Life on the Vine: Faithfulness

Marcel: Amen.

Amen.

Good morning, brothers and sisters.

Good morning.

Amen.

God's gonna trouble the water.

All right, my name is Marcel Hall, and, uh, with my wife Karina.

Uh, we've been married now almost 21 years.

We're able and blessed to be able to serve in a full-time

ministry, and grateful to speak.

Uh, I was told, "Marcel, do not go long today."

'Cause there is the World Cup, and people have some watch

parties and stuff like that.

Yeah.

So I said, "Well, amen.

I appreciate that."

I see we already have some people rocking…

I saw Rocky rocking the Argentina jersey right there.

Any, uh, Argentinian fans today?

Are there any fans going for Argentina?

Okay.

And so I take it the rest of you are going for Spain?

There you go.

All right.

All right.

Sounds good.

I know, I know Kathy Moretzky, I know who she's going for.

Uh, you have to ask her, 'cause she has conviction about it.

And, uh, so we're going to go ahead and continue with a sermon

series that we started several weeks ago called Life on the Vine.

And so, uh, Jesus talked about the importance of staying connected

to the vine, and the Apostle Paul tells the church that, you know,

there's the fruit of the Spirit.

There's this, uh, uh, uh, uh, if we stay close to God, then God will

produce some things in our lives.

And so we're studying these things out, and it's called The Fruit of the Spirit.

And as was mentioned, and as you have seen the theme for today, we

will be talking and looking into the idea and topic of faithfulness.

Let's go ahead and let's go to God in prayer.

Father, thank you so much for this opportunity to get into your Word.

I know I've been excited about the things you have been teaching me,

reminding me, inspiring me with as we look at this idea of faithfulness.

And God, I pray that you will speak today, that you will minister to every

soul, that every soul will walk out with the message that you have for them.

We pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's go to our theme passage here, Galatians 5:22.

Galatians 5:22

It reads, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Against such things there is no law."

Again, we're talking about this idea of faithfulness.

And so the New Testament, what we call the New Testament, was

written primarily in Greek.

And so this was actually, it's translated to English, and so this word faithfulness

comes from this Greek word pistis.

And so pistis means, mostly it's translated as faith, but it's als-

also translated as faithfulness.

And so it could be, uh, goodness, faith, gentleness or self-control, but most

scholars translate it faithfulness because it fits the context of the character

qualities that God is producing in us.

But I don't think we really need to worry too much about separating the

concepts of faith and faithfulness, because when you have a deepening

faith, a trust in God that is growing, it will produce a faithful life.

And so we will look at this some more today.

And so this, again, this idea of faithfulness.

It's a quality of being loyal, steadfast, reliable, responsible.

Faithfulness means, especially biblically, to have an unwavering

loyalty, a steadfast reliability, and an absolute trustworthiness.

It's being dedicated to our commitments, our commitments to God,

our commitments in our relationships.

It means to keep our promises, keep our word, to stay true to our

duties that we have, and stay true to the standard by which we live.

Now, I don't know about you.

Now, I can assume, I'm gonna assu- safely assume that we

all want to be faithful people.

Right.

Yeah.

Don't you wanna be described a faithful woman or a faithful man?

Yeah.

Especially when it comes to your faith, I wanna be known as a faithful man of

God I also want to have faithful friends.

Don't you want to have some faithful friends around you?

Yes.

'Cause you don't want to be…

I don't like those, I don't want to hang out with those unfaithful people.

'Cause you know, when we goin' to battle, you know you can't depend on them.

So we want to be surrounded by faithful people.

But again, this is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It comes from walking closely with God.

And so the very first thing that we need to remind ourselves, we

need to be reminded of this truth.

This is our theology here for the moment, and this is that God is faithful.

Yes.

Amen.

God is loyal.

God is steadfast.

God is reliable.

God is trustworthy.

Amen.

And so if we can remember that, then that will flow into everything we understand

about this idea of the fruit of the Spirit producing faithfulness in our lives.

But let's look some more here, because the Bible has throughout the, from the

Old Testament to the New Testament, so many times in which it describes

and reveals that our God is faithful.

And I want to look at a couple passages here.

In Deuteronomy 7:9, "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God.

Deuteronomy 7:9

He is the faithful God- Yes … keeping his covenant of love to a thousand

generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

For the Word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful

in all he does," Psalm 33:4.

Psalms 33:4

And I love this one.

Check this one out.

Paul says this to Timothy.

He says, "If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, "The one who calls you," talking about God,

1 Thessalonians 5:24

"is faithful and he will do it."

God is faithful.

