Scriptures: Matthew 25:14-30, Proverbs 20:6, Lamentations 3:22-23

Faithfulness can be summed up in five words: "You can count on me." If you are a boss or a supervisor or have anyone under you, if you deal with volunteers, have anybody who answers to you, anybody you are counting on, you know how hard it is to find people who are truly faithful--faithful to show up on time, faithful to do their job right, faithful to give a good day’s wage of work for a good day’s wage. Faithful to stay until the job is done. Faithful to do what they do with a good attitude. When it comes right down to it, we are dependent on others being faithful. Eternally we are dependent on God being faithful to His Word. In this message, Dr. Merritt explores how we can become faithful people and bear the fruit of faithfulness in our lives.

"We do not all have equal abilities, but we do all have equal opportunities to use the abilities that we have to honor God and to bless others. Your opportunity will never exceed your ability, but your ability will always be equal to your opportunity. The Lord has given gifts and abilities to every one of His followers and He expects those servants to leverage those abilities in such a way that He is honored and others are blessed." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: Fruit of the Spirit, tasty, Galatians 5:22-23, faithfulness, gifts, talents, abilities, use, advantage, opportunity, serve, give, help, assist, receive, talenton, parable, Jesus, compare, measure, success, potential, John Wooden, UCLA, basketball, coach, regular, dependable, intercessor, affection, generous, accountability