 Today I Want to speak to you a little bit of a continuation of what I spoke a couple weeks back three weeks back Those of you that were here. I spoke on faithful God. How many remember that? Three of you. I'm sure there's more than three of you here But I'm glad at least three of you were here three weeks three weeks ago Or maybe four now I spoke on on this title call called faithful God And I we discovered the faithfulness of God and how faithful he is in our life and one of the first things first things that I said is that we have to focus on First of all, we have to have a revelation that God is faithful That he is a covenant keeping God that he will never forsake us He will never leave us Bible says that even if our birth mother forgets us He says I will never forget you God Offers us and unbroken faithfulness. You know that no other religion in the world offers No other God in the world offers that kind of commitment to his people in all other religions and all other Places there's things that you got to do and you got to accomplish certain things You have to do certain things and when you do enough then maybe maybe God will like you their God will like you and their God will let you into heaven But unlike our God He says I am faithful to you when even you are not faithful to me Aren't you happy and aren't you glad to be serving such a God? If you are put your hands together The next thing that I said is I don't focus on your faithfulness to God But focus on his faithfulness to you and it would help you to be faithful to him Amen And so today I'm gonna kind of right off on this point and going further Today, I'm gonna talk about faithfulness. That's just my title for today is faithfulness We're gonna kind of talk about faithfulness commitment steadfastness in in few in few areas of our life And like I said is don't focus on your faithfulness to God But focus on his faithfulness on God and God will help you to be faithful and today I want to discover that a little bit In in in my talk in my message. I want you to write this down one of them one of the meanings a word faithful or faith of faithfulness is Stickability to prescription Write that down stickability and ability to stick to prescription meaning to directions to commitment to to be able to stick to something to the guy And I want you to as we go through it I want you to keep that in mind and ability to stick and ability to stick through and ability to to to Not be shaken I be not be waving not to back down not to be wishwashing or Changing but to stick through because and an our ability to stick through In different areas of our life whether it's our relationship with God whether it's our relationship in marriage our relationship in our families whether it's a relationship between us and and co-workers friends and things like that will determine the kind of quality in life the kind of quality of life that we're gonna have amen and now I Want you to understand something that Being faithful Sticking to it doesn't means that everything is gonna be a peachy and rosy and everything is gonna be great If everything was great in life Then sticking to something whether it's a career whether it's a business whether it's a marriage whether it's relationship with God Would be very easy in everybody would do it right? but because it requires character because it requires persistence because it requires an effort very few people have ability to stick through and That's why we look at the people if we look at successful people and we look at their life And if you find one characteristics about them, you'll find something about them is that they are faithful They're committed. They're persistent whatever they begin to do then don't give up until they succeed in it Amen, and so today I would just want to discover and and and just together with you meditate on few thoughts and Hopefully that we're gonna learn something and apply it on our life Even though this is not Something deep or something that maybe will tickle your theological years but it's very profound and Something that will help you in every area of your life. Amen First thing that we have to be faithful in we have to be faithful in our relationship with God Now we already talked about and discovered that God is faithful to us No matter what no matter what we're going through no matter the hardships that we're experiencing No matter whether we in a good season or bad season. God is faithful Say with me God is faithful Say it again. God is faithful But in return God asks for our faithfulness and our commitment to him in a has in a prophet Hosea God told him to go and Marry a prostitute and it was all prophetic and it was God was trying to teach a lesson and and and and bring something out and Where she married and she she went and picked out a prostitute and married her she she gave She gave birth to to his kids and everything and then she went off again and start doing Prostitution and sleeping around and then God told to Hosea and he said go back and take her back buy her back Because she was sold on a market buy her back as your wife and take her back Regardless of her unfaithfulness and then he was prophesying teaching. He said that my people are unfaithful to me my people Whenever they go out and they look for other gods and they worship God in the other scripture He says that my people committed two sins against me one is they went on They they abandoned me as I live in water and and they forsaken me and they went on and dug out the systems That can hold water, but he said the first