A common source of challenge in life is commitment as illustrated in the following story:
The church choir director was frustrated with the sporadic attendance of all the choir members for rehearsals for the Christmas Choral Concert. At the final rehearsal he announced, “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.”
At this, the pianist rose, bowed, and said, “It was the least that I could do, considering I won’t be able to be at the Christmas Choral Concert tonight!”
Thank goodness for cassette and CD accompaniment tracks! I am very glad that our Easter choir was very faithful in their attendance through the practice season and that we had a wonderful cantata two Sundays ago. And that they had a tape to sing with! But, in a humorous way the story does illustrate the challenge of commitment in our lives. All of us face the challenge of balancing the various commitments in our lives and sometimes it truly is a challenge to fulfill them.
I would like to suggest this morning that one important component of celebrating our past and embracing our future in Christ is commitment. We are seeking financial commitment to the continued and future ministry of our church through pledges (beyond one’s tithes and offerings) over the next three years. But this morning we need to look behind and beyond that commitment to the reasons for making them in the first place. And a place to start is with thinking about the issue and importance of faithfulness.
There are a whole host of people through the history of our church who have exhibited faithfulness in their lives and service. They’ve been pastors and laypersons. They’ve been young and old. They’ve been kids and teens. Their faithfulness influenced many people in ways large and small. And some of us here this morning are the direct result of their faithfulness. And all of us here are the indirect result of their faithfulness.
What were they faithful to? Well, for starters we can say the church and its mission. They were taught and they embraced the beliefs and practices of the Church of God and attempted, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to live out those beliefs and practices no matter where they were – here at church, at home, at school, in the workplace – everywhere they were. And God, through the teachings of the church and the Bible and through the obedient walk that was nurtured by the Holy Spirit, planted and nurtured faithfulness in their lives and used it to continue the ministry and mission of this church.
They were faithful to their own place of service. Some of those who we think of this morning taught Sunday School for years. Some played the piano or organ or led the singing. Other served on the Trustee’s or as an usher or in the nursery. Some served in one area of ministry for their entire time of service and others served in many different areas. And they served faithfully through easy times and hard times. They served in times of world conflict and in times of significant peace. They served faithfully.
But they also (most importantly) were faithful to God. Because of His faithfulness to them, they responded with faithfulness to Him. And because of that faithfulness – their service and ministry were empowered by God through His Holy Spirit and they made a difference in people’s lives. They believed in God. They committed themselves to the Lord. They had asked for and received the forgiveness of their sins. They were faithful to the Lord.
We celebrate that this morning! We celebrate others faithfulness to God and the ministry of this church and we celebrate God’s faithfulness to us!
In our text for this morning we are reminded of God’s faithfulness. I want to read it again:
The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. And it is good for the young to submit to the yoke of his discipline.
What words and/or phrases catch your attention? Take a moment and write them down. (Pause) Now, pick one of those phrases and write down a reason why that phrase speaks to you. (Pause)
The first phrase is one that speaks to me. The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! The church has been a part of my life before I was born. My parents were faithful followers of the Lord and faithful servants. My father I think did just about every thing in the church over the course of his adult life except preach and perhaps do nursery duty. My mother taught Sunday School, did VBS, served in various leadership capacities.
I accepted Christ at age 8. I was baptized around 16. (By the way, if you are interested in baptism, let me know. We have not had a baptism for a while.)
I went to a Christian college and while there began to experience God’s direction and call to ministry. I spent 13 years in youth ministry before coming here.
But, I have not lived my commitment to the Lord absolutely perfectly. I have failed from time to time. I have sinned from time to time. I have been as faithful as I needed to be. I still, like Paul, strain to reach the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. So to read, “the unfailing love of the LORD never ends!” is a boost to my spirit and soul because even when I fail, even when I have been “unfaithful” God still loves me.
Now, I have to do some confession and repentance from time to time to again fully enjoy this love because when a relationship is broken by something like harsh words or a selfish act seeking and asking for forgiveness is sometimes needed to restore the relationship because even though the love is still there, it is blocked by the conflict or sin. So, in spite of my failures, I know that God’s unfailing love is still there for me! It’s one of the ways that God is faithful to us.
Pastor Don Schultz wrote a sermon based on this same passage entitled, “No Such Thing As A “God Failure!”” And in it he says,” Is there such a thing as a “God-failure,” when God stops working? Sometimes there are signs that seem to indicate that we are experiencing a God-failure: a physical problem, a financial problem, a personal problem, a natural disaster, a national disaster. Something bad happens, and it looks like you are experiencing a God-failure. “Has God stopped working,” you wonder to yourself. “It looks as though God has stopped caring, stopped protecting, stopped blessing. I think we are experiencing a God-failure.”
But, he goes on to say, “There is no such thing as a “God-failure.” God never stops working, never stops blessing, never stops caring, never stops protecting – even during those times when it seems as though God has failed.” Amen? Amen!
It is this faithfulness, God’s faithfulness that we have proclaimed throughout our history as a church. The faithfulness of God has been a central part of our message and mission. We have preached and taught a God who is faithful no matter what or when or where. We have experienced again and again in both our individual as well as congregational lives God’s faithfulness to us. And we have experienced this faithfulness in both times of joy and times of sorrow; God has been faithful to us when we have been on the upside of life as well as when we have been on the down side of life.
His faithfulness has entered our hearts and minds in times of unity and growth as well as in times of conflict and decline. This is something to celebrate, isn’t it? Amen? Amen!
