Learning to be Faithful to the Trust

Good morning and welcome to week 2 of our stewardship month. The Bible asks many challenging questions. One such question is, “What do you have that you did not receive?” It reminds us that others paved the way for our enjoyments and even our gifts and abilities do not derive within ourselves. Thankfully, we have regular moments in a calendar year to ask a similar question:

• On Thanksgiving Day the church community feasts to celebrate all that God provides. We acknowledge him as the provider.

• On Christmas day we give gifts to symbolize our thanks for the gift of Jesus.

• On Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus making eternal life possible

• On Mother’s Day we celebrate our mom’s decision to give us life.

• On Father’s Day we celebrate our father’s work that put a roof over our head and clothes on our bodies when we did not have the capacity to do that ourselves.

• On Memorial Day we give thanks for the sacrifices our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers made so we can enjoy the national freedoms we have.

• During communion every month we celebrate Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and we look forward to his return.

We know that we benefit from other’s efforts. In some ways stewardship month looks back and says

• “Wow, look at all the blessings we enjoy because God used faithful people to steward all that He entrusted to them”

• At the same time stewardship looks forward and says, “will you, will you (will I) join them in seeing ourselves entrusted with gifts, abilities, and a mission to make a difference?” Stewardship month is a celebration with a challenge built into it.

This week we heard from Rita Jamison. She has served for 50 years in Children’s ministries. She started when I was 1. If my family lived here, Rita would have been one of my Sunday school teachers. Imagine how many families God has touched through 50 years of service.

Isn’t it true that this type of ministry service requires time and effort?

• Isn’t it true that other things could compete and potentially take away from our willingness to use what is entrusted to us properly?

• Isn’t it true that Rita had to say that God wants her to remain involved even after her and Jerry were no longer contributing to the need for children’s ministries?

Rita was willing to embrace the gifts, skills, and opportunities even if there was time and challenge associated with it. During stewardship month and the celebration, we hear several testimonies. There are many more we do not hear.

Many of you would know Mike & Marilyn Hines or possibly their daughter Shelly Opperman. They came to Faith and to a saving knowledge of Jesus, humanly speaking, because another family, Jim and Sharon Fales, embraced their stewardship role.

• It was 1977 … 45 years ago. Their girls attended girl scouts. It was not long before Jim and Sharon invited Mike and Marilyn to church. A few weeks later a team from Faith visited them (common in the 1970s, right?) and Mike and Marilyn trusted Christ.

• In the 45 years since, Mike and Marilyn have served in many different ways embracing what the Lord entrusted to them.

That is our subject today. With that in mind, please open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 4:1…page 131 of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you.

Let’s remind ourselves of the …

Four Principles of Stewardship

1. God owns everything, you own nothing.

2. God entrusts you with everything you have.

3. You can either increase or diminish what God has given; He wants you to increase it.

4. God can call you into account at any time, and it may be today.

Last week Pastor Viars explained principle #1 through the message Our God Who Owns Everything. We studied several passages that emphasize God’s ownership of it all. Such as…

• · Psalm 24:1 - The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.

• · Ephesians 4:6 - one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

• · Leviticus 25:23 - ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.

• · 1 Chronicles 29:11b - …indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.

This morning we’re moving to the second principle, focusing on…Learning to the be Faithful to the Trust. Like Rita of 50 years and Mike & Marilyn.

The church in Corinth was struggling. Divisions occurred. Some liked one church leader while others liked another. They were beginning to assign too much value to the individual persons and not enough value to the Lord who made it all possible.

The Lord writes to help them and us. Please follow along as I read 1 Corinthians 4:1-7. This is the Word of the Lord.

We’re talking about Learning to be Faithful to the Trust…please consider with me – 3 perspectives to help us be reliable servants of God …

I. Embrace Your Position as Steward

Since we started in chapter 4, lets quickly explain the divisions. They struggled with unity because they each had their favorite. In chapter 1 we find …

1 Corinthians 1:10–13 - Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

The Lord says it is completely ridiculous to set your identity on a church leader. Can you imagine if we had a group of people arguing with each other “I am of Pastor Viars” well “I am of Pastor Aucoin” or “I am of Pastor Johnny?” How could we accomplish what God has for us?

Look at chapter 3:5-7 where Paul returns to the same divisions (read vv. 5-7). Do you see that people were focused on the church leader? I am not suggesting that we toss out all discernment or that we cannot appreciate (or not appreciate) what a particular person does for the Lord.

