Gospel Impact | Faithfulness - Galatians 5:22-23 (Oct 29) Ian Hales

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Can can we just hold on a second?

Give me for a second.

I don't know if you know this, but today is Miles' birthday.

That's right.

That's what we should be cheering for.

Happy birthday, brother.

We love you, man.

Uh I do.

I love your pastor very much, and I'm so thankful for him.

And in so many ways, everything he just said about me, I can say about him.

It's so good.

It's so good just to have uh people in the faith that you love, that you respect, that you admire, and um Miles and Amber, we just treasure them so much.

They were such a blessing to our church for years and years, to my kids in particular, as he led the youth ministry there.

And uh they have just been sweet friends, and we've just been so thankful to the Lord for them and the work that he's doing uh through them here in this church.

I try I hope that you sense that as well, and that you just uh praise God for the pastor that he's given you.

I want to uh I want to dive into God's word, and so I want to encourage you to open your Bibles to Galatians chapter five.

And uh if if you don't have a Bible, I don't know, I'm seeing this happening live here.

If you need a Bible, just put your hand up and we'll make sure a Bible gets to you.

Yeah?

Can they keep this Bible if they don't have one?

Yes.

I love it.

Good.

You need a Bible.

If you don't have one, take it home with you.

Um and we just trust it'll be a blessing to you.

Um I I want to just read for you what is uh I think a very familiar passage.

Um and and what I I normally do exposition, like your pastor, through a chunk of scripture.

Um and I'm I'm gonna do that in one sense today, but I'm gonna exposit one word, okay?

So it's gonna be maybe a little bit unique, and this is gonna be a little bit more of a thematic look at one word, but I want to look at uh Paul's words in Galatians 5, 22.

This is a familiar section about the fruit of the spirit.

And so let me just read that and then I'm gonna dive into this together.

It says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

I want to hone in on that word faithfulness.

But before I do that, I just want to mention that this passage here is describing what has been called the fruit of the spirit directly out of this passage.

And the idea of the fruit of the spirit is that this is the evidence that the Spirit of God lives in you, that you are a part of the family of God.

And what Paul does here is he contrasts this idea of the fruit of the Spirit, all these nine characteristics, he contrasts them with something very, very important, which he calls the works of the flesh.

Earlier in chapter 5, he's listed off the works of the flesh, and he's described these sinful practices as things that define a life that will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And so, in contrast, he's looking at these characteristics, and he's saying, this here is evidence that the Spirit of God dwells in you, and that God is changing you.

It's evidence that you're a child of God, and it's evidence that you will inherit the kingdom of God.

And so these things here are incredibly important.

I I like to think of the fruit of the spirit kind of like this.

The fruit of the spirit is what God is producing in you, okay?

So, in other words, it's a work of the power of the Spirit of God.

God does it in you, but but listen, while God does it in you, it's not something that's passive and that we don't actually participate in.

It's something we also see that must be cultivated by us.

And so every one of the fruit of the Spirit.

What you'll notice if you're reading through the scriptures, we are commanded to practice these things, to cultivate these things, not just wait passively for God to produce them.

But make no mistake about it, where we see these things in our lives, we give all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise to our great God.

Amen.

And so here's what I want to do.

I want to look at this one idea of faithfulness, and here's why I want to do this, because I think in our world, I think faithfulness is a characteristic that I don't think is very highly prized or valued.

In fact, if our world was to make maybe a list of the fruit of the world, okay?

If if in a secular sense they came up with a fruit of the world, um, here's what I think they would replace the word faithfulness with.

Successfulness.

I think the world defines this idea of faithfulness with the idea of being successful.

And I think we see that in a multitude of ways.

And let me be very clear out the gates, I'm not opposed to being successful.

Um, there's there's nothing um wrong with being successful in a number of different areas in our lives.

I mean, I've never heard a child say, when I grow up, I want to be a miserable failure that accomplished nothing and doesn't amount to anything, right?

We would never want our kids to believe something like that.

But you see, our problem is not that we are ambitious to be successful, it's that we don't define success the way God does.

God defines success in the Christian life with the word faithfulness.

Faithfulness is success in God's economy.

And I want to encourage you to think about the fruit of the Spirit, not just faithfulness, but all of the fruit of the Spirit in this sense.

It is evidence that the Spirit of God is at work within you, that God is maturing you and growing you as a disciple of Christ.

You see, the evidence of God's spirit in your life is not some kind of radical emotional experience, listen, but a steady transformation of our character.

The biblical word speaks to this idea of reliability, of fidelity.

It speaks to someone who can be counted upon.

