WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.519 Please turn back to Galatians 5 verse 22 as we continue our series on the fruit of the 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:09.519 Spirit. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:17.920 I'll read at the beginning of verse 22 and then the last word. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:27.320 But the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:31.440 Let me get straight into a definition. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:39.480 Faithfulness means being reliable, dependable, trustworthy, these kinds of things. 00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:47.519 A faithful person will be true to their word, they will do what they promise, you can trust 00:00:47.519 --> 00:00:49.359 them. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:51.719 But it's even more than that. 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:59.000 It means being these things that are obvious things, being these things over the months 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:05.039 and over the years, through the good times and the bad times. 00:01:05.039 --> 00:01:12.599 The counterfeit is seen when people seem to be faithful as long as that suits them. 00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:19.879 But they turn away from others or they turn away even from God when they're not getting 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:24.640 what they want out of the relationship. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:32.959 But a faithful person proves their loyalty over time that they are in it for the long 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:40.079 haul and we are called to be faithful. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:43.719 Now let me get into the five points I want to make. 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:51.000 In my notes I have some stories about people that I think are examples of faithfulness 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.599 and others that are examples of unfaithfulness. 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:59.799 But if I start telling stories, that'll be 10 minutes of stories. 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:06.480 So you think yourselves of people, maybe people you know or have known, who are particularly 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:14.360 examples of faithfulness that you love and that encourage and challenge you. 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.879 So five points. 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:24.039 The first two I hope to get through completely, the rest we'll see. 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:31.560 Point number one, let's trust a faithful God. 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:35.599 Let's trust a faithful God. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:38.840 I think we need to begin here. 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:48.879 If faithfulness means being true to my word and that being shown over time, then God is 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:52.560 obviously the ultimately faithful one. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:54.680 He's utterly trustworthy. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:56.840 He's totally dependable. 00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:59.159 He's always true to His word. 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:06.639 He's been that over the years, the centuries, the millennia and He will be that forever. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:12.479 God is faithful and we can trust Him. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:18.960 I want to highlight just one theme that's raised in Galatians here that illustrates the faithfulness 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:20.759 of God. 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:29.519 And it is that He is the God of covenant, the God who commits Himself to people. 00:03:29.519 --> 00:03:35.159 Now, covenant's an important theme in Galatians and lying back of it. 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:42.439 And Paul knew his scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, and the story of God making 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:50.079 covenants with somebody like Abraham or at the time of Moses or with David or you've 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:55.160 got the new covenant in books like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 00:03:55.160 --> 00:04:00.200 In all this, God was making a commitment to people. 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:08.600 He was binding Himself to them and he was saying to them, I will be your God. 00:04:08.600 --> 00:04:10.720 I covenant. 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:15.320 I commit myself to be for you. 00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:17.879 And so he made covenant promises to them. 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:24.519 It's very important to note that in covenant, God was being seen to be different from the 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:26.959 gods of the nations round about. 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:29.480 They were capricious. 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:31.480 They were moody. 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:33.360 They changed their mind. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:37.439 You never knew for one day to the next what would please them. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:44.959 They were fickle, but the God of covenant was faithful. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:52.079 Now just to pick up on the covenant with Abraham that's mentioned in Galatians in chapter 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:57.599 three especially, two promises in this covenant. 00:04:57.599 --> 00:05:03.399 Number one, there was the promise of a seed of offspring. 00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:06.599 So let me read Galatians 3.16. 00:05:06.599 --> 00:05:11.159 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. 00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:17.680 It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:19.360 offspring. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:25.080 And Paul says, who is Christ? 00:05:25.080 --> 00:05:31.520 A second promise was that of blessing to the nations. 