Friend of God: Faithful

Friend of God: Faithful

Tomorrow, we celebrate Veteran’s Day.  We are incredibly blessed to live in this nation and to enjoy the civil freedoms that we have been granted.  The freedoms that we enjoy were bought at a high price.  Ever since the day that we declared independence from the tyranny of Great Brittain and began this nation, the battle to maintain that freedom continues.

This past Tuesday, the majority of people in this nation spoke a loud message at the ballot box that we desire to remain an independent nation.  We want to take full advantage of the bounty of natural resources that God has blessed us with.  We want to be a supplier of energy to the world. 

We value hard work.  We want affordable prices for everything that we consume.  We want secure borders and laws with consequences.  We want a safe and prosperous nation that defends our constitution and the rights that it grants us.

The battle to maintain our national security and civil freedoms continues nearly 250 years after it began.  We are only safe and secure because of those all around the world right now actively serving to ensure it.

At this time, we’re going to take a moment to express our gratitude and to pray for all of those who have served in our military ensuring our rights and freedoms.

Soon, we will be placing two flags near our main entry doors.  The first is the American flag to respect our nation, to show gratitude for the right that we have to freely live out our faith, and to honor those who sacrificially gave of their own lives for our benefit.

The second flag will be the Israeli flag to respect our dual citizenship of both the United States of America as well as the Kingdom of Heaven, to honor the covenant that God made with Israel which we have been grafted into, and as a reminder to pray and bless the nation of Israel; for God blesses those who bless Israel.

This morning is a great time to remember and to honor the veterans who have faithfully served their nation, but also the veterans of our faith who pioneered a way for us to receive the good news about Jesus.

Ones who considered not the cost to their own selves, but the value and worth of God’s salvation.  Ones willing to take up their crosses and lay down their own lives all for the cause of Christ.  Ones like the apostle Paul.  Knowing that he likely would never see them again, he said in his farewell speech to the elders of the Ephesian church:

Acts 20:18-24

18 “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Wow, what a declaration backed up by action!  “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace!”

Jesus said:

John 15:12-13

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

No greater love.  Jesus set the example for us by first laying down His own life for our benefit.  Now, He calls us to do the same for Him; following His example.  It wasn’t only on the cross where Jesus chose to lay down His life.  He first stepped off of His throne and stepped out of Heaven into human flesh, then lived in full obedience to the Heavenly Father, then served the needs of those far from God all before the cross. 

Jesus lived a life of selfless sacrifice; true and perfect love; true and perfect faithfulness.  The expressed His concern about when He returns.  It wasn’t about whether He would find good little Christians with their ‘I’s all dotted and their ‘T’s all crossed saying their daily prayers and checking off their daily devotionals.  Jesus said:

Luke 18:8

..when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

It’s less about what we do and more about who we are which defines why we do what we do that defines our faith.  We can live out Biblical principles and memorize and apply scriptures and pray and sing songs of praise and worship all without a relationship with Christ; all without being saved and transformed by the Holy Spirit; all without faith.

At one point, God called out how He felt about those who just go through the motions and He didn’t sugar-coat it at all!

Amos 5:21-23

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

    your assemblies are a stench to me.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

    I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

    I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!

    I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Why did He feel this way about it?

Isaiah 29:13

The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

What God desires from us is what He first expressed to us; faithfulness.  David wrote:

Psalm 51:5-7

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,

    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

When Jesus returns, will He find faith on the earth?  Paul wrote:

2 Timothy 2:8-13

8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

11 Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him,

    we will also live with him;

12 if we endure,

    we will also reign with him.

If we disown him,

    he will also disown us;

13 if we are faithless,

    he remains faithful,

    for he cannot disown himself.

God is faithful and will forever remain faithful.  He is eternally the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Jesus is so faithful and true that those are two of His names!  His word is so trustworthy and reliable that He is the Living Word of God!

Revelation 19:11-13

11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

In the world that we live in where change happens so often and so quickly, this truth about God is reassuring and comforting.  In an attempt to describe God’s faithfulness, the Psalmist wrote three times:

Psalm 36:5; Psalm 57:10; Psalm 108:4

Great is your love, higher than the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Mac Powell of Third Day wrote a simple, but awesome song based on this line as well!

Your love O Lord reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness stretches to the sky

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains

Your justice flows like the ocean’s tide       

To be faithful is to be true, sure, stable, reliable, trustworthy, steadfast, steady, supportive, dependable.  God is all of these things and more!

We can be certain of God.  He is true, sure, stable, reliable, trustworthy, steadfast, steady, supportive, and dependable.  We can fully trust and find rest in God.  We can fully place our lives into His hands knowing that He is good and what He has said He will do, He will certainly do.  We receive peace and confidence when we surrender our lives to God.

