The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness. July 20, 2024. Sermon by Pastor Andrew Marttinen.
Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to
receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham is known as the father of our faith. Not Adam, not Noah, not Enoch. Abraham.
He is the one Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus starts with. We should look at him, despite his checkered loyalty and responses to God’s leading, for the definition of what faith means and what it is to be faithful. Unfortunately, it is so easy to get it wrong from the very start.
The object of Abraham’s faith was not God’s promise (that was the occasion of its exercise); his faith rested on God Himself (Romans 4:17, 20-23).
Faith is a part of every person’s everyday life, whether or not we recognize it as such.
We exercise faith, for example, when we drive across a bridge, unhesitatingly having faith that the bridge will not collapse. We have faith that our employer will pay us each week; we have faith that a close friend will keep his word. We have faith that the pastor’s sermon will end before 12:30. Some of these acts of faith are based upon a knowledge of someone’s character or abilities (a friend's reliability, an employer’s ability to pay), while others are simply thoughtless acts of faith based upon previous experience (the bridge has not collapsed thus far, the preacher has only a limited amount of notes to flip through and he’s never gone beyond a half-hour before).
But the act of Christian faith is not like these everyday examples. You have never died, so you cannot prove by prior experience that you will gain eternal life in God’s presence when Jesus comes. You cannot prove God’s ability to provide for your needs by checking His latest annual report and bank balance. The closest that everyday faith comes to saving faith is in our example of a trusted friend, someone who has proven in the past that he can be relied on to keep his word. And even this falls far short of the type of faith that the NT describes. Abraham had never seen God raise someone from the dead, yet he was willing to make sacrifices his whole life because his faith was based solely upon the character of God–that He would be faithful. This is the very foundation of Christian faith.
Archaeology has given us any number of insights into the past. One of these snapshots out of the past happened when the city of Pompeii was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. When digging through these ancient ruins, archaeologists found many persons buried in some very different positions. Some were found in deep basement vaults where they had run for safety. Others were found in attic chambers where they had hidden themselves from the hot lava flow. But where did they find the Roman soldier who stood as a sentinel? They found him still standing at the gate of the city where he had been stationed by his captain, with his hands still grasping the weapon, a spear. There while the earth shook beneath him; there, while the floods of ashes and cinders overwhelmed him, he had stood and not abandoned his post of duty until he was engulfed by the hot, molten rock. And there he was unearthed after two thousand years. What a picture of faithfulness, duty, and responsibility!
Faithfulness conveys the concept that someone will be there when we really need them. God has made this promise in any number of places in the Word–it’s a promise of His which brings comfort to all who might be struggling with life. What a comfort to hear it again, “I will never leave you, I will not forsake you” To His disciples and His church Jesus says “I will be with you until the end of the world.” When going through the process of producing Spiritual Fruit, works and deeds that are the visible expression of a power working inwardly and invisibly, the whole operation depends on faithfulness.
Growing up in Canada, we’re familiar with the poem by John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields.” There’s a line that says:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Have you ever been faced with a task, project, or responsibility that seemed beyond your strength and ability? Something that simply was overwhelming and too massive to deal with alone? Haven’t we all at some time been confronted with obstacles we didn’t know how to handle. The poem In Flanders Fields talks about taking up the quarrel with the foe. You may do that but it could lead to some unforeseen problems. Some say WW2 was an extension of WWI. The same issues existed and in some cases even exasperated to the point of leading to a second globalized conflagration. Instead of taking up a quarrel with the foe, God asks us to trust Him in life and in death.
Trust and Faith in the NT are the same Greek word “Pisteo.”They can be used interchangeably. The Bible is Trustworthy and Faithful, Adventist beliefs say, not inerrant or infallible. This is where we part ways with fundamentalists and some Evangelical denominations. Beyond words, the idea of being faithful focuses on responsibility. The dressing room for the Montreal Canadiens has a mural of all the previous players from the team that passed into retirement or from this earthly plain. It reminds current players that the past glories of the team have now been passed on to them and it’s their responsibility to carry the torch.
