Growing in Faithfulness

Well good morning again my name is René one of the pastors here. Before I really dig in to the message I just want to confess something to you. Sometimes I just want to quit this job and I know I'm not alone in terms of people in the world who want to quit their job sometimes.

In fact if you're an NFL fan you might have followed this incredible story. The first game of the NFL season, the first weekend something unusual happened. This man Vontae Davis announced that he was retiring. Now NFL players announced this all the time. What made this unusual was that he announced it at halftime of a game he was playing in. He's a 10-year veteran of the NFL. He just said I quit in the middle of his game, changed into street clothes and left the building. Just said I had enough and can't you relate.

Don't you ever feel like you want to just quit a job or quit a responsibility or quit a relationship? I really think that feeling is absolutely universal. Do you remember Steven Slater he became kind of a folk hero. He was a jet-blue flight attendant and in 2010 his plane's waiting at the gate and after yet another altercation with a passenger for the hundredth time or thousandth time, Steve Slater grabs the cabin PA and announces I've been in this business for 28 years and I've had enough. I quit.

Then he opened the side door, activated the inflatable emergency slide, grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and jumped onto the slide and into freedom and became an instant folk hero. Because everybody harbors that fantasy. I have harbored that fantasy. There have been times, you want to know what a pastor's mental life looks like at times, there have been times that I have fantasized about having a moving van full of all our stuff, engine running right out that side door on a Sunday morning and I get into this pulpit and I say there's a few things I've been meaning to get off my chest and I just spout off and walk right out that door and into a new life, right?

Now, not most of the time. Most of the time I think I've got the best job in the world but not sometimes and my guess is you've had those times too and maybe you're in one right now thinking I want to quit, quit school or quit work or quit my faith or quit my sobriety or quit my ministry or quit my marriage and so the question is how do you hang in there when you've had it? How do you not quit at halftime of a game you're playing at? How do you not blow out the emergency slide and just slip on out?

Well I want you to grab the message notes that are in your well-stuffed bulletin. They look like this, you can also access them online in our app or on our website. Miracle Grow is the name of this series that we're doing and what the Bible calls the fruit of the spirit. They're in Galatians 5:22–23 but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We've been going through these character qualities one a week and this week I want to focus in on faithfulness. What's faithfulness? Faithfulness is a combination of two qualities, day-to-day dependability. I know if I ask you to do something you're gonna get it done, you're faithful and long-term commitment. In other words, first you don't flake and second you don't quit. Like Eugene Peterson said in that great quote that's in your bulletin, "Faithfulness is a long obedience in the same direction."

Now, we live in a world where the idea of real self-sacrificial faithfulness is completely countercultural. At every level, transience right now is the norm. Loyalty and faithfulness to a marriage or to a company or to a place or to a church is almost seen these days as a weakness. Like I want to keep all my options open, I don't want to commit. Faithfulness is under siege. Somebody said the word commitment strikes fear in the hearts of men and women today, right?

So what I want to do is today I want to start by talking about the benefits of faithfulness since it's countercultural and then I want to show you a story from the Bible that shows you how to stay faithful when you're at that point where you want to quit in the second half of this message. So first, what are the benefits of faithfulness? Proverbs 28:20 says, "A faithful man or woman will abound with blessings but he who makes haste to get rich will not go unpunished." So it's contrasting faithfulness with haste.

Why will a faithful person abound in blessings? Just think about this for a second. I actually saw a quote two weeks ago from Warren Buffett, the billionaire. He said, "No matter how much talent one possesses, some things just take time." In other words, faithfulness. And isn't that true? This is why those who are in haste, who go from thing to thing, just will not see those same blessings.

And in case you're confused on this, let me just give you quick three examples. Faithfulness makes healthy growth possible. If you want to grow in any area, it takes faithfulness. Think about it. Just choose a goal that you might have, getting into shape, improving your marriage, being a good friend, learning a new hobby, deciding to pursue a dream like writing a book or growing a garden. Any growth you want to see in your life in any area, anything, it takes faithfulness to get there.

In fact, let me just tell you, as a pastor, I have noticed one single problem that lies kind of underneath so many other problems, marriage problems, faith problems, money problems, health problems. They sound like different problems, but at the root of them all is often one thing, a lack of faithful commitment. When you think about it, you need faithfulness. You need long-term dependability and commitment to see any kind of progress in any area of your life.

Faithfulness makes healthy relationships possible. To really learn about each other and learn about ourselves and grow, we have got to stay in relationships. The problem is these days, long-term friendships are so hard. Everybody's so busy. Everybody's moving all the time. It feels like you just get to know your neighbors or co-workers, and the next week they're moving to Oregon or something. It seems almost safer, rather than risk heartache, to withdraw a little bit and not put yourself out there as a faithful friend.

