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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning again, everyone. I'm glad you're here. And as we begin our service, we also want to remember to pray for our country. A very volatile time, I think, in our nation, as we saw yesterday. I'm glad Mister Trump wasn't injured worse than he was. We want to pray for his recovery as well as the safety of all of those who hold political office. The Bible says we pray for those who are in authority over us. And so we want to remember to pray for our country, pray for our leaders, and pray for some civility in our society. You know, we as Christians, we're to be salt and light. And the world is looking to people who follow Jesus to be the examples. And that's really a lot of what this fruit of the spirit series is about. It is about helping us understand the qualities that God desires to develop in our life and man. If ever there was a time that the church ought to shine brightly, that time is now. And the only way a church is going to shine brightly is after the Lord Jesus is made manifest as he is glorified within our midst. And one of the qualities we're going to speak of this morning, I think, is so needful in our world today. It is the quality of faithfulness. Faithfulness. In fact, if you look in your Bibles, Galatians, chapter five, the Bible says there in verse 22, the fruit of the spirit, of course, is love. It is joy. It is peace, long suffering. It is kindness and goodness. And it is also faithfulness. Now, when you think of the word, what it connotates, I'll get it out in a minute. I brush my teeth. I can't do anything with them.
It's trust. It is sincerity. It is being a person that you can count on. It is being genuine. It is being authentic. In fact, the Bible says in one corinthians four one, it is required, absolutely required, of a steward, that one be found faithful. The highest quality that God requires of his kids is faithfulness. And the only way we'll achieve that, ladies and gentlemen, is through the working of the Holy Spirit within our lives. This quality of faithfulness so what I want to do this morning is talk about a parable that Jesus used. And in the parable he talks about how faithfulness is not only recognized, faithfulness is also rewarded. And it's that famous parable in the 25th chapter of Matthew, the parable of the ten talents. Now, just by a way of bringing you up to speed when you read the word parable, and when Jesus teaches in parables, understand he is teaching a spiritual truth, but he's laying alongside of a spiritual truth a very earthly meaning. So he's using something spiritual, he's using something earthly in order to illustrate what he's teaching. Think of the word parallel. When you think of parable, it is one thing, a downside of another thing. Like railroad tracks are parallel to one another. There is a earthly meaning and a spiritual value. And that's the idea. So when Jesus is teaching on the ten para, the ten talents in the 25th book of Matthew, he's talking about an earthly idea that we can all grasp. But it has a heavenly connotation. There's my word. It has that heavenly connotation. And so in Matthew 25, look at verse 14. The Bible says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who calls his servants and delivered his goods to them. Verse 15. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability. And immediately he went on his journey. Now let me stop long enough to explain what's going on. Let me give you the context. The idea of this very wealthy man was going on a trip, and he pulls in three of his top employees, if you will, and he assigns to each of these employees a large sum of money. Now understand, a talent in the Bible was a weight of currency.
One talent was the equivalent of 6000 Daenerys. And a daenery was a greek and a roman coin. And one Daenery would typically be about what a person could earn in the average day. So in the average day, you could earn about one Daenery or Daenerys. So a talent was equivalent of 6000 da naira. So when you talk about one guy getting five talents, you understand the weight or you understand the magnitude of that particular investment that this businessman is making in his employee. I mean, on a conservative, on a very conservative note, it was probably better than two and a half million dollars. Now, can you imagine your boss pulling you in tomorrow and saying, I'm going to give you two and a half million dollars and I want to see what you do with it. I want to see how you use that money to grow our company. And I'm going to reward you based upon what you do with that amount of money. And so one was given five talents, one was given two. That would be about the equivalent, about a million dollars. And then one was given one, which would be roughly a half a million dollars. So each one, the Bible says, was given according to their ability. Now, they obviously didn't have Dei back then because HR would have called him in and said, that's not fair, they should all have the same amount.
