Faithfulness – Fruit of the Spirit
Preaching Outline on Galatians 5:22 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”
Introduction to Galatians 5:22
Today, we’re going to focus on loyalty.
God demonstrates and honors faithfulness. Psalm 100:5 says: “For the Lord is good; his mercy endures forever, and his faithfulness extends from generation to generation.”
Every time you see a rainbow, remember that God is faithful – He keeps His promises. Every time you pick up a Bible, remember that He said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
Every time you gather to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ, remember that he said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
Every time you take part in the Lord’s Supper, every time someone responds to the call, remember that he said: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
And when you’re on the brink of death, remember his promise: “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
The composer was right:
“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father….
Morning after morning I see new mercies.
Everything I need, your hand has provided.
Great is your faithfulness, Lord, to me.”
If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, the fruit of faithfulness will be real and evident in our lives. The more we surrender to His guidance, the less fickle and less vulnerable to discouragement and temptation we become.
And as we are filled with his Spirit, others will find in us a reliability, an integrity, a perseverance in both good times and bad – a faithfulness that the world does not understand.
Development
I. A DEFINITION OF FIDELITY
A. If you were to define faithfulness as Paul uses it in the New Testament, how would you do it? Well, if you looked it up in the dictionary, you’d find a technical definition that says: “To fulfill a commitment, regardless of the difficulties.”
Faithfulness is love that persists. It’s love that says: “I won’t give up. There may be misunderstandings, disappointments, discouragements, but I won’t give up.” It’s love that persists.
Illustration: If someone says, “I really love the Lord” or “I really love the church”, and then turns out to be unfaithful, it’s hard to believe that they really love the Lord. Because, you see, faithfulness and love always go hand in hand. Faithfulness is love that persists.
You may get discouraged. You may be disappointed. But faithfulness says: “Even if there is discouragement and disappointment, I won’t give up. I’m going to keep attending, giving, serving, because God has called me to be faithful.”
B. Listen to what the Bible says. Here are some scriptures that challenge us to be faithful:
- 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 challenges us to be faithful in our stewardship.
- Ephesians 6:21 talks about being faithful in service.
- 1 Timothy 5:9 talks about being faithful in marriage.
- Revelation 2:15 talks about being faithful in witnessing.
- Romans 12:12 says that we should be faithful in prayer.
- Colossians 1:7 talks about being faithful in ministry.
- Revelation 17:14 says that we must be faithful in following the Lord.
- Proverbs 31:26 talks about faithful instruction.
- 3 John 3 says that we must be faithful in the truth.
- Revelation 13:10 talks about faithfulness even in times of persecution.
- Revelation 2:10 says that we must be faithful until death in order to receive the crown of life.
II. A DEMONSTRATION OF FIDELITY
A. To help us understand better, let’s look at a demonstration of faithfulness in the Bible. Once again, the example is Jesus, and it’s in Matthew chapter 16.
Verse 21 tells us that Jesus gathers his disciples and tells them that he is going to Jerusalem. He says: “I know what will happen there. I will be arrested, beaten and crucified. But I’m going anyway.”
You may remember that, in the next verse, Peter tries to stop him. He says, “Lord, don’t go!”
But Jesus replies: “Get behind me, Satan!” The reason Jesus called Peter “Satan” is that Satan was using Peter to try to get Jesus to give up, to be unfaithful.
Time after time, during his ministry, Satan tried to make Jesus unfaithful. “Don’t go to the cross. Don’t die for their sins. Just give up. It’s going to be very difficult. There will be many obstacles, many difficulties. Just turn around and give up.”
However, the King James Version tells us that “Jesus set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem.” Jesus was determined, no matter what, to be faithful to the mission God had given him. So, with firmness, he goes to Jerusalem.
Illustration: George Müller began to pray for five friends. He prayed for 5 years until the first was converted; for the next, he prayed for 10 years; for the third, 25 years; for the fourth, almost 50 years. The last one was converted after 52 years, at George Müller’s funeral. George Müller was faithful until his death.
III. HOW DO WE DEVELOP FIDELITY?
A. To answer this, you need to understand that an apple tree doesn’t stand in the middle of an orchard saying, “How do I grow apples?” An apple tree produces apples because that’s what apple trees do.
And when we are Christians led by the Spirit, when we are a branch connected to the vine that is Jesus Christ, then we bear fruit because it’s the natural thing to do. We don’t need to keep thinking and analyzing. But we do need to be careful that our branch never detaches itself from the vine or that some disease destroys our fruitfulness.
B. So there are certain things we need to be careful about:
- We need to understand that temptations will come. Just as Jesus was tempted to be unfaithful, we too will be tempted – in marriage, in our relationship with the Lord and in the church. That’s what Satan does. He tempts us to be unfaithful.
- We need to seek the reinforcement of the Holy Spirit and develop regular and positive spiritual habits. This world is not a Christian world. This nation is not a Christian nation. And we are being pressured from all sides to develop negative habits, which tempt us to be unfaithful in attending church, in prayer and in studying God’s Word.
- We need to get up when we fall or are knocked down.
Illustration: Simon Peter is one of my heroes in the Scriptures, not because he always did the right thing. Sometimes he made mistakes, even denying the Lord, and he wept bitterly for it. But every time he fell, he got up again. So, when it came time to choose someone to preach the first gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost, guess who was chosen?
Conclusion of Galatians 5:22
Fidelity is the Love that Persists
I ask myself: are you going through a painful experience? Do you feel like you’ve been knocked down or that you’ve fallen? Have you been irresponsible? Are you tempted to give up? Don’t stop. Keep moving forward. Persist, because fidelity is the love that persists.
Be faithful to God, to your family, to your church and to the calling He has placed on your life. Great is the Lord’s faithfulness!
Amen.
Preaching Outline on Galatians 5:22 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”
More Preaching Outlines
- Let’s cross to the other shore – Luke 8:22-24
- Jesus gave himself for us – Galatians 1:4
- The fruit of the Holy Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23
