Displaying Christian Sermons by tag: faithfulness
Joyce Meyer (January-29-2023) Daily Devotional: God Honors Faith.
For 10 years, Robert and Mary Moffat labored as missionaries in Bechuanaland (now called Botswana) without a single convert. Finally, the directors of their mission board began to question the wisdom of continuing the work. The thought of leaving their post, however, brought great grief to this devoted couple, for they felt they would see people turn to Christ in due season.
They stayed, and for a year or two longer, darkness reigned. Then one day a friend in England sent word to the Moffats that he wanted to mail them a gift and asked what they would like. Trusting that, in time, the Lord would bless their work, Mrs. Moffat replied, "Send us a communion set. I am sure it will soon be needed." God honored that dear woman's faith. The Holy Spirit moved upon the hearts of the villagers, and soon a little group of six converts united to form the first Christian church in that land. The communion set from England arrived on the day before the first commemoration of the Lord's Supper in Bechuanaland.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, such remarkable faith and perseverance seems beyond me. Help me to trust You with the work You want to do through my life. I know that the day is coming when I will see the reward for diligently seeking You, amen.
Jentezen Franklin (December-08-2022) Daily Devotional: Faithfulness (4).
“Great is thy faithfulness.” Lam 3:23
Faithfulness can turn the most menial job into a vitally important one. For example, think about how dependent we are on something as small as a postage stamp. It’s always ready for service. It goes wherever it’s sent. It does whatever it’s asked to do. It sticks to the task until it’s done. It doesn’t give up when it’s licked. It stays up to date. And it finds no job too small. We weren’t all born with equal talents; some of us are more gifted in certain areas than others. But every one of us was born with an equal responsibility to utilize his or her abilities at full capacity. That’s the most any of us can do—and it’s what God, who gave us our talents, expects us to do. Two hundred years ago when the U.S. Marine Corps was first formed, officials gave considerable time to contemplating a fitting motto. They finally chose the Latin phrase semper fidelis, a phrase now engraved on the mind of every Marine. What does it mean?
“Always faithful”! Both are important words, but the most important is the first one: always. Why? Because a Marine can’t afford to be faithful only when it’s comfortable or convenient, or when he feels like it, or when it will make him happy. Semper fidelis means you must always be faithful—regardless of the cost. God wants to be able to say the same thing about you as is said about Him: “Great is thy faithfulness.” So whether you’re a boss, an employee, a father or mother, a husband or wife, a friend, teammate, or a Marine, the word for you today is—always be faithful.
Jentezen Franklin (December-07-2022) Daily Devotional: Faithfulness (3).
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Lk 16:10 NIV
Pastor James Merritt said, “The other day I asked my beautiful wife if she married me for my looks.” She replied, “No, I married you for your brains—it’s the little things that count!” Merritt was joking of course. What really counts in life is faithfulness in little things; it’s how dependability begins, grows, and matures. Longfellow wrote, “Most people would succeed in small things if they weren’t troubled with great ambition.” Sometimes we think we’re too big for small things; we would rather get on with what we perceive as bigger, more important matters. But here is how Jesus sees it: “Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters.
But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters. If you cannot be trusted with this wicked wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? And if you cannot be trusted with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something that will be your own?” (vv. 10-12 CEV). If you want to succeed on the job, come to work on time; stick with the job until it’s finished; when you see something that needs to be done, do it—even if it’s not in your job description. Give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; take your designated lunch break, not a three-hour paid vacation; report your expenses truthfully; support the team; and uphold the company’s reputation. In other words, be faithful on the job: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecc 9:10 NIV). That’s the kind of faithfulness God honors.
Jentezen Franklin (December-06-2022) Daily Devotional: Faithfulness (2).
“It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Co 4:2 NIV
Faithfulness requires making 100 percent of your effort 100 percent of the time. Insight magazine once published an article by Gary Sheer called “Strive for Perfection…or Else!” It contained some alarming facts! The article said if 99.9 percent was good enough, 103,260 income tax returns would be processed incorrectly that year…22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong bank accounts within that next sixty minutes…12 babies would be given to the wrong parents each day…2 plane landings daily at O’Hare International Airport would be unsafe…18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled within that next hour…291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly that year…880,000 credit cards in circulation would turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips…20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written within that next twelve months…and 107 incorrect medical procedures would be performed by the end of that day. Those are pretty sobering statistics—especially if you are one of the people whose life is affected! Here is the bottom line: Only your best should be good enough in any situation. Anything less than that will never be good enough because it reflects your failure to be totally faithful and completely dependable.
