20 October 2024: The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness

Bethel Baptist Church
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20 October 2024

Welcome

Worship

Word

11 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Hebrews 11:1–7 (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22, 23 (NIV)

Message

Faith and faithfulness feel like different words, different concepts. Faith is trust in God, regardless of (or despite) circumstances. But faith enables us to be faithful, and faith must be demonstrated by our actions, otherwise it is meaningless. Christian faith: trust in God, enables us to persevere and show our loyalty to such a great God, and to the people around us. Let us always honour God, as is befitting faithfulness.

So what is faithfulness? What does it mean to be faithful? I found the following definitions: different but saying much the same:

“THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT KNOWN AS “FAITHFULNESS” also could be called fidelity [loyalty to God]. It speaks of a firmness of purpose, especially when we feel discouraged . Faithfulness suggests staying on course and not giving up. Loyalty means always being faithful.”

Adult Bible Study Guide, https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2010:1Q:ER:PDFs:ERQ110_08.pdf

Faithfulness is steadfastness, constancy, or allegiance; it is carefulness in keeping what we are entrusted with; it is the conviction that the Scriptures accurately reflect reality. Biblical faithfulness requires belief in what the Bible says about God—His existence, His works, and His character.”

“Faithfulness is believing that God is Who He says He is and continuing in that belief despite the vagaries of life. Functionally, that means we trust what God says in the Bible, and not necessarily what the world or our own eyes tell us.”

Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/fruit-Holy-Spirit-faithfulness.html

I’ve come to realize that, though I would like to be successful in every area of my life, if I were really forced to choose, I’d rather be faithful. I would like to say at the end of my life that I have been a faithful spouse and faithful mother, faithful to the work I have been given, to the relationships in my life, to my neighbours, to the poor, and, ultimately, to my relationship with Jesus.”

Lisa Liou, works in student ministry. https://intervarsity.org/blog/fruit-spirit-faithfulness

Hebrews 11 is not just a long list of people who had faith in God, but it tells us about their acts of faithfulness which sprung out of their faith and how those people demonstrated that they had faith. Even Enoch (Heb 11:5), although God took him and therefore he had no more opportunity to show faithfulness, was taken because he had demonstrated faithfulness – he was commended as one who pleased God. These people of faith were promised great reward, as though to motivate them, but they did not see that reward throughout their lifetimes in this world (Heb 11:13).

If your life is completely successful, and everything you touch immediately turns to gold, or perhaps every prayer that you bring to the Lord is immediately answered affirmatively, then any faithfulness that you may show is not very meaningful. Faithfulness means that you keep doing good regardless of circumstances.

The Old Testament saints also had faith in the invisible work of God (Hebrews 11:3). Abraham never saw his descendants become “as numerous as the stars in the sky.” Moses never entered the Promised Land. And none of the Old Testament saints lived to see their Messiah. But they were faithful. They believed God would do as He promised. They lived by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).”

“Faithfulness is believing that God is Who He says He is and continuing in that belief despite the vagaries of life. Functionally, that means we trust what God says in the Bible, and not necessarily what the world or our own eyes tell us.


https://www.gotquestions.org/fruit-Holy-Spirit-faithfulness.html

That quote is challenging: many of us may be prepared to take a step of faith, believing that God will grant us results, but it can be difficult to keep persevering unless we see some positive results after not too long a time period. Possibly, you could set a deadline: “I am putting a lot of effort in here, believing that it is what God wants me to do. If I do not see any results within a year, then I will pull out.” That was not the attitude of the Old Testament saints in Hebrews 11, and it should not be our attitude. Have you ever taken a step of faith and put limits on it? Can you really call that “faith”?

I remember taking a step of faith and falling flat on my face when I was a student. I was on a four-year course, I joined the Christian Union at the university at the start of my course. There was an executive committee of the Christian Union, which was appointed afresh each year – toward the end of one year, a new committee would be appointed to oversee the affairs of the Christian Union through the following year. So, toward the end of my second year, I was asked if I would become secretary of the Christian Union for the duration of my third year.”

“Now in my first year I had accommodation on the university site, and in the second year I was lodging maybe a couple of miles from the university. My initial response was that I could only really take on that responsibility if I got university accommodation for my third year – I did not want to be travelling to and from lodgings, and taking part in various committee meetings, some of which could go on late into the evening. But the appointments had to be made before we knew where we would each be living the following year, and I was encouraged to take the position. So I took a step of faith that God would give me the accommodation that I needed. But it did not work out: I was assigned to alternate lodgings for my third year. I was very upset: I continued with my appointment as secretary, but I felt it unsatisfactory because I had to leave several meetings before they were finished, in order to get back to my lodgings. I became very reticent about taking any further steps of faith.”

“What attitude should I have taken? It is hard to say. I still do not think it would have been right for me to stay throughout the whole of the committee meetings whatever time of night that meant I would get back to my lodgings.


