hymn writer made one unfortunate error in his noble attempt to capture the sentiment of this passage in the 1920s.
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning, new mercies I see…
The reality is, Jeremiah didn’t see a thing. There was no visible evidence of God’s mercies at all to change his perspective. Morning by morning brought horror, pain, and dread, but certainly not new mercies. Nothing changed about Jeremiah’s circumstance. So what changed? The clue can be found in verse 21.
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Lamentations 3:19-21
The difference? Humble prayer and eternal perspective. What did Jeremiah recall to mind that brought such inspiring hope? He recalled the truth of the Scriptures regarding the character of God in spite of the circumstances of life. He remembered the eternal declaration of divine Scriptures in spite of the present dilemma of desperate situations. Scripture declares that God is faithful and the Scriptures cannot lie.
In spite of any circumstance you may face, by the authority of the word of God concerning the character of God, I declare to you today that God is faithful. He never falters. He never forgets.
He never forsakes. He never forfeits his word. He never fails! Unfaithfulness is impossible for God. He can no more be unfaithful than he can lie. No matter what man does or says God remains faithful.
E. What is God faithful to do?
We will cover in more detail a biblical listing of specific areas of God’s faithfulness next week.
Great is his faithfulness!
Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Psa 36:5
F. What should I do?
You might feel like God has forgotten you today. The heaviness of your circumstances may cause you to feel abandoned. I urge you to consider three responses today.
1. Remember His faithfulness
Remember what the Bible says about God’s faithfulness.
Remember that these truths are true in spite of what we see or feel in the present.
Remember examples of God’s faithfulness in the past.
Remember that the fact you are breathing is testimony to God’s faithfulness.
Remember that his mercies are new every morning because of his great faithfulness.
2. Entrust your soul to a faithful creator and father
Hebrews 10 encourages us to holdfast your hope for He who promised is faithful.
This comes just before the catalogue of faithful servants in Hebrew 11 half of which saw miraculous deliverance and many who saw pain and destruction in this life but received the promise in the next. Entrust your soul to faithful Creator.
Jesus endured all that he faced on the cross by entrusting his soul to his faithful heavenly father.
Even when Jesus cried out on the cross, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” Jesus understood the temporal nature of the pain and looked instead to the joy of the ultimate goal.
Peter encouraged his readers who were suffering persecution and tribulation to think about God’s faithfulness.
Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. 1 Peter 4:19
Jeremiah understood that as excruciating as the situation was, it was only momentary in light of eternity.
Therefore he was able to trust God in the circumstance while waiting expectantly for the promise of ultimate restoration.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:25-26
3. Declare His faithfulness
Speak it! Sing it!
Psalms 100:4-5 Psalms 89:1 Deuteronomy 32:1-4
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
