Tis the Season to be...Faithful

Written by Ed Allen
 Saturday, 29 December 2001 19:00

The Person You Always Wanted to Be

"(16) So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (17) For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (19) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; (20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions (21) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (25) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

All of us feel occasional pangs that we might not be living the life we want to live. 

I believe the Bible is the most reliable guide to effective human behavior ever written.  And according to the Bible, the way to have the life we want is to be the people we want to be.  And the way to be the people we want to be is to nurture a deep relationship with God.

Over the last eight weeks we have been looking at the Bible's profile of the people we want to be.  We have repeatedly observed that the pathway to being these kinds of people is an indirect path.  It is not the path of concerted effort, and determination.  It is not working to control our circumstances.  The pathway to being the kind of people we want to be is the path of dependence on God.  Through that dependence He shapes our character so that we become people who are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient ?

Instructions on faith

  1. Most commentators will tell you that the word "faith' is used three different ways in the Bible - all of them in Galatians

  1. Used to mean the Christian faith as doctrine

Galatians 1:23

"(23) They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."

  1. More commonly, used to refer to our acceptance of this message

Galatians 5:5

"(5) But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope."

  1. Can also have a passive meaning - fidelity, reliability, faithfulness  (this is the way it is translated in our passage.)

  1. But this is too wooden.  All of these ideas translate the same Greek word, pistis.

  2. This word carries with it the concept of faithful living, being completely devoted.  In other words, in the Bible the idea of faith always includes the idea of faithfulness and fidelity.

  1. That's why James says there is no faith without works

  1. Pendulum principle illustration

  2. Concept of carnal Christian may be helpful, but I don't think it's the most correct way of thinking.  Carnal Christian may not be a Christian at all.

  1. Some have been away because lazy.  Get busy.

  2. Some have been away because more honest.  Didn't work and you knew it so why practice it.  Now hearing and sensing something different.  Its real, jump on.

  3. Some of you been around church.  Maybe never the real deal.

  1. Both our choice (Romans 10:9-10) and gift of God (gift of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 1:29).

Romans 10:9-10

"(9) That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

1 Corinthians 12:9

"(9) to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,"

Philippians 1:29

"(29) For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,"

How do we get it?  How do we appropriate it?  How do we choose it? 

Living in the Spirit

  1. Prime the pump

  • Prime the pump illustration:

The following letter was found in a baking soda can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom used trail across Nevada's Amargosa Desert:   "This pump is all right as of June 1932.  I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last 5 years.  But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed.  Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and corked the end up.  There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some.  Pour about one fourth and let her soak to wet the leather.  Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy.  You'll git water.  The well has never run dry.  Have faith.  When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next fella.  Signed: Desert Pete.  P.S. Don't go drinking the water first.  Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold."

  • means being in the word

Romans 10:17

"(17) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."

Rules for bible study

  • don't run from difficulties/questions

  • find some good experts

  • read it like a book - not a magic potion, not a recipe book, not a book of proverbs (except proverbs)

  • read it with balance (written by God, through the agency of human personality)

  1. Put the headphones on

  • Special direction and a clear understanding of what is true and what is not is available to us

John 14:25

"(25) All this I have spoken while still with you."

John 16:12

"(12) I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear."

This comes through ?

  • Prayer - directly plugged in.  Prayer is the word the Bible uses to describe the process of connecting with the Spirit.  Prayer is putting on the headphones.  Can hear all the time, but prayer locks into hearing.

Rules for prayer

  • Do whatever helps you maintain focus.  (It is not prayer without focus)

  • Listen

  • Pray with others

  • Pray the Bible

  1. Just show up

As implied in the word itself, just show up  ("keep in step with the Spirit")

1 Corinthians 2:5

"(5) so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

Hebrews 11:6

"(6) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

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