He is a faithful God.

God is faithful to His covenant.

He's faithful to His people.

God is faithful to His promises.

He's faithful to His Word.

God is faithful because that's His character.

That's who He is.

He cannot be anything but faithful because that's who He is in His being.

Yeah.

God is faithful.

Can anyone testify to God being faithful?

Yes.

Are there some people in here that can testify and say, "You know what?

I know those scriptures are true because I've seen it be true in my

own life and in those around me"?

Are there any people in here that can testify to God being faithful?

Yes.

Yes, there is.

Yes, he is.

I want you to think about it just real quickly.

Take 30 seconds.

And it's okay, maybe you're visiting here, you're like, "I don't know if God

is faithful," but just bear with us here.

I want you to take 30 seconds.

Think of a time in which God showed his faithfulness to you.

If you want to write that down, let's go ahead and write that down in your notes.

But I want you to think about a time in which God revealed his faithfulness to you

I can think through my whole life, even before I became a Christian,

how faithful God has been to me.

I look at my life and I go, "I should not be here, but I stand as a testimony

to God being faithful to this short Black dude from Orange County."

I stand as a witness and testimony that there's a faithful God.

And you all raised your hand that you could testify that

God is faithful as well.

Yes.

We need to remember this.

We need to make sure that this is rooted in our faith and in our

everyday thinking- Yes … because it influences our everyday decision-making.

That's right.

That's right.

Now, follow the logic here.

God is faithful.

When we repent and get baptized, God gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us.

That's awesome, that's indescribable, but that's the reality in which we live in.

So now, this faithful God, now His faithful spirit living in

us, and what does it produce?

It produces the traits of God.

That's right.

Yes.

Every fruit of the Spirit is a trait or characteristic of God.

Right.

And this is how it's produced in us.

Love grows because what?

God is love.

Yeah.

We … Peace grows because what?

God is the God of peace.

Faithfulness grows because God is faithful.

Right.

So when the Spirit lives in us, He's forming in us God's own character.

Right.

And so this is amazing.

Again, this faithful God now dwells in us, and a big component of the work

of the Holy Spirit is to now form us and shape us in our character and our

nature to resemble, look, and reflect the faithful God who dwells within us.

Yes.

Now, I want to remind us of a couple of things.

Church, are you still with me here?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

I want to remind us of a couple things here.

We remember that it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

That mean it, it's a byproduct, a production of the Spirit

working in our lives.

Now, we also can recall, remember, that we're also called to a responsibility

in this growth in our lives.

And we talked about this a couple weeks.

Again, this metaphor, this imagery that's in the scripture is, again,

of, of, you could say gardening.

And so when you plant something, you have to what?

Set the conditions so that it can grow.

Yeah.

Right.

I shared this a couple weeks ago, and I shared with you, uh, my son's plant that

he got from school right before school ended, and that was it several weeks ago.

And I showed you a picture.

I said, "Dominic, what are you growing?"

He said, "I don't know what I'm growing."

I said, "Well, you probably should know what you're supposed to be growing."

And so he had this plant, and that was several weeks ago.

I wanted to give you a update on how it looks today.

Here's what it looked like the other day

I told my son I was gonna share.

I didn't say what I was gonna share with him, so don't, you know what I'm saying?

Don't say too much to him, okay?

But I went out there, said, "Dominic, where's the, where, where,

what's going on with your plan?"

He said, "I don't know."

I said, "Uh-oh, we in trouble."

I said, "Man, let me go find this."

I went over there and took a picture and I said, "Oh, Dominic,

you haven't done a thing with it."

And so here's what happens when we do not cultivate the conditions

for the Spirit to work in our lives

We do not see the growth that it was designed to be, not because

God is incapable, but because we didn't work in partnership with God.

That's right.

We have to cultivate the conditions for the spirit to grow the fruit

of the spirit in our lives.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yeah.

And so we need to make sure that we do our part.

God's gonna do the work, but he calls us to be in partnership

and work with him so that he can produce the fruits in our lives.

You see, we become faithful by being close to the faithful God.

Amen.

We become faithful by being close to the faithful God.

And as I was thinking about this, it, I was reminded of, to me, this is,

this was, again, it wa- it was just deep, mind-blowing and profound for me.

Maybe it won't be for you, maybe it will be.

But I was thinking about this, and I go let, let's get

to the core of faithfulness.

What's at the core of faithfulness?

Yes, we know it's to be loyal, it's to be steadfast, it's to be

reliable, or to be responsible.

What's at the core there?

And start thinking of a peach.

