Fruits of the Spirit: Faithfulness

Today, we come to the seventh fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: faithfulness.

I found it quite interesting that when I looked at the text in Greek, the word that was used for this gift of the Spirit was pistis.  Pistis is normally translated rather simply with the word: “faith.”  Rarely is it ever translated “faithfulness.”  This sent my brain into overdrive because this word–the concept of faith–is extremely important for the church these days.  The concept of faith is also vitally central to our identity as Lutheran Christians.

And as I began to think about its importance, I began to sweat bullets.  I thought, “How in the world will I be able to cover such an important word; an important gift, in the time allotted to me?  How can I squeeze things down so that we can understand its importance?”  The reality is: there is no way I can possibly do this.  There is no way that I can cram all there is to say about faith into a fifteen to twenty minute sermon, so we will have to talk in broad strokes this morning.  I hope to cover these three things: 1) what faith is.  2) What it means to have faith in Jesus.  And 3) How it leads us to have faith in one another.

The first item to tackle is: what faith is.  What is faith?  A definition that you will hear oftentimes is that faith is “believing without seeing.”  This definition is actually partially correct.  The writer of Hebrews essentially defines faith in this fashion in a classic definition given in chapter 11, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Faith is something we can count on to happen in the future–a hope–a hope that is so deeply rooted that we are convicted of it even though we cannot see it. Oftentimes, this sort of understanding gets interpreted toward God–that God is something out there; someone we will meet in the future, and we are convicted of this to the point that we hold onto this without any sort of evidence whatsoever.

As I have studied what faith is, I now realize that this definition is lacking.  It is true that we all believe in God not having seen Him.  We all believe in Jesus not having seen him.  But that does not mean that we don’t have evidence.  We do.  That evidence is actually sitting in the pews in front of you in that red book with the letters B-I-B-L-E on it.  For the Bible is a recorded history of God’s interaction with the Jewish people, and then God’s ultimate revelation to humanity as Himself embodied in the person Jesus of Nazareth.  This evidence has been passed down for 2000 years.  Not only has this evidence been passed down, but we have a great cloud of witnesses who have shared with us their experiences of God–experiences that walk hand in had with God’s revelation in the Bible.  Most of us here this morning have had someone in our lives tell us about God–tell us about Jesus.  Most of us here this morning have had family members and friends who have talked about their answered and unanswered prayers; they have talked about times where they felt the presence of God; they have shared why they believe God is real.  And, here is the kicker, here is the important part of that which fleshes out the definition of faith for us: we trusted them.  You see, faith isn’t just believing without seeing–that is only part of the definition; faith is also trusting that what has been given to us is true.

You see, this understanding is actually rammed home when you understand the ancient world in which the Bible was written.  There were actually very, very few atheists–as we would call them.  Almost everyone believed in God or a god.  Such belief was taken for granted.  The real question was: which God did you believe in?  Or, better put, which God did you trust?  This distinction can be understood in the following story:

An atheist was out one Sunday morning hiking in a state park.  He was walking along a cliff edge when the trail suddenly gave way.  The atheist dropped down and luckily caught a branch that was hanging over the canyon below.  There was no way he could climb up; now way he could climb down; and the drop would certainly kill him.

As he held onto that branch, he desperately cried out for help, but being a Sunday, there was no one around.  In final desperation, he yelled to the sky, “God, I have never believed in you, but if you really exist, I could use a hand.”

Shockingly, a voice from the sky responded, “I do exist, and I have heard your prayer.  I will help you.”

In that moment, the atheist became a believer in God.  Excited by this new belief that he had, he cried out, “What do you need me to do?”

The voice responded, “Let go.”

The new believer looked at the ground and the long drop, looked back at the sky and said, “Is anyone else up there?”

Do you see how faith and trust can be separated?  Can you see the difference that can be made between the two?  The fruit of the Spirit, pistis, does not make such a distinction.  Belief and trust are tightly wound together so that if this fruit is present in your life, not only do you believe in God, but you trust Him for your safety, security, and well being.  You place your life in His hands.