It means to be trustworthy, to be loyal and committed.

Let me say those words again.

It means to be trustworthy, loyal, and committed.

It's helpful to think of the opposite of those things when you think about faithfulness.

In other words, that the unfaithful person is the person who is untrustworthy, disloyal, and is uncommitted.

The faithful person is trustworthy, loyal, and committed.

So if you want to be successful, and I trust you do today, if you're a Christian, you want to be successful in the Christian life, then you need to cultivate faithfulness in your life.

So I want to look at three questions to help us cultivate faithfulness.

Three questions to help us cultivate faithfulness.

And the first one is this Am I totally trustworthy?

Am I totally trustworthy?

Let that question kind of sink into your own mind for a minute, okay?

I want you to use this as kind of an evaluation tool for your own life.

So the natural question then is this what does it mean to be totally trustworthy?

It should come as no surprise that God is the supreme standard of trustworthiness.

He is the one who is utterly dependable, he is the one who's totally reliable.

He alone, really, if we think about it in the most perfect sense, he alone is the one who is totally trustworthy.

God is faithful.

And God's people have always put their confidence in the Lord.

You know, one of the reasons that we as God's people continually put our confidence in the Lord, even though the listen, the world can be in disarray, the world can be in chaos like it often is around us.

Our lives can feel like they are completely outside of the bounds of our control, which they are.

Our lives can feel like they're falling apart.

We can feel confused.

Everything can be in disarray, but you want to know what the people of God put their hope in?

That no matter what's happening in our lives or in this world, we serve a God who is absolutely faithful.

He can be trusted to the very end.

Amen?

This is the hope of God's people.

And I want you to see this just really quickly.

I want to show you.

There's so many scriptures that talk about the faithfulness of God.

And it's it's just good to let them wash over you, maybe in a fresh way today.

If you're a Christian, I know you believe God's faithful, but listen to the scriptures, speak this over you, okay?

Know this in Deuteronomy 7.9.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

That's so awesome.

Listen to Psalm 31, verse 5.

Psalms 31:5

Into your hand I commit my spirit.

You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

Do you see the connection there between faithfulness and trustworthiness?

The God of the Word, and therefore the Word of God is faithful and trustworthy because it manifests to us the very character and person of who he is.

Psalm 145, verse 13 says this your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Psalms 145:13

The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

And then Jeremiah, listen to this, in the midst of his lamentations over the judgment of God upon Judah, he proclaims in this very, very famous verse, you probably've probably heard it if you're a Christian, it says this in Lamentations 3.22 the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

Why?

Listen, that great is your faithful.

Everything in the Christian life derides upon the faithfulness of God.

And faithfulness is a fruit of the spirit because it is an attribute of God.

I don't know if you've ever caught that.

When you read through the fruit of the spirit, do you realize that all the fruit of the spirit is is the manifestation of the very person of God in your own life?

God is the perfection of every one of those fruit of the Spirit.

And it makes sense that the Spirit of God within us is trying to make us more like our God.

And so here's what that means for us.

If we desire to be much like God, we must learn to look much at God.

If he is the perfection of all that God is trying to transform us to be, then we need to learn to look at him more so that we can be conformed more and more to his image.

This is why every week, I know you as a church, uh you anchor yourselves in the Word of God, and the character of God is put on full display, I trust, in your midst every week.

You probably heard the saying, right?

In the fitness kind of world, you are what you eat.

You heard that?

Which is true, isn't it?

We we all know this just experientially to be true.

Uh you are what you eat.

So, in other words, if you want to get fit and healthy, you got to start paying attention to what you're eating.

Uh, there's another phrase in the fitness community that abs are made in the kitchen, right?

You ever want to see your abs?

All right, you better dial in your diet.

That's a good physical reality, a physical truth.

But what we're after is the spiritual fitness of our souls.

And I I love, I love what GK Beale says.

He says it like this whatever people revere, they resemble either for their ruin or for restoration.

Let me say that again.

Whatever people revere, they resemble.

Either for ruin or for restoration.

You as a Christian, you as a human being, you become like that which you behold.

It's inevitable, whether you realize it or not, you begin to look like what you love.

What you worship will determine who you become.

You will reflect what you revere.

And it will either be for your ruin.

Listen, like all idolatry leads to ruin, or for restoration.

It will be for our transformation.

The two aspects of being totally trustworthy that I want to just kind of focus in on really quickly.

The first part of being trustworthy is being honest.

And I think it's important that we kind of reflect upon our own lives for a moment.

Just ask yourself this question: are your words true?