And you know how the peach, you have the peach pit, and that's the little

hard piece that's at the center.

You guys know what I'm talking about, right?

All right.

And so if you get to the center of faithfulness, I believe at the

center of faithfulness is this: It's a heart that desires what is right.

It's a desire to do what is right.

Think about it.

Why is someone faithful employee?

Because they feel that they want to respond, they wanna do what's right

by the company that employs them.

Why is someone a faithful, faithful to their spouse?

Because they have a subtle desire to do what is right by their spouse.

Why is someone faithful to God?

Because they desire to do what is right by God, who has been faithful to them.

What makes you want to be faithful?

You want to do the right thing.

Right.

You want to be loyal.

You want to be reliable.

You want to be steadfast.

You want to be responsible.

See, at the center of faithfulness is this desire to do what is right.

And the opposite is true.

Think about it.

When you don't care about doing right, what happens?

You make different decisions, don't you?

You have a different view and a different approach to whatever it is, whether it's

that relationship or that situation.

You don't wanna be faithful and loyal because you could care less about what?

Doing what's right.

You could care less about it.

And so what?

We might be tempted to take, to steal, to be disloyal.

Why?

Because we don't desire to do what is right.

But when we desire to do what is right, it leads, it propels us to what?

Be faithful See, the problem though is we don't always want to do the right thing.

Am I the only one that's ever tempted to do the wrong thing?

No.

Don't you lie.

You're, you, you doing the wrong thing right now.

We're all familiar with this.

My man, Kronk, from Emperor's New Groove.

We're all familiar with this concept, right?

You have the good angel and the bad angel.

Man, I don't know about you, but this could be my life at times.

Certain situations, I have something saying, "Marcel, here's the right thing

to do," and then I have this evil side saying, "No, you don't need to do that.

In fact, here's what you need to do."

Can you relate to this at all?

Yes.

You know, the Bible actually has a passage that actually kind of really

kinda shares this reality, this truth.

You see, in Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul, he goes and he's telling, you

Romans 7 · chapter mention

know, i- it's, it's in the middle of a whole big argument there, but he, he

goes and he says, "Hey, there's good that I wanna do, but then I don't do it.

And the bad that I don't wanna do, I end up doing."

So then, and he goes on to this back and forth, and you have to

really follow it 'cause you're like, "Where is he going with all this?"

But he says this in Romans 7 in verse, uh, 21.

Here's what he says here.

He says, "So I find this law at work.

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at

work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner

of the law of sin at work within me."

What's he saying?

Basically, I wanna do good, but there's a part of me that

also wants to do what is bad.

Can you relate to that at all?

Yeah.

I'm r- I'm faced with this all the time, whether it's the flesh, giving

into my emotions, thinking what I want to do right now is superior

than what I know God wants me to do.

And so I'm tempted, and it's this back and forth.

And so sometimes internally, I can be arguing with myself back and forth.

Can you relate to that, or is that just me?

No.

Maybe it's just me.

That's okay.

It's bad when you argue with yourself out loud.

Don't do that, okay?

You know what I'm saying?

Then people get worried.

But we can, we can, we can go back and forth.

Man, here's what I want to do, but man, here's what feels right at the moment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know it feels right at the moment, but I know this is the right thing to do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so we face this battle.

But here's what's so cool.

I love God.

This is where the Spirit of God helps.

This is where walking in step with the Spirit of God helps.

You see, the Spirit of God changes our desires.

You see, at the center of faithfulness is the desire to do what's right, and

the Spirit of God changes our desires.

Let's go back here to Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?

Yes.

Okay, Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

So this is a little bit, uh, in front of, before our, our theme verse at

22, and he's talking about the Spirit.

He says, "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not

gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the

Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."

Did you catch that?

The Spirit and the flesh desire different things.

They're not compatible.

They don't work together.

They actually conflict with each other.

The Spirit desires what God desires because the Spirit is of God.

And so the Spirit desires godly things, God's will.

And when we walk in step with the Spirit, what does it do?

It increases our desires to do the right thing.

And this is why it's so important that we stay in step with the Holy Spirit.

Yes.

Because when we stay in step with the Holy Spirit, what is the Spirit doing?

He's reorienting us.

He's developing, He's increasing our desire to do what is right.

And so therefore, we remove ourselves from the desire to do what is wrong.

But not only does it increase our desires, it also empowers

us to be able to accomplish it.

Yeah.

It's one thing to desire it, but it's another to be

enabled to actually achieve it.

Do you guys get what I'm saying here?

Yes.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does.

It increases our desires, but then it empowers us to overcome the sinful desires

in our lives and to do the right thing.