00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:34.560 Let me read 3.14. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:40.680 So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:47.040 So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:56.199 So Paul is saying, way, way back God made covenant with Abraham and God has kept his 00:05:56.199 --> 00:06:04.280 word and Jesus is fulfillment of that covenant double promise. 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:14.199 Jesus is the seed that was promised and Jesus is the one in whom the nations of the earth 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:17.039 will be blessed. 00:06:17.039 --> 00:06:23.919 And we could take time tonight to trace this promissory faithfulness of God through all 00:06:23.919 --> 00:06:29.799 the covenants of the Old Testament and through the promise of the new covenant, all of them 00:06:29.799 --> 00:06:32.279 fulfilled in Jesus. 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:36.519 You see, God kept building up the picture. 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:39.959 He kept painting in a little more of it. 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:43.719 He kept saying more of what he would do. 00:06:43.719 --> 00:06:50.099 And then in Jesus, he has done it and he has done everything he promised. 00:06:50.099 --> 00:06:54.479 He has kept his word. 00:06:54.480 --> 00:07:03.200 If you think of it in terms of our understanding of God as Trinity, the Father faithfully sent 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:08.720 his Son to be the servant of the covenant. 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:18.080 And the servant's Son came and fulfilled his mission in immaculate faithfulness. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:27.599 And the Holy Spirit faithfully upheld Jesus throughout all of his ministry. 00:07:27.599 --> 00:07:34.479 So God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been faithful to all his covenant promises. 00:07:34.479 --> 00:07:37.039 They're all fulfilled in Jesus. 00:07:37.039 --> 00:07:43.240 They're sealed in the blood of Jesus, in the blood of the new covenant, in the blood of 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:46.479 the everlasting covenant. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:54.759 So the point tonight is that this God, the God of covenant, the God of promise, can be 00:07:54.759 --> 00:08:06.520 trusted because he will never go back on his word and he will never go back on the blood. 00:08:06.520 --> 00:08:13.400 The words that he has spoken fulfilled in Jesus and the blood that he promised shed 00:08:13.400 --> 00:08:14.960 in Jesus. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:19.719 You can trust the word and you can trust the blood. 00:08:19.719 --> 00:08:27.120 God will never go back on what he has said and done in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.120 And so that's where I want you all to begin. 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:34.120 Let's trust a faithful God. 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:43.519 We can rest in him because he can be trusted as nobody else in the whole universe can be 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:44.960 trusted. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:53.679 His word and his blood can be relied upon for time and eternity. 00:08:53.679 --> 00:09:02.120 Let's trust him as our rock in a world of sand. 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:09.799 Secondly this, this may take a little longer, let's be faithful disciples. 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:19.000 What I want to say here is that the God who is faithful to us calls us as we trust him 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:27.399 to be faithful to him as individuals, as disciples who follow him. 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:30.399 I want to highlight two things here. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:39.600 First of all that you and I are called to be faithful in my walk and then also faithful 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:45.879 to my calling, walk and calling. 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:54.799 First faithful in my walk, I mean by that in my daily walk with Jesus. 00:09:54.799 --> 00:10:00.839 You have the language of walking twice in this passage in Galatians 5. 00:10:00.839 --> 00:10:10.719 In verse 16 it says walk by the spirit and the following verses stress our practical, 00:10:10.719 --> 00:10:13.839 ethical daily living. 00:10:13.839 --> 00:10:21.120 And then in verse 25 there's a different word used that I am reliably informed as here 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:28.919 very well translated as keep in step with the spirit. 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:34.679 Now the spirit unites us to Jesus. 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:42.919 So when we read about walking in the spirit and keeping in step with the spirit, it's 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:48.399 another way of saying that the spirit connects us with Jesus. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:52.600 And by the spirit we walk with Jesus. 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:56.319 Now what does that mean? 00:10:56.319 --> 00:11:00.279 Well let me suggest one or two things. 00:11:00.279 --> 00:11:08.879 First of all when we walk with someone, hopefully it's an opportunity to enjoy each other's 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:16.439 company and especially to talk and to listen. 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:23.160 Like two days ago I'm walking along a pavement and there are four young women walking towards 00:11:23.160 --> 00:11:26.960 me all clearly together. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:33.120 But I had to step off the pavement into the road, danger to my own life and limb at my 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.120 age because they were all looking down at their phones. 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:43.840 So they were together but they weren't really engaging with one another, they were engaging 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:45.840 with other people. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:53.440 But normally when we walk with someone we want to enjoy time with them and share with 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.800 them and have conversation. 