Faithfulness | 7/27/25
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How do you personally define faithfulness in your life right now?
In what ways has that definition changed over time?
Can you relate more to Naomi or Ruth in this season of your life?
What does that reveal about your current relationship with God or others?
Where do you see a need for deeper community in your life or in your church?
What is one step you could take to build or nurture that community?How does vulnerability play a role in your relationships and spiritual life?
What might it look like to practice vulnerability more often?
Are there ways you’ve unintentionally made your faith journey too individualistic?
How might shifting your perspective toward community impact your spiritual growth?
Transcript:
This summer, we have been hearing about the fruits of the Spirit. And this week we’re going to talk about the fruit of faithfulness.
When I first found out that this is what I would be preaching about, I thought, okay, what does that mean? Throughout the Bible, we hear that we need to be faithful to God. But I’m a list person. I wanted a checklist of how to let the fruit of faithfulness flourish in our lives. But the Bible, of course, doesn’t work that way.
There are two women in the Bible that showed faithfulness in so many ways. Today I'm going to read Ruth chapter one, verses one through eighteen.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
This is the Word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Would you please bow your heads and pray with me?
God, I pray that you would fill this room with your Spirit and use me in this moment to speak your word, in your truth. Amen.
In this time, women had nothing without a man, through their husbands or their fathers. They had no rights to money, no rights to land. There was nothing for them, especially if they did not have male children. I think of how scary that would be—to have become comfortable with this life, just for it to all vanish. How alone I might feel. And then the woman who has been your mother figure for ten years tries to send you away. Ten years is almost half my life. It’s a long time.
As I was learning how to prepare for this sermon, Pastor Marisa asked me who I might see myself as in the story. Truthfully, I relate more to Naomi. She wants to go back to what is comfortable. She pushes away when she's going through this horrible thing—losing her sons and her husband.
I have a tendency to do that if I'm going through something. I don’t want to admit when I need help, and I struggle to accept it when it’s offered.
But Ruth, even though she was leaving her people, her culture, her religion, she doesn’t seem to even consider it. She says, “No, I’m going with you.” She pushes along and does what needs to be done—for her person, her community, and Naomi.
I think both of these women represent faithfulness in so many ways. Naomi was faithful to God, wanted so badly to get back to her people—her land—where maybe she felt most connected to her faith and to God. At this time, she felt so far from that, like she was being punished for something. Getting back to the physical place where she could feel close again was important for her.
Ruth was faithful to Naomi, leaving everything behind—her religion, her family, her land. She knew that someone would need to take care of Naomi, a person who had been her mother for years. And I wonder if their relationship might mirror our relationship with God.
When bad things happen, we find it easy to blame God or to push away. But God clings to us. He wants to help us and care for us. That’s God’s faithfulness to us, shown through Naomi and Ruth’s relationship.
This summer, as part of my internship, we read a book called Find Your Place in God’s Mission by Jeremiah Gibbs. It’s a book that teaches how to discern a personal calling for your life. But there was a quote that really stood out to me:
“Every Christian is called to prayer, worship, giving time, talent, resources, fellowship, and study. Every Christian is called to act justly and serve the needs of those around them.”
This quote highlights what a faithful life might look like—offering kindness to a neighbor, practicing a prayerful life, harboring a deep commitment to a worshiping community, and striving for justice. Participating in fellowship and studying. Participating in community is an important part of a faithful life.
For me, I love to be a part of the community—to be the village for other people. If someone needs help or just a friendly face, I will try in any way I can to be there for them. This could mean driving the 3.5-hour drive to Lakeland for just a short visit, or maybe just a FaceTime call to catch up.
I’ve recently found a group of friends at home that do the same for me. But the first year I was home, I was struggling to find any community. And the search for a good community where faithfulness can flourish is hard.
In college, I kind of fell into a college ministry that I loved. My sophomore year of college, I didn’t have a lot of friends and I felt really lost. I discovered the Wesley ministry at my school was being taken over and revamped, and was relaunching. I knew nobody that was going to be there, and none of my friends wanted to go with me. So I stepped out and went alone.