Graham Steel

Hebrews 11 gives us a long list of ancient heroes of the faith. Interestingly, the first is Abel. He offered a better sacrifice, for what reward? He is the first martyr. He gained nothing in this world for his piety, but we can be sure that he has a place of honour in God’s eternal Kingdom. We have no timescales in early Genesis – we do not know whether Abel had just taken the initiative to make his first sacrifice, or if he had been doing it many times before Cain became jealous. But regardless of whether he had made one sacrifice or many, it was at cost – he gave up any other use of that animal that he might have made. This is generally true of faithfulness – it costs us something, be it time, money, effort, or some other resource.

We can learn similarly from Noah, as we see in verse 7. Noah’s ark must be one of the most well-known stories in the Bible, yet there is a lot that we do not know about Noah. What was his vocation before he built the ark? Maybe he was a farmer, a simple keeper of livestock – a common trade in early society – and he was going to have to care for many different kinds of animals for the year that they all spent in the ark. Or perhaps he was a carpenter or craftsman, building stuff to sell, and so to make his living. This would make a lot of sense – it would have given him the skills that he needed to build the ark. We do not know how long it took him to build the ark – some people have guessed at 120 years, based on Gen 6:3, but it may well have taken him several decades at least. It was a huge project, and I cannot imagine that he employed many people to do it, other than, perhaps, his sons – it would feel outrageous if some people had put much effort into building the ark but then perished in the flood. In any case, all the time, effort and maybe monetary expense that he had put into building the ark were resources that he could not put into his retirement: after all, he was 600 years old when the flood came. So he showed his faithfulness to God’s word by sacrificing his time and effort, his future security and other plans for the future – he could not spend so much time raising livestock, nor much time building craft products that other people would then buy from him, whilst he had to build that ark.

Unlike Abel, Noah was not martyred. Unlike Enoch, God did not cut short his time in this world. But he had to show greater faithfulness than either of those forebears: perhaps for the decades of building the ark. Read the Bible carefully and we see that he spent a whole year on the ark – this was no leisurely cruise, he was busy looking after a huge menagerie. There was much feeding and cleaning to be done – if he didn’t keep those lions well-fed, half the menagerie would have perished! Did Noah get fed up? Did he feel in need of a break? I am sure that his sons helped out, but that year on the ark must have been a time of much higher pressure than the period during which he had been building the ark – at least the building of the ark could be done at a more leisurely pace, with appropriate breaks.

Have you had some major job to do, or somebody to care for long term? Something which required perseverance, time during which it felt like there was no option to take a much needed break? That is faithfulness. Or has God graciously given you a life a little less challenging? If so, who are you to complain? Who are you to sometimes be selfish? You can show faithfulness with gratitude, thankful that God has not called you to such extreme efforts as some other people have to face.

Lisa Liou works for InterVarsity in the US, ministering to students, encouraging them to be faithful. She expected to see great fruit – she was being faithful, surely God would bless her with success. She asked, “What good is faithful if it can’t result in successful?”, and she writes:

Think about the difficult situations that require faithfulness: perseverance in a rocky marriage, parenting the wayward teen, caring for aging relatives, dealing with family feuds, or the commitment that turns out to be less fulfilling than you hoped. It isn’t fun to dwell on these things, but I believe faithfulness in these types of circumstances produces something good.”

“I’ve come to realize that, though I would like to be successful in every area of my life, if I were really forced to choose, I’d rather be faithful. I would like to say at the end of my life that I have been a faithful spouse and faithful mother, faithful to the work I have been given, to the relationships in my life, to my neighbours, to the poor, and, ultimately, to my relationship with Jesus.”

Lisa Liou https://intervarsity.org/blog/fruit-spirit-faithfulness

What does faithfulness mean to me?

I want to be faithful to Dylys, my wife, and I would like her to be faithful to me. I would not want her to be eying up or chatting up other men, and I must not dream of striking it up with another woman. If I say that I will do something for her (let us not go as far as making it a promise), I must do it. If she asks me to do something, I must let her know quickly if there is a good reason why I cannot do it.

I must be faithful to the Lord. In part, that means being obedient to His word, although as a fallen creature, I am not going to get it right every time. I need to be sensitive to His calling – it is important to make plenty of time for prayer (I am thinking particularly of personal prayer rather than a prayer meeting), and in those personal times I need to be attentive to any call that He might make of me. I may pledge to do something for the Lord, in which case I am under serious obligation to make sure that I do it.

I can go on: I need to be faithful to friends and family, although of course I have to recognise the priorities when there are conflicts. I think it most important to be faithful to the Lord, and then to Dylys, and to friends and family after that. I need to be faithful to the church of which I am a member: I hold various responsibilities in the church, and I must be careful to meet those responsibilities. There may be expectations of me from the church, or church members, and I must consider those; although once again there may be conflicts and I need to recognise where the priorities lie. I am in full time employment: I am obliged to be faithful to the business, just as I expect the business to be faithful in paying my salary each month.

Conclusion and challenge

Here is a challenge: what is on your calendar for this week ahead? What scope is there for you to show faithfulness? If your week ahead is pretty much the same as normal, what scope is there for you to grow and show greater faithfulness? Let’s pray.

Prayer

Lord, as we approach another week ahead, show us how we can be more faithful to You and to all those around us, whom You love. We want it to make a difference in our lives: this week.