Speaker 1: If you want God's blessing on your life, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to learn to live by faith. Because everything God
Speaker 1: does in you, through you, for you, and to you,
Speaker 1: he does because you put your faith in his grace.
Speaker 1: God always moves according to your faith. The Bible says
Speaker 1: without faith it's impossible to please God. The Bible says
Speaker 1: according to your faith it will be done unto you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.
Speaker 1: It says whatever is not of faith is sin. The
Speaker 1: problem is everything in this world focuses against you to
Speaker 1: keep you from living by faith. That's why this weekend
Speaker 1: in this series, I want us to look at being
Speaker 1: faithful in a faithless world. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus
Speaker 1: said this. He said, when I, the son of man, return,
Speaker 1: and Jesus is coming back one day, when I, the
Speaker 1: son of man, return, how many will I find on
Speaker 1: earth who have faith? Why is it so important? Well,
Speaker 1: the Bible tells us three things about the importance of faith.
Speaker 1: I want you to write these down. Number one, the
Speaker 1: Bible tells us that God is looking for faithful people.
Speaker 1: God is physically, visibly, actively taking the initiative to look
Speaker 1: for faithful people that he can bless. God is looking
Speaker 1: for people that he can bless. And what he looks
Speaker 1: for is people of faith. Second Chronicles 16, nine says this,
Speaker 1: For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth
Speaker 1: across the whole world looking for people whose hearts are
Speaker 1: perfect toward him so that he can show his great
Speaker 1: power in helping them. This has been one of my
Speaker 1: life verses. That God is looking for people to use.
Speaker 1: And if you get usable, he will wear you out.
Speaker 1: If you get blessable, he will bless your socks off.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't wear socks. And God says, I
Speaker 1: will use you if you will be usable. God is
Speaker 1: looking for people, faithful people that he can use. Number two,
Speaker 1: the second thing the Bible teaches is that faithful people
Speaker 1: are hard to find. They're actually quite rare. People who
Speaker 1: trust God with all their heart and soul and mind
Speaker 1: and strength are actually quite rare. Faithful people are hard
Speaker 1: to find. The Bible says in Proverbs 20, verse six,
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about how faithful he is, but it is
Speaker 1: difficult to find someone who really is. A lot of
Speaker 1: people talk the talk, but they don't really trust God.
Speaker 1: They don't really believe God. They're trusting their credit card.
Speaker 1: They're trusting everything else. They say they believe in God,
Speaker 1: but they don't really trust him when it comes to
Speaker 1: their finances, their health, their job, and these other things.
Speaker 1: Psalm 53 says this. God looks down from heaven at
Speaker 1: the children of man to see if a single one
Speaker 1: is wise and seeks God. But he says all of
Speaker 1: them have proven faithless. Circle that word, faithless. They've all
Speaker 1: proven faithless. They've all been corrupted by the world. And
Speaker 1: not one of them always does right. Faithful people are
Speaker 1: hard to find. God's looking for people to bless, but
Speaker 1: he can't find people who are blessable, who are gonna
Speaker 1: live by faith. Now the third thing the Bible says
Speaker 1: is this. Faithfulness is the key. to blessing, to victory.