00:11:57.800 --> 00:12:05.639 And so when we walk with Jesus in the spirit it's important that we're keeping the lines 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:12.280 of communication open, that we're listening to Him as He speaks in His word and we're 00:12:12.280 --> 00:12:15.320 speaking to Him in prayer. 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:21.160 So we walk and we listen. 00:12:21.160 --> 00:12:29.000 Further this, when you walk with someone obviously you're walking the same path, you're travelling 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:31.879 in the same direction. 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:38.720 So in the Bible when we read about walking there's this regular image of the way or the 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:45.680 road and it's a picture of the kind of life that we're called to live. 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:52.840 You might call it the Jesus' route or route, the Jesus' way. 00:12:52.840 --> 00:13:00.879 And the Spirit wants to show us the Jesus' route as we keep in step with the Spirit we're 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:04.639 walking the way of Jesus. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:10.480 So we want to let the Holy Spirit set the direction of travel. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:21.279 We want to stay on the path that Jesus wants us on and live in a way that pleases Jesus. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:29.720 Also think of this, a step is a very little thing but we all know it's important to pay 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:33.279 attention to where we're putting our feet. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.559 We watch where we walk. 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:45.439 And I think it's important that in the Bible being faithful in the little things, being 00:13:45.439 --> 00:13:53.759 faithful step by step is an important principle and it's taught more than once by Jesus in 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:55.759 various contexts. 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:59.000 Here's one, Luke 16 and 10. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:04.240 It's actually in the context of responsibility for money. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:12.320 One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much and one who is dishonest 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:17.200 in a very little is also dishonest in much. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:22.159 So Jesus is saying, be faithful in the little things. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:27.919 We say the devil is in the detail but God is in the detail. 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:32.319 God watches over our steps, the Bible says. 00:14:32.319 --> 00:14:39.839 And he wants us to be careful where we walk and to be faithful to him in the steps that 00:14:39.839 --> 00:14:41.439 we take. 00:14:41.439 --> 00:14:49.319 And we were singing earlier, I noted that his promise is enough for every step I take. 00:14:49.319 --> 00:14:53.079 We trust him for every step. 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:59.360 And also this, in our walk, remember the journey is long. 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:06.160 Man called Eugene Peterson, it must be nearly four decades ago, wrote a book that's become 00:15:06.160 --> 00:15:12.200 a bit of a classic, a long obedience in the same direction. 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:18.200 The language of long obedience in the same direction comes from Friedrich Nietzsche of 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:20.720 all people, but never mind. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:26.279 And Eugene Peterson takes the reader through what are often known as journey psalms, the 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:35.440 psalms of ascent that people sang on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Psalms 120-134. 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:42.240 And the subtitle of his book is discipleship in an instant society. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:49.080 And he then, and in a forward to a recent reprint, is saying the same thing that he 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:58.160 lives in a society where people want the new and the novel and quick fixes, even in spiritual 00:15:58.160 --> 00:15:59.840 things. 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:08.000 And he says there is often little enthusiasm for the holiness which will require long patience 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.280 and perseverance. 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:20.120 And he highlights two words that he says are lifelong words for us, disciple and pilgrim. 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:26.279 Disciple he's saying we're actually in a lifelong apprenticeship to a master. 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:35.159 And pilgrim, we are on a lifelong journey, really going someplace to meet that master. 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:44.879 So it's a call to perseverance to keep going with this long faithful obedience in the same 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:47.159 direction. 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:52.600 So faithful to my walk in these ways. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:17:01.000 But then also faithful to my calling, my calling. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:10.559 Now here we're in the language of vocation or calling, the same idea. 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:19.519 And the logic is this, if every Christian is unique, then each of us has a particular 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:23.599 calling as an individual. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:29.819 I think this is really, somebody told me recently that I keep using the word important, and every 00:17:29.819 --> 00:17:31.879 point is important. 00:17:31.879 --> 00:17:33.879 And this verse is important. 00:17:33.879 --> 00:17:37.799 Well this is really important. 00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:50.000 This calling that each of you has, it's personal to you, who you are and where you are now. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.879 And this calling can change as your life changes. 00:17:55.879 --> 00:17:58.879 And the calling is more than just work. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:07.040 So that's a very important Reformation insight, that all Christian men and women are to exercise 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:12.680 their divine callings in their working lives in the world. 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:20.360 And that theology of vocation related to work had immense cultural impact. 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:26.600 It gave such dignity to people's lives to say that in terms of the time that the farmer 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:34.039 at the plough, or the cook at the oven, or the mother at the crib, or the artist at the 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:41.879 easel, or whoever, that each had a divine vocation, a calling from God. 00:18:41.879 --> 00:18:48.679 But we need to be even more holistic than that, where you see all of life as relevant 00:18:48.679 --> 00:18:53.719 to your calling, and you're to be faithful in all of life. 00:18:53.720 --> 00:19:00.920 Whether you're in work or not, whether you're at work or not. 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:04.640 Just take one example, think about your relationships. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:12.600 You may be a son or a daughter, it's part of your calling. 00:19:12.600 --> 00:19:18.120 You may be a wife or a husband, it's part of your calling. 00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:20.559 You may be a parent. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:24.399 It wasn't your calling before, but it is now. 00:19:24.399 --> 00:19:27.279 You may have become a grandparent. 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:30.839 It wasn't part of your calling before, but it is now. 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:40.079 And these things may change and change again over the years, sometimes for very happy reasons, 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:43.960 sometimes for very sad reasons, but they change. 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:46.440 And then think of your wider relationships. 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:54.279 You may be in a relationship, you may be engaged, you will have close friends, you might have 00:19:54.279 --> 00:20:01.200 flatmates or housemates, you're in a seminar group, you're in a city group, you have work 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:06.279 colleagues, you have neighbors, and so on and so on and so on. 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:16.240 Nobody else in the whole world, and nobody else in the history of the whole world has 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:26.000 ever had or has exactly that network of relationships that you have. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.399 So that's part of your calling now, where you are. 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:37.800 I think this language of calling is very helpful against the guilt that we often have, where 00:20:37.800 --> 00:20:44.560 people will say, you should be like me, or you should do what I'm doing, or we might 00:20:44.560 --> 00:20:50.960 say, I wish I was like them, or had their gifts, or their relationship, or their job, 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:51.960 or their whatever. 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:56.440 It's got nothing to do with your calling. 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:08.600 You ask, what does God want me to do in this season of my life, where He has placed me 00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:16.880 with my personality, and my gifts, and my course, and my job, and my relationships, and my 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:21.799 health, and my finances, and my opportunities. 00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:28.279 He doesn't want you to be anyone else, because He's given them their unique calling. 00:21:28.279 --> 00:21:37.559 He has a calling for you, and you are called to be faithful in your vocation, to be faithful 00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:48.319 there, as somebody used to say to me, bloom where you're planted, faithful to my calling. 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:54.639 Now, before I leave this point, and I know we're well through the time, just a couple 00:21:54.639 --> 00:22:04.480 of other things in relation to our walk, faithful walk, faithful to my calling, is to speak about 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:08.099 our own unfaithfulness. 00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:14.599 In all of the above, in anything that I've said, we are all conscious of our own unfaithfulness. 00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:20.919 We know that God doesn't let us down, but we often let Him down. 00:22:20.919 --> 00:22:27.919 So what do you do when you are unfaithful, when you let God down? 00:22:27.919 --> 00:22:30.659 Do you know what you do? 00:22:30.659 --> 00:22:35.359 You trust in His faithfulness. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:39.519 First John 1, 7 and 9, I'll just read them. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:47.319 The blood of Jesus, His Son, goes on cleansing us from all our sins. 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:56.799 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 00:22:56.799 --> 00:23:00.799 us from all unrighteousness. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:09.960 God has committed to our forgiveness and He will be faithful to His promise in the 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:13.559 word and in the blood. 00:23:13.559 --> 00:23:17.759 And He will always be faithful to the word and the blood. 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:20.839 It's who He is. 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:31.199 Now, sometimes we are seriously unfaithful, perhaps over a period of time, months, even 00:23:31.199 --> 00:23:39.039 back slidden for years, perhaps even publicly and dramatically unfaithful. 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:41.759 What are we then to do? 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:45.679 Will God take me back? 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:55.720 Well, ask yourself this simple question, is He the kind of God who welcomes prodigals 00:23:55.720 --> 00:23:56.720 home? 00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:57.720 That's all. 00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:58.720 Is He? 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:02.160 Of course He is. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:03.680 He wants us back. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:05.759 We're invited to come home. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:13.160 I was very moved some years ago when somebody in one of my congregations talked about his 00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:21.880 father who had been a minister and an academic and he was a broad, I think, in the States, 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:23.160 walking on a beach one day. 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:29.880 He got in conversation with a man who admitted to him that he had been a professing Christian 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:35.960 years before, but he and his wife had completely wandered away from the faith. 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:44.039 And this man, my friend's father, said to him, do you know that for all these years 00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:48.640 that you've forgotten Jesus, He's never forgotten you? 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:56.200 In fact, he said to him, I believe that Jesus has been praying for you. 00:24:56.200 --> 00:25:03.160 All these years that you never prayed, Jesus has been interceding for you. 00:25:03.160 --> 00:25:04.920 It brought the man back. 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:07.400 It just blew his mind. 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:13.600 He had forgotten about Jesus in all kinds of ways since that early commitment, but he 00:25:13.600 --> 00:25:21.279 was brought back to a living faith in Christ when he was told that the God who had committed 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:24.960 Himself to him was still committed to him. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:27.759 I would never forget him. 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:33.360 God will remain faithful to the commitment He's made to us and He will always be faithful. 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:38.359 Again, I say it's who He is. 00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:44.959 Well, the third point was, let's be faithful churches. 00:25:44.959 --> 00:25:52.039 The God who is faithful to us also calls us to be faithful to Him as groups of Christians, 00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:53.039 as churches. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:56.159 I don't think there's time to deal with that now. 00:25:56.159 --> 00:26:01.879 I was going to talk, first of all, about being faithful to the gospel, which has an easy 00:26:01.880 --> 00:26:03.720 thing to illustrate from Galatians. 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:08.880 At the very beginning, Galatians chapter 1, 6 and 7, Paul says that these people are 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:17.240 deserting him in the gospel, turning to a different gospel, which is not a real gospel. 00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:26.240 They've forgotten, as somebody put it a year or two ago, they've forgotten that Christ 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.920 plus nothing equals everything. 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:38.680 They're trying to add works to Jesus, trying to add rituals to Jesus to be acceptable. 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:45.120 They're forgetting that Christ plus nothing equals everything. 00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:51.560 I was also going to talk about our being faithful to our responsibilities as leaders in the 00:26:51.560 --> 00:26:54.720 church and as members who serve. 00:26:54.720 --> 00:27:02.640 That's where the language of Moses in Hebrews 3 and back to Numbers, Moses had it even tougher 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:04.839 than Derrick. 00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:11.279 People grumble all the time, people, leaders mutiny, death threats, they want to stone 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:12.279 him. 00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:16.559 Derrick hardly ever has that kind of experience. 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:20.240 I was also going to say something about the eldership, but that'll have to go. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:23.839 Let me just say one thing about churches and then move on. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:31.079 It is simply this, that to be faithful, we need each other. 00:27:31.079 --> 00:27:35.839 You need fellowship to keep you faithful. 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:42.519 Just one reference to this, Hebrews 10, 23 to 25, listen to the way it works. 00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:47.240 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. 00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:50.240 In other words, let's be faithful. 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.680 For he who promised is faithful. 00:27:54.680 --> 00:27:59.519 So God is faithful, but he doesn't stop there. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:08.880 He says, and let us consider how to stir one another to love and to good works and not 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:18.359 neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another. 00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:26.039 We say that we will not stay faithful unless we're meeting together, talking together, 00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:32.000 eating together, praying together, encouraging one another and stirring each other up. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:36.439 We need each other to be faithful. 00:28:36.439 --> 00:28:42.919 One of the reasons for city groups that Derrick was talking about is to do exactly that kind 00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:49.640 of thing, to fulfill these two or three verses in Hebrews, so that we keep each other faithful, 00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:57.880 we keep each other true, we help each other stay on track for Christ in the power of the 00:28:57.880 --> 00:28:59.240 Spirit. 00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:05.880 Let's be faithful communities, faithful churches. 00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:12.279 The fourth point, let's be faithful to others. 00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:19.639 God calls us to faithfulness in our close relationships, to love others by being loyal 00:29:19.639 --> 00:29:23.319 to them. 