But Jesus didn't get called in by HR. Instead, he gave them, as the Bible says, these sums according to their ability. It was a meritocracy. He said, I'm going to give you what I know you can handle. I know you'll do well with this. You are someone that has a five talent, capacity, and ability. You have a two talent, capacity, and ability. You have a one talent, capacity, and ability. Now, the principle of scripture is, God will never put on us more than we can bear. He knows what we're capable of. He knows our load limits. And God will bless us according to our ability, according to our capacity. And so the story goes, and I'll summarize it for time's sake, that the businessman did leave one who did the five talents, he gained five more. The other who did two talents, he gained two more. And the other who only had the one talent, he buried it in the earth. He did absolutely nothing with what God had given him. And so when the businessman returns, Jesus story goes that he calls them into account. Matthew 25 down in verse 19. I think I have this for you on the screen. And after a long time, the Lord of those servants came, settled the accounts with them. His lord said, note now to those who had done well with what they had well done good. And note now, faithful servants, you were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. And in that you see the principle of faithfulness, how God will recognize faithfulness, and God will reward faithfulness. So let's kind of draw the earthly application to us today. God has given everyone in this room certain abilities. You have certain talents. You have a certain level of resources. God has given us and blessed us according to our capacity, according to what we can handle. And he will only one day require of us the things that he has given us. God will never make a requirement of something he didn't ask you to do. He'll never make a requirement of something he didn't give you to do. In other words, God will only hold us responsible for the opportunities that he gave us and for the resources that he placed within our hands. God will hold us accountable for that which he has given us. And the Bible says in Romans 1412, so then one day each one of us will give an account of himself to God. So God recognizes who we are. He recognizes what we've been gifted with. He recognizes, and further, he recognizes what we are doing with what we have. And one day God will reward us according to what we have done.
And so I submit to you that faithfulness is the key. Faithfulness is significant to doing something with the things God has given us. In fact, it's not my ability, but it is my dependability that is the greatest quality of my life. Again, I'm going to say that it's not the ability but our dependability that is the greatest quality of our life. Now, let me touch on three things that I think it is absolutely necessary for us to be faithful in and to be faithful over. Number one, we are to be faithful in small things. Faithful in small things. Listen to Luke 16, verse ten. He kind of echoes what's written here in Luke 16, verse ten. If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But look now, if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. Think about that. Everything that's large is comprised of things that are small. Our entire life, as long as it may be or as brief as it may be, our lifetimes are really they consistental of a multitude of moments that we make in a lifetime. The memories that we collect, the things that we do in the minutes of our life that makes up our legacy and makes up our heritage. Everything that is large, I'm saying, is made up of thousands of things, millions of things that are small. And God never overlooks those details. So many lives have been wrecked because of the little decisions that a person makes. It's not about making big decisions. So you'll be called on from time to time to make big decisions. But the success of your life is going to be tied to the little decisions that you make in life. It's back to what we talked about before. One of the biggest challenges for a Christ follower is not to discern between good and evil. Most of us have that down. In fact, the kids across the way and met kids could tell you good and evil. They know that the biggest challenge for us is not good and evil. The biggest challenge for us is what's good for me as opposed to what's best for me?
Good and better. I mean, that's a good decision, but is it the best decision? That is a great decision, but is it absolutely the best decision? It's those little decisions that you and I make along the way that make up a life that creates a legacy. So everything that is big started very small. So I'm saying that we need to be faithful in the small things of life. In fact, the thing that made David so impressive when he stood before Goliath was the decisions that he made when he was alone.
Before David ever took out Goliath, in one Samuel 17, he said concerning himself. These are the qualifiers. When Saul said, why should I send you out to face Goliath? David said, because I faced a lion and I faced a bear. When they challenged the sheep, when they challenged the sheep, I was successful in those little battles and now those little battles have prepared me for the big battles. And I'm suggesting to your heart this morning that every little decision you make in life probably we will prepare you for the bigger decisions that you make in life. And when you put a string of good small decisions together, it's going to help you make a big decision. The reason David was such an effective leader and such effective king is because he was an effective shepherd. He was faithful over those sheep. And God said to David, because you've been faithful in the small things, I'm going to make you a ruler over big things. So it's a principle of scripture, folks I could point to that's throughout the Bible where he shows us the recognition of our faithfulness and the reward of our faithfulness. Now when I say faithfulness as it relates to our faith, they complement one another. Faith is what we believe. Faith is a body of belief. In fact, the great faith chapter of the Bible, Hebrews eleven, the Bible says now, faith, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by God. So there are three elements to faith. When you try to understand faith and faithfulness, the element of substance, the element of evidence and the element of understanding. It's all in Hebrews eleven one and two. Faith is substance. What is substance? Think about it as you break the word apart. Substance. Substance. Sub is something that goes beneath the surface. A submarine goes beneath the surface of the water. Sub stance to stand.