Speaker 1: It's the key to victory in your life over all
Speaker 1: of the problems in your life, and it's the key
Speaker 1: to blessing in your life, just being a faithful man,
Speaker 1: a faithful woman. The Bible says this in 1 John
Speaker 1: chapter 5, every child of God can defeat the world. Remember,
Speaker 1: we're in this battle called the invisible war, and it
Speaker 1: is our faith, circle that, our faith that gives us
Speaker 1: the victory. That's how you're gonna overcome your problems. Not
Speaker 1: by intelligence, not by money, not by creativity, but it
Speaker 1: is by your faith you're going to be able to
Speaker 1: overcome difficulties, distress, despair, things like that. Every child of
Speaker 1: God can defeat the world and it is our faith
Speaker 1: that gives us this victory. No one can defeat the
Speaker 1: world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says in Proverbs 28 20, A faithful
Speaker 1: man will be richly blessed. I want your life to
Speaker 1: be richly blessed. But in order for you to have
Speaker 1: that blessing, you're gonna have to learn faithfulness. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to learn how God tests it and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to learn how God grows it. So let's look
Speaker 1: this weekend at the six tests of faithfulness and how
Speaker 1: God uses these things in your life to grow your
Speaker 1: faith so that then he can bless you. Let's get
Speaker 1: right into it. Number one, the Bible tells us that
Speaker 1: God uses little things to test your integrity. God uses
Speaker 1: little things to test your integrity. Now we often think, oh,
Speaker 1: it's the big things in life that create a leader. No,
Speaker 1: the big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is
Speaker 1: built not in the big things of life, it's built
Speaker 1: in the small things of life. That's where integrity shows up,
Speaker 1: in the stuff nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: in the small, unseen, unspectacular moral choices of life where
Speaker 1: you do the right thing and nobody's ever gonna see it.
Speaker 1: God tests your integrity in the little things. And faithfulness
Speaker 1: requires integrity. Faithful people reveal their integrity in the small,
Speaker 1: the unseen, and the unnoticed acts that nobody ever knows about.
Speaker 1: Luke 16, verse 10, Jesus says this. Whoever is faithful
Speaker 1: in small matters will be faithful in large ones. And
Speaker 1: who is ever dishonest in small matters will be dishonest
Speaker 1: in large ones. Now what is he saying here? He's
Speaker 1: saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity.
Speaker 1: Did you hear that? Every time a politician has a scandal,
Speaker 1: you can always count on his defenders to come out
Speaker 1: and say this. It really shouldn't matter what a guy's
Speaker 1: private life is like. Have you ever heard that one?
Speaker 1: It really shouldn't matter what a guy does in his
Speaker 1: private life. It hasn't had anything to do with him
Speaker 1: as a leader. It has everything to do with him
Speaker 1: as a leader. Because if a man lies to his wife,
Speaker 1: he'll lie to his constituency. Believe me, if he'll lie
Speaker 1: to his best friend that he said till death do
Speaker 1: us part and be dishonest and he'll reject and cheat
Speaker 1: on her, he will cheat on you, voter. Count on it.
Speaker 1: Count on it. My public blessing as a leader comes
Speaker 1: because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. Your public
Speaker 1: blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that
Speaker 1: nobody will ever see. God uses little things to test
Speaker 1: my integrity. Not only that, notice the next verse. Jesus
Speaker 1: says this. And if you have not been faithful with
Speaker 1: that which belongs to somebody else, who will give you
Speaker 1: what belongs to you? Now he's talking here about the
Speaker 1: concept of apprenticeship, that before God gives you something, he
Speaker 1: will often loan it to you. He'll often see how
Speaker 1: you work in somebody else's. For many centuries, the only
Speaker 1: way you learned a job skill is you became an
Speaker 1: apprentice in somebody else's job. If you wanted to learn
Speaker 1: to be a shoemaker, you apprenticed to a shoemaker who
Speaker 1: mentored you. If you wanted to be a mechanic, you
Speaker 1: apprenticed to a mechanic and you worked in his mechanic
Speaker 1: shop before you got your own. The problem today is
Speaker 1: we have many people going out and starting things and
Speaker 1: they've never apprenticed under anybody else and they get in
Speaker 1: all kinds of trouble. He says, before you get your own,
Speaker 1: you need to serve in somebody else. As a pastor,
Speaker 1: I believe apprenticed under many other ministries before I was
Speaker 1: given my own ministry. I served as a youth pastor
Speaker 1: under a guy's ministry in Norwalk. I served as a
Speaker 1: Christian teacher in a college under somebody else's ministry. I
Speaker 1: served as an associate pastor. I served as a writer
Speaker 1: in a Christian organization long before God gave me my
Speaker 1: own ministry. He says, if you're not faithful with somebody
Speaker 1: else's job, who's gonna give you? Are you as faithful
Speaker 1: particular with somebody else loans you something. Somebody loans you
Speaker 1: a car. Do you treat it as nicely as you'd
Speaker 1: treat your own car? Somebody loans you their home to
Speaker 1: go on vacation. Do you treat it as nicely as
Speaker 1: you would your own home? You see, I learned a
Speaker 1: long time ago this principle. I don't have to own
Speaker 1: it to enjoy it, but I can take care of
Speaker 1: it even though it's not mine. And so I don't
Speaker 1: have to own stuff for people to, you know, this
Speaker 1: week a guy, uh, I had to fly over to
Speaker 1: Phoenix to speak at a convention. And the guy said, Rick,
Speaker 1: why don't you get your own plane? I said, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: You will never hear me get my own plane. Now,
Speaker 1: if you want to buy one, I'll use yours. I'll
Speaker 1: be happy. But I don't have to own it to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. He said, but you fly all around the world.