When God stood before Moses with all of His goodness and glory passing before Him, the Lord proclaimed about Himself:

Exodus 34:6-7

6 The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

Moses later wrote a song and sang:

Deuteronomy 32:3-4

3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord.

    Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,

    and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong,

    upright and just is he.

Abounding in faithfulness!  A faithful God who does not wrong!

One of the challenges that we faced last week is knowing that since we are friends of God, He brings revelation and guides us into all truth.  He joyfully shares kingdom secrets with us.  However, He will never share something with us that will remove our need for faith.  He will reveal things to place our faith in, but never answer all of our questions so that we no longer need to walk by faith.

Believing that God is faithful is expressed through our returned faithfulness to God.  When we truly, intentionally, actually place our faith in His faithfulness, we become faithful.  God’s faithfulness never changes, but ours, well… ours varies quite a bit more if we are to be honest with ourselves.

Hebrews 11:1

(NIV)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

(KJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

(NLT)

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

(NCV)

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.

(AMP)

Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality – faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].

(TPT)

Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.

(MSG)

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.

Are we faithful?  Are we confident and certain of the things that God has promised and yet currently remain unseen?  Is God the firm foundation under everything in our lives?  Are we standing faithfully on His word and His promises?

Are we like David and choose to rely not on ourselves, but on God’s faithfulness?

Psalm 26:2-3

2 Test me, Lord, and try me,

    examine my heart and my mind;

3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love

    and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

It was not only a song, but also a prayer of David’s:

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, Lord,

    that I may rely on your faithfulness;

give me an undivided heart,

    that I may fear your name.

He also wrote a song recorded in Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22 where he said that “To the faithful you show yourself faithful.”

It makes me ponder how often we are waiting on God to faithfully fulfill His word at the same time that He is waiting on us to move forward and act in faith.  Our faith invokes and reveals God’s faithfulness.

Most of the miracles of God recorded throughout the Bible essentially like this, God says to do something, people do it in faith, and God works a miracle.  God’s word, our faith expressed through obedience, then God shows Himself faithful to those who are faithful.

God wants us to be certain that we are living in reliance on His faithfulness alone.  This is one of the reasons that we gather together – to encourage each other to remain in the faith and to spur each other on further into it!  To give one another courage and boldness to live out our faith!

Hebrews 10:19-25

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We need each other.  We need accountability to remain faithful.  We need others to show us when we are stepping outside of our faith in areas of our lives.  We need to be tested and tried within the safety of other believers who love us and want only God’s best for us.  We need both challenged and encouraged!

Life is hard.  Faith doesn’t deny this reality, but chooses to patiently trust in God in response to this reality.

Lamentations 3:19-26

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,

    the bitterness and the gall.

20 I well remember them,

    and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind

    and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

    to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

In fact, there was an extreme case of God’s faithfulness recorded about Hezekiah.  He was very ill and was literally on his deathbed.  God sent the prophet Isaiah to ask Hezekiah to get his house in order because he was about to die and was not going to recover from this illness.  Hezekiah prayed this simple prayer:

Isaiah 38:3

“Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

God sent Isaiah back with a new prophetic word.  God healed Hezekiah, added 15 years to his life and delivered him and his city from the king of Assyria.  He then wrote:

Isaiah 38:16-20

16 …You restored me to health

    and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit

    that I suffered such anguish.

In your love you kept me

    from the pit of destruction;

you have put all my sins

    behind your back.

18 For the grave cannot praise you,

    death cannot sing your praise;

those who go down to the pit

    cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living – they praise you,

    as I am doing today;

parents tell their children

    about your faithfulness.

20 The Lord will save me,

    and we will sing with stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

    in the temple of the Lord.

God is faithful and so good!  He hears our prayers, He sees our faithfulness, He honors us when we honor Him.

Even better, when we struggle in our faith and falter, He remains faithful to us!  Sometimes, we just have to be like this man whose son had been tormented by an evil spirit for years.  The man cried out to Jesus and said:

Mark 9:22-24 (TPT)

22 “…please, if you’re able to do something, anything – have compassion on us and help us!”

23 Jesus said to him, “What do you mean ‘if’?  If you are able to believe,  all things are possible to the believer.”

24 When he heard this, the boy’s father cried out with tears, saying, “I do believe, Lord; help my little faith!”

God isn’t offended or surprised or even disappointed when we struggle in our faith.  When we call out to Him, He faithfully responds to those cries for help.

When we are called back home and stand before Jesus face-to-face, will He say:

Matthew 25:23

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share my happiness!

From this day forward, we can walk confidently knowing that we will hear those words from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  We can choose to trust in God’s faithfulness by walking faithfully to Him.  We can follow the example of the lives recorded in the Bible, those veterans of the faith, and be one with them.

God is faithful!  Yesterday, today, and forever faithful and true!  Let’s let go and choose to respond to this fact by placing our lives fully into His hands and walking faithfully before Him.