Faith is substance. It is something beneath me upon which I stand. Faith is not just wishful thinking. Faith is more than just positive thinking. Faith has to have an object. And when my faith is anchored in God's word and focused on Jesus, that faith becomes substance. It becomes something beneath me upon which I stand. Faith is evidence, he said, it is the evidence of things not seen. You're sitting in chairs that are composed of a lot of millions of little elements that we cannot see. As I said a moment ago, everything that is large, it is made up of a lot of things that are small. So faith has substance. Faith is evidence. And then by the Bible says, by faith we have understanding. What is understanding? Understanding is the truth I stand under. When I have a proper view of God and a proper view of his word, it shapes my understanding. And my understanding is the truth that I stand under. So I'm standing on his word. I'm standing on my faith in him. I'm standing under my belief in him. And so faith is my substance. Faith is my evidence. Faith is my understanding. Here's another way of thinking of it. In Hebrews 13, verses five and six, the Bible says, for God has said, for God has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Next verse, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, of whom shall I be afraid? Now put those two verses together. God has said, now go down to the verse six so that we may say, what is faith? Faith is saying what God has said. Faith is not me creating something. Faith is not me coming up with some idea. Faith is not me conjuring up something in my own mind and saying, I'm going to stand on what I think or what I feel. Faith again goes back to God's word, back to what he has said. And when I'm expressing faith, all I'm saying is what he said. When I'm speaking God's word, I'm standing on something stronger than my own word. He said it, therefore I say it. Faith is simply saying what God has said. And when you speak his word and when you stand on his truth, it gives you a strength in your life, and it gives you an emboldened an energy, it gives you an equipment to be able to be faithful. So faith is the body of belief. Faithfulness, then, is how I express that body of belief. Faithfulness is how I live out my life. It is my behavior. Now, I would tell you this. If a person says they have faith and it isn't demonstrated somewhere in their life, then I would question whether they really have faith. In James, the Bible says, faith without works is dead, meaning that if you really have a faith in God, it will be expressed, it will be seen in your life. I go back to one of the very principles of the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit doesn't teach that we are to be judging one another by trying to see the fruit in each other's life. But we are to be discerning of one another, meaning that there should be elements of fruit in everyone's life that I can see, that you can see. We're not to be a judge. We are to be fruit inspectors. And there's nothing wrong with looking at someone's life and say, before I get in a relationship with this person, I want to be sure I see some elements of the fruit of the spirit of. Now you're not judging them. You're just inspecting fruit. Before I go into this business partnership, I want to be absolutely certain I see some of the elements of the fruit of the spirit in this person's life. Before I go into a business partnership with that person, before I join a new church fellowship, I want to be certain that I'm seeing elements of the fruit of the spirit and the life of the church. That's not being judgmental, that's being discerning. And the Bible tells us that we are to discern the spirits to see whether they are of God or nothing. You're a wise person if you are a discerning person, and so you have faith, which is your body of belief. You have faithfulness, which is the expression of that belief. And one of the first places it ought to be evident. It is evident in the small things within our life. Proverbs 29 25 says, confidence in an unfaithful person is like a broken foot and a tooth out of joint. I don't know if you've ever bitten down on anything with a broken tooth, but that's a very painful experience. If you've ever tried to walk Michael with a broken foot, that's a painful experience. He's saying, when you put your faith in someone who doesn't, who isn't faithful, it is like walking on a broken foot. It is like eating with a broken tooth. It is a painful experience. So the first way whereby we should be faithful is we should be faithful. In the small things you have that. Let's go to number two. We should also be faithful. Are you ready? In the secret things, in the secret things, the 139th psalm, verses one and two. Lord, you have examined my heart. You know everything about me. You know when I sit down, you know when I stand up. You know my thoughts, even when I'm far away. What was that? That was total transparency. David recognized more than anything else in the world. God saw him, and God saw through him. David recognized the thing that every Christ follower in the room ought to recognize this morning. And that is, God sees us and he sees through us. And faithfulness is absolutely required in the small things of life. Faithfulness is absolutely required in the secret things of life. What do I mean by that? Someone has well defined our integrity or our character this way. They say, it is who we are when no one else is around.