Speaker 1: I said, no, no, I'm not gonna buy a plane.
Speaker 1: First place, I don't think it's good for pastors to
Speaker 1: own that kind of stuff. But I said, I don't
Speaker 1: have to own it to enjoy it. If somebody else
Speaker 1: wants to provide, you got a plane, fine, I'll use it.
Speaker 1: But don't worry about having to own something in order
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. God will often entrust you with something
Speaker 1: that somebody else's before he gives you your own Number two, second,
Speaker 1: very important. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness.
Speaker 1: God uses my talents to test my unselfishness. Now you
Speaker 1: have to decide in life who or what you're gonna
Speaker 1: live for. And you've really got two choices in life.
Speaker 1: You're either gonna A, live for yourself, a self-centered, miserly life,
Speaker 1: or B, You're gonna live for something greater than yourself,
Speaker 1: which I highly suggest. The kingdom of God, live for
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. You're gonna live for yourself or you're gonna
Speaker 1: live for something bigger than yourself. Faithful people don't live
Speaker 1: for themselves. They realize that the talents God gave them
Speaker 1: are not for their own benefit, but to make the
Speaker 1: world a better place. Do you realize this? That when
Speaker 1: God made you, he gave you all kinds of gifts,
Speaker 1: all kinds of talents, all kinds of abilities. We call
Speaker 1: it your shape if you've taken class 301. Your spiritual gifts,
Speaker 1: your heart, your abilities, your personality, your experiences. These five
Speaker 1: things make you you. And God made you you and
Speaker 1: there's nobody like you in the whole world and he
Speaker 1: wants you to be you for his glory. Now, God
Speaker 1: shaped you to serve him. How do you serve God?
Speaker 1: There's only one way to serve God, by serving other people.
Speaker 1: On this planet, you cannot serve God directly because you
Speaker 1: can't see him. So the only way you can serve
Speaker 1: God is by serving others. And when you serve others,
Speaker 1: you are serving God. And God shaped you to serve him. Now,
Speaker 1: faithful people realize that their talents are not for their benefit.
Speaker 1: You know those talents you got? I'm sorry, they weren't
Speaker 1: given for your sake. You were given the abilities you
Speaker 1: got to help other people. One of my gifts, one
Speaker 1: of my talents is I have a talent at teaching.
Speaker 1: But God gave me the teaching gift not to benefit me,
Speaker 1: but to help you. My gift helps you. In the
Speaker 1: same way, God has gifted you. And your gift was
Speaker 1: meant to help me and to help other people around you. Now,
Speaker 1: if I don't use my gifts, my talents, you get cheated.
Speaker 1: If you don't use the gifts and talents that God
Speaker 1: gave you, I get cheated. Now, you may have a
Speaker 1: talent for art and you say, well, why do I
Speaker 1: do art? Because I just love to do it. Well,
Speaker 1: that's nice, but that's not a good enough motive because
Speaker 1: God didn't give you artistic ability just so you can
Speaker 1: love to do it. He gave it to you so
Speaker 1: you can use your art in some ways to help
Speaker 1: other people. Some of you have an ability to fix things.