Are you known as a person of integrity where you speak the truth?

Now, how about another kind of angle to look at this idea of being honest?

Do you actually do what you say you will do?

That's a form of honesty.

Or do you waver on your word?

I think one of the greatest examples of integrity and faithfulness and trustworthiness in all of Scripture is Daniel.

If you look at the story of Daniel, he's living in exile in Babylon.

He's this remarkable man who has just this unshakable character produced by God very clearly.

Listen to what Daniel 6.4 says about him.

It says this then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom.

I love this.

But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault.

Why was that?

Look at these words.

Because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.

He couldn't be accused of wrongdoing by his enemies.

No matter how much they inspected his life, they put a magnifying glass onto his life, and they looked at every corner of his life, and what they found was so significant.

He was a man who was faithful.

He did what he said, his word was his bond.

He believed what he said he believed, he behaved the way he said he'd behave.

There was no disease or dishonesty with Daniel.

He didn't cheat on his taxes, he didn't lie about his income.

He didn't exaggerate stories about his greatness or his accomplishments.

He didn't defraud his neighbor or manipulate others for his own benefit.

He was honest and ethical in all his affairs.

Let me just connect some dots for you biblically.

I want you to connect the idea of honesty with faithfulness here.

Listen to Proverbs 20, 12, 22.

Just listen.

It says this lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.

But those who act faithfully are his delight.

Did you catch that?

The contrast to lying lips is somebody who acts faithfully.

In other words, they're honest, even sometimes to a fault.

Would they find corruption?

Would they find deceit?

Would they find that you're not a person of integrity?

Would they find that you're not truthful in every area of your life?

Are you totally trustworthy?

And here's why I'm pressing in.

I want you to look at the little areas of your life.

Here's why.

This is true in a kind of broad array of kind of character qualifications.

If you compromise in the little places in your life, it's only a matter of time before you compromise in a bigger area of your life.

Do you see that?

You create habits and patterns and character over time.

And if you're not dialing it in to the little, what some would say are trivial areas of your life, you just watch.

It's just a matter of time before your compromise or capitulate in some much bigger area of your life.

But if you dial in those little things in your life, if you seek to be honest and a person of integrity at the smallest part parts of your life, I promise you, you're protecting yourself against compromise in much bigger areas.

I want you to see the second piece of this too.

It's it's not just that we're we're being honest.

That's not entirely what it means to be trustworthy.

It's also that we're dependable.

We're dependable.

And I think again, Daniel serves as a magnificent example of somebody who is dependable.

People could count on him.

He he undoubtedly worked hard.

I have no doubt that he was on time for his appointment.

Are you allowed to say that at church?

Some of you are like, this went right over your head.

A few of us here uh were here when it when it started.

Never mind, that's okay.

Another day.

I'm sure he kept his commitments.

I'm sure he honored his word.

And he considered how his actions might affect others.

I mean, how often in our lives does dependability take a back seat to personal desires or convenience?

I I know I I said I'd go.

I know I committed to it, but I just don't really feel like it.

I'm I'm too tired.

Or I'd rather just listen.

I know it's been a long day, I got I got obligations, I've got commitments, maybe there are even church commitments, maybe it's a small group or a prayer night, or whatever it is, but you know what?

I mean, there's a game on tonight, and it's a bit I've really been looking forward to this game.

It'd be much easier just to go back on my word and to do something else.

You know, the attitude over age seems to be I'll keep that commitment if it's convenient.

But that cannot be for the Christian.

Jerry Bridges he says this that for the person who is practicing godliness, dependability is a duty owed not only to his fellow man, but more important to God.

Reliability is not just a social obligation, it is a spiritual obligation.

God is even more concerned about our faithfulness than is the person relying on us in some particular situation.

And in fact, just flipping your Bible uh to Psalm 15.

I just want to highlight this just really quickly, but I think it's really important that you get your pages kind of flipping through the script, you get your fingers flipping through the pages of scripture, and you you land in Psalm 15.

This is such a powerful psalm, and I would urge you to meditate often on this psalm and even commit it to memory.

This is it's only five verses, but it is powerful, it is potent in so many ways.

And here's the heading in my Bible, the subheading, which is not inspired, but it says this Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

Okay?

Now here's what this means biblically, theologically.

It's talking about who's gonna gain access to the presence of God.

That's what the holy hill represents.

Who is gonna be the one who's able to draw near to God and enjoy his presence?

Who is going to be close to God, to have an intimate relationship with God, to experience the power of his presence at work in their life?

Okay, so it's jam-packed, full of meaning here.

But listen to what he says.