In those secret moments, in those secret times, faithfulness is absolutely required. Why? Because the God of heaven is watching. The God of heaven knows, and the God of heaven, the Bible says, according to this parable that Jesus taught, will one day require it. Remember I told you a few weeks ago the principle, he who covers his sin will not prosper, but he that forsakes them, that God will then bless them and forgive them, and so forth? Well, the principle of scripture is, if you and I cover our sin, if we try to cover our sin, God eventually will uncover our sin. However, if you and I will uncover our sin in confession and openness and honesty and true repentance, God will then cover the sin. When I cover it, he uncovers it. When I uncover it, he covers it. You see how that works? And the Bible says, if you try to cover your sin eventually, be sure. Numbers 22 33, be sure, be certain. Your sin will find you out. So the best way to live life is to keep short accounts with God. In other words, just say, lord, I've blown it again. I'm going to confess my sin first. John one nine. If you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But confession is agreement, by definition, is what the word means. Confession is going before God and saying, I'm right, I'm sorry. What is repentance? Repentance is absolutely turning metanoia. It means to turn from sin to the savior, or turn to the savior from sin. It is an absolute honesty. It is an openness. It is a willingness to accept the thing that we've done, to own it, to acknowledge it, to confess it, and then forsake it. And the Bible said, when you uncover those elements of your life, God will then cover them. But if you try to live your life and cover those things eventually, be sure your sin finds you out. God will eventually uncover it. That's why I'm saying it is essential that you and I see the quality of being faithful in those secret things. It is the idea of integrity, having integrity, who we are when no one else is around. By the way, the word integrity is an interesting word. It's a mathematical word. I.
It comes from the word integer. You remember what an integer is? I wasn't good in math, I'll be honest with you, but I found that four out of three people aren't good at math either, so I feel better.
An integer is a whole number. A whole number. So integrity. Integrity comes from the idea of a wholesome, of being a whole person, being genuine and authentic, being whole. If you're not, you're a fraction. And fractions are of fractious people that create factions.
Let me say that again.
People who are fractions become fractious. That's a word. And they create factions. And so you become divisive and you're not a whole person.
And so it is necessary in my secret life that I am a person of integrity. I am a wholesome person. Now, I'm not to be divided either. If you're divided, you become divisive, you become guilty of duplicity. You can't be counted on because we never know who you are or where you are at any moment in time, because you shift and change with the trends and the times. So you can't be a divided person. It's not pretending, it's not hypocrisy, but you are the real person. You are genuine. People can count on you because they know how sincere and they know how honest and they know how authentic you are, and it's reflected in your secret life. So it is necessary for us to be faithful in the small things, faithful in the secret things. I read an interesting story of Michelangelo when he was painting the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. And they said he was up on the scaffolding and high up on the Sistine chapel, and he was working in an area that was behind one of those arches that his friend, when he came to check on him, looked up and he was trying to see what he was painting, because he had been working on that area for so long, and the guy couldn't see what he was doing. He was working and working. And finally he called out to him and said, what are you doing? He said, I'm trying to finish this section of the painting. And he said, well, I can't even see it. And he said, and nobody else will see it. Why are you spending so much time on something I can't see and no one else can see? What does it matter, he said, it matters to me, he said, because I will know it's not finished and God will know it's not finished. And he continued working on a section of the ceiling that only God and only Michelangelo could see. When I read that, I thought, that's being faithful in the secret things, that's being faithful in the small things. That's just doing what we do with a sense of excellence, with a sense of integrity. Here's a third thought, we'll go home. Not only is it being faithful in the small things and in the secret things, but thirdly, faithful in the sacred things, faithful in the sacred things, the things that as a Christ follower, we are to be in the things that we're to do. You know what the highest goal for a Christ follower, you know the highest goal, you know what it should be, you say to bring someone else to Jesus. Well, that's certainly up there. It's not the highest goal, but it's a very, very high goal. You say, well, to be faithful in my giving, well, that's a high goal. It's partnering with God and giving back to him what he has asked. That's great. That's not the highest goal. You say, well, being good with my family or being an honest business. Well, those are all high goals and those are great goals. But listen, the highest goal for a Christ follower, here it is, is to bring God glory, to bring him glory.
In Ephesians, when Paul was writing concerning the church, he said unto him, be glory in the church. And you read that expression, what does that mean? It almost sounds like Christianese, doesn't it? Like, what does glory mean? Well, let me give you the best definition I've ever heard on glory. Here it is. Glory is simply defined as this. Everything that God is, everything that God is, is glory. What is the highest goal of a Christ follower? Is to be a reflection of everything that God is, everything that is. In fact, when you read romans 828, we've all read that and we quote it a lot when we go through a hard time. And it's a great verse to quote in a hard time, for we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God and those who are called to his purpose. That's a good one. Hang on to that one. But don't quit reading there. Read verse 29.
