02 Faithfulness & Fruitfulness

You know, I think the greatest moment in our existence, potentially, is that moment in eternity where we will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. He will look us in the eyes. And He will beam with pride. And He will say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant."

I think it should be the desire of all of us, of every elder, to be found faithful. He is not going to say, "Well done, My great preacher." "Well done, super evangelist." "Well done, apostle to the nations." He's going to say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant."

We need to be those who are found faithful. There is a lot that is said in the New Testament about faithfulness. But it's interesting, and I'm just going to look at one facet. It is beautiful; things like this have many facets, and you could preach on faithfulness for weeks.

The Link Between Faithfulness and Fruitfulness

But there's one facet of faithfulness that I want to hone in on now. And that is that wherever you see Jesus talking about faithfulness, it is always linked to fruitfulness. The fig tree He cursed because it wasn't bearing fruit as it should. The parable of the talents, where He gives different talents and all He's looking for is a faithfulness.

He's looking for people who can be entrusted with that deposit. With the first two servants, He commends them for their faithfulness because they have increased what they've been given. There's a principle in the kingdom that faithfulness will lead to fruitfulness. One of the lines we use with our congregations is, we don't care about numbers, we care about health.

And that is true to a point. But one of the reasons you've been asked to put numbers on your congregation's weekly health report—how many salvations? How many are attending? How many are coming to meetings? And so forth—is because whilst we don't aim to draw numbers, healthy things grow.

And if we are faithful with the little, God will give us more. That is a principle of the kingdom that Jesus established in which we've seen time and time and time again. As we're faithful with the small, He gives us more. There is always a fruitfulness.

Being Faithful with Small Things

That can apply in our own lives. If we're faithful with our gift, our gift increases. If we're faithful with contributing. If we're faithful with what God entrusts us to. I think most of us who are elders, we started with being entrusted in kids church or youth or a community or a few friends.

But as we were faithful with those things, God said, "I can trust you, so I'll give you more." As human beings, we're the same. If I ask somebody to babysit and they are not faithful, I'm not going to ask them again. But if they prove faithful, then I don't just commend them, but I begin to speak to others.

And the Lord is like that. If we are faithful, we don't even have to boast about our own faithfulness. The Lord will begin to commend us to others. And some of us are wanting more. Some of us are wanting to grow. Some of us are wanting more authority.

Some of us have ambitions, and that's not necessarily evil. Scripture says he who desires to be an overseer desires a noble task. But we're not going to walk in more through self-promotion. We're not going to walk in more by manipulation. We're going to walk in more through faithfulness.

And we need to be a people who are found faithful in the small things. If I'm asked to do a report for Andrew and I don't do it, I'm being unfaithful with a small thing. And if I can't be trusted with a report, why should I be trusted with people?

Integrity in Time, Talents, and Finances

Am I trustworthy with my finances? Am I trustworthy with my time? One of the glorious things for me about being full-time, paid by the church to pursue the things of the gospel, is the incredible privilege that my time is flexible. If my wife phones me in the middle of the day and there's an emergency, I can go.

I don't have the restrictions that some people have with nine-to-five or eight-to-five jobs. But I have a responsibility to be faithful with that time, more so than somebody who is working for a salary. I am not working for a salary.

I'm not putting my hours in to earn my salary. I am committed to Jesus Christ, the Lord of creation. Am I being faithful with my time? Am I being faithful with my relationships? Am I being faithful with my finances? To sum up, I have heard some say: Are you faithful with your time, your talents, and your treasures? And it doesn't matter how little you have. I mean, we preach this about tithing. Even if you can't afford to tithe, tithe, because if you're faithful to that, God will provide. Are you faithful with your gifting?

Are you faithful with everything? Because, as we begin to exercise faithfulness, we will experience fruitfulness. And fruitfulness speaks of increase. It speaks of reproduction. It speaks of nourishment. A tree that bears fruit, that fruit nourishes others. That fruit provides a way of the tree reproducing itself.

Self-Examination and Seeking Increase

That fruit is evidence of the health of the tree. I think that we need regularly to examine ourselves. Are we those who are being found faithful? Are we those deceiving ourselves in some areas? Or are we found faithful? Many, I know, work really hard.

When it comes to being faithful with your time, are you then faithful, not just with working hard, but resting well? Are you faithful with taking time out for your family? Are you faithful? Faithfulness looks different for different people. Whether you're a double timer.

Whether you're a full timer. Whether you're leading a congregation. Whether you're serving somebody else on a team. It doesn't matter. What matters is this: Are you giving what the Lord has called you to give? Are you giving it well? Are you giving it willingly?

And are you seeing increase? See, a lack of increase or a lack of fruit can actually be an indication of a fault in the source. A fault in the roots. So if we're not seeing an increase, one question we need to ask is, is it a lack of faithfulness?

Addressing Lack of Fruit Over Time

Am I being faithful in the wrong things? Where do I need to adjust? Is there a sign of ill health? It may also just be a season thing. A tree naturally does not have fruit on it 12 months of the year. But over time it will bear fruit.

Over time it will bear fruit. A congregation likewise, for example. It doesn't mean that if your congregation hasn't seen salvations in the last two weeks, that it's a sign of unfaithfulness. But if a congregation hasn't seen salvations in a year, or even six months, that's where as an eldership team, I would be having conversations.

I would be on my knees. I would be asking the Lord what we need to do. What we need to adjust. Do we need to adjust something in our character? Do we need to adjust something in our leadership style? Do we need to adjust something in our commitment?

Do we need to adjust something in the congregation? Because long term, fruit is inevitable if we are faithful. Let's be a people who are found faithful. Let's be a people who are fruitful.