But the overarching message to Jesus’ church is this … quit focusing on the leaders. This is Jesus’ church, it belongs to Jesus, and all believers belong to Jesus. Put your focus there.

There is also a temptation in the human heart to want to be the focus. It is nice to be loved, valued, and appreciated. I can easily think this way. But I cannot want to be the favorite nor can I have a favorite.

• Therefore, here is my self-counsel. Nobody talks to you more than you talk to you. So, as Pastor Viars mentioned last week… let’s be wise in what we say.

• Okay, ready to step into my mind? – Rob, your life plan is to do the best you can for Christ accomplishing whatever he calls you to do, drop dead exhausted, be forgotten while you worship Jesus in heaven.

• This puts the focus on Christ – where is should be. When it comes to others I can appreciate them for whatever gifts, skills, and abilities God gave them.

Your focus belongs on Jesus which is why Paul says in 3:7 “neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything … God causes the growth.”

That mindset leads right into what he says in chapter 4. 1 Corinthians 4:1 - Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

We are, that is all of us who know Christ as savior, are servants and stewards. Let’s understand this more clearly.

A. The meaning of the word

- the word steward is – oikonomos

Many people were given responsibilities in ancient days just like today. Many people were house servants. These are important positions. These people were given a trust. Paul uses servant in chapter 3 (the same word we use for deacon), then a general word for servant in v. 1 and then another word … this one = manager to highlight his role. He is a servant … not an owner. He was given the responsibility, he must faithfully carry it out, and therefore expects accountability.

In this specific case, he says I am a servant of Christ (focus on Jesus) and a steward (a person responsible) for the mysteries of God (I will explain that later).

One commentator described it this way, “Thus, apostles are to be regarded as ‘servants of Christ,’ reemphasizing their humble position and their belonging to Christ alone; at the same time they are ‘stewards of the mysteries of God’ emphasizing both their trusted position and their accountability to God.” (Fee, 1 Corinthians in NICNT, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987, 159).

What a fantastic way to say it. Who are we? Just servants of Christ. But also people entrusted with significant responsibility.

Please keep your place in 1 Corinthians and lets look at an OT example of a steward entrusted with a particular task. I think it will help us see this role of steward more clearly. Please turn to Genesis 24. I am talking about Eleazar – Abraham’s servant …page 16 of the front section of the Bible. Being a steward is …

B. A well-known concept to students in Scripture – cf. Eleazar in Genesis 24

Genesis 24 tells about when Abraham sent Eleazar his steward to get a wife for his son Isaac. Now that was trust if I ever heard one! The opportunity to mess that up abounds. Let’s read through the text and see five important characteristics of this man’s job.

1) He was charged/entrusted with his master’s goods. (v. 2)

In this case, he was a manager of his property and possessions.

2) He was given significant responsibility. (vv. 3-4)

Abraham requires him to place his hand under his thigh. It shows the seriousness of the task. When we hear the change, it is indeed serious.

3) He wanted to know his master’s will. (v. 5)

He wanted to act in a way that was consistent with what the master would do if he were the one making the trip. Eleazar will be empowered to negotiate the deal when he leaves. What a picture of priority. He is anticipating the possible challenges.

4) He was counting on and asking for divine enablement to help him do his job well. (v. 12)

Paul emphasized the servant of Christ nature in 4:1 and in 3:5-9. Christ is the focus. Christ empowers us for the task. Eleazar is functioning exactly like that. He knows that success (“giving of the increase” comes only from God). - one more point from this text --- look down at verse 34

This is where Eleazar is meeting with Rebekah and her parents and it’s interesting the way Eleazar describes himself, and the way he describes his master.

5) He attributed praise to his master’s name. (vv. 34-35)

He didn’t say -- I’m Eleazar, and I’m really a big shot because I’m the master’s right hand man.....and I’m worthy to be trusted for this important mission, even thought those things are true.

No, this was not about the steward, it was about the master. Just like John the Baptist would later say -- “he must increase, and I must decrease.”

What have we learned from this OT example of stewardship?

The master entrusted him with significant responsibility which could result in blessing or challenge to his master, he wanted to ensure he knew and did his master’s will, he asked the Lord to bless his efforts and he praised his master, not himself.