Verse 29 says, for God's in the process of conforming us into the image of his son, God is shaping us through the events of life, the good times and the bad times, the happy times, the sad times. God is using all things in our life, good things and bad, to conform us into the image of his son. Meaning he's using the things that you and I go through in our everyday life to shape us and. And to make us so that we ultimately look more like Jesus.
When I'm faithful in the sacred things, that means I am cognizant of the fact God's doing a work in me so that he can do a work through me. I told you before that when Cindy and I, we were in Hawaii years ago and we went into this studio and we saw the work of these artisans who would paint and they would take driftwood. One guy just caught my eye. He took Driftwood and he made these incredible art designs out of driftwood. And I'm looking at that thinking, man, that's incredible. And boy, they wanted amazing amounts of money, you know, for that driftwood. And I thought, well, I just walked past driftwood on the beach. And I didn't see what he saw in the driftwood. But the artist saw something in the driftwood. He saw not just what it was, he saw what it could be. And once the driftwood hit the artist's hands, he made it into a valuable work of art. And I thought, man, that's God. We're driftwood, right?
Left to ourselves, we're not that valuable. But when we're in his hands, God can take. He can take ashes and make beauty. God can take anything and make something from nothing. God has that ability. And we kind of look at each other. Sometimes we walk by each other and go, Driftwood.
That's Driftwood. You know, I hang out with them. Driftwood. Right.
But God doesn't do that. He values everyone. He doesn't dismiss anyone like that. He sees the potential that we possess. In fact, if you were the only soul on the earth for Jesus to go to the cross to redeem, he would have died just for you and you alone. God just doesn't just love all of us, he loves each one of us. And he's in the process of making something incredible out of us. And he'll take the driftwood and he'll take that which the world has discarded. And he'll make it into something beautiful. Because it is. Listen. It is a reflection of the artist.
When I bring him glory, it is a reflection of the artist. It is nothing to be said of me. He just says, bill had enough sense to humble himself into the hands of the artist. And the artist made something incredible through the work of his hands. So I am suggesting friend, when you and I yield to the control of the Holy Spirit and allow God to work, that faithfulness will be demonstrated in the small things of our life, in the secret things of our life, in the sacred things of our life. It'll affect the way we love our family, it'll affect the way we treat them. It'll affect the way we love one another, and it'll affect the way we treat one another. I've told you before, the greatest argument for Christianity is a Christian. And the greatest argument against Christianity is a Christian. I said, let me end where I started. We have a pressure on us as Christ followers in this world today that desperately needs salt. Salt is a preservance and it needs light.
And boy, if there ever was a time when you and I ought to yield to the spirit and allow him to develop the qualities of that fruit within our life, that time is now. And one of the greatest qualities that we could demonstrate through our faith in Jesus is faithfulness. To be counted on to be authentic, to be a person and a people of character and integrity, to be what we say we are. Man, it ought to be. If you tell somebody that rooster dip snuff, they ought to look under his can for a can of skull. They ought to say, that rooster does dip snuff. He said he did right. We ought to have that level of integrity. People should be able to trust our word. And so I just pray tonight, I pray this day as we walk from this place that we'll be a people determined by the grace of God to yield to the spirit's control and allow him to develop the quality of faithfulness in our life. Let's pray together.
Lord, thank you for this day. God, we are so grateful for all that you're doing in this place and all that you're doing in the CRC.
Thank you Father, for 815 families that received food yesterday.
Thank you, Lord, for a total of over 1200 families that were impacted this past week just through the ministry of the CRC. Thank you for the volunteers and the staff here this morning who served there. Thank you for those who support that ministry through their giving through the church.
And Father, we're grateful for what you're doing in this ministry, for the lives that are touched and the people who are changed and the impact that we see made each and every week. We thank you for that. We never want to take for granted your hand of favor on this ministry. But Lord, as we come before you this morning, receiving communion, offering our worship, we come now, Father, asking for the quality of faithfulness to be a reality in each life and in each home. Help us to walk out of here seeing that value and understanding how important it is in our homes and in our businesses and in our nation, within our church. And father, finally, I pray for anyone in this room or anyone watching online who may never have trusted you as savior, that this might be the moment where they humbled their heart and they just pray a simple prayer like this and say, Lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life, and I ask this in Jesus precious name. Amen.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