We end up choosing half-hearted friendships over broken-hearted friendships. Of course, the problem is all you do when you're like that is you make acquaintances, but not real deep friends. That is a scourge right now. One expert says friendship, the way it has been understood throughout history, is nearly extinct in our culture because there's so little faithful commitment.

Then finally, faithfulness makes healthy impact possible. Impact, if you've ever thought, "Okay, I got one life and I want to make an impact with my life," I got really good news for you. Your impact is not based on your looks. Your impact is not based on your talent. Your impact is not based on your money. Your impact in life is primarily based on your faithfulness, your day-to-day dependability, and your long-term commitment.

Now think about this. This is true at work. This is true at home. This is true in marriage. It's true in parenting. It's true if you're a student, and it's true in your spiritual life too. At the end of life, Jesus says, the bottom line is Jesus will commend those who have been faithful, exactly because faithfulness is at the root of every other branch of impact. In fact, look at what Jesus says. He says some people are going to hear this at the end of their lives from him. "Well done, thou good and," what? "Faithful servant." Who wants to hear this from Jesus at their end of their lives? Anybody here? Who doesn't want to hear it, right? We all want to hear this.

So how do we get there? We all want Jesus to go, "You've been faithful," but we sure don't feel like being faithful sometimes. So how do we stay in it when we want to quit at a half-time? Let's do a case study of faithfulness in the Bible, and we're gonna get kind of our launching off point in Hebrews 3:1, and let me give you the context for this verse. The book of Hebrews, it's in the New Testament of the Bible. It was written about 2,000 years ago, a little less than that, to the very earliest Christians, almost all of whom were Jewish people.

And the context is, because of the persecution of Christians, a lot of them are starting to bail from these early Christian communities. And the writer to the Hebrews is trying to convince them to stay faithful through the tough times that they're going through right now. And so he says, "Fix your thoughts on Jesus. He was faithful to the one who appointed him just as Moses was faithful in all God's house." So are you following this? He's using an example for these Jewish people from their own history, Moses, saying, "Do you guys remember when this sentence was spoken about Moses? It was a time Moses really wanted to quit at half-time because the game looked tough.

God was starting something new back then, too. He was forming a new nation. He was forming a new faith, and times were tough, and Moses wanted to quit so badly. But he didn't. Now something we probably don't know that the readers of Hebrews knew was that this phrase is actually a quote from God. God says this about Moses in Numbers 12, and it comes in the middle of this great story arc in Numbers 11–16. So what I want to do is I want to dive into this story about the time Moses wanted to quit.

The author Chris Wright mentions this in his book, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, but I thought I'd dive a little bit deeper because if you feel like quitting right now in some area of your life, you need to hear this, and if you're not feeling like that right now, I can guarantee two things. I guarantee you. One, you know somebody who does feel like that right now, and they need your encouragement, and I'm going to show you how you can encourage them. And number two, one day you will feel like quitting something important, and you are going to need the principles we see here in Moses's example.

So let's dig in. This story that the author to the Hebrews is referring to happens after the Hebrews have been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and then God has called Moses to help lead the people through the burning bush, and he really does not want the job. He doesn't feel called. He doesn't want to be called, but he finally answers the call. He becomes their leader, and now he's leading hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them through the desert on the way to the promised land, and it is not easy.

Just look at the problems Moses faced leading the Israelites in these chapters. First, there's a critical food shortage. How is he going to feed all these people in the desert? And what's funny is they're not just demanding food specifically, they're demanding meat. They're like little gourmets, you know. We want some meat, Moses, not just this manna stuff miraculously coming down from heaven. And then there's confusion over spiritual gifts. There's some people who are prophesying, and others are freaked out by this, and they all come to Moses to adjudicate this situation.

And then there's criticism about his marriage, and I want to slow down here because talk about relevant to our times. Numbers 12:1 says, "Miriam and Aaron," and these are Moses's own sister and brother, "began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, because he had married a Cushite." Now, Cushite, what's that? That was a term used all throughout the Bible to refer to any dark-skinned person of African descent. The Cushite kingdom was just south of Egypt, and let me show you what Cushites looked like in Egyptian art. The modern people related to Cushites in our day are Ethiopians, Somalians, Sudanese people.

And so what this is saying, without doubt, there's nobody who doubts this. I'm not reading something into this. Without doubt, this is saying Moses's wife was a black African woman, and people in his own family are talking. Kind of like the old movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, right? And some of you know exactly what this feels like. Racial tension. So all this stuff is just mounting up that Moses is facing, and then there's discouragement and fear about the future.

