Faithfulness

INTRODUCTION

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is….love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Has anyone been able to memorized this verse?

Tonight we are going to talk about faithfulness

BDAG: “the state of being someone in whom confidence can be placed”

Definition: Trustworthiness, reliable

Faithfulness

FAITHFULNESS TOWARDS MANKIND

Part of the Christian walk is the call to be a person that people can count on. When we are given a task, there is assurance that the task will be completed. When we say we are going to do something, it will get done. When we tell someone we will be there, we will be there.

Be people of your word

We must do what we say

If we do not keep our word then, it is hard to tell people we are faithful.

I am not referring to lying, but to saying one thing and doing another

We should make it a priority to do what we say we are going to do

Matthew 5:37 ““But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

QUESTION: Are there any areas where you struggle to do what you say you will do?

Here is an easy place to fail at this: with our children

Integrity

Doing what is right when no one is looking

Are you a person that can be trusted, when no one would ever find out of you did not follow through?

What about when you are given a task? Do you cut corners? Do you try to get by with things if you think no one will find out?

QUESTION: Are there any areas in your life when you are tempted to compromise your integrity?

Personal story: Tax right off receipts. I take back quite a bit of lumber, and am tempted to not count the refund I receive, but to right off the whole amount

Loving people when it is difficult

All of us deal with difficult people. in fact, I believe God places difficult people in our lives to make us more like Jesus

The second greatest command is: to lobe your neighbor as yourself

Loving difficult people doesn’t mean compromising biblical principles

It doesn’t mean sinning with them

Or never telling them truth

It does mean caring for them even when they are unkind or unloving towards us

QUESTION: What are some ways we can love the unloveable?

ANSWER:

Think well of them instead of always assuming the worst about them

It means allowing them to share things with you and giving them godly counsel

2) FAITHFULNESS TOWARDS GOD

Faithful with the little things

Do you no what I find interesting? People who boast about the great things they are doing for the Lord, yet struggle to be faithful in the little things.

When people first come to Christ, it is the little things that God begins to test their faithfulness.

Read your Bible

Pray

Be consistent in church

serve

give

And quite often people want to skip all that petty stuff and get right into the big things with God

I’m ready to preach

I’m ready to plant that church

I’m ready to move over seas and become a missionary

I’m ready for you to bring that godly relationship into my life.

I’m ready for you to fix my marriage

And it never happens, because they are not even found faithful in the little things

Luke 16:10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.”

This verse tells us that how we demonstrate faithfulness in the little things is a prediction of how we will handle big responsibilities

And if we are not willing to start at the bottom, and be faithful at the bottom, then we should not expect God to give us great responsibility

QUESTION: What is a “little thing” that God has called you to be faithful with right now?

Evangelism

Prayer

Your marriage

Faithful in parenting

Discipling your children

Long-Term faithfulness

What I mean here is the unwillingness to give up.

To keep following Jesus no matter how hard it gets, no matter how many people bail out around you, no matter how many people compromise, no matter what the cost…you remain faithful.

The word “faithfulness” is πίστις which simply “faith” OR “trust” in the Greek.

And the secret behind long-term faithfulness is a trust in God that

This trust is in the person of God (who God is) and in the Word of God (what God has told us to do)

Practical examples

Faithful in being obedient

Faithful in praying

Faithful in sharing the gospel

Faithful in abstaining from sinful relationships

Faithful in my commitment no matter how hard the situation is

QUESTION: What are some areas where you struggle in long-term faithfulness?

Faithful in our commitment to God

We are first citizens of heaven before we are citizens of this world

Everywhere you look, you will find unfaithfulness to God

Romans 1:29–31 “being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;”

These things should have no part in our lives, or our character

This is the way the world behaves, but not us

James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

I can only imagine an enemy of God is not demonstrating faithfulness to God

And quite often this takes boldness and requires us to take a stand to the ways thinking of this world

QUESTION: What do you think “friendship with the world” is? How can we love the world and yet not be friends with it?