You see, again, we become faithful by being close to the faithful God.

When we're in step with Him, then again, He's producing faithfulness in us.

Our desires are growing, and therefore, our actions follow.

We overcome sin.

And here's the thing.

We become more like God- That's right … in our character and in our nature.

And we follow God not just because that's the right thing,

and I don't want to be judged.

I don't want to be in trouble with God.

I don't want to go to hell.

No, those don't become the reasons anymore.

And it goes from, "Yes, I do this because I love God," but, "Yes, I

do this because I think like God."

I desire what God desires.

So why would I turn to the flesh?

Right.

You see, this is what the Spirit is producing in us, and it doesn't just

start at the day of our baptism.

It's a lifelong transformation.

Amen.

The Spirit isn't trying to produce behavior modification.

Right.

The Spirit is producing transformation into the image of Jesus.

Amen.

And for that we can say hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

And this is why I believe the call for you and I is what the scriptures call us to.

Again, we talked about this before.

It's to keep in step with the Spirit.

This theme is going to always be throughout this series because we

have to stay close to God, and we have to remain close to God, and

we see God's work in our lives.

Again, not for a momentary success, but for it to be our

character, for it to be who we are.

Right.

And so we have to cultivate the conditions where the Spirit will produce faithfulness

in our lives and in us as a church.

And so how can we do this?

I believe it's first through God's character, remembering,

meditating on God's faithfulness.

How rich were the words were we singing earlier today about the goodness of God.

You've been faithful to me.

About Christ being the firm foundation, therefore, I will get

through whatever the circumstance is.

Why?

Because God is with me.

He's faithful, so therefore, I can be faithful in return

We remember that's who God is.

I am a child of God.

That's who I am.

That's right.

I am faithful.

I am a faithful man of God.

I am a faithful woman of God.

So therefore, I will make the right choice.

We reflect on God's faithfulness, and it's good to reflect on God's

faithfulness in our own lives.

Remember I asked you earlier, write that down.

It does something when we remember how God's been faithful to us.

Yes.

You don't come away two minutes later the same after remembering God's faithfulness.

It generates something in us, whether it's gratitude or grit and a conviction

that I am going to be faithful in return.

That's right.

We also can cultivate through God's word.

We can never escape growing outside of God's word.

That's right.

Yeah.

Because it's God's truth that reminds us of these realities,

but it's also God's truth that shapes who we are and our desires.

When you get into the word, it shapes you, it forms you.

Yeah.

Again, it reorients you.

It, it course corrects your life and your decision-making and your perspective.

Yeah.

And so this is how we cultivate the spirit to grow, by remembering and

reflecting upon God's character, by having God's word, and also I

believe one more, God's people.

Yeah.

You know, faithfulness requires help

Faithfulness requires help.

God designed it so that you and I wouldn't have to do this alone.

Hallelujah for that.

Amen.

Because sometimes a brother gets weak, and I'm not talking Weak in the Knees, SWV.

Gina, I know you caught that one right there.

If you didn't, okay, all right, brother, there you go.

That's a song anyway.

Sorry.

It just comes out of me every now and then

There you go, Santa Anna in the house.

All right, so God's people help us to remain faithful.

Yeah.

Why?

Because we encourage one another.

Yeah.

We strengthen one another.

That's right.

We challenge one another.

We assist one another.

We support one another.

Why?

Because we love one another.

That's right.

I believe Hebrews catches this, captures everything here.

Let's read it.

Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold unswervingly…"

Hebrews 10:23

Did you catch that?

"Let us hold unswer-…

We're not all over the place in our faith.

That's right.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.

For he who promises," what?

Faithful.

Faithful.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not

giving meeting up together- That's right

as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the

more as you see the day approaching."

Yeah.

The Hebrew writer captures it clearly.

Hey, this is how we cultivate the Spirit producing faithfulness in our lives.

Yeah.

It's reflecting, remember, God's character.

It, it, it's having God's Word in our lives, and it's having

God's people in our lives.

And again, not just to receive, but so that we can also be there for others.

Yeah.

So what can or what should this look like?

I believe God has a bigger vision for this.

And again, this is written to the church, and so it wasn't just to be,

s- supposed to be applied personally or just individually, excuse me.

But it was supposed to be applied corporately.

Yeah.

Collectively.

And so I believe that what it will produce is a faithful people.

Not just faithful disciples, but a faithful collection of people.

Yeah.

And that faithful people will be what?

We will be faithful to God, faithful to God's people, and

faithful to God's mission.

Yeah.

Faithful to God.

We follow Jesus even when it is hard.

