ÿþ <html> <head> <title>Welcome to First United Methodist Church, El Dorado, AR,  A Christian s Character; the Spirit s Fruit Part 6, Faithfulness </title><!--- July 4, 2010 --> <meta name="description" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. First Church, First Methodist, Methodist John Wesley, Methodist, United Methodist Youth, United Methodist women" /> <meta name="keywords" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. 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Can you b e counted on, no matter what? A woman was sunning herself at the beach when a little boy in his swim suit approached her and politely began asking her a series of questions. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2">  Miss, are you a Christian, he asked. The woman was taken aback but quickly said that she was indeed. The little boy continued.  Do you go to church every Sunday? The woman told the boy that she went to church every Sunday and even worked at the church during the week. The little boy persisted with his questions and asked,  Do you read your Bible every day? The woman told the boy she did indeed read her Bible every day. The boy nodded his head, seeming satisfied with her answers and then he said:  In that case, will you hold my dollar for me while I go for a swim? </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Jesus once said, <b> Whoever is faithful in a little, is faithful in much. </b>Obviously the little boy thought this woman qualified for the latter. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> This morning we are about two-thirds of the way through a series of messages on what it means to be people of character, based on a list of qualities that Paul called  the fruit of the Spirit. Taken together, these qualities provide a portrait of the character of Jesus Christ - the same character the Holy Spirit wants to produce in you and me. <b> The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control </b> (Gal.5:22-23). So far we ve looked at the first six of these qualities. Today we come to the seventh: <b>faithfulness.</b> </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Faithfulness is a character quality I admire when I see it in other people, and a quality I earnestly desire for my own life. Faithfulness has to do with things like long-term obedience, keeping promises, being trustworthy, and persevering in spite of difficulty. Like all the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness has its roots in the character of God; that is; the Spirit will develop faithfulness in us precisely because God is faithful. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> I heard a story about a young man who accidentally dropped a framed picture of his girlfriend. The glass broke and the picture fell out. As he picked it up, he noticed an inscription on the back of the photograph:  My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity. It was signed  Diane. Underneath the signature were the words:  P.S. If we ever break up, I want this picture back. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Aren t you glad God is not like that? We who have been baptized have professed our love for God through Christ and as a result we belong to God. There is no P.S. in our relationship with God. God will never break up with us. We are his. We belong to him forever. Do you remember what Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy concerning this whole idea of God's faithfulness? He wrote in 2 Tim.2:11-13, <b> The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself. </b> God will love us forever. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Throughout the Bible we read about God s faithfulness. Exodus 34:6, for example, says <b> God is  merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. </b>Psalm 100:5 tells us,<b>  The Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. </b> Hebrews 10:23 says, <b> Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. </b> </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Throughout the Bible we see God described as steadfast and unchanging, utterly dependable and faithful. That s who God is, and it would be a denial of God s own nature for him to be anything other than faithful. We are the ones who have turned away, we are the ones who have been unfaithful, not God. <b> ...even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself. </b> It is this very quality of God that the Spirit works to recreate in us. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Years ago, when I was in seminary and just dating Patty, I began whittling something for her out of wood. Thankfully we still have it. It s just a chain of hearts tied together by small links, but on each of the links I also attached a letter of her name. Together it spells  Patty. My roommate, seeing how much time I was spending on this, asked me one day what I would do with it if we broke up. I told him I had already thought about it and had designed it so I could just cut the letters off if I had to and I d still have something nice. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> That was a good, pragmatic answer, and based on the amount of work that went into making this, it seemed at the time to make sense. However, it wasn t very faithful, was it? Aren t you glad God isn t like that? Rev.22:4 says that God s saints, <b> ...will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. </b>Aren t you glad that when we are faithless God doesn t simply erase his name off our foreheads like I was willing to do with Patty s name? </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Oh, I had a lot to learn about love. Now, years later, this has much deeper meaning for me. It reminds me that Patty and I are not only united by marriage, we are united by love for all of life. No matter what, I will not remove her name. I will not forsake her. What seemed funny and smart at the time is no longer an option. I am learning from God what it means to be faithful. It is a fruit - a character quality - that over the years God s Spirit has been developing in me. Faithfulness, that quality that says,  You can count on me. I m here today and I ll be here tomorrow, may not be the most flashy or exciting character quality in Paul s list, but it is what binds us together in our families and in our friendships and in our community and in our church. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> One of my favorite passages comes from Lamentations 3:22-23, where we find these magnificent words: <b> The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. </b>One reason I like this passage so well is because Thomas Chisholm, a Methodist minister, took those verses and in 1923 wrote a hymn that many of us know and love: </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"><i> Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,<BR> There is no shadow of turning with Thee;<BR> Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not;<BR> As Thou has been Thou forever wilt be. <BR> Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!<BR> Morning by morning new mercies I see;<BR> All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;<BR> Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!</i> </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> We ll sing that hymn in just a moment. As we do, ask the Lord to make you faithful, like God. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. </font></p> <br><br> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> </table> <TABLE width=800 border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <TR bgcolor="#d8d2d8"> <TD width=800 valign="baseline" bgcolor="#d8d2d8" align=right> <!--- beige F2F2E6 ----> <font face="verdana" color="#000000" size="1"> This site designed and maintained by <a href="http://www.hipdogwebdesign.com">HipDog Web Design&reg;</a><br> Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.</TD> <TD width="19%">&nbsp;</TD> </TR> </TABLE> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>