Anybody who knows me knows that I am almost always early. This was no different. I was so early, they tried to get me to join the greeting team and hold a welcome sign—my very first week! For some people, that might feel overwhelming, but I loved it. There was no “Oh, you don’t know her.” It was immediately “Welcome.”
Even though I was nervous to be there the first week, I went back. And that very next week, I met one of my best friends. The ministry kept growing and learning together. Then later that year, COVID happened, and we scrambled to meet online, like so many other churches and people. We survived even that together.
I was given the opportunity to lead community groups with my roommate, co-lead the welcome team, go on trips to conferences, and serve at camp. Together with my community—my friends—getting to have these deeper conversations and see how God is working all around me, that’s how my faithfulness grows.
So I was about to graduate. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I had the best faith community. I thought I had it all figured out. And then I graduated.
I moved four hours from my friends. Finding a job was way harder than I thought it would be. And I didn’t have many friends left in my hometown. I felt like everything was ripped away. I was starting from scratch.
I needed my Ruth—someone to be my community and help me through, even if I didn’t think so at the time. Honestly, three years later, I still struggle with that deep need for a faith community like what I had before. Deeper connections and conversations that happen, to be able to be there for people, getting to love others and be part of their life, seeing how God is working all around me.
Because sometimes it’s hard to see the faithfulness of God in our own lives.
That’s one of the reasons that community plays a big role in living out faithfulness. Having people to lean on when things are hard, or to lift you up when good things happen. Maybe even hold you accountable when you’re pushing God or others away.
Having a community like that requires a lot of trust and vulnerability. Being vulnerable with others. Being able to listen and understand is something we can all use more practice in. I know I can—hearing someone out, actively trying to understand people with different backgrounds and outlooks on life. Being able to trust that they will offer you the same grace.This connection is how we can grow and learn together.
But building faith and real relationships is hard and slow. And in this world where you have nearly infinite access to information at your fingertips, advancements make everything easier and faster. There’s no patience, and we lack the ability to find peace in the quiet. We can be so disconnected from the world around us. We lack human connection or connection to anything outside of ourselves.
I’ve been reading another book this summer called Refugia Faith by Deborah Rienstra. One thing this author talks about that really stood out to me was how faith has become over-individualized. Not just Christianity, but a lot of religions. This thought, that religion is only individual, introduces problems.
The first is that this reduces sin to individual missteps and thus provides convenient cover for all kinds of sinful systems. When we live faithful lives, there are shifts that start to happen—maybe ones you don’t see in yourself.
First, there’s an inner renewing of our hearts. The Holy Spirit begins to build habits and thoughts that are pleasing to the Lord. Then there’s an outward transformation—from sinful lives into lives that show the love of God and the love of neighbor.
I believe that God is speaking to me through my deep need for community. We, as Christians, are called into a deeper community. And while we need to be pouring into our families, our friends, and our churches, we are called to a higher level of faithfulness.
Loving our neighbor isn’t just the neighbors you choose. Pastor Steve talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Your neighbors are everyone—all of those who are different from you and similar. Those who believe the same things or think differently.
Throughout this internship, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a lot of staff members and church members at Trinity who are doing great work. I’ve gotten to see and interact with just a small fraction of the ministries that Trinity is connected to—and there are a lot of them.
Even if you don’t know of a group that’s doing something that you’re interested in, I’m sure there’s someone who could point you in the right direction. I encourage you to take action in whatever ways God is stirring your heart.
This summer, I’ve also gotten to see a faithful community being built for myself—and hopefully the other women involved. Pastor Marisa noticed that there were young women already interacting with groups here at Trinity, but they were craving more—more knowledge about the Bible and about theology. Deeper conversations and connections.
She started hosting and co-leading the Life Together Bible Study. In this group, there are so many different walks of life. There are college students, wives, mothers. We all come with different lenses that we read the Bible with, that we tell our story through.
I think it is so beautiful to know that even though everyone has such different experiences, we can still come together and share and learn, do life together.
This is where we get to live out Ruth 1:16, where we can live out all the fruits of the Spirit and show faithfulness to our communities.
Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. From where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”
Faithfulness will look so different in every chapter of our lives. It’s supposed to change and grow as we change and grow. But being in constant connection with others is how we can refine what faithfulness looks like in our lives today—and going forward.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.