Yeah.

Even when we don't feel like it.

Yeah.

This is the faithfulness that God will produce, that we will be people that

will say no to a culture that tells us to be faithful to our feelings.

Come on.

Yeah.

We will say no to a culture that tells us to be faithful to what

feels authentic in the moment, because disciples of Jesus follow

God even when we don't feel like it.

That's right.

Because it's who he is, and it's who we are.

We are.

We are faithful men and women of God.

That's right.

And so we don't give in to the moment and say, "Well, that's just who I am.

That's not my authentic me."

No, I follow Jesus.

That's who I am.

That's my authentic me.

We remain loyal because what?

God has remained loyal to us

We're faithful to the church.

We're faithful to the body of Christ.

What does that mean?

It means we're faithful to each other.

Yeah, yeah.

Look to the person to your right and to your left.

That's who you're suppo- you're called to be faithful to.

We cherish the church like Jesus does.

Amen.

So what do we do?

We don't speak negative about the church, but we honor the church even

with all its flaws and everything.

Yeah.

Come on.

I don't think Jesus looked down at you and goes, "Man, oh, there's Johnny over there.

Man, he's rough, he's terrible.

Oh man, you should see Johnny on Thursdays.

He's a mess, but I guess he's saved."

I think Jesus goes, "You know what?

I love Johnny."

Yeah.

"I'm working on Johnny."

Come on.

"Johnny, we're not done with Johnny."

Right.

"Where Johnny is today is not where Johnny's gonna be next year."

Right.

"'Cause I'm faithful to Johnny."

Yeah.

"And Johnny's gonna become faithful like me because that's

who I am and that's who he is."

That's right.

"Yeah, Johnny got some problems."

"But that's not who he is.

He's my disciple."

Yeah.

And so how should we talk about the church?

"Man, can you believe all the trouble and the drama and ooh, look at this."

That's not the way Jesus does it with you.

Don't do it with his bride.

Ooh.

We have to make sure, and I know we got flaws, we got problems.

Why?

Because you have problems.

I got problems Yeah.

But we cherish the church.

We…

Relationships.

Trustworthy in our relationships.

Yes, we're gonna…

disagreements.

Yes, we're gonna have arguments, but we're committed to through the bond

His convenience would suggest just walking away o- from rela-

We're committed or we're faithful

Faithful.

What does that mean?

We're faithful to having compassion for the world.

That's right.

Yeah.

You see, we can lose compassion.

We become numb, or we can become callous, or we can even become judgmental- Right

… of those who aren't inside the church.

True.

That's not God's will, and that's not God's character.

That's right.

You know, God's people reflect God's character.

Yeah.

God's people do God's will.

Yes.

So what does that mean?

We keep going and sharing the gospel.

Why?

Because we have compassion upon the world, because you and I

were once part of the world.

Right.

And God used somebody to have compassion on us.

That's right.

And so we continue to serve in our communities.

We continue to be involved.

Wherever we go, we're a blessing.

Why?

Because God is a blessing in our lives.

That's right.

And we reflect God, and we produce what God produces in our lives, and

we continue doing the right thing.

We're faithful to God's mission.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's get real practical here.

Action steps here, all right?

You know I like having some action steps here, all right?

Oh.

So go ahead, take out your, your, your camera or your, if you're taking notes,

whatever it is you need to do here.

But just for this week, okay?

If we can all do this just for this week, several hundred of us doing this

this week, I believe we're gonna see some great things that God is gonna do.

Number one: reflect daily on one way God has been faithful to you.

Oh, yeah.

Just reflect.

Whether it be at the end of the day, you're reflecting on how God's

been faithful, or you start off the morning thinking about how God's

been faithful to you yesterday.

Just be reflecting, reflective of how God's been faithful to you.

You know, the more we recognize God's faithfulness to us, the more the Spirit

shapes us into a faithful people.

And second, this week here, pray.

Pray daily that our church, for our church to become a more faithful people.

Yeah.

Again, this application isn't just for us individually.

It's for us collectively.

For us to be a faithful people, showing our faithfulness to God, to

God's people, and to God's mission.

Imagine if all of us do that this week.

I believe we're gonna see some testimony of how God's been faithful.

We're also gonna be able to testify how we're seeing the Spirit

grow this faithfulness in us.

Yeah.

So as we conclude, the faithful God has placed His faithful Spirit within us,

and as we stay and keep in step with Him, He produces a faithful people.

Galatians 5:22, we'll close out here.

Galatians 5:22

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

with its passions and desires.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

May we become faithful from living a life on the vine.

Amen.