Why exercise faithfulness?

  • Our human nature is prone to wander, exercising our faithfulness develops our character
  • Faithfulness is a choice, it is not always natural, but it must be intentional
  • Faithfulness to God guards our faith, grows our faith
  • 2 Timothy 4:7 Faithfulness to God allows us to “fight the good fight, run the race” and most importantly, to “keep the faith”
  • We can strengthen our faith through faithfulness

 

What is faithfulness?

In the definition of the Greek word for faithful: pistos πιστὸς, “faithful” in the Bible is defined as:

  • Trustworthy (in the transaction of business, the execution of commands, or in official duties)
  • Believing, confiding, trusting (in God and in His promises)
  • The root word of pistos is pistis, meaning faith
  • We cannot have faithfulness to do God’s work without first having faith in God
  • More than just action, it is an attitude, a mindset, being faithful is to be trustworthy in doing God’s work and not wavering in our belief in God
  • To be faithful in doing God’s work, we must believe that what we are doing is for Him

What is faithfulness ‘to God’? – Being faithful in our relationship to God

  • The Church in the Bible is often referred to as the bride of Christ (Eph 5:22-23)
  • The people of Israel were referred to like a wife to God (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea)
  • God uses human relationships to mirror how our attitudes should be toward him
  • As a bride is called to be faithful to her vows in marriage, as a church, as God’s people, we are called to be faithful in our covenant to God

The nature of our relationship to God: what is our covenant with God?

  • Just as God gave the people of Israel the ten commandments when he made the Mosaic covenant with them, our covenant with God comes with commandments
  • Matthew 22:37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
  • And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets
  • John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
  • To simplify, God’s commandment for us is to love God and to love people, thus faithfulness to God means being faithful in loving God and loving people

We must be careful to not to be faithful to things instead of being faithful to God

  • We do not want to be faithful to the ministry or church because we love the ministry or the church, but we want to be faithful to the ministry and to the church because we love God
  • We can only be faithful TO God when we are doing things FOR God (when we start loving things instead of loving God or loving people, we end up doing things for ourselves)
  • We must be serving out of a love for God and for others
  • When we serve ministry, we do not love the ministry, but we love the people we can serve through the ministry and love God through these actions

Faithfulness is especially needed during difficult situations, when we face challenges

  • It is difficult to be faithful when tested, it is often easier to quit, give up
  • Faithfulness that perseveres must be driven by love

Faithfulness to God applies to all we do

  • Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving

Faithfulness is NOT about quantity of how much we do

  • God never looks at the “quantity”, not how big or how small our part is
  • Luke 16:10 Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much

 

How do we Develop Faithfulness?

  1. Make a Conscious Choice
  • Faithfulness to God is a choice, choose to do His work
  • Our choice is often affected by excuses, we often make excuses and try to bargain with God that we have other priorities over doing His work
  • Whatever excuses we give can never be greater than God, these things we put before God is a form of idolatry that leads us to unfaithfulness, this is amount to adultery in God’s eyes
  • Unfaithfulness is wickedness, when the people of Israel chose other idols over God, they were called by God as harlots, prostitutes, an adulterous nation
  • Make conscious choices and make no excuses
  1. Make a Continuous Commitment
  • After making a conscious choice, we often find it difficult to stay committed, thus we need to know what stops us from being committed
  • Distractions – Happens when we focus on other things
    • Can also happen when our worries about circumstances (school, work, personal commitments) cause us to reprioritise over what we are called by God to do
  • Discouragement – When past experiences of serving have caused us to become hurt
  • Doubt – When we feel like our prayers are not answered and/or we cannot hear God
  • Disillusionment – When we try to remain faithful but don’t feel like our efforts are paying off
  • In order to overcome, we must have the right mindset to know that
    • Our God is a fair and just God
    • As we continue to do His work, He will reward us in due time
    • His rewards are beyond what we can ask or imagine

This helps us to remain faithful and press on in serving God

3. The Rewards of Faithfulness

Testimony of Eric Liddell

  • ‘the man who wouldn’t run on Sunday’ ‘Chariots of Fire’
  • first of his country to win Gold during the 1924 Paris Olympics
  • Committed, Eric Liddell refused to race on Sunday and was forced to withdraw from the 100 metres, his best event, Instead, he raced in the 400 metres and little was expected of him
  • As Liddell went to the starting blocks for the race, an American slipped a piece of paper in his hand with part of the verse 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honour me I will honour.”
  • Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand and NOT ONLY won the gold but ALSO broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds
  • Was faithful to God over a desire for success, and his faithfulness was rewarded
  • God rewards us in overwhelming proportion to what we have given in serving Him

Results of faithfulness, we can reap the promises of God, who is ever faithful

2 Chronicles 16:9a For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him

Application: Pray for one person everyday this week.