thing he said they forsaken me And in another scripture in Jeremiah God says that your land is desolate Because of your unfaithfulness to me and so throughout the scripture we see that God As she commits ourselves to us as he commits and to be faithful to us He expects us to be faithful to him. He expects us to be committed to him He expects us to stick through with him. You know sometimes You see a person that's getting saved a person gets saved and The life is a mess. They got no money. They got no honey. They got nothing and Addicted to drugs or addicted to other substances and just life as a life a mess See living living constant constant depression Living constant lack living just unfulfilled life and then they get saved God cleans their life up God redeems them God puts them on a path of righteousness and now And now they're experiencing a good life now there you see all of a sudden they got a career They got a business they got things going for them and before they used to come to every Friday night prayer before they used to come To every service and now you don't even see them at church because they got too busy because they got this business going because they got this job going and God fell out of priorities in their life and that's And that's exactly what I'm talking about is that whether your life good or bad Whether things are going well or things are not going well that we develop this stick ability To go with God through everything. I look at Job's life Job was and still is According to some calculations that people did This is the richest man in the Middle East Now if you don't know how rich people in the Middle East are are you just there they're like Yeah, what should I buy today $10 million this or $20 million that just like I was just a pocket change Wickedly wealthy. Okay. Actually, that's biblical term if you're wondering Boba says that the the Walls of the wicked will be stored up for the righteous. So they're wickedly rich but my point is that Joe Job He is wealthy. He is blessed. He has everything that he needs Yet Bible says every single morning. He goes and prays to God spends time with God He brings offerings to God. He asks God for forgiveness for his sins and for his sins that his family or his servants could have commit Regardless were Joe buzz in life. He always knew who was the source. He always knew who blessed him He always knew who brought him up. He always knew who who sustains him in a moment of his life. I Want to encourage those that you feel like maybe your life got a bit too busy Maybe your life got a little too hectic. He got a lot of things going on Don't Abandon your priority your priorities your relationship with God Stick with God doesn't matter. How busy you get doesn't mean how many contracts you get doesn't matter How many what kind of career you get? stick with God Because God will get you through to the end and he was the one that's gonna receive you when you close your eyes on this earth and Pass on to the next Here's the one that's gonna receive you stick with God, you know when I was when I was looking for a job as a teenager and Thanks to my parents that brought brought me up well in this area when I was looking for a job as a teenager And I found a job or when I was applying for jobs at that moment and they would ask You guys probably those that apply for jobs, you know, they'll ask you to mark Which days are you available and which hours right and so there was two days and two set of hours That every application are filled out. They were always crossed off. It was Wednesday services So Wednesday afternoons, I couldn't I said Wednesdays I couldn't work and Sundays I did not work because these are the two days that I Dedicated and committed that me and my family will go to church. We'll be committed. We will serve at the church So these days are not available and I was I was in a place. It was actually not My teenagers that was a couple years into being married things kind of got rough with the business the income reduced in 2008 And nine when the with the market crashed and so I had to I had to go and find a regular job And so and there was I got actually quite a few calls and some tempting calls with a good pay But that I had to work on Wednesdays not even Sunday just Wednesdays and I passed on them Because I was committed to church. I was committed to God I was committed to God's people and I took a less paying job, but I had Wednesdays and Sunday's off And I don't know what your situation is and I don't worry you at in life, but When you stick with God when you commit it with God God will bring you through good times through bad times He will sustain you all the way through and you're gonna come out victorious in the end There's the other side of people Where they come to church things are good things are awesome and then all of a sudden something bad happens in their life Something horrible happens in life the mom dies their uncle dies and they prayed for healing didn't and they didn't get healed there They got on an accident something there they lost a job and they were tithing they be in faithful coming to church They were serving and now they're out of job and where is God now and all of these things they start asking these questions Where is God now where I've been good. I've been doing good. I've been tithing. I've been giving but now lost my job I lost the business. I went bankrupt. I lost that property. I lost that contract. Where's God now? I've been praying for him. He didn't answer this need and didn't answer that need where