Moses sends out spies to check out the promised land, and what he wants to do is have the spies come back and have a big meeting with the people and have the 12 spies say, "Here's how we're going to take the land and go into our amazing future." But instead, they say, "It's impossible." All but two of them say, "We're doomed. We're doomed, because we can't take the promised land and we're gonna die in the desert." So everybody's all frustrated, and then there's grumbling and death threats and the mutiny of key leaders. I mean, wow!

So how does Moses stay faithful when he has all these reasons to quit? Maybe you feel like you've got a long list of reasons to quit. Whatever it is you want to quit. Well, I see in this story four keys to faithfulness when I want to quit, and I mean when I want to quit. Because there's times when I want to quit, and I am encouraged by principles I see in this story. So whether you want to quit a ministry or quit a job, quit a relationship or anything else, before you jump onto the inflatable emergency slide with a beer, do these things, all right?

Number one, reveal my frustrations to a trusted advisor. That's important. Don't kind of emotionally vomit over everyone, but do find someone to talk to when you feel frustrated. Why? Because when you say stuff inside your own head, you have all your list of reasons. It sounds brilliant, but when you say your internal monologue out loud, you start to see certain patterns emerge. You start to see how you're repeating yourself in maybe kind of a nonsensical way. You start to see the fallacies of your own logic.

Let me show you what I'm talking about. Look at the speech Moses gives to God starting in Numbers 11:11, and it's almost written like a comedy. He says, "What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell them to carry them on my arms as a nurse carries an infant?" What he's saying is they're a bunch of babies to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors.

He's like, "God, you promised to their ancestors. I didn't promise. Why is this my problem now? Plus, where can I get meat for all these people? They keep way to me, give us meat to eat. I can't carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me." And then he says, "Lord, if this is how you're gonna treat me, please go ahead and kill me if I have found favor in your eyes." In other words, God, if you like me, you'll kill me. That's how bad I hate this job.

Now does anybody notice the phrase he keeps repeating? He says it four times in four verses, "these people." It's this us versus them mindset. Now listen closely. I can almost guarantee you that when you want to just quit, you start thinking exactly like Moses. It's me and it's these people. It's kind of like this chart which I adapted liberally from the famous book, "Leadership and Self-Deception." Look at this chart on the screen. There's me, then there's these people. "I am productive. They are lazy. I am hard-working. They're complainers. I am earnest. They are fakers. I am important to this company and this family, this church. They're dead weight." In other words, "Me good. These people bad." You know, that's what it boils down to.

Often when you want to quit, this is your thinking. And here's the thing, anytime you start thinking like me versus these people, what's happening is you're starting to villainize them. You're starting to demonize them. And watch this. Then everything they do and say you interpret through this grid. Even if they say something nice to you, you think, "They're just buttering me up, fattening me for the kill, trying to manipulate me, wonder what's behind that remark. Have a nice day. There they go again with their sarcasm." You're just not going to get anywhere because you've poisoned the well. And now everything they say or do is treated with suspicion.

I've seen this at workplaces. I've seen this in marriages. I've seen this in friendships. And here's the thing. The thing about saying these things out loud to some trusted, clear-thinking friend is that as you unspool your thoughts, this becomes so clear. And even you start to realize, "Oh, I'm dehumanizing these other people. And I'm putting myself on a pedestal like I'm somehow better than them and don't share the exact same vices." And this is why you need to vent to a human being out loud. Not, please, not post your grudges online on Facebook. Bad, bad, bad. Say them out loud and confidence to a real mature human being.

And you know what else this means? This means you've got to be the kind of person others can be honest with. This means if somebody does take this advice and vent to you today, don't freak out. Don't go, "Oh my gosh, you want to quit? How could you? You what?" Because if you freak out, what that does is train them to fake it. If you freak, they fake. And then suddenly, ten years later, they're gonna announce to you, "I've been unhappy for ten years." And they're blowing out the emergency slide and they're gone.

But also, when people vent to you, don't just agree, "You're so right. You should just quit." Listen patiently, ask questions, be a reflective listener, reflect back to them these dehumanizing patterns. So, so you're saying everyone at work besides you is an idiot. Is that what you're saying? You know, help them to see reality, not just their frustrated distortion of reality, and help them come to their own healthy Bible-based conclusions. My wife has done this for me many times.

Look, this fights enemy of faithfulness, number one, which is self-pity, where I am just sure I have it worse than most. You know what happens when I'm feeling self-pity? I start to maximize my sacrifices and minimize my blessings. I maximize my sacrifices and minimize my blood. This job, this relationship, it's all about my sacrifice and I can't see the blessings all around me. All I start to see is my own pain.