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent, who shall dwell on your holy hill?

Look at look at this.

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord.

Look at this is what I want to highlight here for you.

Who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

Do you see how God takes seriously your dependability?

Swearing to your own hurt and not changing.

God, here's what I'm taking from this, okay?

And here's what I trust you will take from this.

Being dependable means it will cost you something.

And God calls us to be dependable even when the costs are significant.

And there's nobody who put this on display more than Jesus Christ, right?

He was dependable to the very end.

God was so faithful to us as people that it cost him his only son.

God, think about this.

God at the cross swore to his own hurt.

This is what's put on display in the covenant that God makes with Abraham when he walks between, you know, puts Abraham to sleep, and he walks between those, you know, the smoking pot.

You know, he swears by his own name to his own hurt.

He says, I will do this on my own, I will fulfill what you cannot, I will be faithful when you are not.

And the greatest display in the culmination of this is at the cross of Jesus Christ, when God says, Listen, I told you I would do it, I told you I would save you, I told you I would redeem you, and I'm gonna give you my own son to do it.

Shed his blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

So that you can see that I am a dependable God.

I am faithful to the very end.

And you say, Well, I struggle with this.

I'm not always honest, I'm not always dependable.

I hear you.

And I'm not, you know, I'm standing up here preaching in my own heart.

So what do we do?

If this hasn't been us, if we're a person who hasn't hasn't been honest, hasn't been dependable, is is there hope for us?

Here's the awesome truth of the gospel.

Absolutely.

You see, our ability to be dependable is based upon God's ability to be dependable.

In other words, God was dependable at the cross to redeem us and transform us and forgive us.

Therefore, we can go back to the cross, to the faithfulness of God.

We can stand firmly in the faithfulness of God and we can live from there.

Here's what that means for you and me.

Listen, there's been a struggle for you, great.

Go back to the cross and see.

God is gracious to forgive you today.

He wants to forgive you and transform you.

He wants to renew you.

He wants to change you.

Listen, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I want you to hear this today.

Being faithful begins by understanding the faithfulness of God to you and then seeking to be faithful like Him, our God, who is totally trustworthy.

Alright, secondly, am I lovingly loyal?

So we cultivate faithfulness.

We ask ourselves this question: Am I lovingly loyal?

The issue of loyalty is found in often in connection with our friends and our family.

You read through the pages of Scripture, and this kind of jumps off the page.

You want to see displays of loyalty and of love.

Look at family, look at friends.

One of the books that kind of puts this on display more than any other book is the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs talks about friendship and family dynamics and relationships in unbelievable ways, and it puts loyalty on full display.

This speaks to the idea of sticking with someone through thick and thin.

That's what it means to be lovingly loyal.

There is perhaps no greater description of loyalty than Solomon's words in Proverbs 17, 17.

We'll put it on the screen for you, but I think it's going to be familiar to many of you.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

This amazing picture of this loving loyalty.

And just notice that loyalty is tested and proved in times of difficulty and adversity, not in times of ease and plenty.

Okay?

We know this.

We know this to be true.

Loyalty is tested and proved in times of difficulty and adversity.

Anybody can say they're your friend.

You find out who your friends are when you're facing difficult times.

Isn't that true?

But we see this in connection, especially with family.

I want you to see again 1 Timothy 5.8.

And Paul says it like this.

It's fascinating.

He says, if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Those are shocking words to be applied to someone who professes to be a Christian, isn't it?

And look at what he goes after.

He goes after their unwillingness to care for their family members in practical ways.

And he says, if you do this, it's basically like you're an unbeliever.

You're worse than an unbeliever.

How can he say something like this?

Here's why, because even unbelievers can care for their families in loyal ways.

Right?

We see this all the time.

It's not uncommon to have uh, you know, the olderly at this at this point in time, my nana, uh, my nana is 99 years old, and she she has lived with family for, you know, 20 years now, on and off, being cared for by her children as a display of this love and this loyalty.

But there's more going on here.

You see, the idea of you know abandoning your family kind of displays that you've denied the faith.

You know, here's why Paul can say that, because again, unbelieving pagans take care of their relatives.

But here's what he's trying to point at.

How can we, who know the Father, right?

If you're a Christian here today, you know the Lord's prayer, right?

What do we begin with?

Our what?

Father.

And we're being reminded here that God has brought us, you know, we were once alienated because of our sin.

We had no relationship to God that that was of any spiritual value or significance.

We were alienated, we were under the wrath of God because of our sin.

But you know what God does?

He forgives us, he redeems us, and then we're adopted into his family.

We become children of God.