Speaker 1: Some of you are good at mechanics. Some of you
Speaker 1: are good at math. Some of you are good at
Speaker 1: closing deals. Some of you are good at music. Some
Speaker 1: of you are good at organizing. And you can organize
Speaker 1: something really quick. And some of you are good at
Speaker 1: trimming and gardening. And you know what? God made us
Speaker 1: all different so everything in the world gets done. If
Speaker 1: we all like to do the same thing, there'd be
Speaker 1: a lot left undone. So God made us all like
Speaker 1: to do different things. Now, those things that God gave
Speaker 1: you are not for your benefit. They are given as
Speaker 1: a stewardship. And God is watching you to see if
Speaker 1: you use what he gave you effectively on earth. And
Speaker 1: if you use it effectively on earth, listen, he's gonna
Speaker 1: give you more responsibility in heaven. There's a whole lot
Speaker 1: of teaching on this in scripture. Jesus told many parables
Speaker 1: about it. that God is studying your faithfulness. Have you
Speaker 1: ever thought about, why didn't God just create us and
Speaker 1: take us to heaven? Why does he put us here
Speaker 1: on a broken planet for 80 years or 90 years
Speaker 1: or whatever? He puts you here because life is a
Speaker 1: test and life is a trust and life is a
Speaker 1: temporary assignment. And he's watching to see if you are
Speaker 1: faithful with what he gave you here on earth to
Speaker 1: bless other people, he's gonna give you greater rewards, greater
Speaker 1: responsibility and greater roles in heaven. This is a test. Now,
Speaker 1: the Bible says this, 1 Peter chapter four. Each one
Speaker 1: of you should use whatever gift he has received to
Speaker 1: make a ton of money. Retire and die. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: He says to serve others faithfully, circle that word faithfully,
Speaker 1: faithfully administering. You're a manager and you're a manager of
Speaker 1: the talent you've been given. Faithfully managing God's grace in
Speaker 1: its various forms. God gave you talents and he's watching
Speaker 1: to see if you're faithful with them. Now, one of
Speaker 1: the principles we know is if you don't use it,
Speaker 1: you lose it. Talent is like a muscle. If you
Speaker 1: use muscle, it gets stronger. If you don't use your muscle,
Speaker 1: you lose your muscle. If you don't use your talent
Speaker 1: because of fear or laziness or anything like that, God
Speaker 1: will take it away and give it to somebody else.
Speaker 1: Whatever you use wisely, God gives you more of. Would
Speaker 1: you write that down? Whatever I use wisely, God will
Speaker 1: give me more of. If you use your time wisely,
Speaker 1: God will give you more time. If you use your
Speaker 1: energy wisely, God will give you more energy. If you
Speaker 1: use your money wisely, God will give you more money.
Speaker 1: I have found that if you use your influence wisely,
Speaker 1: God will give you more influence. But if you're faithful
Speaker 1: in little, then you'll be faithful in much. So if
Speaker 1: I take my talents, if I use my talents wisely,
Speaker 1: God will increase my talent. And I'll get better at it.
Speaker 1: And I'll get more better at it. And better and
Speaker 1: better and better. Because God gives to people who use
Speaker 1: what he gives them effectively. Look at the next verse.
Speaker 1: Now it is required that those who have been given
Speaker 1: a trust must prove what? That's what we're talking about
Speaker 1: this weekend. God is watching to see, do I use
Speaker 1: my time, my money, my influence? Do I use my intelligence?
Speaker 1: Do I use my brain wisely? Then he's gonna give
Speaker 1: you more. Whatever I use wisely, God will give me
Speaker 1: more of. There are two great themes in the Bible,
Speaker 1: two great themes. One is salvation and the other is stewardship.
Speaker 1: They're taught from cover to cover. Salvation is, have I
Speaker 1: trusted Jesus for my forgiveness? Stewardship is, what are you
Speaker 1: doing with what you've been given? And God is looking
Speaker 1: at both of these major themes in your life. Number three,
Speaker 1: the third test. And if you pass this test, then
Speaker 1: God gives you more blessing. And this test will be
Speaker 1: on and on. Number three, God uses tough times to
Speaker 1: teach me persistence. God uses tough times to teach me persistence.
