The Heart of Jesus: Faithfulness

The Heart of Jesus: Faithfulness

3/2/2025

Hebrews 12:1-4

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

What does it mean to be faithful? You know, for a lot of us when we think about faithfulness, we tend to think about our marriages, commitments to our families, maybe what it looks like to serve our community in some way. And then for others, we think about what faithfulness looks like in terms of a calling. I know that’s certainly the case for me when I think about faithfulness. I’m usually drawn into thinking about my calling as minister/pastor/and teacher of the word. And that can be pretty weighty at times.

I have just ventured into the book of Deuteronomy in my quest to read through the Bible in a calendar year. It could be said that Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell address to the people of Israel. As I’ve been reading through the Torah, which is what we call the first five books of our Bible, I’ve often thought about people who are working through an analysis of what their faith truly means to them.

Moses, and his brother Aaron dealt with quite a bit of adversity thrown their way by the tribes of Israel as they led them out of Egypt on a 40-year journey towards the promised land. It was a time filled with great hardship that required a deep faithfulness to the promises of God.

The challenges Moses faced with the people of Israel often drove him crazy as he served as God’s leader in His efforts to fulfill his covenant with them. The people would often grow impatient with Moses and as they would complain about his leadership and they were so misguided at times that they would prefer the life of slavery back in Egypt. It was hard for them to see a better life as they picked up manna to eat and drank water from a rock all the time.

One example of this occurs not long after they leave Egypt and Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. While he’s up there, Aaron is in charge and the people start complaining about how long it’s taking Moses to come back down the mountain. In their impatience, they lobby Aaron to create a new religion. They’re starting to wonder if Moses is even coming back.

So Aaron instructs them to gather the gold off their wives and children and he melts all this stuff down to create a golden calf. And the people are so excited about this happening. And Aaron feels really good about himself because he sees their excitement and he proclaims the gods of this golden calf that he’s just made are the gods that delivered them out of Egypt and he plans a party to celebrate his great achievement and misguided deliverance of the people.

So they get up in the morning and start making a bunch of sacrifices and they’re drinking and eating like they’ve just received this fantastic thing. And everyone’s having a grand ole time…until Dad shows up.

God hears all this and sends Moses back down the mountain and He’s furious. God tells Moses he’s ready to incinerate everyone because they’ve bowed down to this sacred cow. But luckily for them, Moses, in his faithfulness to his mission, intercedes on their behalf. He reminds The Lord of his promises to his people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to deliver them to this promised land. He demonstrates incredible faithfulness to his calling as the leader of God’s chosen people and because of it, God stands down.

This isn’t the only time Moses stands in between God and his people. He’s routinely doing this sort of thing. But the frustration mounts up inside of him and he ends up acting outwardly because of it and it costs him his own chance to enter into the promised land with the people. In his own anger and frustration when the people are complaining to him about the lack of water to drink, He himself goes against the will of God and angrily strikes a rock to draw water out of it instead of speaking to it as God commanded him to. God informs him that his disobedience means he and Aaron will die before they reach the land and that someone else will lead the people across into the promised land. That story is in Numbers 20, if you want to explore it further.

And things are getting so frustrating for Moses, that by the time he’s writing Deuteronomy, he’s so annoyed by the cycle of bellyaching against him that he says this about them: “You are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering.”

He’s clearly had enough, but through all of this, the thing that sticks out from Moses’ leadership…is his faithfulness. It’s not perfect by any means. Anyone in his position would eventually get to their boiling point. But his commitment to God’s plan at roadblock after roadblock are among the greatest leadership examples in the whole bible.

In a lot of ways, I can relate to both Moses and the people he’s leading when considering the enormous nature of the task at hand. What God is asking Moses and Aaron to do is not easy. And it’s not easy to ask of the people either. Their willingness to depart for the promised land seems an easy decision at first, but they’re running from slavery after about 400 years in Egypt. Generations have passed since the early days of the bible. They’re not quite sure about the journey they’re about to take, though. And what they get is a harsh existence living a nomadic life in the wilderness with little food while camping in tents for 40 years. I mean, that would certainly take a toll on anyone.

I can relate to the people on many levels. It becomes a waiting game. And what they remember from their captivity in Egypt becomes more appealing to them than the freedom that awaits in the promised land. You know it’s bad when that’s the case.

But what they don’t see is the promise of a better future. They’re having a hard time imagining a scenario where things could be better because they’ve never had it before. For us today, this is when the ways of the world become appealing to us. We see the ways of the world and are often tempted to explore some of them. We see Peter do a similar thing after the trial of Jesus when he denies knowing him three times. In his distress, Peter is asked by a teenager about his affiliation with Jesus and he denies it. He’s asked again saying, “I don’t even know the man.” Then they’re like, “we hear your accent, man…come on” and he offers a curse on himself in his third denial. This is a man with whom Jesus spent the last three years. He saw the miracles, he cast out demons in Jesus' own name…but after his conviction, Peter bows to the pressure of the world because he can’t see another way out.