All right, we spent most of our time on that because that's so important and we're gonna see how, what happens, what God's response to this is. Second, to stay faithful like Moses, I need to release my need to control everything. Release my need to control everything because trying to do it all myself leads to this kind of frustration. Look at those verses. Here's God's reply to Moses. The Lord said to Moses, "Bring me 70 of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. I'll take some of the power of the Spirit that's on you and I'll put it on them."

Notice God does not say, "Moses, I'm gonna choose 70 people and I'm gonna help them help you." No, he puts it on Moses. He says, "Moses, bring me 70 leaders known to you. They're already all around you, already showing leadership. You're just not seeing it. I want you to open your eyes and look for these 70 people. They're gonna, it's gonna be obvious to you and then they're gonna share the burden of the people with you so that you won't have to carry it alone."

God's telling Moses, "Delegate responsibilities. Unless you want to keep wigging out, you and I need to sometimes give up some responsibilities." He's saying, "Moses, open your eyes and see the people for what they are. Don't villainize them all as these people. There is at least 70 people there who you know are pretty qualified to help you out, some of the very people you've been complaining about and we all need to hear this.

But then I want you to watch this. Something funny, this is one of those stories of the Bible that's so great yet for some reason most of us don't know it. Something funny happens. Moses calls for 70 people but apparently two of them, two guys, and I'm thinking they were probably brothers because their names rhyme and you know how parents do that sometimes because they think it's so brilliant and the kids are mad at them for the rest of their adult lives, you know? Yeah, I'm Larry, this is my brother Harry, you know, that sort of thing. Because these are two guys named El Dad and Me Dad. I'm El Dad, this is my brother Me Dad and they don't come along. They stay at home.

It doesn't say why, maybe they're sick, maybe they just don't feel like this. And watch this, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon the other 68 guys with Moses a mile away, the Holy Spirit also simultaneously fills El Dad and Me Dad back on their couches and their tents, you know? And it says, "A young man ran and told Moses, 'El Dad and Me Dad are prophesying in the camp!' And Joshua, son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, 'Moses, my Lord, stop them!' And I love Moses' response. Maybe this came from a place of fatigue, but actually it's pretty healthy.

But Moses replied, 'Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on all of them!' He's saying, 'You know what, if God wants to spread His gifts around, that's perfectly fine with me.' And here's the principle, don't try to control what you can't control. This is so important, you're only responsible for your responsibilities. You're not responsible for what God does with other people, for what God does through other people. You're not responsible for other people and what they do with God.

And this fights enemy of faithfulness number two, which is self-effort, where I feel like I need to do everything myself and I'm responsible for everybody else and I'm responsible for God's plan and how that's accomplished in the world. That just leads to fatigue and my fatigue leads to confused and sleep-deprived thinking and that's gonna lead to burnout. In fact, I can get to the point where I almost want my fatigue to lead to burnout, right? Kind of like, 'I'll show them all. I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown. Then they'll feel really bad because they drove me to it!' And God's saying, 'No Moses, no. Instead, delegate and don't try to control everything, all right?'

And then the third key to staying faithful when I want to quit is refocus on God's work instead of my work. Refocus on God's work instead of framing it as my work, an important perspective shift. Next, something funny happens. I think God is doing this, this is a great counseling technique. He's turning the tables on Moses to show Moses the absurdity of his own position. God tells Moses, 'You know what? Maybe you're right about these people. Maybe these people are terrible and they're never gonna be any good and maybe I should just destroy them all and I'm gonna disown them and then here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna disown them and I'm gonna make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are. It'll still be a nation, it'll just be the nation of Moses.

Kind of like Moses, I'm gonna launch a new brand, we're gonna market it as the children of Moses, not the children of Israel. But Moses has grown and he has an interesting response. He actually quotes God's words from earlier in their wanderings back to him. "The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion." God told Moses that about his own nature in Exodus 34. So in keeping with your magnificent unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.

In fact he goes on to say, "God if you do that, your reputation for keeping your promises is going to be, it's gonna take a hit in the eyes of the Egyptians." See Moses has no ambition to build an empire for himself. He's got no desire for personal glory. Moses is saying, "God you know what, I don't need to build my brand. God you and what you do through your people, that's the brand." What Moses is starting to get is that it's always all about grace.