Speaker 1: The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is unfaithful
Speaker 1: people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful
Speaker 1: people keep on keeping on. Faithful people are determined. Faithful
Speaker 1: people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Faithful people don't
Speaker 1: know how to quit. Do you know how a little nut,
Speaker 1: an acorn becomes an oak tree? An oak tree is
Speaker 1: just an acorn that refused to give up. And it
Speaker 1: just kept on keeping on. And you just never give up.
Speaker 1: I'm not that smart, but I do have one thing,
Speaker 1: is I don't know how to quit. It is always
Speaker 1: too soon to quit. You are never a failure till
Speaker 1: you quit, and it's always too soon to quit. God
Speaker 1: uses tough times to test us. my persistence. You know,
Speaker 1: when we started Saddleback with just Kay, I preached the
Speaker 1: first sermon to one person, my wife. She thought it
Speaker 1: was too long. It's been downhill ever since. 31 years later,
Speaker 1: she's still saying it's too long. Over the next, I
Speaker 1: thought when we started the church, we'd get a building
Speaker 1: real quick. We went 15 years without a building In
Speaker 1: the first 13 years of this church, we used 79
Speaker 1: different facilities. Do you know how many times I felt
Speaker 1: like giving up? Just every Monday morning. But I don't
Speaker 1: know how to quit. And we said, God said, Rick,
Speaker 1: if I never give you a building, will you still
Speaker 1: serve me? I said, absolutely. Saddleback grew to over 10,000
Speaker 1: people before we built this first building. How would you
Speaker 1: like to set up and take down a church for 10,000
Speaker 1: people every week? There's not a lot of glory to that.
Speaker 1: It's just hard work. God says, I use tough times
Speaker 1: to test your persistence. Notice this verse. You're going through
Speaker 1: tough times right now. This verse is for you. 2
Speaker 1: Corinthians 4. This is why we never give up. Though
Speaker 1: our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
Speaker 1: For our present troubles are quite small, and they won't
Speaker 1: last very long but they will produce for us an
Speaker 1: immeasurably great glory that will last forever because when you're
Speaker 1: going through tough times you're growing in character so he
Speaker 1: says we don't look at the troubles we can see
Speaker 1: right now In other words, we don't keep our eyes
Speaker 1: on the problem. Rather, we look forward to what we
Speaker 1: have not seen, the reward for persevering. For the troubles
Speaker 1: we've seen will soon be over, but the joys to
Speaker 1: come will last forever. You see, there's something God is
Speaker 1: more interested in than what you do. God is more
Speaker 1: interested in who you are than what you do. He's
Speaker 1: more interested in what you're becoming than what's happening to you.
Speaker 1: And God often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, problems, persistence, you know,
Speaker 1: in your life to teach you the diligence, determination, and character.
Speaker 1: The problem you're going through right now, this is a test.
Speaker 1: It's easy to serve God when things are going great. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're going through a tough time right now, and
Speaker 1: almost everybody is, the next verse you need to memorize.
Speaker 1: So put a star by it. Go home and write
Speaker 1: it down on a card and memorize it this week
Speaker 1: for encouragement. Galatians 6, 9. Don't get tired of doing
Speaker 1: what is right. You will, circle will, not might, you
Speaker 1: will be rewarded when the time is right if you
Speaker 1: don't give up. I want us to read that verse
Speaker 1: aloud together. Read it with me. Don't get tired of
Speaker 1: doing what's right. You will be rewarded when the time
Speaker 1: is right if you don't give up. You need to
Speaker 1: memorize that verse because God uses tough times to test
Speaker 1: your persistence. One of my great spiritual lessons I learned
Speaker 1: from that theologian, Forrest Gump. Everybody remember the story Forrest Gump?