When Paul told the Corinthians that he was a steward, they may have thought about a man like Eleazar ---- the steward ---- the one who had been given an important trust from his master

Let’s now consider …

C. The significance of it being used with the Corinthians

1. For those aligning themselves with various leaders

Unity is found when everyone is focused on the Lord Jesus Christ…and we just consider ourselves and one-another as servants and stewards…

• there’s no reason to want to be elevated, or to elevate someone else…

• we’re just common, redeemed people who have been given an important trust…

• there’s also help here…

2. For those struggling with pride

1 Corinthians 4:7 - For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Stewardship month is an opportunity for us, annually, to humble ourselves – to lay down our pride and ask how often we talk about ourselves and how often we talk about being the servant of Jesus.

D. A challenge for each of us

We encourage everyone to pause this week and make a mental or physical list of what God has entrusted to us as individuals and as a church… The list is incredible. This was challenging homework for me too.

It reminds us of the point of stewardship principle #2 – God entrusts us with everything we have…

Our next point in the text touches on the 4^th principle which we will cover two weeks from now, but the idea appears in our passage.

II. Anticipate Your Judgement as a Steward

Stewardship month only works well if we’re using the right “measuring stick” as we make our evaluations…and there are actually a couple of landmines identified here, for example.

Beware of potentially inaccurate judgments

1. From other people

1 Corinthians 4:3 - But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court…

That is an amazing statement…but remember, it would appear that some in the church … I am of Paul branch …would want to put Paul on a pedestal…and Paul’s going to have nothing to do with that.

• Then there were other people who “are of Peter or Apollos” who want Paul to stop. Get out of the ministry. They want to tear him down and discredit him.

• Paul will have none of that either.

We get things wrong don’t we? Even when we think we know and understand a situation properly, we can still be wrong.

Besides according to v. 1 Paul is a servant of Christ and he is a steward of the mysteries of God. The mysteries of God in the NT is most often associated with the gospel. OT believers knew they could not be saved by their own merits. They were expecting and waiting for the Messiah. The mysteries involved who is the Messiah? When is he coming? Those questions were answered by Jesus. He is the Messiah, he has come. Now that he has D/B/R he provides the way for our sin to be paid for and for his righteousness to cover us. Paul was entrusted with sharing the mysteries (that are now clear) with those who had not heard the message.

Eleazar was not planning on coming home until he had a wife for Isaac and Paul was not planning on stopping his mission until every person had heard the message of the gospel.

He had a holy indifference to human evaluation that tried to surpass what the Lord might say according to His Word…and then Paul even says…beware of potentially inaccurate judgments.

2. Even from yourself

1 Corinthians 4:3 - But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

Wow! Why would Paul say that? We speak often about self-examination. We encourage you every month to examine yourself. What is Paul doing here?

• Paul also understands that we may not even judge ourselves properly.

• I understand what Paul is saying.

I am prone to either praise myself or diminish myself.

• When something goes well, I am tempted to think positively. What happens if you have 10 successes in a row? The temptation is to think that pedestal is not tall enough!

• When something does not go well then I am tempted to think I am not adequate and maybe someone else should do it. Now add 10 of these and what do you get? A person who is shut down depressed.

Sometimes we are way too hard on ourselves and other times way too easy…which is why we find next …

1 Corinthians 4:4 - For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Since all of us are prone to inaccurate judgments, we need massive doses of the Word of God…so we greater insight into the way he evaluates our faithfulness to the trust.

• Paul strikes such a mature balance.

• He has some people saying, Paul your awesome! Others saying Paul you’re a disgrace! On good days he might be tempted to think, Yes, I am awesome aren’t I? and on terrible days, “Yes, I am completely incompetent and someone else should do it.”

The Lord examines us…

B. The core issue is, and will be, our motivation

1 Corinthians 4:5 - Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.

That’s both a comfort, and a challenge, all rolled into one, isn’t it?...

We were in chapter 3 earlier where Paul revisited his earlier discussion about the divisions. But after he concluded that section, we see that he describes the judgment seat of Christ…and how as believers, we will someday give an account – not for our salvation (that’s secure because of the finished work of Jesus), but for our stewardship…

Read vv. 10-12 … notice what comes next. It is a trial by fire.

1 Corinthians 3:13 - each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

Read vv. 14-15 Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe used to like to say – as a Christian, I don’t fear the fire of hell, but I certainly fear the fire of heaven.

• The pending Judgment Seat of Christ can and should cause us to embrace the trust we have been given and anticipate the Lord’s judgment.

We are talking today about 3 perspective to help us be reliable servants.

1. First, we had to embrace the position. Let’s not fight it. God has given us a charge. Let’s own it.
2. Second, anticipate the Lord’s judgment. We can have a holy indifference to someone else’s critique of us as well as our own. However, we anticipate the Lord’s call to accountability.