He's saying, "Yeah Lord these people have been sinful, absolutely sinful, rebellious, but that's the point isn't it? That's the point. When you show the world your magnificent unfailing love even to us sinful people, then it's all about you and it's not about me and my reputation." And this fights enemy of faithfulness number three which is selfish ambition. Selfish ambition. We all need to remember that whatever is frustrating us it's not about my reputation. It's not about my reputation as a pastor. It's not about my reputation as a leader. It's when my kids behave I shouldn't get frustrated thinking it's all about my reputation as a parent.

You know, no, when I realize that staying faithful means I'm gonna get a ringside seat to seeing God work through the lives of very imperfect people, then that is exciting and that means I can let go of the results and say, "God it's not about me it's all about you and your grace in people's lives who are very imperfect and grace is messy sometimes and grace is frustrating sometimes and grace is confusing sometimes but that's how God works."

And so you can say, "God I don't care if other people think I'm a bad pastor or a bad parent or whatever it's not about me anyway I'm just gonna stay faithful so that I get a ringside seat to you doing miracles." I have to tell you something very personal and I'm not thinking about any particular pastor here but I feel sorry for the pastors I've seen in my time here in Santa Cruz who've come and gone in a year or two because what happens is they might go to another church and get frustrated and leave in a couple years and that becomes a pattern in their ministry and I feel sorry for them because they never see the blessings that they would see if they were there long term.

There are some blessings that only come long term and if I don't stay faithful I'll miss those blessings. Make it about God and not about you and then finally to stay faithful when I feel like quitting I need to remember God's faithfulness to me right I need to remember God's faithfulness to me. I want to show you song lyrics that Moses wrote at the very end of his life we find them in Deuteronomy 32 he says, "I will proclaim the name of the Lord it's all about him praise the greatness of our God he's the rock his ways are perfect all his ways are just he's a faithful God a faithful God who does no wrong upright and just is he at the end of his life Moses is all about God not about Moses."

And look at this verse from Psalm 91 many people believe Psalm 91 is also by Moses it's a continuation of Psalm 90 which he wrote and what I want you to see is he's writing this as a comfort to the same exact people who used to drive him crazy. In verse 4, "Now instead of screaming at them or complaining about them it's like it sounds like a mother's lullaby he will cover you with his feathers under his wings you will find refuge his faithfulness will be your shield and your rampart." He's saying, "You guys you're gonna have tough times but God will always be faithful to you."

And he uses two metaphors on two extremes right like a mother hen with her chicks and like a fortress with shields and ramparts. Listen, maybe in your life people have let you down abandoned you quit on you left you been unfaithful divorced you or maybe you're the one who's been unfaithful. God will always remain faithful to you. He is dependable day to day. He is faithful long term. In fact try this this week when you go through a tough time and you feel like quitting try saying out loud to God, "God I know I can depend on you."

In fact say that sentence out loud with me right now. "God I know I can depend on you." One more time. "God I know I can depend on you." This fights enemy of faithfulness number four, self-focus. This is what it all comes down to really remember back in Hebrews 3:1 the writer of the Hebrews says, "Fix your thoughts on Jesus. He was faithful." You focus on Jesus and you remember how on the cross he remained faithful even unto death where he died for my sins and what that does is it reveals all my complaints against other people for the impatient and self-focused thoughts that they are.

Listen I know there are people in this room right now who just want to quit. You have had enough but I'm telling you don't quit at halftime. See the difference between you and Vontae Davis is his team went on to lose the game but focusing on Jesus reminds you at halftime it looked pretty bad. Jesus was dead but the game was not over. Jesus rose from the dead and the promise of the resurrection means that God has the power to resurrect your dead hopes, your dead career, your dead dreams, your dead marriage, your dead anything. The game is never over for God it's only halftime.

Don't give up now and miss the miracle you know. Here's the key question. What will I choose to focus on? What will I choose to fix my thoughts on? All the problems, all the irritations, all the annoying and disappointing people, in other words all the reasons to quit. If that's what you're looking for that's what you're gonna find in any marriage, any job, any church, any friendship. Or will you focus on Jesus and what he has done and will do and can do in your situation by his grace. Don't quit. There's a lot of game left for him to do miracles.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? God I know that there must be. I know there are people here in this room today who just have gotten to that point. They want to quit. And I pray that your Holy Spirit right now would just come upon them and that you would strengthen them. And I pray that you would help them and all of us to refocus on you and to remember your faithful love toward us.

And instead of living in haste like our culture does, what we want to do is we want to reap the rewards that can only come through faithfulness. And maybe some here this morning may want to pray for the very first time, "Lord I am not always faithful, but you are. And so today I want to commit myself, surrender myself to you the faithful one. Maybe for the very first time or maybe as a recommitment." Some want to say that and just say, "I want to place my faith in you out of gratitude for your faithfulness to me." In Jesus name I pray, amen.