Speaker 1: In Forrest Gump, there's a story of a hard time
Speaker 1: that they go through which a hurricane, tsunami, comes into
Speaker 1: the south part of America, okay? And all of the fishing, remember,
Speaker 1: Forrest Gump has a fishing boat, Bubba Gump Shrimp, okay?
Speaker 1: He's got a fishing boat. And all of the other
Speaker 1: fishing boats say, we got a storm coming in, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna play it safe. We're not gonna be out
Speaker 1: fishing during the storm. We're gonna pull into the harbor.
Speaker 1: We're gonna batten down the hatches. We're gonna tie up
Speaker 1: next to shore and we're gonna wait out this recession,
Speaker 1: this storm. Economic tough times are coming. We got a
Speaker 1: storm coming in. It's a parable. And so we're gonna
Speaker 1: tie up and we're gonna play it safe. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna be out fishing. We're gonna wait it out the storm.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play it conservative. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Only
Speaker 1: one fishing boat is doing what fishing boats are made
Speaker 1: to do, fish. And so Forrest Gump is out on
Speaker 1: the ocean fishing in the middle of the storm. If
Speaker 1: you remember this story, at the end of the storm,
Speaker 1: every boat that had tied down in the harbor was destroyed.
Speaker 1: They had all been dashed against the rocks. They were
Speaker 1: completely dominated and broken up and they were all destroyed.
Speaker 1: And after the storm, Forrest Gump dominated the market because
Speaker 1: he was the only one who didn't play it safe.
Speaker 1: Number four. The fourth thing that you need to understand
Speaker 1: is that God uses shortages to test my generosity. God
Speaker 1: uses shortages to test my My generosity. Faithful people are
Speaker 1: generous when they don't have it to give. Now follow
Speaker 1: me on this. Anybody can be generous when you got
Speaker 1: a surplus. I can be generous with my time when
Speaker 1: I got a lot of extra time. I can be
Speaker 1: generous with my money when I got a lot of
Speaker 1: extra money. I can be generous with my energy when
Speaker 1: I got extra energy to spend. I can be generous
Speaker 1: with help when I've got a lot of extra help
Speaker 1: to give. It's when I don't have enough for me.
Speaker 1: I don't have enough time for me. I don't have
Speaker 1: enough energy for me. I don't have enough money for me.
Speaker 1: I don't have enough talent for me. And I give
Speaker 1: it away to help others. God goes, this is a test.
Speaker 1: And I'm watching you to see if you are faithful.
Speaker 1: will you be faithful and will you trust me? Now,
Speaker 1: a great example of this in the Bible is the
Speaker 1: story of the church in Macedonia. Macedonia was an area
Speaker 1: of Greece. Alexander the Great, he was from Macedonia. His
Speaker 1: father was Philip of Macedonia. Now there's a church in
Speaker 1: this place called Macedonia in Greece and there's another church
Speaker 1: in Greece called the Corinthians. Corinth is a city in Greece.
Speaker 1: And Paul writes a letter to the church at Corinth
Speaker 1: and he's bragging on the church at Macedonia for them
Speaker 1: being generous in the middle of their shortages. Here's what
Speaker 1: he says, look up here on the screen. He says,
Speaker 1: those people over there in Macedonia, they're going through this
Speaker 1: enormous recession. He goes, they have been going through severe trouble.
Speaker 1: They've been going through very hard times. And out of
Speaker 1: their extreme poverty, these people are flat broke, has flowed
Speaker 1: extreme generosity and overwhelming joy. What's he talking about? He
Speaker 1: said those people over there, they are hurting like crazy.
Speaker 1: But they gave a huge offering to help the church
Speaker 1: down in Jerusalem that's starving right now. He goes out
Speaker 1: of their poverty came generosity. He said God's watching that.
Speaker 1: They are being faithful. They are being faithful. Did you
Speaker 1: know that the number one test, the acid test of
Speaker 1: your faith in your life is your finances? Not anything else,
Speaker 1: but it's your finances. Why? Because we spend most of
Speaker 1: our time thinking, making, worrying, investing, saving money. It's the
Speaker 1: acid test of how much do I trust God, my finances.