And so the way we care for our family, here's the connection Paul's making, is really a display of how we understand God as Father caring for us.

And our father, he is so loyal to his children.

Isn't that awesome?

Like, think about this.

God is so loyal to his children.

You could, you, you could be the worst child.

God will never kick you out of his family, okay?

You could turn your back on God.

God is still going to, you know, think of the prodigal son, right?

The prodigal son, the worst kid of all.

Give me the inheritance.

I I don't care about you.

I wish you were dead.

And he leaves the family.

And what's the father doing?

Every day, the father is waiting at the door.

He's looking out the door, he's waiting for his son to come home.

And when his son comes home, you know, over the crest of the hill in shame and in guilt, what does the father do?

He stands there and he shakes his fist.

I told you this was going to happen.

Somebody does.

He runs, runs towards his son, which is something Middle Eastern men didn't do if you're the father.

He runs towards his son, he weeps on his neck, he covers him with all the robes and the sandals and the signet ring, and he has a party for him.

That's how lovingly loyal your father is to you, even when you sin.

God's saying our ability to be lovingly loyal to people really, really demonstrates our understanding of the gospel.

How much God loves us.

Let's just apply this principle more broadly to our roles as family members, okay?

And once we're talking about family, so let me let me ask you at home, are you uh, if you're married in here today, are you a faithful spouse?

Don't don't answer that too quickly.

Because maybe you're sitting here saying, yeah, uh, you know, I'm a I'm a husband, I'm lovingly, I'm lovingly loyal to my wife.

I've you know, I've never had an affair.

Okay, are you dabbling in pornography?

Are you fantasizing about other people?

Wives, are you lovingly loyal to your husbands?

You're like, wow, I've never I've never had an affair.

I've been faithful to my spouse.

I'm you know, I love I love my spouse, okay, but are you demeaning your husband?

Maybe complaining about him or criticizing him behind his back, or maybe even to his face?

If you're a parent, let me ask you, are you more committed to your child than you are to your work, to your career?

Are you more committed to your child than you are to your phone or your hobbies?

Or your bank account?

Are you available?

Are you lovingly loyal to your children?

Are you available to them?

Are you accessible to them?

Are you approachable to them?

Do you give your best to your family, or do you just give them the leftovers?

Are you investing in the discipleship parents?

I can't say this strongly enough.

You want to demonstrate your love to your children and to your family, invest in the discipleship of your family.

You say, well, I don't know where to start.

It's really simple, okay?

Open the Bible with them.

Read the Bible, suffer through temper tantrums, and suffer through complaining, and suffer through boredom, sing songs around your dinner table, talk about the Lord, address sin, comfort them with grace.

It's so necessary.

Children, are you seeking to honor your parents?

To serve your siblings and your parents, to obey your parents, to contribute to the life in the home, to act and speak respectively, to be building up and not tearing down.

There's a variety of ways we could look at this, but I trust the Spirit of God will begin to maybe work on your heart.

Let's just consider Proverbs 17, 17 again, just kind of fresh in our mind.

Friend loves at all times, but a brother is born for adversity.

There is no such thing as a fair weather friend.

Okay?

That's not a biblical friend.

Loving loyalty is expressed not in times of plenty, but in times of pain, in times of adversity.

Um you've you've heard the phrase, right?

This is this is biblical.

A friend in need, come on, somebody is a friend.

All right.

Five of us knew it.

I I that's true.

That's absolutely true.

I'll never forget when I uh I had a friend of mine who was living in some pretty significant sin, and I was, you know, with gentleness and grace trying to get into his life and trying to have conversations, and it was it was a really, really awful situation.

But I'll never forget what he said to me one time.

He said, he said, Ian, I I'm I'm just looking for friends who are going to be there with me, but not tell me what they think I need to hear.

I just I just I don't need anybody telling me that I'm wrong.

I don't need anybody telling me that this is sin.

If you want to be my friend, then you just need to agree with me, is what he said.

And and my response was, man, I I love you too much to be that.

It's not that's not a friend.

I love you too much to let you do that.

I can't, I can't be that for you because that's not the biblical definition of a friend.

And I just want to remind you what the Word of God says about true friendship and loving loyalty.

Proverbs 27, verse 6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 27:6

You want to know who your friends really are?

It's not just the ones who will be with you in moments of adversity and difficulty.

You know, they show up when when, you know, in time of tragedy.

Yes, that's a good friend.

They show up when you need them most.

But listen, I'll tell you who a true friend is.

A true friend is a one who shows up when you're in the middle of sin and says, I love you too much, to let you continue walking in sin.