This presents a powerful image of what it’s like to lose track of the promises God makes to his people. But here’s the thing…I’ve been there myself. Worldly success is awfully enticing in moments of weakness or distress.

I’ve touched on this a little bit during my time here, but I had been on a five-year hiatus in my ministry career before about 7 weeks ago. I was a student minister for five years and then a lead minister for another two years, both at different churches, and I suffered through a little bit of burnout in the late stages of 2019 before deciding I needed to take a break to recharge.

I certainly didn’t expect to be sitting on the sidelines for five whole years when I made that decision, but every other opportunity to jump back in just never felt like the right thing. And the timing was always a little wonky, too. For some of the jobs I got approached with, I just didn’t feel like I was ready. And other times, I wasn’t convinced I could be effective in a ministry role anymore. Plus, I was making decent money doing remodeling work, so I didn’t really feel any pressure or need to go out and do it.

Not only that, but I was searching inside myself trying to get a better understanding of what it really was that I believed, if I believed at all. I was just kind of worn down a little bit.

Maybe you’ve heard of the term “deconstructing.” In the Christian world, basically what this means is that a person starts to break down parts of their faith. And this can happen for many reasons, but mostly it’s associated with people who have fallen away from the faith for any variety of reasons. Until recently, a lot of people who would’ve put themselves in the deconstructing crowd had no intention of coming back to the faith. It’s been a widespread thing for quite some time now.

Because I think this is such an important issue, I wanted to share a few statistics that underscore this trend:

According to Barna, which is a Christian research organization, there is a Rise in Deconstruction and they cite a report that indicates 42% of adults have deconstructed the faith of their youth

The Pew Research Center cites a Decline in Christian Identification saying the percentage of Americans identifying as Christian has decreased from 75% in 2011 to 63% in 2021.

Another Pew Study says there’s an Increase in Religious Disaffiliation: The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as religiously unaffiliated rose from 17% in 2009 to 26% in 2019.

I got even more curious after reading and exploring some of this research and I wanted to know more about why people are responding in these ways. Of course, there are multiple reasons that people decide to enter into a time where they are reevaluating their faith. And I think it makes a lot of sense for us to know about these reasons, especially if we are people who care deeply about the future of the church as a whole. I would also say the goal of doing this should be to get a better understanding of who Jesus is and how his teachings can play a bigger role in our lives.

Let me preface by saying this; Not all of these reasons might be things we have personal experience with, but what I’d like to do today is lay out three of the reasons as to why people are choosing something other than Christianity today. But not only that…I want to pose a question for us to think about regarding each reason. The first one is this.

People are choosing something other than Christianity because of Distrust in Religious Institutions: A number of scandals, people living through abusive situations, and perceived hypocrisy within church leadership have led many to question the credibility and integrity of organized religion. I’d be lying to you if I told you I didn’t have some of these same hesitations myself at times.

The question: How can we rebuild and maintain trust to become a stable force within our communities?

The second reason people are choosing something other than Christianity is because of perceived Political and Cultural Entanglements: The blending of Christianity with political ideologies in some cases has alienated people who feel the faith has been co-opted for political and personal gain, especially when people think the ideas of the church conflict with Jesus’s teachings regarding justice issues.

Now look, this is nothing new. People have been using religion as a means to gain political power over people for centuries and centuries and centuries. But this is a tough road to go down because of the strong opinions people often have regarding some of these issues, but I think it’s really important to consider this question…

The question: What are we putting out front when we talk about our faith? Or to put in another way: What do people think of first when they think about someone who practices the way of Jesus?

The third reason people are choosing something other than Christianity is because of Personal Experiences of Hurt or Trauma: Negative experiences within the church, such as judgment, exclusion, or mistreatment. These things often drive people to distance themselves from faith communities in search of healing and authenticity.

My heart aches for people who feel this way. Mainly because I have come to know Jesus as a redeemer who cares about the restoration with our Creator. I believe His love reaches into our brokenness, offering hope and healing where we need it the most.

The question: How can we shift our focus from upholding religious expectations to truly walking alongside people in their healing journeys, reflecting Jesus' compassion and patience in real ways?

Because of these three reasons, I want to be compelled to follow the example of Christ. And I believe that example to be one that offers hope and redemption to everyone. I changed my job status on my Facebook page a couple weeks ago to say that I’m now the Interim Minister at Grape Grove Church of Christ. Since I’ve done that, the algorithms have picked up on it and my social media feeds are now flooded with Christian content. It wasn’t that way before. Quite honestly, I’m missing my food and recipe reels. One thing I’ve noticed in this content is how dismissive some of it is towards people who aren’t followers of Jesus. What I mean by this is there is a subculture of people out there online who are presenting their faith as a “take-it-or-leave-it” type of option. A defiance almost saying if you don’t believe this happens exactly the way I do, then you can’t be part of the club. This is a ridiculous sentiment.