Stop and think with me about the faithfulness of God and how unchanging He is. He does not change due to AGE…even though He is called the Ancient of Days. He does not get older with the passing of time. He is no older today than He was when He breathed the breath of life into Adam so long ago. God does not change as to PLACE…He fills heaven and earth with His presence. He is everywhere! When the Bible speaks of God’s visiting earth or that His presence departed, we understand that this does not signify as much a change of His location as it denotes a special demonstration of His apparent presence. God does no change as to His WORD…the Bible declares that His Word is forever settled in Heaven. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not His Word! You see, He is marked by total faithfulness and perfection.
Now, this is the God who has promised His help and faithfulness to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations.
So then, what is our part? In case you may have missed it, the clue is in Hebrews 11:6…only two conditions for being a person of faith: Believe that He exists and believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Simple, easily understood, no mystery. That’s how much faith it takes to please God. Like Abraham, we just have to pray to have eyes to see occasions that we can exercise faith.
I hate to sound like a grumpy parent who answers his child who whines that he’s bored with “If you’ve got nothing to do, I’ll give you something to do.” Take this as if I had a twinkle in my eye: If you don’t think you can find an occasion to exercise faith, God will give you an occasion to exercise faith. Yes, this can be rather threatening, but God has given opportunities to you already. These gifts are sometimes called talents. Talents sound like free money. Lots of it. What could be better? Ah, before we go too far into this rich experience we need to make sure the fantasy doesn’t turn bad for us. We don’t have to endure them like guests on the TV show “Fantasy Island.” In the TV show the greatest lesson visitors to Fantasy Island lear is that it is a place where a gift turns out to be a curse. Kind of like David probably regretting that he ever killed Goliath because the rest of his life he had to live up to the image of a great warrior.
The key is trust. Everything we have is a God-given trust. Everything! Most of us are just average people, not spectacular, but we can all be faithful. So the bottom-line question is what have you done with what you have been given? Everybody has been blessed with something. Everybody! It’s not the gift that matters so much, but what you do with the gift. Jesus tells us that we should lay up treasure in the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is the greatest currency in the Kingdom of Heaven? Grace. In the Parable of the Talents, one man was given 5 talents. It stands to reason that he was given lots of grace because he needed it. He was a great sinner and he realized the depth of his sin and what he owed to God and others. God blessed him with 5 talents. He subsequently passed this generosity on by showing grace to others, allowing them to be rich towards God. The other man got 2 talents. He did the same. The one who got 1 talent wasn’t treated unfairly. He probably led such a “righteous” life that his debt wasn’t as apparent.
He was like the obedient older brother in the story of the prodigal son or the 99 supposedly safe sheep in the other parable in the same chapter. He felt he was doing fine and didn’t need so much grace in his life. He was OK with what he had. He buried the gift. He didn’t faithfully pass it on. When judgment day came, the righteous judge pointed out that the recalcitrant servant didn’t just fail to fill his fiscal potential. He was called “wicked” 5 times. That’s quite a harsh word of condemnation. God wants you to be a pipeline of riches, blessings and grace to others, not that you become a purse for yourself. Henry Van Dyke wrote: “The woods would be silent if no birds sang except those who sang the best.” Here’s the universal life-saving principle dealing with faithfulness: If you have a gift or talent and use it faithfully, God increases it so you can do even more.” This is true of tennis, golf, singing, skiing, writing, piano playing, or even thinking. The only way to keep what you have and increase it is to faithfully invest it in others and for the Kingdom of God. Always at work is the law of “accumulated abundance.” For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Matt. 25:29).
Faithfulness, as nurtured by the Holy Spirit in your life is an absolute necessity for productive Christian living. It’s a hard, harsh truth. It seems to be a negative until you look at the other side, the positive side. Who are the most joyful people you know?
Quick–what is their secret of joy. The most joyous people I know are the ones who never stop growing. When you give you get more to give. When you have an increase you have more to increase. When you use it faithfully, you get more to use! In short, use it faithfully or lose it!
The greatest commendation any human being can have bestowed upon him or her to hear the Master say: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness. As much as this seems like the best last word, I will give the honor to the Psalmist Ethan: I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever, with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known to all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself (Ps. 89:1-2). And the fruit of the Spirit is….Faithfulness