That's a real friend.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Your enemy is the one who just lets you feel comfortable in your sin, lets you feel like you're not in the wrong, lets you feel like your sin is justified, your behavior is not ungodly, it's totally fine.

You can blame somebody else.

No, a real friend goes at the heart.

Now, listen, um, lest you misunderstand me, uh, the delivery of this kind of truth to a friend matters immensely, okay?

This is not like giving, I hope that you don't take this as a license to just kind of run around and you know, faithful to the wounds of a friend, you're just kind of sticking your friends left, right, and center, so they're bleeding all over the place.

We're not soldiers with a sword looking to inflict, listen, hurt, okay?

We're surgeons with a scalpel looking to bring healing.

It's the world of difference between those two things.

And so we we take out the you know the scalpel of God's word and we cut very precisely and we're gentle and tender, even though there's pain, we're going after the sin.

We're not looking to do the greatest amount of damage to somebody.

We're looking to isolate the sin and we're looking to help cut it out and pull it out.

And so, so why?

So not that they're hurt, but that they're wounded to be healed, to be stronger.

And again, I I would just suggest to you that Jesus is the greatest example of this.

He is, he is, is he not the lovingly loyal friend that we desperately need?

He meets us in our greatest moments of need, and he supplies everything we need.

And I want you to think about how lovingly loyal Jesus is.

You see, the message of the world today, they wanted Jesus.

That's, you know, God is love.

We hear this all the time, don't we?

God is love, God is love, God is love.

You know what?

You know what the world means by that?

God tolerates, God tolerates, God tolerates.

They're looking for a God who accepts people as they are and never wants people to change and be different than they are.

The world is looking for a God that just says, you know, everything's fine.

We can celebrate everything, even if it's sin.

But listen, we understand that the love of God is so much greater and deeper and more profound than that.

Jesus Christ is the definition of love.

He is God's love on full display.

And in the love of God through Christ Jesus, guess what happens?

God comes after us and convicts us of sin, right?

He doesn't excuse our sin, he doesn't justify our sin, and God doesn't wink at sin, right?

You know what I mean by that?

Like God doesn't wink at sin, he's not like, well, just brushed this under the rug.

You know what God does?

He exposes sin, brings it from darkness to light, and then in his grace, this is how lovingly loyal our friend is, he deals with our sin when we cannot.

He goes after it on the cross.

He pays for it with his own perfect life.

And you know what that tells us again?

God loves us too much to leave us in our sin.

This is why Hebrews says that the Father disciplines every child that he loves.

He's faithful, he's not going to let you be tempted beyond your ability, but he sends his spirit to convict us of sin and provide the power to transform us.

And Jesus is so lovingly loyal, listen to us, that even though we continue to sin, and maybe this is, you know, as you're even just feeling conviction, maybe you're looking over your life and some of the things that I've even just kind of pressed in on, you're like, man, that's that's been me.

That's been me.

What hope is there for me?

The hope, again, is Jesus Christ.

You can be confident of the loving loyalty of Jesus, even though you may have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

If you're in Christ today, he will never let you go.

He will be with you to the very end.

Jesus is our good and faithful friend, our loving and loyal brother, and in the truest sense, he is the friend who loves at all times and the brother that is born for adversity.

May we strive by his grace and power to be lovingly loyal to others as he is to us.

I want to give you this last question.

Here it is.

Am I completely committed?

Remember, we're dealing with faithfulness.

So we've asked two questions already.

Am I totally trustworthy?

Secondly, am I lovingly loyal?

And third, am I completely committed?

And when you think about faithfulness in the New Testament, I don't know about you, my mind runs to the parable that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And you again, you can flip there if you want.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I just want to remind you, um, it's the parable of the talents.

And Jesus tells this parable to emphasize the need for faithfulness among his children.

And you know, he he you know the story, I'm sure, right?

He gives five talents to one of his servants, and he gives two talents to another one of his servants, and he gives one to another, and then he goes away.

And then uh and then the servants, they they take that, the first two, the one who received five, he goes off and you know, he invests it and he he he does really well with it, and he returns with ten, five more talents.

The one with two goes out and invested, he comes back with two more talents.

The one with one, he doesn't do anything with it.

He dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

And again, just hear the words of the master when he returns and speaks to his servants.

The servant in verse 20 says, Master, you delivered to me five talents, here I have made five talents more.

And his master said to him, Well done, good, and was it somebody help me out?

What's that word?

Faithful servant.

You have been, look at this again, faithful over a little, I will set you over much, and enter into the joy of your master.

And the same with the two in verse 23 Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master.

