HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
I want to honor all the moms and all the women in the house!!!
Whether you’re a mother by birth by adoption or by mentoring as you serve and love the people in your world, you’re making a difference
Thank you for the way you continue to show up again and again
Thank you for your faithfulness
Come on lets honor all the women in the room!!
Round of applause
For some of us Mother’s Day is a very joyful day, but for some it isn’t easy.
And for everyone here with a heavy heart this morning, I wanna honor you because despite the heaviness you still chose to be faithful. You still showed up.
You’re still listening online.
Giving ear to the word of God and I believe He’s going to minister to you today.
The truth is—what we celebrate today isn’t just motherhood.
Its FAITHFULNESS
We have been in series called Juicy Fruit – yes like the gum
If you weren’t here the first week you missed out – we gave out gum
And we have been discussing the fruit of the Spirit
Today, fitting for Mother’s Day, I want to talk for a few minutes on this fruit of the Spirit: FAITHFULNESS
When I think about faithfulness, I think about so many people in this room.
Faithfulness – simply put – is the quality of being loyal, dependable and steadfast.
It can’t happen in our strength alone, we need the Holy Spirit.
It also can’t happen without our effort. We must participate with the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs 3:3-4 Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablets of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
Title: It’s all about Faithfulness
What if I told you today I am giving away 50k! who wants it! Yay!
Ok, here’s your desk and computer. Give me 40 hrs a week for a year and 50k is all yours!
50 grand in a moment is exciting! But being faithful for a year to earn it is a little less.
Faithfulness – repetitive, looks mundane. Fulfilling duties day after day.
It’s showing up for work, for your commitments, for your children
And tomorrow doing it all over again
Have you noticed: LIFE is repetitive, actually not by accident, its Gods divine design
If you think about it – this life is structured to teach us faithfulness.
Marriage, children, careers, our faith, and our mission to reach the harvest – everything God’s given us to do under the sun both requires and develops faithfulness.
Eugene Peterson says faithfulness is a long obedience in the same direction.
Faithfulness matters to God
That’s why what seems mundane to us is actually significant to Him
- The behind the scenes work of parenting.
- The tireless effort of family life
- The grind in your career
- The long silences of lonely seasons
What we want to just get past, what we tend to overlook
Those are the very things God is using to form us – faithfulness in us.
Faithfulness matters to God – Jesus makes it clear it that its all about faithfulness.
At the end of life, the words we all hope to hear are
Well done good and faithful servant.
When I was a young adult, about 22, I had just gotten radically saved.
I was on fire for Jesus. Felt called to ministry!
Ready for the adventure of proclaiming the Gospel! Just like the Apostle Paul!
And I left my job at an advertising agency to work at a church.
I thought, this is it. I’m stepping into my calling.
I had this melodramatic idea of what serving God would be like!
I show up on day one…as a graphic designer
They hand me forms, and a mouse, put me in a cubicle
Just me, my computer, and an endless to-do list
Very little human interaction for seven years.
For some, that is a DREAM! Calling. But for me at the time: I had a different dream
BUT I was young, had a short attention span, and– but immature
So wrestled with God so much in this season
But I trusted my leadership. I knew God was at work. So I stayed. I submitted.
And I made a decision: If this is my assignment, I’m going to be faithful in it.
I wrote Prov 3:3-4 on an index card and pinned it to the fabric wall of my cubicle.
That’s why I chose it for our verse today – it’s the verse that carried me in that season. Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablets of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man
That waiting season lasted so long, the index card turned yellow.
While I was concerned with where I was going,
God was more concerned with who I was becoming
Looking back now, it’s clear: God was teaching me faithfulness.
Because Faithfulness matters to God
There are so many examples of faithfulness in the Bible.
One of my favorites: the story of Ruth
In OT, she has an entire book of bible named after her. In the Hebrew Scriptures
And was not even an Israelite. She was a Moabite.
One day she gets married to a man from Israel. But then he dies.
She’s becomes a widow at a young age.
Most people would have returned to their homeland,
But she chose to STAY and take care of her mother-in-law, Naomi
Because she was also a widow
And Ruth pledges her life to Naomi and famously says:
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your ppl will be my people, and your God my God.
She pledged FAITHFULNESS.
Then she travels with Naomi to a small town in Israel called Bethlehem!
There, every day sun up to sun down – would work the fields to care for MIL
One day an upstanding man named Boaz notices her
Not because of her talent, platform, but of her faithfulness
He approaches her and is like HAY GIRL!!
I have heard about your FAITHFULNESS
Well, long story short, they get MARRIED
She becomes the great-grandmother of
David – king of Israel.
She becomes part of the lineage of Jesus Christ!!
Through faithfulness Ruth made way for the plan of God in her life
Same with us – faithfulness makes way for the plan of God in our lives
Faithfulness matters to God
It matters to God that we are faithful in marriage, children, PARENTS, friendships.