And that brings us to part 2) what does it mean to have faith in God or Jesus?  Again, this is important for us to be able to talk about in this day and age because we’ve got to do a better job in evangelism.  We’ve got to do a better job in helping people understand their need for Jesus.  Why is this the case?

Because everyone believes in a god.  That might sound strange, and an atheist would certainly disagree.  However, it depends on how you define God.  An atheist can certainly reject the definition of an old, powerful guy sitting on a throne somewhere up in the sky zapping people at His will.  But if you define God like Martin Luther defined God, then there is another story.  You see, the founder of the Lutheran Church defined God as this in the Large Catechism: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart.  So, if we accept this definition of a god: something that we expect that will bring us all good; something that we expect will bring us all security; and something that we trust with our whole heart–it is safe to say that there is no such thing as an atheist.

Everyone has a god.  It just depends on what you put your ultimate trust in.  Do you think government will solve all the world’s problems and bring about lasting peace?  If you do, that’s your god.  If you believe that if you just had enough money, then all your worries would cease, then your god is money.  If you long for possessions: one more car; one more piece of land; one more electronic gadget, and you believe that these things will satisfy you, your god is possessions.  If you believe that if people just had the right kind of knowledge; if they just learned the appropriate things, then the world would be perfect; your god is knowledge and education.  If you believe that science holds the key to making the world a better place and ushering in safety and security for all, then your god is science.  I could go on and on and on because the possibilities of what can be a god are almost infinite.

So what makes our God different?  What makes Jesus different?  If I had more time, I would try to show how each and every false god makes extreme demands on us to the point that it will make us sacrifice ourselves to it.  In other words, we will never, ever satisfy our false gods.  For instance, if your god is knowledge and you believe that if we all just had enough knowledge, the world would be great.  Well, can we ever get enough knowledge?  Will we ever obtain enough education?  Can we force others to learn so that they will arrive at the place we are?  Already you can see that the answers to these questions is no.  We can never fulfill it, but knowledge drives us on. It demands that we learn more.  It demands that we teach more–even though others may not accept it.  Soon, we find ourselves down and defeated knowing that we have failed, but knowledge will not relent.  It will be ever more demanding.  If you look at every other false god, you will see this happening.

And so, now, let’s take a look at what happens when faith/trust is placed in Jesus.  And, I am using Jesus and God interchangeably here.  For the Christian, God is Jesus and Jesus is God.  Yes, Jesus demanding.  He lays this out unequivocally in His teaching.  He demands nothing less than our entire being.  He demands that we follow Him above all else and implement His teachings in perfection.  But what happens when we fail to do this?  What happens when we find ourselves crushed by His demands?  What happens when we find ourselves failing in front of our God?

Does our God demand more?  Does our God demand our death?  Does God demand that we use all of our might to right the ship or we will perish?  No.  Instead of these things, our God lays down His life for us.  Our God sacrifices Himself for us.  Our God loves us with an unimaginable love.  This is what Jesus does for us on the cross.  No other god will sacrifice itself for us; no other god will pay for our failure; only Jesus will do that.  This sets Jesus apart from every other god; every other religion.  This is why He and He alone is deserving of our faith; deserving of our trust.

Think of it this way; if someone is willing to give everything for you; if someone is willing to love you when you are unlovable; if someone has stuck with you through not only the best but also the absolute worst of what has happened, would you trust them?  Would you have faith in them?  Would you come to love them?  Of course you would.  So why put your trust in any other god?  Why look to all of those other things to put your faith in when they will not do the same for you?  Jesus has already done this.  It only makes sense to put our faith in him.

Which now brings us to point 3) Faith in Jesus leads to faith in one another.  A pastor was speaking to his parishioners on the relationship between fact and faith.  He said, “That you are sitting before me in this church is a fact.  That I’m standing here, speaking from this pulpit is a fact.  But to believe anyone is listening to me is pure faith!”

All jokes aside, this world really does a good job of getting us to doubt one another.  This world does a good job of sowing seeds of distrust among one another.  I mean, we do a good job of sowing seeds of distrust among each other.