And he rebukes the servant who produced nothing.

In fact, here's what he says to him.

This is stunning in verse 26.

You wicked and slothful servant.

Our faithfulness is often expressed in our relationship with others.

But ultimately, it is expressed in our relationship with God.

In fact, we will only be truly faithful to others in the biblical sense when we grow in our faithfulness first toward God.

And this passage reminds us of the kind of you know, the way we ought to think about ourselves, that we are stewards, not sovereigns, okay?

We're the ones who are servants, we're not the master.

None of us are sovereign lords who answer only to ourselves.

The sovereignty of God puts us in our place, and that place is in God's service.

If you're a Christian here today, this is uh listen, this is there's there's a lot of accountability here, and there's a lot of weight to this, but if you are a Christian here today, you have to remember your life is not your own.

You are bought with a price.

You have to remember what God has given you in the gospel, the gift of life.

Listen, you will one day stand before your master like these servants in this parable, and you will give an account for the life that you lived.

What did you do with what God gave you?

This parable is here, listen, to impress upon us the weight, the seriousness, and the urgency for how we live the life that God has given us while we're here on this earth.

And and I you've heard this too before, but countless people get to the end of their life and look back and realize that they wasted so much of their life on things that didn't matter, things that had no eternal value or significance.

And and they look back, many people, with deep regret.

And you're you're a pretty young church.

There's a lot of people who are young here, and here, and here's why I'm pointing this out because, Lord willing, you still have a whole lot of life left to live.

And that's an awesome truth.

Now, listen, we're not guaranteed another day, so don't take this the wrong way, okay?

We're not guaranteed another breath.

It's all but the grace of God.

Amen.

But even that reality needs to remind us listen, we never know, we never know what day the Lord's gonna say, today.

Today I'm taking you, today you're gonna stand before me.

Whenever it is, listen, whatever you have, the life that God's given you, here's my hope and my prayer for you.

My hope and prayer is that you can live now in a way, regardless of how you've lived in the past, okay?

Fresh grace, full and free.

Today is a new day, but today, move forward in the grace of the gospel, completely committed to your master, completely committed to the mission of the gospel, completely committed to Christ likeness and godliness, completely committed to the things that are gonna last for all eternity, not the temporal things of this earth, which are gonna fade.

This is this is weighty, but it is so good for us to be reminded.

Listen, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2, it is recorded required of stewards that they be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2

Christian, you're a steward.

You're a steward, you're a steward.

How will God find you?

That means we need to be steady, have a dependable, lifelong commitment.

Faithfulness means wholehearted, whole life allegiance, born out of growing love for God, sustained by constant trust in God, and evidenced in ongoing obedience to God.

So, to the obvious question, okay, what must I be committed to?

I just want to give you two really quick things to just kind of re-maybe.

I trust today, if you're a Christian, I want you to recommit to these things in your own heart and mind.

We're not gonna get you raise your hand or come up to the front.

I just trust that you can say, yes, these are the things.

But if you're not a Christian here today, I trust that you're hearing the grace of the gospel going out to your heart today.

God's calling you today.

Commit to what matters most.

Commit to the one who loves you, who died for you, and know that he will be committed to you.

So that's the first thought is this Am I completely committed to Christ?

Am I completely committed to Christ?

Matthew 6, 24.

Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Faithfulness means that I am completely committed with unwavering faithfulness to Christ as my Lord and Savior.

It therefore means faithfulness to the Bible, which is the Word of Christ, and faithfulness to the gospel, which is the work of Christ.

Christian faithfulness means you have a proven track record of obedience to God.

I love this quote by Aaron Menikoff.

I'll just, I think it's on the screen here.

It says this.

It says, the world cares about plaques and popularity, real estate and revenue, glamour and glitch.

God cares about faithfulness.

The steadfast commitment to honor the Lord in a thousand simple ways.

Faithfulness is the resolute commitment to honor the Lord in the nitty-gritty details of everyday life.

Yes and amen.

With all that God has given you, with your time, your talents, and your treasures.

Faithfulness is only possible from us when Christ, listen, when Christ is everything to us.

I want to say that again because I I can't I can't say this as a crap.

Faithfulness is only possible from us when Christ is everything to us.

When Christ is the pearl of great price, when Christ is the treasure above all treasures, when you have your gaze fixed upon Christ.

Listen, I promise your heart is going to long to be faithful to him.

When your eye is fixed on everything but Christ, you will never be faithful to him.

Set your mind on things above, not on things below, where Christ is seated in heaven.

Are you a Christ follower?

