Faithfulness, a sermon based on Matthew 14: 22-32 preached on July 30, 2023

This is the ninth and final sermon of this summer sermon series that’s been focused on spiritual gifts. Today, the gift we’re focused on is “faithfulness.” Who has this gift? What does it mean to be faithful? No doubt, faithfulness is a gift of the Spirit that’s hard to come by and worth taking time to celebrate. This morning, we have two Scripture lessons to help us think about the subject. The first, read by our beadle, is one that describes Joshua, who chose faith and encouraged the Israelites to do the same. It’s a well-known passage, often quoted. Back in the days when I cut grass for a living, I remember working at one Buckhead mansion where the words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” were engraved on a granite slab right outside the front door. That’s Joshua 24: 15, the most famous line from the lesson we heard read. Joshua, who led the people after Moses, made this faithful declaration so that no one would forget the faithful God who brought them out of slavery and into the Promised Land. He said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” and all the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, who did great deeds in our sight, and protected us all along the way as we went.” In other words, they responded to Joshua by saying, “If you choose to be faithful to God, so do we.” Joshua, then, modeled faithfulness. He chose to be faithful to God. He stood up in public and made that promise, just as we’ve seen one say to another, For richer, for poorer, In sickness and in health, In joy and in sorrow. That’s what couples promise each other at a wedding. During the ceremony, two people stand before a congregation and promise to be faithful to each other. “I choose you, over and above all others,” they say. I will not falter. I will not stop choosing you. Likewise, Joshua chose God over and above all other gods. Following his example, the people did the same. Only here’s the problem: Their faithfulness didn’t last very long. In fact, Joshua dies, the people live in the Promised Land, where they’re surrounded by all these new people and all these different gods, and little by little, they fall to temptation. They abandon their convictions. Like prodigal sons, they spend their inheritance on loose living and wander far from home. In fact, by the time we get to the book of Judges, chapter 2 (That’s just two pages after our first Scripture lesson.), we read that, “The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.” The book of Judges goes on to describe how God appointed righteous men and women who were called judges to lead the people, and those faithful leaders helped, yet the book ends with this: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” All the people did what was right in their own eyes. Sound familiar? Too many of us have a hard time with faithfulness. While we are card-carrying, churchgoing, committed Christians, we are all tempted to leave the God we love and abandon the standards God has provided in this fallen world, and from time to time, we fall. We all forget what God has done in the past and wander from His presence. We don’t always do what is right, but instead do what seems right in our own eyes. As a people, we struggle with faithfulness, so even though Jesus says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’” as long as I’ve been around, Kennesaw Mountain has remained right where it’s always been. Why? Because faithfulness is hard. We get afraid. We lose heart. We are prone to wander from the fold of God. We are like Peter. Peter might be the most popular disciple. My favorite is Thomas, who doubts, but a lot of people love Peter, who sinks. In our second Scripture lesson, the disciples were in a boat. Jesus had dismissed the crowds whom He had just fed: a crowd of five thousand, which Jesus fed with five loaves and two fish. When’s the last time you saw something like that happen? The disciples witnessed a miracle. I’m sure that such a sign inspired in the disciples some faithfulness, but their faithfulness was short-lived, for after the waves and the wind pushed them out into the sea during the night, when they saw a figure walking on the sea towards them, they didn’t assume it was Jesus coming to save them. Instead, they were terrified, saying, “It’s a ghost.” Why would they be terrified, and why would they assume that coming at them was a ghost? It’s because faithfulness is hard. The Israelites were faithful sometimes, but not all the time. The disciples were faithful sometimes, but not all the time. Here’s the point: If neither the Israelites nor the disciples were faithful all the time, we don’t have a chance at perfect, constant, unwavering faithfulness. Mortal faithfulness wavers, doesn’t it? Sometimes we feel the Spirit, and it just about seems like we believe beyond the shadow of a doubt, but send us back out into the world, and the questions start coming. We want to know why bad things happen. We want to know when our suffering will be over. I’ve had headaches so bad that if Buddha would have taken my pain away, I might have converted; then I’ve seen miracles, and I felt like I might just try