Speaker 1: In fact, Jesus said it like this. I tell you,
Speaker 1: use worldly wealth, your worldly resources, that's your time, your money,
Speaker 1: your energy, everything, use your worldly resources to benefit others
Speaker 1: and to make friends for eternity. In other words, to
Speaker 1: help get people into heaven, finance missions. In this way,
Speaker 1: your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven.
Speaker 1: He said, when you help other people with whatever you've got,
Speaker 1: you're storing up a reward for you in heaven. But
Speaker 1: if you are unfaithful, there's that word, if you're unfaithful
Speaker 1: with your worldly wealth, you just spend it all on yourself,
Speaker 1: who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?
Speaker 1: You cannot serve both God and money. He said, if
Speaker 1: I can't trust you with material wealth in this world,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna trust you with the true riches of
Speaker 1: heaven in eternity. This is a test. Let me give
Speaker 1: you five principles right now. I want you to write
Speaker 1: these down. To make it through tough times. These are
Speaker 1: five principles that if you will do these things, God
Speaker 1: will bless you in your life in these areas, okay?
Speaker 1: Number one, first principle in a recession. God gives to
Speaker 1: generous people. God gives generously. to generous people. This is
Speaker 1: a principle in the Bible. God says, the more generous
Speaker 1: you are, the more generous I'm gonna be with you.
Speaker 1: If you're generous with your time, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: more time. If you're generous with your energy, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you more energy. If you're generous with your talent,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you more talent. God says, why does
Speaker 1: God want me to be generous? Obviously, he doesn't need it.
Speaker 1: He wants me to be like him. Everything I have
Speaker 1: in my life, everything you have in your life is
Speaker 1: because of the generosity of God. Your heart is beating
Speaker 1: because of the generosity of God. The blood in your
Speaker 1: veins and the air you breathe is all there because
Speaker 1: of the generosity of God. God so loved that he gave.
Speaker 1: And God wants us to grow up and be like him.
Speaker 1: Like father, like son, like father, like daughter. God wants
Speaker 1: me to learn to be generous. And so he rewards it.
Speaker 1: And there's a principle throughout the Bible where God says,
Speaker 1: the more generous you are, the more generous I will
Speaker 1: be with you. You cannot out-give God. I have played
Speaker 1: this game for many years. Most of you know my story.
Speaker 1: Kay and I started tithing when we were married 36
Speaker 1: years ago. And each year raised our tithe from 10%,
Speaker 1: at least 1% a year, to 11%, to 12%, to 13,
Speaker 1: to 15. Sometimes on big years, I'd get a raise,
Speaker 1: I'd raise it 3 or 4%. It was really tight.
Speaker 1: We were barely making ends meet. We'd raise it just
Speaker 1: a quarter percent. Why? We didn't tell, we weren't trying
Speaker 1: to show off. I didn't tell anybody about this for
Speaker 1: 30 years. But I wanted my heart to grow bigger.
Speaker 1: And every year I wanted to be more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: So I was trying to learn generosity. Most of you
Speaker 1: know that today Kay and I give away 91% of
Speaker 1: our income and live on 9%. Most of you know
Speaker 1: I don't take a salary from this church. I've served
Speaker 1: this church free for 31 years. And it's been fun
Speaker 1: learning to give it away. And I've played this game
Speaker 1: where God says, Rick, you give to me and I'll
Speaker 1: give to you and we'll see who wins. And I
Speaker 1: have lost that game for 36 years. Now, God gives
Speaker 1: to generous people. And the more I give, the more
Speaker 1: God blesses me. Number two, this is a real important one.
Speaker 1: Obeying God's vision will bring God's provision. obeying God's vision
Speaker 1: will bring God's provision. In other words, if you do
Speaker 1: what God tells you to do and you don't have
Speaker 1: the money, you don't have the energy, you don't have
Speaker 1: the people, you don't have it, God will bring it along,
Speaker 1: the resources you need at the right time because what
Speaker 1: he calls you to do, he's gonna fulfill. What he's
Speaker 1: given you the vision for, he will give you the
Speaker 1: provision for. He'll give you the provision for. And so
Speaker 1: what you need to do is you step out in
Speaker 1: faith to do what you know God's called you to do.