That’s why the Bible says, “It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” With God, faithfulness isn’t merely a concept or a suggestion; it’s a requirement of all who serve Him—and that includes you!
Jentezen Franklin (December-05-2022) Daily Devotional: Faithfulness (1).
“Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?” Pr 20:6 NIV
A new employee once asked a coworker, “How long have you been working for the company?” He replied, “Ever since the boss threatened to fire me!” Seriously, employers scramble to find workers who are faithful and dependable. Citizens long for politicians who will faithfully carry out all of their campaign promises. In the marriage ceremony, newlyweds are asked to be faithful to the vows they make to each other. The truth is, without faithfulness, your influence will be restricted—or wiped out. Without faithfulness, the sum total of all your other wonderful talents is diluted. Faithfulness turns the mundane into the miraculous and transforms ordinary individuals into dependable achievers.
Wise King Solomon asked this soul-searching question: “Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?” The world wants people who are faithful. There are more than 300 geysers in Yellowstone National Park (approximately half the known geysers in the world). But one stands above the others. It’s not the largest, and its waters don’t reach the greatest height, but it’s by far the most popular. And its popularity is due solely to one thing—its dependability. People stand in long lines under the hot sun to see it, because according to a precise schedule, it shoots a stream of boiling water more than 120 feet into the air. You can nearly set your watch by it. That’s why it’s called Old Faithful. People are attracted to our faithfulness. God is glorified by our faithfulness. So in all you do this day, practice faithfulness.
David Jeremiah (November-22-2022) Daily Devotional: Faithfulness.
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. - Colossians 1:2
Recommended Reading: Colossians 4:7-9 - FINAL GREETINGS
7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. 8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts, 9 with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here.
Bobby Jones was an early golfer in the United States. At the U.S. Open in Massachusetts in 1925, he went to officials and told them he had accidently moved his ball slightly, violating Rule 18. They didn’t agree. It was on the eleventh hole, and they told him to keep playing. Jones refused, saying he really had moved the ball a bit. As a result of his honesty, he lost the game—by one stroke. Later he told the sportswriters who praised him for his honesty, “You might as well praise me for not robbing banks.”5
God desires us to live faithfully before Him at all times, not just when others are looking. He is always watching, and He is glorified by our reflection of His faithfulness and integrity.
This was on Paul’s mind when he wrote the book of Colossians. He called them “faithful brethren in Christ” (1:2), and he wrote about faithful Epaphras (1:7), faithful Tychichus (4:7), and faithful Onesimus (4:9). Let’s be part of that group!
The Christian life is a moment-by-moment miracle, lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the joy and peace of Christ and reproduces them in and through our lives. He takes the love of Christ and manifests it through us. - Robert McQuilkin
Jack Hibbs Devotional (August-10-2021) GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS
Lamentations 3:22-23 - “Through the LORD’S mercies, we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
This steadfast promise to God’s people is both familiar and under-utilized. It is regularly quoted, but how much lighter our step would be if the reality of it took a firmer hold in our hearts.
MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE
The plurality of the words mercies and compassions communicates that our God’s daily care for you and me is generous indeed. He isn’t miserly in extending mercy, and He doesn’t offer just a single act of compassion. Whether we notice them or not, they go on day after day.
God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God. Charles Spurgeon
The prophet Jeremiah was rejected and mistreated by his countrymen. Jeremiah understood what it meant to have difficult days with no end in sight, but out of them came a deeper awareness of the Lord’s provisions.
We, too, will encounter days that we wish were different. Yet, we can rest in this unchanging fact: the sun will set on the events of that day, and when it rises again, God will fill the new one with mercies earmarked purposely for us.
MORNING AND EVENING
The moment your eyes open in the morning, begin to anticipate the mercies God will bring to pass and make it a habit to look for tokens of His kindness throughout the day. It will entirely change your outlook so that when your head hits the pillow at night, your heart will exclaim, “Great is YOUR faithfulness!”
Tony Evans Throwback Videos, Celebrating 40 Years of Faithfulness. Celebrating forty years of God's favor and faithfulness over the ministry of The Urban Alternative and the proclamation of God's Word by Dr. Tony Evans.
Dr. Charles Stanley - sermon - The Reassuring Quality of Faithfulness - In Touch Ministries. Sooner or later, each of us must face the reality that in our own strength we don't measure up—we've all sinned and fallen short most every day of our lives. But the good news is God’s faithfulness to us has never depended on our perfection. In this message, Dr. Stanley explores four ways we experience God’s fidelity in keeping His promises to His children. Relax into the trustworthy character of our heavenly Father—He will never leave or forsake you.