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:28.920 I have two things there, marriage and friendship. 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:32.319 Maybe I'll say a little about friendship. 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:39.480 Marriage is an obvious area to talk about faithfulness in a culture where all kinds 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:47.200 of pressures against faithfulness in marriage, and you tend to have some kind of promise 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:50.799 still in a marriage service to be faithful. 00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:56.279 I went online the other day to look up marriage vows, and the traditional ones tend to have 00:29:56.279 --> 00:30:03.920 something about being faithful, but increasingly all the advice was make up your own vows that 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:06.599 are completely personal to you. 00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:14.240 I read two or three of them, and I gave up at the one that began, sweet pea. 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:16.919 I mean, Derek, are you going to say that? 00:30:16.919 --> 00:30:24.240 Now please say after me, fair, sweet pea. 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:31.799 But traditionally, marriage vows have always included the word faithful, and a promise 00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:35.319 to lifelong faithfulness. 00:30:35.319 --> 00:30:41.319 So that's an area obviously of importance and challenge, but I don't like to say too 00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:48.480 much about marriage because the first 43 years have been such a learning curve and haven't 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:51.200 quite cracked it yet. 00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:53.279 But the other thing is friendship. 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:55.279 I'll say something about friendship. 00:30:55.279 --> 00:31:01.599 Now again, doing research for this faithfulness and friendship, I asked somebody, how many 00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:06.199 friends do you have, and she said 241. 00:31:06.199 --> 00:31:10.279 Okay, you know where that comes from. 00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:12.639 But how many real friends do you have? 00:31:12.639 --> 00:31:16.559 And she thought maybe 10. 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:22.799 I said, how many real, real friends that you could trust with anything? 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:25.199 She said two. 00:31:25.199 --> 00:31:30.199 Well, it's great to have two of that kind of friends. 00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:33.240 That's a lovely thing to have. 00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:39.960 Proverbs 18, 24, a man of many companions may come to ruin. 00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:46.519 A person of many Facebook friends may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks 00:31:46.519 --> 00:31:48.279 closer than a brother. 00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:54.519 And in the first place, that's referring to a human relationship that you have a friend 00:31:54.519 --> 00:31:57.880 who sticks even closer than family. 00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:03.920 Not just a friend in the good times, but a friend at all times. 00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:06.120 Not a fair weather friend, as we say. 00:32:06.120 --> 00:32:08.880 Proverbs says that too. 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:14.360 And you often hear people say, don't you, I went through something very difficult and 00:32:14.360 --> 00:32:18.520 I found out who my real friends were. 00:32:18.520 --> 00:32:20.560 They stayed faithful. 00:32:20.560 --> 00:32:26.520 And it's also a friend who tells the truth, who's willing to confront you and challenge 00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:29.400 you when necessary. 00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:37.359 Proverbs 27, 6, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:40.359 And above all, a friend who prays. 00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:45.559 We're called to be faithful in prayer for our friends. 00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:54.240 And perhaps the best way to have a faithful friend is to be a faithful friend. 00:32:54.240 --> 00:33:01.640 The best way to have a trustworthy friend is to be the kind of friend who is trustworthy 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:04.839 to them. 00:33:04.839 --> 00:33:08.480 Let me quote a song about, it's called, unfair weather friend. 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:12.279 I mean, my tastes won't be most of your tastes. 00:33:12.279 --> 00:33:17.240 So Willie Nelson, anybody heard of Willie Nelson? 00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:19.839 Singing with Merle Haggard, great friends. 00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:24.039 Their voices aren't quite what they used to be, but I think it's a great song. 00:33:24.039 --> 00:33:29.039 One unfair weather friend. 00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:30.960 Look it up on YouTube. 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:35.720 The whole sky opens up and it rains down on my head. 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:40.399 I show up at your door, beat down and soaking wet. 00:33:40.399 --> 00:33:45.200 I know you'll open up and let me waltz right in. 00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:49.279 My come whatever, unfair weather friend. 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:55.519 And later on, you're always there, right where you've always been. 00:33:55.519 --> 00:34:00.879 My come whatever, unfair weather friend. 00:34:00.879 --> 00:34:07.519 It's a great thing, a lovely thing to have that kind of friendship in our ordinary human 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:08.519 relationships. 00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:17.320 And of course, in terms of the gospel, in Jesus, we have the ultimate unfair weather 00:34:17.320 --> 00:34:20.480 friend. 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:27.280 The fifth and last point was going to be, let's think about our roots. 00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:30.400 So think about your roots for a minute. 