Faithfulness-Week 3

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Eat with your neighbours, coworkers and friends

John 13:35 NIV

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

FAITHFULNESS

Philippians 2:12–15 NIV

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”

God gives the direction and the power

STORY - I’ve worked for people that were ridiculously particular. And it felt like navigating a minefield.

In being a Christ follower, it’s about doing what God wants when he wants how he wants.

But this isn’t about God being particular.

What it means is, God picks the direction. And he picks the time. And he provides the power and everything else needed to get it done.

Particular is, you have to do this exactly my way. And this is, ‘I’m going to walk you through the whole thing, and give you the strength to get it done, to make sure you’re able to do it right’.

God’s not overbearing - he’s absolutely essential

Overbearing is when people place a weight on you that you can’t possibly carry yourself.

In Jesus, we’ve been given a holy calling to go out into the world and make disciples. And God’s given us every single step of the path.

This is partially why Jesus says ‘don’t worry about tomorrow’. Not because he wants to reduce our stress - it’s because God’s got the whole thing figured out. We can afford to take it a day at a time.

God gives the direction and the power...

… and God also gets all the credit

STORY - watched this medical show. And someone was super arrogant over their nurse and ignored all the nurse’s suggestions. And then took credit for those ideas and got praised.

This is an aspect of faithfulness that can be difficult on us. It’s not so hard to give credit where credit is due (God heals someone). But it’s harder when we have put in a lot of effort.

Luke 17:10 NIV

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”

It’s harder to put in some effort, spend time sharing with someone, they make the leap, and you say, ‘I was just doing what God asked me to do. To Him be all the glory’.

Here’s the thing. This isn’t downplaying our efforts. It’s about underlining the huge amount of supernatural power that goes into every person who is drawn to Jesus.

As a pastor, it can be REAL tempting to take credit for how some services go. I preach a good message, and suddenly, I moved people.

I didn’t. I sat up here and flapped my jaw. The Spirit drew each and every heart to respond to Him.

This is about saying, I understand that my part is THIS big (small) and God’s part is literally everything else. All I did was what God called me to do, when he called me to do it.

Faithfulnes to God is in understanding that I wasn’t the one who did it - God did it. I’m not the power here, he is.

This requires a certain amount of wonder about the spiritual world

you see that in the life of the early apostles. They get flogged, they leave rejoicing because they were counted worthy of suffering for the name.

God has called us to that same kind of wonder and reverence.

Hebrews 12:28–29 NIV

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

There is this unshakeable kingdom, with God over all of it (and all of us) who is a consuming fire. It’s this powerful image that we’re supposed to respond to with reverence and awe.

STORY - someone trying to tell a kid the water with the israelites didn’t stand up with the egyptians, they crossed on a spot only 1 inch deep. ‘Wow, God drowned all the egyptian army in one inch of water!’

When we go about life, God’s called us to a sense of awe about everything that He’s doing in the world.

And when something goes the way we expect, after our efforts, we don’t turn it back on us and say, hey, look at how awesome I am. We live humbly and say, man, god is so great.

You’re invited to join us in this mission today

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If God is so powerful and directs every step, then anyone can do this.

That includes even those of you who make that decisions to step up right now for the first time.

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Salvation - and every aspect of the approach to salvation - comes entirely from God. It originates with him, is powered by him, and directs to him.

This is a humbling fact. It’s supportive (God will work in you to accomplish it), but also humbling (This is from God, and decidedly not from us). Ref: Luke 17:10 “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”” )a

Connected to the idea of phil 1:27 - conduct yourself worthy in a manner of the gospel. God is doing it - receive it and let him.

Avoiding things like selfishness has eternal impact - it’s not just ‘everyone get along!’ kumbayah

Connected logically to the idea of israel wandering and complaining. They didn’t approach God with fear and reverence - they approached it with complaining and taking advantage of God’s graciousness

One aspect of ‘work out your salvation’ is ‘do everything without grumbling or arguing’

I wonder if we have missed so much of the Spirit’s work because we limit ourselves only to the things that benefit us, or the things that we can actually control or do ourselves

Philippians 1:27–30 NIV

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

I have experience training people. And i’ve learned there’s two types.

There’s the ‘I know what i’m doing, leave me alone, don’t baby me’.

There’s the ‘Please show me, I want to make sure i’m meeting your expectations’. (regardless of if they know).

Here’s the thing - both types make mistakes.

When I train people, if they make a mistake, and they’re the ‘leave me alone’. There’s usually consequences. Because it’s their arrogance that messed it up.

If they are the ‘Please show me time’, then it’s just a speed bump. Oh well, here’s how you do it right. Because it’s their inexperience that messed stuff up.