A church choir director was going crazy at the rehearsals for a Christmas choral concert.  It seemed at least two or more members of the choir were absent from every rehearsal.  Finally, at the last rehearsal, she said, “I want to personally thank the pianist for being the only person in this entire church choir to attend each and every rehearsal during the past two months.”  Then the pianist stood up, bowed, and said, “It was the least I could do, considering I won’t be able to be at the concert tonight.”

It’s funny, but there is no denying the fact that we let one another down.  There is no denying that we fail to be the people we should be in relationships.  None of us are perfect, and we have a nasty habit of magnifying our imperfections.  We have a nasty habit of focusing on our shortcomings.  We are almost programmed to focus on the negative.

But faith helps offer a corrective–particularly the fruit of the Spirit.  Our faith, our trust, is in the one who laid down His life to forgive us.  Our faith, our trust is in the one who died for us even though we were and are imperfect.  Our faith, our trust is in the one who gave Himself up for us and sacrificed Himself for us.  And when we have experienced this kind of grace; when we have experienced this kind of love; when we know that someone died for us with all of our imperfections; we are slow to condemn others for their imperfections.  We are slow to condemn others for their shortcomings.  We are slow to condemn others for when they fall short of what we would like them to be.  In short, we are forgiving.

When the world seeks to sow the seeds of distrust and animosity; the church sets a different tone.  When the world excludes you because of a mistake or a slip of the tongue, the church accepts you.  When the world is harsh because of a mistake you make, the church is comforting.  When the world seeks to hone in on your weakness and bring you down, the church seeks to strengthen you and build you up.  This is only possible when we trust one another in our weakness.  This is only possible when we acknowledge our shortcomings; our failings; our frailty.  This is only possible when we in the church see perfection not as a requirement for membership but as an admirable goal we strive imperfectly toward.  In the church, we allow others to see our pain, our suffering, our vulnerability because we have faith that fellow church members will show us compassion, care, concern, and help us heal.

A father was about to cross the street with his son, and said to his son, “Son, hold my hand while we are crossing the street.”  His son replied, “No, dad, you hold my hand because I know if you hold my hand and something happens, you won’t let go.”

That is the type of faith and trust we have in each other.  We hold one another’s hand knowing that if something happens, we won’t let go.  We hold onto our brothers and our sisters because God held onto us.  I trust and have faith in you.  You trust and have faith in me.  The Spirit gives us that gift.  May we have it in abundance.  Amen.

Where is the Evidence?: Romans 4:18-25

One day, an elderly lady went into the grocery store to purchase some dog food.  She went to the counter to pay, and the cashier said to her, every so sweetly, “I’m sorry, ma’am.  I can’t sell you that dog food unless you can show me evidence that you have a dog.”

The lady asked why.

“I hate to inconvenience you, ma’am,” she replied, “But we have discovered that a lot of older people are purchasing the dog food to eat.  That’s not healthy or sanitary.  So to prevent this, we’ve instituted a policy that we will not sell dog food without evidence of a dog.”

The old woman took out her cell phone and showed the cashier a picture of her and her dog.

The next week, the senior citizen returned to purchase some cat food.  The exact same conversation took place, and the cashier was satisfied when the old lady once again produced evidence in the form of a picture of her and her cat on her cell phone.

The next week, the elderly lady returned to the grocery store this time holding a plastic container with a hole in the top.  She walked straight up to the cashier and held up the container.

The cashier asked, “What is this?”

The old grey hair simply said, “Just put your finger in here, dear.”

The cashier did as she said, and then withdrew her finger covered in something smelly and brown.

“Eww!” screamed the cashier.  “What in the world is this?!!”

The old lady retorted, “That’s my poop.  Is that enough evidence for me to buy toilet paper?”

You will probably not remember another word of this sermon after that one, but I’m going to try anyway.

Christians have often been accused of believing in God without evidence or of believing in God despite evidence to the contrary.  The argument generally goes, “You have faith.  Faith means believing without evidence.  Therefore, you might as well believe in the flying spaghetti monster, or Thor, or the Tooth Fairy, or whatever imaginary thing you choose.  You have no basis for your belief.”