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:37.440 You can't have fruit without roots in the right soil, with the right nourishment. 00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:46.120 And theologically and practically, the fruit of the Spirit comes from being rooted in Jesus 00:34:46.120 --> 00:34:47.120 Christ. 00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:49.839 The Spirit unites us to Christ. 00:34:49.839 --> 00:34:53.359 The Spirit plants us in Him. 00:34:53.359 --> 00:34:59.599 And it's in our union with Christ that the Spirit brings forth His fruit in our lives. 00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:09.440 The Spirit is interested in roots and fruit, in Jesus' roots and in Jesus' fruit. 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:14.319 On the right kind of roots, so the right nourishment and the right irrigation, perhaps just read 00:35:14.319 --> 00:35:16.079 Psalm 1. 00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:19.599 Many of us were reading it on Wednesday night in city groups. 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:25.920 The person who meditates on God's word is said to be like a tree planted by streams 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:32.119 of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. 00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:38.639 So it's a person who's fed by God's word and irrigated by God's Spirit so that the 00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:41.000 roots go deeper and deeper. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:46.800 That person is contrasted with a chaff that's rootless and weightless and the wind blows 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:47.800 it away. 00:35:47.800 --> 00:35:56.039 But this tree is strong and stable and the roots go deeper and deeper. 00:35:56.039 --> 00:35:59.920 And it's rooted to bear fruit through the years. 00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:05.199 And it's secure until the judgment the psalmist says, let's think about our roots. 00:36:05.199 --> 00:36:14.239 Because my life is your life rooted in Christ by the Spirit and our roots going deeper week 00:36:14.239 --> 00:36:21.960 by week and year by year, growing deeper into Christ so we're stronger and more stable in 00:36:21.960 --> 00:36:27.319 the storm and bearing fruit in season. 00:36:27.319 --> 00:36:29.879 Well let me conclude. 00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:35.880 Let me take you for a minute to the parable of the talents, very famous words Jesus says 00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:43.360 twice in Matthew 25 in the story about those who didn't bury their talents but use them 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:45.559 for their master. 00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:54.880 He says, well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will 00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:00.720 set you over much, enter into the joy of your master. 00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:05.519 These are the words every Christian wants to hear one day. 00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:11.160 Well done, good and faithful servant. 00:37:11.160 --> 00:37:18.079 And as Christians we can be confident that we will hear these words one day because to 00:37:18.079 --> 00:37:23.260 circle back to the beginning because God is faithful. 00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:29.880 God has committed himself to us in Christ and God will be faithful, he will keep his 00:37:29.880 --> 00:37:31.880 promises. 00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:37.600 And the Christian life in a sense, and I finish with this, the Christian life is a life of 00:37:37.600 --> 00:37:46.040 trusting in the promises of God from beginning to end of the Christian life. 00:37:46.039 --> 00:37:54.559 Just listen to a couple of verses from 1 Corinthians 1, 7 to 9, verses that assure us that God 00:37:54.559 --> 00:38:03.759 is faithful from our first calling to faith to the consummation at the end. 00:38:03.759 --> 00:38:05.559 These are the words. 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:16.259 As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end 00:38:16.259 --> 00:38:25.219 and you will be guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and God is faithful by whom 00:38:25.219 --> 00:38:34.159 you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:38:34.159 --> 00:38:42.159 The God who called you into fellowship with Jesus is the God who will keep you in fellowship 00:38:42.159 --> 00:38:50.440 with Jesus and who will one day make you guiltless like Jesus and bring you to the place where 00:38:50.440 --> 00:38:56.019 you will be with Jesus forever and forever. 00:38:56.019 --> 00:39:05.719 So trust the God who is faithful and keep trusting that he will hold you fast and do 00:39:05.719 --> 00:39:09.480 that to the end and forever. 00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:10.480 Amen. 00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:11.480 Let's pray. 00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:19.400 Lord, we thank you above all tonight that you are the faithful God, the God who promises 00:39:19.400 --> 00:39:26.960 and who keeps his promises, the God who sent his Son and the Son who was faithful to his 00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:31.800 commission in life and in death. 00:39:31.800 --> 00:39:40.920 We thank you for our living Savior whose faithful life becomes ours and who died for all our 00:39:40.920 --> 00:39:48.440 unfaithfulnesses, that we might be united to him as our Savior and have our roots deep 00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:56.440 in him and seek to live for him and bear fruit to his glory. 00:39:56.440 --> 00:40:05.400 So help us in our walk as individuals, help us to be faithful to our own callings as individuals, 00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:12.039 bless us in all our relationships, to be faithful to others in marriage and home and family 00:40:12.039 --> 00:40:19.800 and in friendships and help us as churches to be faithful in all our different responsibilities 00:40:19.800 --> 00:40:25.920 above all to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the commission to bring 00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:29.440 that gospel to a needy world. 00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:36.679 So receive our thanks for all your goodness to us in your covenant love and faithfulness. 00:40:36.679 --> 00:40:39.199 We bless you in Jesus' name. 00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:42.199 Amen.