Sermon Tone Analysis

Faithfulness and Your Future

Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) Luke 19:11-27 (NIV)

 

In a recent article in The Futurist magazine, writer Laura Lee catalogues some of the worst predictions of all time: "Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments."

- Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, A.D. 100 "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." - John Eric Ericksen, surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873 "Law will be simplified [over the next century].

Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed."

- journalist Henri Browne, 1893 "It would appear we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology."

- computer scientist John von Neumann, 1949 "The Japanese don’t make anything the people in the U.S. would want."

- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1954 "By the turn of the century, we will live in a paperless society."

- Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986 "I predict the Internet ... will go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse."

The future is a tricky thing.

You make predictions about it at the risk of your own reputation.

That’s because we live in a world of constant change.

You can’t always count on trends or patterns to repeat themselves, or people to follow through.

It’s not possible to predict the future for others, but did you know that it is possible for you to determine who you will be in the future?

You have the ability, through the decisions you make today, to establish what your life will be tomorrow.

Want to know the secret?

It’s faithfulness.

It also goes by titles such as reliability, consistency, dependability.

It is faithfulness to a vision that enables us to achieve what most people only dream.

It is faithfulness to the people in our lives that builds deep, enduring, satisfying relationships.

The uncommitted remain in the realm of shallow, stale acquaintances.

It is faithfulness to God that will elicit a “Well done!” from the lips of the Almighty.

Inconsistency and unreliability bring his rebuke and ultimately his judgment.

Let faithfulness set the course for your future.

Faithfulness is powerful because it is activated by the Holy Spirit indwelling us.

It is a gift that’s given to us when we place our complete trust in Jesus Christ, but it is also a mature character trait that God’s Spirit works to develop in us.

Faithfulness is one of the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

(NLT)

If you want to be faithful there are five simple principles surrounding it that you need to know.

Let’s examine them together.

\\ FIVE PRINCIPLES OF FAITHFULNESS

Jesus told a parable immediately after a notorious tax collector named Zacchaeus came to faith in him and as evidence of that changed life he committed to give half his money to the poor and to pay back any money he’d extorted at four times the original amount.

If God’s got your wallet, it’s a good sign that he’s got your heart.

Jesus told the bystanders, “Today salvation has come to this house!”

His audiences’ ears would have perked up at those words.

He was talking about Zacchaeus’ personal acceptability before a holy God, but they had other ideas.

Zacchaues was right with God because he had faith in God’s Son.

This is the deliverance from sin and death.

The crowd began to think of salvation on a national level: Luke 19:11 (NIV)While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.

Because Jesus was headed for Jerusalem and he made this statement about salvation coming “today,” his audience reached into their cultural suitcase and interpreted him as saying that the kingdom of God was about to be established on the earth.

They believed that the capital of that kingdom would be Jerusalem.

They had an image of peace and prosperity, a perfect world without pain.

They failed to understand that the kingdom of God will be established on earth but through a process that involves the faithfulness of God’s people.

Yes, a person enters the kingdom of God immediately through personal faith in Jesus Christ, but it was going to take time and the effort of faith demonstrated to usher in the world-wide rule of God.

Here’s the principles they had forgotten:

\\ 1.

You cannot arrive without taking the trip.

We can certainly relate to their perspective.

In America we want the good grade without the pain of consistent study.

We want to lose weight without the trouble diet and exercise.

We want the romance and the sex without the commitment.

We want the big bucks without the hard work and financial planning.

I spent the better part of my late teens and early twenties hoping to join a successful athlete.

I figured that if the guy down the street could do it with his meager talent, I had a pretty good shot.

I didn’t know all his hours of practice and sacrifice.

I wanted to arrive without taking the trip.

People try to do it spiritually too, believers desire growth in personal holiness, but try to take short cuts to get there.

They attend a conference hoping for that easy answer to spirituality.

Some of them clamor for church services where they can get “zapped” by the Holy Spirit for instantaneous results.

But, you cannot arrive without taking the trip.

No matter where you want to go it is faithfulness during the journey that gets you there.

Here is the parable that teaches this point: Luke 19:12-14 He (Jesus) said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.

So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.

‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’

But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’”

(NIV)

Although his followers would not have understood at that moment, the “noble man” in the parable represented Jesus himself.

It was a veiled allusion to his death, resurrection, and ascension back to the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

Jesus would return again one day, as King over all the earth, but in the meantime there was work to be done.

Here Jesus directed the parable at his followers.

He’s the noble man who’s going on a journey and we are his servants, entrusted with his riches.

A mina was a piece of silver equal to about three month’s wages.

The principle for his followers then and now is:

\\ 2.

You are responsible for the Master’s investment.

We are called to be faithful to everything and everyone God has placed in our lives.

The talents and abilities and spiritual gifts that we’ve been given, we’re responsible to use in a way that honors God and serves his people.

Clearly this is a call to all those who follow Jesus Christ to what they’ve been given in ministry.

Ministry is one of the purposes of our church and ministry simply means meeting needs.

Christian ministry means meeting needs in Jesus’ name.

Are you being faithful or are you a spectator?

You are responsible to God to find and fulfill your personal ministry.

You are responsible to determine and then faithfully embark on your God-given purpose in life.

And you do have one.

If you think about it, the sum total of your life is an investment from God.

I want you to envision all the things God has blessed you with.

Ask yourself, “Am I being faithful with that stuff?”

Are you spending the money God gives you the ability to earn for his purposes?

What about the things money can buy?

Are you taking care of them like a good steward?

You could even apply this to your physical body.

Becoming healthy is important, we should give our bodies the rest, exercise and proper fuel that they need.

Let’s enlarge our vision even more.

Think about the people God has surrounded you with.

Are you being faithful to your spouse, kids, family, friends?

By this I’m asking, “Are you giving them the time and attention they truly need?

What about God’s reputation?

I hope you realize that as a follower of Jesus Christ you carry around God’s good name.

You faithfulness reflects rightly or wrongly on the faithfulness of God.

Are you a person who keeps their word or do you slip occasionally?

Are you being faithful with his investment?