That’s not exactly an easy argument to defend if faith means believing without evidence.  However, faith without evidence is not the biblical definition of faith.  In fact, the biblical definition of faith is quite different.  A good definition of biblical faith is trust.  Most dictionaries define trust as, “a firm belief in the character, strength, or truth of someone or something.”  It is this definition that is better suited when we talk about our faith in God.  It’s not believing in God without any form of evidence, but it is a belief in God’s character; God’s strength; and God’s truth.  Faith assumes that we have already encountered God in some fashion, and we trust in what He has revealed to us.  The question that we must answer from skeptics is, “How do you know you have encountered God?”  That’s a bit more difficult to answer, but perhaps we have good guidance before us this morning as we finish up Romans chapter four.

Paul has gone through great pains to show up to this point that Abraham, the founder of the Jewish faith was not justified, or made right with God, by following the Law or by being circumcised.  Rather, Abraham was justified, or made right with God, by putting his trust in God’s promises.  God had promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations–that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seas.  But there were several problems that had arisen.  Would they shatter Abraham’s faith?  Paul takes us through the process as we begin at the end of verse 17:

–in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’   While most translations tie the end of verse 17 to the preceding verses, I prefer attaching it to the beginning of verse 18 to read as a series of clauses leading up to Abraham’s actions.  I think it would be better read in this fashion, “In the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, hoping against hope, Abraham believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations.”  The Greek here definitely allows for this sentence construction, and I think it works better in this fashion to set the stage for what Paul is trying to convey to his audience.

Paul is laying out two important attributes of the God that Abraham trusted.  Now, as we read through the Old Testament, we know that Abraham had an encounter with God.  We do not have the exact details of that encounter.  We don’t know what kind of appearance God made.  We don’t know what Abraham experienced.  We do know that it was enough to change Abraham’s entire life.  He went from someone who worshiped many gods–to one who worshiped only one God.  He left his family fortune and inheritance and headed to a land he had never seen.  Whatever happened in that encounter between God and Abraham had so thoroughly convinced and changed him, that it must have been a marvel to see.

And Abraham had become convinced from his encounter with God that God could give life to the dead and call into existence the things that do not exist.  1. God could give life to the dead and 2. Call into existence the things that do not exist.  Think about these two attributes of God for a moment.  If you had encountered a being of this kind of power; if you had met this being face to face and come to realize His awesomeness; and if this being had made you a promise, what would that do to you?  How would that affect you?  Would you trust that He could do as He said?  This comes into play next as Abraham “hopes against hope” that he would become the father of many nations.  Paul explains this in the next few verses.

19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’  For now we see the problem.  All the evidence appears to show that God’s promise will not happen.  Abraham was nearing a hundred years old.  Paul says Abraham considered himself as good as dead.  Sarah, his wife, was barren, and she was well past the age of child bearing.  This would have given most anyone pause in trusting the promise that had been handed down to him.  This would have given most people reason to laugh and disregard what had been spoken.  The promise that was made surely would not happen because of advanced age.  Most would have wavered or moved on.

But not Abraham.  The God who could bring the dead to life and call into existence the things that could not exist could certainly bring Abraham’s body to life.  God could certainly bring Sarah’s womb to life.  Abraham held onto that promise. He held onto that trust.  He believed that God would do as God said He would despite all the appearances to the contrary.  When to all appearances, Abraham should have given up and put His trust elsewhere, Abraham doubled down and continued to put his trust in God.  Despite what he was seeing in his body and Sarah’s body, Abraham gave glory to God; he worshiped God; he honored God; he thought about God and the encounter he had with God.  These things strengthened him in his resolve to hold onto the promise.  And Paul reminds us one more time, “Therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

And we do know that God followed through on His promise to Abraham.  We know that Sarah conceived and bore a son.  We know that God was faithful even when all looked lost.  This is important to remember as we consider Paul’s final words of chapter four.

23Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.  Paul wraps the entire argument up into his final point.  Genesis 15:6 was not just written for Abraham’s sake.  It was not written just about Abraham.  It was written for our sakes as well.  The biblical history has been written to bring us to our own faith; our own belief; our own trust.  For our righteousness is reckoned when we trust in Him who–brought the dead to life; trust in Him who called into existence the things that didn’t exist; trust in Him who raised Jesus from the dead.

