The Faithfulness Of God Series

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.”