Gal 5:16 …let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. (NLT) 5:22… the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23a gentleness, and self-control. (NLT)

This is a condensed portion a much longer passage that we studied early in the summer. I need to re-remind you of some of what the Bible stresses just before it gives us these Fruit of the Spirit so that we remember why we have the title "Training for Godliness":

V:16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants…. 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

I read some curriculum, this week, being promoted by a local church here on the Treasure Coast. They said that Jesus gift provides us freedom from our sin… in Christ… but at no place in the Bible are we, personally, commanded that we are to play any role in getting rid of our sinful behavior….just relax and enjoy the inner freedom that Jesus provides. (Some of you have come across that theology and know people who live it out. Free in their mind on the inside… but completely bound up by their sins on the outside.)

I'm not sure what Bible these people are reading… but it can't possibly be the same one I study and teach from each week… My Bible says:

Titus 2:11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

Titus 2: 11-13 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (NLT)

My challenge to you this summer was to Train for Godliness…much like you would train your physical muscles. When you say no to a persistent sin, in your life, God's grace builds spiritual muscle where only flab was before…

We illustrated this point by bringing Debi Boerckel up here with this 20lb. weight. She pumped it 6 grueling times in June. Let' see what repeated right actions have accomplished in two months. (Debi)

There you have it… Repeated right actions bring strength where weakness was before…

I've been hearing stories from many of you, who took me seriously at the beginning of the summer, that God has been moving you away from longstanding sins… God's grace has been changing the old you into a new, stronger you! If you haven't started your spiritual training yet…it is not too late….

Here are nine specific spiritual fruit you are supposed to be developing,,,

1) Love, joy, peace,

2) Patience, kindness, goodness,

3) Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Let's focus on fruit #7….

I. The Fruit of Faithfulness

Are you faithful?

Faithful about what…to who/m…

If you are talking about my marriage to Susan Frances then, Yes I need to be faithful…but if your talking about my Sam's Club membership… I might secretly slip into BJ's.

People's faithfulness to a local church is not what it one time was... I heard of a Pastor, recently, who had a parishioner who only occasionally came to church…

… the man said: We don’t feel appreciated here…we are going to move to another church. The Pastor thought a bit and then said: Let me see if I've got this straight.

"You are going to start skipping church somewhere else… rather than skipping church here!"

Faithfulness has become increasing unpopular in our society. Faithfulness in marriage is considered a joke. Faithfulness in a job is often based purely on self fulfillment. Studies show that if you that are part of the "post-modern" generation, you tend to be even more likely to place emphasis on "the experience of the moment" rather than on settled faithfulness based on inner convictions.

We don't even use the word any more. When was the last time you used the term "faithful" in your daily conversation.

Faithful = Constant, Reliable, Dependable, Trustworthy

Let's face it…we are all faulted people… We do well some of the time and not so well the rest. That's just part of being human right. You win some… you lose some!

Q: The 2008 car model with the highest crash test rating is: _____________??

Subaru

Why do you care? Didn't you learn to drive?... When you learned to drive didn't they teach you not to run into things? If you learned not to crash cars…why do you care which car has the highest crash rating.

Because somebody, you or another driver, even with the "don't run into things" training may fail to be Constant, Reliable, Dependable, Trustworthy

II. The Source of Faithfulness

At this stage of this sermon series, I don't have to tell any of you what/who the source of faithfulness is… but I'm not sure we understand just how big a deal this is to God.

I wish I could do a "Google Earth" type of snapshot of the Old Testament for you and let you get a "God perspective" on that 5000 years of history.

-God creates the Universe

- God creates Mankind

- Mankind rebels against God (all in the first three chapters of the Bible…)

-God sets out to reconcile his beloved Creation to himself

(The rest of the OT and all of the New…)

If we had a Google capability to see all of recorded time

You know how Google Earth works don't you?...

If we could turn the camera and focus in on a specific year and turn it various ways to get a real clear perspective.. We would see certain themes that keep coming to the surface in every year, every generation… every different group of people.

God's Love…God's Patience…God's Kindness/Grace (oddly all Fruit of the Spirit???)

Glaringly, in front of the rest, would be God's faithfulness

There are many, many Scriptures of course:

Psalm 89: 1 I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. 2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.  5 The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.  6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD ? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? 8 O LORD God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

I underlined all the "faithful's" for you … I also underlined the word LORD. None of that is used accidentally. If you could get that Google view of time… you would see God coming to Eve with a covenant of a coming Savior, to Noah with a rainbow covenant of protection, to Abraham with a 4-part covenant of God's presence, protection… All of this was saying to the Israelites…I'm here… I'll never leave you… I'm always dependable, constant, reliable, trustworthy. There will never be a moment in all of time when you need me and I will be off taking a vacation. I am Faithful!

When God gives Moses his covenant name YAHWEH - "I will be who I will be" (LORD) they understood it was yet another promise of God's faithfulness.

We've looked at so many of God's powerful OT statements over the years where he ends with "I am Yahweh" …I am the LORD. He's signing his name…He's saying I will never not be dependable.

God can't possibly be undependable! God can't fail to do what he has promised. Faithfulness is not a characteristic God has…Faithfulness is who God is. Every fiber of God's being is faithful, completely dependable, unconditionally trustworthy. !00% constant, God is totally reliable every time and he has been so for the last 7000 years of recorded time without ever "blowing it" one single time

God couldn't possibly not be who He is if he wanted to be… and He would never not want to be who he is because he is faithful!

I've shared with you in the past the Hebrew word for faithful is: ______________

AMEN!

So many times in the Old Testament when someone would proclaim God's Word the people would shout back…

Amen….. Faithful!!

God sending his Son…the Messiah to save the world was the ultimate display of His faithfulness.

God told Eve he would crush satan through her offspring..

God proved He would stay with rebellious Israel until they returned to Him

God told Israel he would send a Savior to bear the world sins

God is Faithful! He always does what he says! He never forsakes his children! He never, ever has in the past… and he isn't going to start now.

Look…I love this…

When Paul is describing how the faithfulness of God was demonstrated in Jesus coming to die for our sins he said:

2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. (NIV)

The fact that you are alive and sitting in this room today is because, and only because, of the faithfulness of God on your behalf. The fact that your sins did not forever separate you from your heavenly Father speaks to his faithfulness. The fact that he has poured out his very character in the form of the Fruit of his Spirit and invited us all to take part in his nature is because he is so unwilling to ever fail us. You can and should revel in the opportunities that God's faithfulness has opened in front of you…

Hebrews 10:19-24 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly, without wavering, to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (NLT)

III. Converting God's faithfulness into a harvest of fruit in our lives…

In all honesty…if God's faithfulness is 7000 years of god relentlessly pursuing us to bring us into right relationship with him and prepare us to spend all of eternity with him… If the ultimate act of that faithfulness was God, Himself, taking on human form to come to this earth and pay the penalty for our sins..

If that same God is offering this characteristic, to you, as a fruit of his Spirit in your life…. What does that tell you about his expectation for you?

1 Corinthians 4:1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

To see how important this is…let me take you straight to the end of the Story (and the end of this sermon).

Conclusion:

Let me give you a little piece of advice. If you are here for the entirety of the bible and you live long enough to experience the events listed in the book of Revelation this is going to be one fruit that you are not going to want to be without…

*Rev. 2:10b Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

* Revelation 13:10 Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison.
Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.

Revelation 14:11-12 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.(unfaithful) " 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

If we are struggling with whether we can faithfully live the Christian life now we are going to be "in a world of hurt" then…

Revelation 17:14 Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.” (NLT)