he's got and they get discouraged First group of people get too busy the other people gets too discouraged and God and And they leave and they say where was God? Where was God? Why didn't he stop this? Why didn't he stop that what why he didn't come through and It's and they begin to blame God or being even offended at God of the bad things that happen But first thing I want to set one thing clear The bad things that happen in life are not from God and most people that they understand that but the second people Second thing that they have a hard time was well I know it's not from God by why he didn't stop it Why didn't he stop that this man did this to me that this man touched me this way and appropriately? Rape me or they these people stole this money from me these people did this and this why couldn't God stop it He knew how bad I wanted it He knew how bad I needed why didn't God stop it and That's the question that most people really struggle with and so I hope I can I can just kind of put that in perspective For you have to understand that God created us as a human beings with a free will He's given us a free will but you say well It wasn't my will to be hurt. No, it wasn't maybe your will, but it was somebody else's will wicked will to hurt you and God has to honor their free will as much as they he has to honor your free will Somebody said you know some people can say well if there is God why there's so much evil and hurt in this world Why he can just come and stop it all if he could do that he would have to take away humans will and Then we would just be like robots with no will to choose just to do whatever Whatever we're programmed to do By giving free will to us God made us and give us a choice to choose good or evil Unfortunately because of sin Sin brought hurt pain and all other terrible things in our lives the suffering and it's not God's fault but it's our Fallen nature our sinful nature that that brings Pain and suffering. He mainly some some even Christians I I see online on Facebook and they would say oh God has brought this hurricanes to America to Wake up America and punish America and and and and all these things. I think it's a little bit of misguided concept I think it's a misguided concept I think God can use many different ways to wake us up and don't get me wrong God even uses the bad things That happen, but he doesn't initiate them God doesn't initiate him all these things even in the nature that happens all these hurricanes earthquakes fires and everything it's a result of Adam and Eve's sin that brought Depravity on this earth and even to the nature and what started happening with with the nature and everything That's so that's going on so if somebody tells you oh why God couldn't do it Why can't wouldn't stop it just tell him because God honors your free will and he honors others people free will even if their will is wicked so Back to what I was saying Be faithful to God Whether good things or bad things happen to you whether you are on a top or you are the lowest of your of the mountain One thing I like about job coming back to Joe is he stuck with God when he was Filthy rich and he had nothing and was dying out of sickness. He said let his name be praised He's sovereign. He knows it all and Even despite of all that he said I know my redeemer lives. He can redeem me even from this Impossible situation. That's the confession of our faith That's the confession of our faith. That's what we believe and we know about God. He's faithful and he always comes through The song that we were singing at the end I Love this song one of the reasons why I love it because he says that doesn't matter whether I'm sick Whether I'm in pain whether I'm hurting. I know heaven awaits for me and You know yesterday we had an event with the human sex trafficking and Here you know these terrible stories of people how they suffer and How sometimes they don't even make it past seven years of their life how sometimes these unfair things happen to the children You know, it hurts to even think about it, especially having especially having kids But then at the end of the day We as Christians we have one hope is that heaven awaits for us Heaven awaits for us regardless how difficult the life gets here God is faithful and at the end of the day we're always victorious in man church. Let's put our hands together for God Couple ways to be faithful and practical and spending your mornings with God or spending your time every single day with God like Job did and Spending your time in a word of God the reading reading the things he wrote up to you Bible is a written love letter to you. So reading his word Meditating his words spending time in prayer if you we have Five a.m. We the the church is open for prayer So if you need a prayer place to pray if you need a closet like the Bible says to pray somewhere Come to church the door was open the music is playing quietly on the background come and spend time with God And and make God your source and you're old and I want to tell you something God will see you through in Jesus name amen Amen, amen, amen second thing write it down We have to be faithful is we have to be faithful to each other and that covers range of things first thing Let's take a basics of society. You have to be faithful in your marriage. You have to be faithful with your family You have to stick through The good the bad and the ugly and this is the reason why when When we get married we say through sickness through health Through poverty through riches Through good and bad or thick and thin