In CHURCH, how can we be faithful to lesser things than CHURCH
It matters to God that we are faithful to HIM – in steady pursuit of his heart above all else
ASK yourself this morning: is there a place where I am being unfaithful?
God is speaking to that place right now. Mercy, time to address this now
Ruth’s story is about faithfulness. BUT it isn’t just about HER faithfulness.
All along – through good times and bad – God was with her & moving her forward in his plan
Ruth’s life is a story about God’s faithfulness!
Same with us. If willing to trust Him, our lives are stories of the faithfulness of God
GOD IS FAITHFUL
It’s His very nature. All throughout scripture, the Bible declares the faithfulness of God
Lamentations 3:23 Great is Thy faithfulness!
1 John 1:9 When we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
2 Timothy 2:13 Even when we are faithless he remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself.
It’s who He is. God is faithful.
But do YOU believe He’s faithful?
When we are desperate for a miracle, its not about believing whether or not its possible, its about believing whether or not God is FAITHFUL
Some of you – struggling with doubt.
Not doubt in existence of God, but in the faithfulness of God
I know what that feels like.
When I was diagnosed with MS, I expected God to heal me instantly.
Didn’t happen like I thought
Years went by. Barely made it through my 30s! missed out on so much with my kids.
And it was like a war in my body and mind.
Trying to reconcile my reality with my theology.
I never stopped believing in God, but there were moments when I questioned His faithfulness.
But looking back now, I believe God’s delay was His design – for a purpose
He was teaching me something deeper:
He is faithful not only on the mountaintop — He is faithful in the valley too.
Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you.”
We never learn the depths of His faithfulness til we’re in the valley – in the deep waters.
Even when I doubted Him… He was faithful.
In that season, I learned that faith is more than believing God exists.
Hebrews 11 says anyone who comes to Him must believe
that He rewards those who seek Him.
Real faith believes not only that God is real — but that God is faithful.
He is faithful! I’m here today w health and energy, even miracle pregnancy in 40s
My story and my strength is that GOD IS FAITHFUL!
From cover to cover the Bible is one great story about the faithfulness of God.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden God was faithful and promised a Savior.
When Israel was in slavery in Egypt God was faithful and delivered them
When the world was lost in darkness and without hope, God was faithful and sent His son JESUS into the world to save the world through Him
God was faithful in the resurrection, God was faithful at Pentecost
When He poured out His Spirit and the Church was birthed.
Every single story in the Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – God was faithful
And if He was faithful then, He is faithful now!
So what does that mean for us today? Preach with me!
When life is good — God is faithful.
When life is hard — God is faithful.
When the prayer is answered — God is faithful.
When your heart is broken — God is faithful.
When the miracle comes — God is faithful.
At all times. In every season. – God. Is. Faithful.
Finally, not only IS God faithful, but all along, in YOUR life:
HE’S BEEN FAITHFUL. (Put up picture on screen)
Peter had such a special relationship with Jesus.
Can you imagine getting to walk and talk with Jesus like Peter did
Of all the highlight moments He had with Jesus,
I bet this is one that defined it all
It happened one day early in the morning before dawn.
Peter and the disciples were on a boat in the middle of a storm.
And they saw Jesus walking towards them on the water
Peter said Lord, if its You tell me to come out to you. And Jesus told him to come.
Then Peter stepped out of the boat and literally walked on the water.
But within moments, as he saw the wind and the waves, doubt sets in,
And he began to sink. And cried out Lord save me!
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and lifted him from the water.
Immediately Faithful – Faithful in our doubt
Daniel – pray and pray NOT convincing God to help us – warfare
prodigal – faithful in our prayers – faithful in our repentance
I bet this moment was vividly etched in his memory. I bet Peter never forgot the emotion of that moment – the taste water, his utter helplessness, the grasp of Jesus’ hand, and the strength and profound faithfulness of his Lord
For the rest of his life this is exactly what Jesus would do for him over and over again.
Rescue him from his doubt, show up in his times of need – would always be there
I’m so moved by this image – bc that’s not just Peter’s story. It’s our story too.
- HOW MANY TIMES has Jesus reached down and pulled you out of your despair?
How many times has He pulled you out of your sin - How many times has he pulled you out of the dark places in your life
- Again and again and again, HES BEEN FAITHFUL
If He was faithful then, He is faithful now.
Maybe right now you are in a new battle – in a new storm
All you need is a boost of faith in a faithful God
He is reaching out to you even now
Whatever you are facing right now this is word of Lord for you
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand
God is FAITHFUL. Always been faithful!!
So question is: how do we respond to the faithfulness of God?
We respond in repentance – for unfaithfulness, for doubting
We respond in surrender – if you haven’t given your life, what area do you need to entrust?
We respond in worship – ask God to remind you where He’s been faithful, thank Him!