And it would be really easy for me to stand up here and repeat that sentiment and say the reason people don’t choose Christ, or are prone to give up on church, is because they aren’t faithful. But that would be unfair and untrue. I wonder maybe if what the research is telling us is that people are turning away from the church because those of us on the inside aren’t being faithful to the promises Jesus makes and we end up making it about following a list of rules, our political ideologies, or we turn a cold shoulder towards those who have had bad experiences in the church.

That thought produces a deep wound within me. I don’t want to be a barrier to Jesus. Quite the opposite in fact, I want to be a shining light leading people to his Kingdom. If in daily interactions with people what I’m doing is something other than expressing that the love of Jesus redeemed me and made me whole again…then I’m failing miserably.

Like Moses, I am not the perfect leader. But I’m trying real hard. Occasionally, I need to remind myself that the roadmap is right in front of us in the form of Jesus’ ministry. And I need to constantly tell myself that His unwavering faithfulness to his mission and his love for humanity serves as our model.

We must consider what it looks like to broaden our capacity to love. To live like Jesus means to put aside our differences for his cause. We run the risk of hating our enemies unless we do. Jesus speaks directly to us when he says to love our enemies. We must be drawn into this countercultural way of thinking. To love our enemies is not normal, but it’s the command of Jesus to do so. And unless we do it, we start to look like the enemy because we’ve not chosen love.

Putting aside our differences has fallen out of fashion over the last couple of decades. If the church truly is the embodiment of Christ, living out its calling as his bride, it should be the first place willing to do this because Christ's call to love compels us to do so. To be a reflection of Jesus means we have to look into the mirror everyday to make sure what we see looks like Christ and not like something else.

Peter finally came to understand this in the days after Jesus’ death. Faithfulness to Jesus looks like love. At the end of John, Jesus’ returns to eat breakfast with the disciples. And nothing says love like breakfast…after they eat, Jesus takes Peter aside and restores him, asking him three times if he loves him. Peter is adamant that he does. This is important because Peter is instrumental in leading the early church.

Jesus goes on to tell Peter that his love for him is going to end up costing him his life. The book of Hebrews is written about the time of Peter’s death. Hebrews is a book all about being faithful. It contains some of the great stories of what it looks like to love God and to be faithful to him, you might’ve even heard it called the “Faith Hall of Fame.” And it gives us some great advice in chapter 12.

Verse 12:1 is an encouragement to us that God blesses a life of faithfulness. It’s also an encouragement for us to shed as much sin as possible because it just weighs us down. This is a reminder for me to put aside my differences not only with other believers, but those who need to hear the message of Christ.

Verse 12:2 is letting us know that Jesus’ example is the best one we will ever get as it pertains to faithful endurance. As painful and rewarding as it was for Moses to lead God’s people out of Egypt on the journey to the promised land, Jesus’ life serves as the greatest example of God’s commitment and LOVE for his people. His ministry, his crucifixion, which was seen as the most shameful form of death, meant to torture and humiliate the person up on the cross, and then his resurrection should serve as a constant reminder of God’s love and faithfulness to us…and it only makes sense that we should respond to Him the same way.

I have three takeaways for us today:

Stay committed to loving others unconditionally, even in hard moments, as a way of reflecting Christ’s faithful love.

This gives us a chance to practice humility. In my experience, some of the most authentic Christians to be around are those who seek harmony in everything they do. They have a unique way of listening and not getting offended by others. I’ve benefited immensely by being around those servants of the gospel because their perspective often helps me right my own wrongs and they gave me a way of looking at things in a way I hadn’t considered before.

Walk alongside people in their pain and joy, showing up consistently as a reminder of God’s steadfast presence.

Get to know your neighbors. Get to know someone in the church you see every week but have never talked to. Learn about people’s stories and how they came to know Jesus or why they haven’t yet chosen to follow Jesus. Prepare meals for people and work on being a cure for loneliness. It’s amazing what a small gesture can do to build an authentic connection.

Let your faithfulness be defined by grace and compassion, choosing to love like Jesus in every interaction.

Take an alternative angle when someone is upset. Strive not to be aggressive with others on matters that don’t pertain to our salvation. Choose not to get defensive over matters of opinion. Grace and compassion were shown to us by Jesus. Let’s endeavor to act in the same way.

Let’s Pray

Thank You for showing us what true faithfulness looks like through the life and love of Jesus. Teach us to love unconditionally, even when it’s hard, reflecting the grace You so freely give. Help us to walk alongside others in both their pain and joy, being a steady presence that points to Your unfailing love. And may our faithfulness be shaped by compassion and kindness, so that every interaction becomes an opportunity to share Your heart with the world.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.