But as we look to the future that God has for us, His faithfulness is also something that we need to embrace! Why? Faithfulness is a very important way to demonstrate that God is really a part of our lives.
I believe that faithfulness is such an important thing to embrace I have come to believe that a person who truly is attempting to be faithful to God in the work place could probably get a job for which he/she was qualified anywhere because their employment record would indicate that they would be a faithful employee!
“Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day,” wrote the prophet Jeremiah in our passage of this morning. And when we stop and take a look at what is said elsewhere in this book (and consider the title of the book, Lamentations) we are given a very strong contrasting picture between a people who are in real trouble and a God who, though He disciplines, still has a great love for them.
To lament is to grieve for or mourn. This book is not a happy book. The nation of Israel has been invaded and is now controlled by a foreign power. Jerusalem, as chapter 1 and verse 1 says, “Jerusalem’s streets, once bustling with people, are now silent. Like a widow broken with grief, she sits alone in her mourning. Once the queen of nations, she is now a slave.” A pretty bleak scene, isn’t it?
But as Jeremiah laments what has happened to the Israelites and he also encourages them to lament, “Cry aloud before the Lord, O walls of Jerusalem! Let your tears flow like a river. Give yourselves no rest from weeping day and or night.” (2:18) In fact, as we read in the beginning of chapter 3, Jeremiah is black with depression and gloom, “I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord’s anger.” And he continues that lament until we get to verse 21, “Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction.”
There is still a ray of hope! And this ray of hope is in the Lord! It is in His unfailing love and His mercies! This is what Jeremiah embraced in those dark days. This is what He remembers when all seems lost and hopeless. He remembers the unfailing love of God! He remembers that “great is his faithfulness!”
Our ministry has gone through times of joy and times of sadness. Times of unity and times of conflict. But God has been faithful to this church! His mercies are indeed new every morning! Amen? Amen!
Therefore we must continue to embrace God’s faithfulness as we move into the future that He has for us!
“Got any rivers you think are impossible? Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things that are impossible! He can do things no one else can do!”
We live in an unfaithful world. Kids cannot rely on their parents staying together through thick and thin. Companies, as we are all too painfully aware, seem to be less faithful to employees and their communities than they used to be.
Adults have trouble trusting teens and teens have trouble trusting adults. Commitment seems to be a foreign word these days.
But as a church we have shared the story of a God who is faithful as well as loving and just and merciful and wants to forgive us from our sins! And we have told this story throughout our history no matter what our circumstances have been – good or bad!
And we will continue to tell the story of a faithful God who can help us live a life of faithfulness to Him, in our families, our jobs, our classrooms, and our communities because if we stop telling the story of God’s faithfulness, then we will descend into the gloom and doom described in Lamentations.
It is easy to celebrate God’s faithfulness to us. It is sometimes harder to embrace God’s faithfulness in order to serve Him!
But we must embrace God’s faithfulness because of His faithfulness to the human race down through history! The Christian faith is a faith about a God who is passionately interested in the human race.
He has not given up on us! He still seeks to forgive us and give us a new and better life! “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you here me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.”
Pastor Brian Bill in a sermon entitled, “Our Faithful God,” tells the story of a family in the country of Armenia who experiences an earthquake while their son is in school. The father rushed to the school that is now a pile of rubble. “Samuel found the place where Armand’s classroom used to be and began pulling a broken beam off the pile of rubble. He then grabbed a rock and put it to the side, and then grabbed another one.
One of the parents looking on asked, “What are you doing?” “Digging for my son,” Samuel answered. The man then said, “You’re just going to make things worse! The building is unstable,” and tried to pull Samuel away from his work.
Samuel set his jaw and kept working. As time wore on, one by one, the other parents left. Then a firefighter tried to pull Samuel away from the rubble. Samuel looked at him and said, “Won’t you help me?” The firefighter left and Samuel kept digging.
All through the night and into the next day, Samuel continued digging. Parents placed flowers and pictures of their children on the ruins. But, Samuel just kept working. He picked up a beam and pushed it out of the way when he heard a faint cry. “Help! Help!” Samuel listened but didn’t hear anything again. Then he heard a muffled voice, “Papa?”
Samuel began to dig furiously. Finally he could see his son. “Come on out, son!” he said with relief. “No,” Armand said. “Let the other kids come out first because I know you’ll get me.” Child after child emerged until, finally, little Armand appeared. Samuel took him in his arms and Armand said, “I told the other kids not to worry because you told me that you’d always be there for me!”
Fourteen children were saved that day because one father was faithful.”
God digs through the rubble of our lives and our hearts and offers a way out. He is relentless! He is faithful to us as He digs and cleans out the rubble of shame and guilt out of our hearts and lives.
And He uses the church to help people get out of the rubble of their lives. In contrast to the story, we must get involved with the Lord to help others out of the rubble of their lives. That is the business of the church.
That is why we are here. Kids….teens….and adults are in need of a God who can change them for the better. People are stuck under the frustrations and pain of life and need to be reached out to and brought to a place of freedom and peace…. and into the hands of a God who is faithful to us.
Do you believe in this faithful God? Have you experienced the joy of salvation and the freedom from the forgiveness of sin? Have you had the joy of helping others get out from their pile of rubble and experience the joy of life in Christ?
That’s our purpose, that’s our mission! That’s our future! That’s why we are here! Amen? Amen.
Quotes are from Pastor Brian Bill and Pastor Don Schultz at www.sermoncentral.com