If so, stay faithful to your Savior.

If not, commit.

Listen, he has come from heaven to earth to save you.

He is faithful.

He is the faithful God who can be trusted.

Will you trust in him today?

Will you repent of your sins and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ?

And will you commit the rest of your life to live unto him as your Lord and your master?

He's so good, he's so faithful.

Secondly, if I am completely committed to Christ, I will be completely committed to Christ's church.

So ask yourself that question.

Am I completely committed to Christ's church?

Hebrews 10, 23 says this let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised.

Look at this again.

Our commitment, okay, our commitment to the church is predicated upon the faithfulness of God.

Again, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us, the body of Christ, okay, consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Notice this language here.

Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

In other words, listen, we have to make the Church of Jesus Christ our priority in this life.

If Christ is our priority, if he is our supreme affection, then the bride of Christ and the body of Christ will to be precious to us.

It must be.

If you're a Christ follower, a Christian, you are called into a family, into a body, into a local church where you are to know and be known, where you are to serve and be served, where you are to grow and help others grow.

Listen, I again, I know you've been in a church series, so I'm just kind of, I trust I'm preaching to the choir right now.

Listen, but God has promised only, you realize this?

God has only promised to build one institution on the face of this earth, and it is the church of Jesus Christ.

Not a company, not a network, nothing.

He has promised to build the church of Jesus Christ, and he's called you to be a part of it, to help it grow up into maturity so that it can begin to grow and be strengthened and that the world can be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

I'm so thankful for the many of you who are so committed to this local church.

And I'm just praying for you, for those of you who are, praise the Lord, keep going strong.

Don't slow down, step on the pedal, stay committed, get after the things that God's called you to.

And some of you in here, you're kind of on the sidelines.

Maybe you've been hurt by the church.

I get it.

Listen, people hurt people, even in churches, right?

We get that.

But listen, don't throw the baby out, don't throw the bride out with the bathwater, okay?

It is precious to Jesus.

Deal with your hurt by coming back into the body.

Some of you are just on the sidelines.

You think you can exist on the fringes of the church without engaging in the family of God.

You know, I've heard it said, right?

People say, I don't, I, you know, I can be a Christian without the church.

I can be a Christian without the church.

That's that's true.

You just can't be a healthy, thriving Christian without the church.

Michael Foster, he says this.

Another one more quote.

Last quote, and we're round on the bend here, so thanks for hanging with me.

Just listen, this is so good though.

Listen to this.

Nothing grows a Christian like a serious commitment to a single church week in and week out for years and years.

I love this.

Listen, this is so good.

Not conferences, not social media, not even personal devotions.

The local church is where mature Christians are slowly forged in the fires of mundane faithfulness.

You need the church.

And the church needs you.

Some of you have been committed, but life has just gotten busy.

It happens to the best of us.

But your desires for other things have eclipsed your desire for Christ and his church.

You were once all in, but now you find yourself checked out or burnt out.

So maybe here today the Lord is calling you back.

It's time to re-engage.

It's time to repent and return to your first love, to do the things you did at first, to prioritize faithfulness once again, and to pray that God would produce this in you as you intentionally cultivate it in your life.

J.B.

Fasco says that when so many things in life compete for loyalty and faithfulness, it is Christ, our families and friends, and our church that should top the list.

All else is secondary.

In the New Testament, faithfulness is one of the most common characteristics noted to describe and commend Christ's followers.

It cannot be said of you.

It can be.

It can be.

By the grace and power of God, you can get to the end, and you can hear your faithful God say to you, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Let's pray.

Faithful God, we praise you.

For you are steadfast and immovable.

You are unchanging in your faithfulness.

You are the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And Lord, we we do not believe we can simply bootstrap faithfulness.

We can't produce it in our own strength.

We can't manufacture faithfulness to you.

We, Lord, we need to grasp the faithfulness of you, our great God, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need, first and foremost, our minds and our hearts refreshed with who you are, with what you've done.

We need to be reminded that if we are followers of Christ today, that, God, you have empowered us by your spirit and that your desire is that you would be bearing much fruit in our lives.

That we would daily be becoming more and more like our Savior.

And Lord, I pray that you would help us in this.

We are needy people.

We are dependent people.

And God, I pray today we would be desperate people.

Make us desperate to be more like Jesus.

Make us desperate to be faithful to you.

God, give us a holy hunger, Lord, to live our lives with our eyes fixed upon Jesus so that we can get to the end of our lives.

We can stand before you, our master, and hear those words well done, good and faithful servant.

Make it so, Lord Jesus, we pray in your mighty name.

Amen.