Finally, …

III. Accept Your Responsibility as Steward

Remember that list I suggested? No. not your Christmas list. I mean the list of items that God wants you to steward. Please accept your responsibility. We see in this passage …

A. Because it is one of our core requirements

- v. 2 – “that one be found trustworthy”

Wow. Paul said he was a servant of Christ and a steward of the gospel message. When God entrusted that responsibility, we must do something with it.

The Bible has examples of those who did so and those who did not. Paul sometimes names them. Please notice:

2 Timothy 4:9–10 - Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

2 Timothy 4:14 - Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

Please compare that to what we read at the end of 1 Corinthians 4.

1 Corinthians 4:17 - For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

You could draw a straight line between 1 Cor. 4:2 and 1 Cor. 4:17 – it’s required in stewards that a man be found faithful, and by God’s grace, Timothy was that kind of steward…

Can I ask you to evaluate how you’re doing in this area?

• Do you see what God has entrusted you with?

• Have you embraced your position as a steward?

• Would Christ agree that you see and embrace?

Christian fathers … you have a relatively short time with the lives that God has given you to steward. Your children, as Brenda Thomas powerfully explained in our testimony last week, belong to God. But he entrusts them to you for a time.

• Have you embraced that? Parenting is 24x7x365 in the early years. As they become adults it is less intense and more scary.

Married couples … God entrusted you to each other. Husbands, every wife in this church should know that her husband cherishes her. She belongs to God and he gave her to you to experience the joys and challenges of life with another person.

• Wives, every husband ought to know that his wife appreciates him for what he does that is good and right.

Singles… you are not waiting to get married for your life to start. You are embracing the life and mission God has for you right now.

We are stewards of one another. We are church family. God will move some of us. He will take others of us home. But while we are together we are each other’s trust. How we care for each other matters.

• That is why we encourage ABFs. My experience at Faith Church would be different without them.

We are stewards of our gifts and abilities. Either steward what the Lord has given you or he might decide to entrust it to someone else.

• We are gifted in certain ways for reasons. We each have a package. Let’s not envy the someone else’s package. Let’s embrace ours and own ours and delight in ours.

We are stewards of opportunities to witness. Judy Leighty’s brother recently died. Phil and Judy had some decisions to make right before his death. Do we leave now or wait? They decided to drop everything and go.

• Judy’s brother did not know Christ despite hearing the gospel many times before. Phil decided to ask for a time alone with his brother-in-law. That day, he trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Later that day he stopped being able to communicate and 2 days later he died.

• There was a brief window of a couple days from when the initial call came to when he would be ushered into eternity to spend either with Jesus as his savior or in hell experience the unending consequence of rejecting Christ. You may have a brother, sister, parent, or child who has yet to repent of their sin and trust in the finished work of Christ. Steward the opportunity before the window closes.

Why are we here? Why hasn’t the Lord taken us home? Because we are stewards. It is one of our core responsibilities.

Why else accept the responsibility?

B. Because in so doing, we mirror an essential aspect of the character of our God

Every step we take to becoming more faithful, is a step we take to glorifying our God…and that’s especially true when we’re faithful to forgive…

Lamentations 3:22–23 - The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

I realize that you could be here and would say – I’m a long way from faithfulness to God in many areas of life…that could reveal that you don’t yet know the Lord… but here’s the good news…

C. Because our Savior stands ready to help us be like Him in this all-important way

The book of Revelation contains many pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ…and one of theme is:

Revelation 19:11 - And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

that’s the same Savior who said…Revelation 3:20 - Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

If you’ve never trusted Christ as savior and Lord before…you could do that today…and begin a journey of growing faithfulness. If talk about salvation, heaven/hell, Jesus is new to you, and you want to sit down personally and talk about it. Please, please, please contact us. Someone will sit down with you at a time convenient to you and answer your questions and go through it slowly.

Christian friend – if the Scripture has revealed one or more ways where you need to grow in faithfulness, don’t be discouraged by that – God’s mercies are new…every morning…great is His faithfulness. But let’s be sure to embrace it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more than my share of times where I wasn’t faithful to what had been entrusted to me…but we do not have to quit or be overly discouraged. We can rely on God’s grace and mercy which is new every morning and try all over again.

Let’s benefit from these first 2 principles of stewardship…

1. God owns everything, you own nothing.

2. God entrusts you with everything you have.

1 Corinthians 4:2 - In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.