July 18, 2010
Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life
A basket of fruit: Faithfulness a gift of the Spirit (Part 7)
Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life
Title: : A basket of fruit: Faithfulness, a gift of the Spirit (Part 7) Text: Galatians 5:22-24
Introduction: A few years ago the headlines in a supermarket tabloid read: ‘And they said it wouldn’t last!’ The paper was celebrating the first anniversary of a very well know couple whose marriage many had predicted wouldn’t last. The tabloid proclaimed the predictions were wrong and the marriage was healthy. Who were they talking about? Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, whose marriage ended soon after the article was written. (Melvin Newland)
The tabloid jumped the gun a bit, wouldn’t you say? They were wrong about the health of that marriage. But it goes deeper than that. It showed how society judges a healthy, successful and lasting marriage...if it makes it to a year.
Hallmark has a card that reads: ‘I can’t promise you forever, but I can promise you today.’ Not a card I’d want to get from my wife.
Let me ask...raise your hands if:
· You’ve been married for at least a year.
· You’ve been married for at least 10 years.
· You’ve been married for at least 25 years.
· You’ve been married for at least 50 years.
· You’ve been married more than 60 years.
That’s what a healthy, successful, lasting marriage looks like. That’s faithfulness. In the midst of, I’m sure very difficult times, when others would have thrown in the towel and filed for a divorce, you stuck it out, you chose to work through the problems...you chose to be faithful to your spouse and your wedding vows.
Transition: Faithfulness, as a fruit of the Spirit, is more than just something displayed in marriage. But, that’s a great place to start being faithful. Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:22 (Pg. 889 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll discover Faithfulness: the 7th fruit the Holy Spirit places in our spiritual baskets.
Galatians 5:22-24 Faithfulness
Read: Galatians 5:22-24
A. Understanding the fruit
Where do we start to try to understand the fruit of faithfulness? We start with God.
Read: Psalm 100:5 ‘For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.’
Every time you see a rainbow, you should remember that God is faithful...He keeps His promises. Here’s how the hymn writer put it.
‘Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.’
· In 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that God is faithful in preserving and protecting His children.
· 2 Timothy 2:13 says ‘if we are faithless, he will remain faithful...’
· 1 John 1:9 reminds us that God is faithful to forgive us.
· Psalm 36:5 reminds us that God’s faithfulness knows no bounds.
One of the reasons people don’t want to become a Christian, is because they’re afraid they can’t trust God to do what He says He will do. Often it’s because no one else has been faithful to them, so they don’t believe faithfulness truly exists in anyone...even God.
If that’s you, I want you to know that you can trust God, He is faithful, He does keep His promises. How do I know? The Bible tells me so...and I have seen it in my own life. Plus, if I were to have a testimony time of how God has been faithful to us, we would be here for another hour, because most of the people sitting around you have experienced God’is faithfulness.
Knowing that God is faithful changes the game for us though. Because God wants us to be like Him. So that means we need to be faithful...in all things. What things?
· With our time: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
· With our talents/abilities: 2 Timothy 1:6
· With our treasures/resources: Malachi 3:8-10
· With our trials/difficult times: 1 Peter 4:12-16
· With our testimony/how others see us: 1 Peter 3:15
· With our spouses: Matthew 19:6
· With our everyday lives: Luke 9:23
Tall order, especially since we haven’t even defined faithfulness yet. Let’s do that.
Dictionary.com:
· strict or thorough in the performance of duty:
· true to one's word, promises, vows.
· loyal
· reliable, trusted.
· Obsolete: full of faith; believing.
Obsolete? Modern society no longer sees faithfulness as ‘full of faith/ believing’ that’s... very sad.
Websters adds:
· obsolete : full of faith
· true to the facts, to a standard, or to an original
Obsolete: full of faith. Is it no wonder the world has a problem being faithful?
Someone once defined Faithfulness as ‘love hanging on, saying I will not quit.’
In the OT it meant steadfastness or stability
In the NT it meant reliability or dependability. To trust a person of believe a statement.
The word faithfulness and it’s derivatives are used over 100 times in the Bible.
Here’s my take on it. ‘Faithfulness is stict-to-it-tivness. It’s not giving up, even when it seems everyone else is, because God never gives up on us.’
Transition: OK, how do we cultivate/grow the fruit of faithfulness in our lives?
B. Growing the fruit
The same way we cultivate all the Fruit of the Spirit...by walking in the Spirit and by realizing you are e a branch attached to the vine, who is Jesus Christ, and you cling to Him.
But we do need to cultivate the ground so the fruit of faithfulness will ripen. What does that look like?
1. Develop and reinforce regular, positive spiritual habits. The world is not a Christian world and neither is this country. We’re being pressured on every side to ‘tolerate’ sin, even to ‘participate’ in sin. So it’s important to develop and reinforce positive spiritual habits to remain faithful to God. What spiritual habits?
· Regular Bible reading, Regular prayer, regular church attendance, regular service in ministry, regular fellowship with other Christians, regular giving of our resources: financial and abilities, just to name a few.
· When these practices become a habit, we will ripen the fruit of faithfulness in our lives.
2. Remember God’s faithfulness to you. Think about the many times God came to your aid, the many times He has provided for you, the many blessing God has brought to your life, even though you failed to deserve any of them. Our faithfulness will be renewed by His.
3. Get back up when you fall down. When you are ‘faith-less’ confess your failure, repent and turn back to God. Then get up and start walking forward on your journey of faith. Satan wants you to stay down and wallow in your guilt. God wants you to go forward, forgiven and with a renewed sense of faithfulness.
Conclusion
Proverbs 3:3 says ‘Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.’
Faithfulness is put right up there with love in importance. It’s to be a significant part of who we are as Christians.
Did you know that God does not call us to be intelligent, articulate, literate, handsome, wealthy, or successful...all the things the world outside these 4 walls seeks after, to the tune of billions and billions of dollars each year. The Lord has called us to be faithful.
But that too may cost you. You will have to keep your promises, stay true to your word, even if costs you the comfort of your time, the security of your resources.
As I close think about this.
· In what areas of your life do you need to be more faithful?
· What have you promised God that you are no longer faithfully doing?
If you’re here and you haven’t given your life to Jesus, I want you to know that Jesus didn’t quit when things in His life got hard. He went all the way to the cross and gave His life so that you and I could have the promise of forgiveness of sin, and eternal life in heaven.
This wonderful life of hope, living with the promise of God’s continued faithfulness, is available to you.
You can begin your journey of faith this morning by confessing your sin to Jesus and asking Him to forgive you. It’s as simple as that. And He will keep His promises to you....forgiveness, eternal life and His faithfulness to you forever.
Faithfulness...is it in your spiritual fruit basket?