And now, Paul reiterates the Gospel–the reason we put our trust in God; in Jesus–because Jesus was handed over to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  Jesus secured our justification and our redemption not by any work of our own, but by His work.  Jesus made us right with God through His actions and not our own.  And now we trust His work instead of our own.  We hold onto this promise despite the evidence we may see to the contrary.  We mirror the faith of Abraham and have it reckoned to us as righteousness not because we believe without evidence but because we have had an encounter with God, and we hold onto His promises with an eternal hope.

What does this mean practically?  Let me share an illustration and then a personal story.  First the illustration: My kids used to be terrified when they first went out to my ranch in Rocksprings.  Of course, being where Hill Country meets Brush Country, everything bites, stings, or pokes.  This was not very inviting for my children.  Whenever we walked or climbed the hill on my property, they would become extremely frightened.  It was my job to reassure them.  Over and over again, I would tell them, you will be okay.  Everything is going to be fine.  You will not get hurt.  Even if you get pricked, we will take care of it.  Follow in my footsteps, and everything will be okay.  The kids had to learn from me.  They had to trust me.  They had to get enough confidence in me that all would be well.  Despite the evidence that they saw around them–all the prickly, sticky things, they had to learn that I would not lead them astray.  Now, my kids are all over the place because they have learned to navigate with confidence.  They have learned to trust.

The life of faith is similar with God.  We learn to trust Him and walk in His footsteps and listen to His voice.  We believe we have encountered Him already and that His guidance is secure.  As I said earlier, the question we have to answer from skeptics is, “How do you know you’ve really heard God?”  First off, we must answer that we have a history of God speaking not only to us, but to others.  Paul delves back into scriptures to show God’s consistency–how God spoke to Abraham and justified Abraham by faith.  God will remain consistent, and we can rely on the revelation contained in scripture to guide us.  Therefore, if we “hear” a voice say, “Go kill that person because they are different from you,” we can readily say, “Don’t think that’s God at all.  God’s word in Jesus doesn’t tell us to do that!!”  Consistency.  The second way we know it was God that spoke is when the words come true.  That’s the hard one.

I have heard God speak to me unambiguously twice in my life.  The first was when I was called to be a pastor.  The second time was shortly after we moved here to Cat Spring.  I remember taking a shower late one evening getting ready for bed.  I heard clearly the words, “You will have a child before the end of the year.”  Dawna and I had been in the adoption process for nearly two years.  We had had our hopes dashed a couple of times.  The administrator of the adoption agency told us time and again that birth-mothers would see the picture of me as a pastor and close our book.  We contemplated taking that picture out to increase our chances.  We weren’t sure what to do.  “You will have a child before the end of the year.”  I still remember the day we got the call from the agency.  “A birth mother has picked you.”  We got the news in December–before the end of the year, we had a child.  Now, Kiera was delivered in January, but she was ours before the end of the year.  God’s voice.  I’ve learned to trust it despite other appearances.

I know I cannot convince anyone that I heard that voice.  I know I don’t have an audio recording or anything like that.  I know I can’t produce any evidence that this happened.  You’ve got to trust my witness to you.  You’ve got to trust me.  And that can be a complicated thing because I’m human.  I’m sinful.  I can easily hurt you or say something that you don’t agree with.

And so we must realize something about our God–that He calls us into a new existence; He gives us a new status.  God justifies sinners like me.  Like you.  God makes us right with Him through His Son because He loves us.  And He sends us out to tell others what He has done–to tell others to put their trust in Him–to tell others to listen for His voice because His promises are certain; Will do as He said He will do.  And the final evidence for this is the cross.  The final evidence for this is the knowledge that God took on flesh to die for us despite our weakness; despite our flaws; despite our sin.  He loved us; He loved the world enough to die for it.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it.

When it looks like all hope is lost.  When it looks like the world around is falling apart.  When it looks like good cannot win.  The person of faith looks at the cross; looks at the God who died for the world; remembers He was raised, and then like Abraham, hopes against hope.  We remember who God is, and we put our trust in Him.  Amen.