and move a mountain. If you’ve ever felt the same way, then you can understand how Peter went from walking out onto the water with Jesus at one moment and then sinking down to his armpits the next. We believe, Lord; help our unbelief. That’s our prayer. To Peter, He asked, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” That’s such a good question, and it’s one that I don’t have the answer to. I don’t know why Peter doubted. I don’t really know why I doubt, but I’m standing up here in front of you to let you know that I do. I doubt. I sink. I worry. I wander. I feel full of faith one day, then full of anxiety the next. And I’m a pastor. How can a man like me be a pastor? How can one who doubts be a pastor? Let me tell you, the name to write down on your card today is not Joe Evans. The name to write down is Jesus. That’s what makes me a pastor. I point the way to the One who is faithful. That’s what makes us Christians. It’s not that we’re perfect; it’s that we know Who is. It’s not that we are perfect examples of faithfulness all the time; it’s that we know One who picks us up out of the water when we sink down into it. I hope that all of you have a card this morning. This time there’s not a box to put them in. We’ve used up all our windows, and there’s no window nor is there a box to put your card in this morning. After eight weeks of thinking of those who have been given gifts of the Spirit, don’t think too much about it today. There’s only One name worthy of being written on your card this morning. Take out your pen and your card and write down Jesus. This summer, we’ve been celebrating and giving thanks to God for those who have been given the gifts of generosity, artistic expression, encouragement, evangelism, hospitality, discernment, administration, and teaching. We’ve been thinking of people who have embodied those gifts to us, writing their names down on these cards, giving thanks to God for people who have made a difference to us using their gifts, but there’s one name that’s above every name, especially when it comes to faithfulness. That’s Jesus. Jesus is faithful. He is “the pioneer and perfector of our faith,” to use that great verse from the book of Hebrews. While our faith wavers at times, and while Peter took his eyes off Jesus, did Jesus ever take His eyes off Peter? We know that He didn’t. The first time they met, Jesus gave him the name “Peter,” which is Greek for rock. Jesus named him “Rock,” or Petros, or Peter because Jesus said that on this rock, Peter, I’ll build my church. Did Peter seem up to the task? No. But Jesus doesn’t call the qualified. Jesus qualifies the called. When Jesus called him, Peter followed. Along the way, he stumbled. His life was full of ups and downs. When Jesus called him out on the water, after a couple steps, Peter sunk. When Jesus was arrested and someone recognized Peter as a compatriot, Peter denied Him three times. Was Peter faithful? Sometimes, but that’s not the point. Jesus was faithful to Peter and Jesus is faithful to me. Friends, the first time I preached a sermon, the preacher who invited me to preach told me that my sermon was 12 minutes long, which is just the right length. That’s the only good thing he could think to say. Perfection is out of our reach. Our hope is not in attaining it. Our hope is in Jesus, Who has done what we could not do for ourselves. Therefore, when we think about spiritual gifts this morning, as you think about the spiritual gifts that God has given you, remember His faithfulness. He knows about our failures. He knows how we falter. He knows that we aren’t perfect. Remember how He was up there on the cross, and looking down at the crowd who put Him there, He said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Do you remember that? Remember that He does not give up on you when you finally get your nerve up to try hospitality on for size, and you take some brownies over to your neighbor and she asks you if they’re gluten free, and you feel like the whole experience was a waste, and you’ll never get it right. Remember in that moment that a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up again. Peter sunk. Jesus lifted him up. Thomas doubted. Jesus helped his unbelief. When we show up with our gifts and offer them to the world, don’t think it’s going to all go perfectly because perfection is beyond us. Don’t let a pursuit of perfection get in the way of answering the call, for we are all called to use the gifts that God has given us for the benefit of the world. Never allow perfect to get in the way of good. Never allow your fear of failure to keep you from trying, for the love and acceptance of almighty God does not hinge on our ability to be faithful. If it did, He would have given up on us back in the Garden of Eden, back at the time of the flood, back with Abraham, back with Moses, back with Joshua. The Bible is not an account of human faithfulness. Instead, the Bible is an account of human failure and the persistent faithfulness of God Who will not let us go. Our God is faithful, friends. Our Jesus is faithful. Raise your cards up one more time and say what’s written on them with me. “I am grateful for Jesus’ gift of faithfulness.” Halleluiah. Amen.