we promise each other that we're gonna love and cherish and we're gonna stick through and that's a very rare commodity nowadays in our society and ability to stick through the marriage and We have to We have to set God's word and God's standard as a foundation of our life Otherwise, we will not succeed in this area and we know that a marriage is a foundation for a family and family is a foundation for Society and if these if a marriage crumbles at its core if there is no commitment if there is no stickability If there is no faithfulness Then our society will be broken as we know it and we can see the effects of our of the broken society today All around us and it comes down to an ability to stick through in marriage in in India I Read a statistic in India. There's a lot of in India predominately. There's a range marriages and In India the divorce rate in India is about three out of ten thousand If you tell me that's pretty good rate now I Don't necessarily condone or or agree with the arranged marriages but What I take from that is That the culture the kind of culture they have is an ability to stick through Whatever they got whatever life has given them and They did a study when me and my wife we went Occasionally we go to these marriage seminars when we ask people and we we learn from people about Marriage so that our marriage gets strengthened and so we can help others to strengthen their marriage and There's statistic that says the people that went through some some rough times in in a marriage whether it was unfaithfulness whether it was financial problem what is Whether with some character issues, whatever it was, but those people that stuck through 70 plus percent of them were they said seven years later. They said the study was condoned I was like a seven-year study or something like that said that they 76% if I'm not mistaken, but it was above 70 said that they were happy that they stuck through and That they're happier than they ever were On the flip side those people that ended their marriage because of whatever reason it was 70 plus percent said they they regret it and they wish they stuck it through and They're not as happy as I think that they think that could be So an ability to make God's word a standard of your life Regardless the feelings and regardless the things you're going through and said you know what I'm gonna trust God's word I'm gonna trust his faithfulness I'm gonna trust and I'm gonna have faith in God that he's gonna get me through it And that is gonna get us to the other side and that's gonna create strong families strong foundations Amen being faithful being faithful in our families the Bible says Bible says that if we don't take care of our family, we are worse than unbeliever We are worse than unbeliever We as people we have to take care of family. We have to take we have to be family-oriented people people around us They have to be they have to see us and be envious of their relationships that we have their harmony The the peace that we carry don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there's never gonna be some scuffles and fights and and disagreements That's part of the family. That's part of the process But we have to take care of each other In our in our family in our immediate family. I'm talking about Not right now not as a church family, but there also applies to that. I'm talking about our blood family Many people abandon their families are bearst of their families people are they are They don't want to associate themselves with the family now. I understand there's different situations for different things But we have to take care of our families We have to take care of our mothers and fathers in this in this culture that we have in America Where where parents are retiring in in retired homes away from kids? So it's like this they've put in all their life into their kids They raised them up there they wiped their butts off and they and they they nursed them they were there through through their sicknesses and through their problems and They were they were there when they needed them most and then when parents grow older when they need them the most They say mom and dad. I'm too busy We have to create a culture and you know, it's actually only in fairly mostly in America. That's that's like that In most cultures in the culture I come from the Slavic culture the the kids take care of their Their parents they bring them into the home and they and they and they provide for them until they pass on to glory We have to create this culture of stickability with our family is somebody with me Come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus Another thing that we have to stick to is we have to stick to our friends in this culture that we live in This culture that we live with this with social media and all these platforms that are available There's a lot of artificial friends out there and they're not real Doesn't matter how many you have if you have 5,000 or 50,000 or 5,000,000 followers on Instagram friends on Facebook or Snapchat, I'm gonna tell you and I want to burst your bubble. They're not real They won't be there when you when you cry at here They won't be there when you're thinking should I continue should I should I continue to live on or it's life's too hard we have to develop and nourish real authentic relationships some of us we When when we only have friends or we need friends or we ask for friends only when things are bad We need to cry when we need a shoulder to cry on we need to vent or like we say we need to vomit things