Speaker 1: Here's the third principle. This is a real important one.
Speaker 1: When I do all God tells me to do, he
Speaker 1: does what I can't do. When I do all God
Speaker 1: tells me to do, he does what I can't do.
Speaker 1: Now this story of the feeding of the 5,000 in
Speaker 1: the Bible is a perfect example of this. Do you
Speaker 1: remember this story? The miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 people?
Speaker 1: They're all out in the desert. Jesus has been teaching
Speaker 1: all day. It's the end of the day and everybody's hungry.
Speaker 1: There's no McDonald's anywhere. So the disciples come to Jesus
Speaker 1: and said, send them all away Lord so they can
Speaker 1: go home and eat. Jesus looks at the disciples and
Speaker 1: he says, you feed them. Now That was impossible. Here,
Speaker 1: God often asks you to do the impossible to stretch
Speaker 1: your faith. He looks at them and says, you feed them.
Speaker 1: They say, Lord, we can't. We don't have any money.
Speaker 1: We don't have any food. There's no place to buy food.
Speaker 1: We can't. Jesus said, you feed them. So then he says,
Speaker 1: anybody got a lunch? And out of that entire 5,000 people,
Speaker 1: one little kid has a little sack lunch. And in
Speaker 1: that little sack lunch are five little tiny rolls of
Speaker 1: bread and two little fish, like sardines. And the little
Speaker 1: kid takes his measly little lunch, and he gives it
Speaker 1: to Jesus. He gives Jesus everything he's got. It's not much,
Speaker 1: but he gives it to him. Jesus takes it, he
Speaker 1: breaks it, he blesses it, and he multiplies it, and
Speaker 1: he feeds 5,000 people with it. And then at the
Speaker 1: end of their off eating, they gather 12 baskets of leftover.
Speaker 1: There was so much leftover. What's the principle there? When
Speaker 1: I give what little I've got, God multiplies it and
Speaker 1: he makes up for it. Fourth principle, very important. When
Speaker 1: I have a need, I sow a seed. When I
Speaker 1: have a need, I sow a seed. Now here's the point.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need more of, give it away. If you
Speaker 1: need more energy, give energy to helping other people and
Speaker 1: God will give you more energy. If you need more time,
Speaker 1: give some of your time away unselfishly and God will
Speaker 1: give you more time. If you need more intelligence, you
Speaker 1: give whatever you got away to help others. If you
Speaker 1: need more money, whatever you need, you sow a seed.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine a farmer going, well, it's recession. I
Speaker 1: think I'll just keep all the seed in the barn. No,
Speaker 1: you got to plant it in order to profit from it. Now,
Speaker 1: whatever you need in your life, you sow that as
Speaker 1: a seed and it will be responsible to come back
Speaker 1: to you. Here's the fifth principle, very important. There's always
Speaker 1: a delay between sowing and reaping. There is always a
Speaker 1: delay between sowing and reaping. In other words, if I
Speaker 1: go out and I plant a kernel of corn in
Speaker 1: the ground, tomorrow I'm not gonna see a full grown
Speaker 1: stock of corn with 20 ears on it. Ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: There is a season between planting and harvesting, between the
Speaker 1: seed and the fruit. There is always a time delay
Speaker 1: and what's going on in the time delay? This is
Speaker 1: a test. It's a test of your faith. Will I
Speaker 1: be faithful? Will I keep on doing the right thing?
Speaker 1: Will I do what God wants me to do and
Speaker 1: see what God does? There's two other ways that God
Speaker 1: tests your faithfulness. And when you pass these tests, he
Speaker 1: pours out blessing on your life. Here they are, number five.
Speaker 1: Faithful people bring friends to Jesus. God is watching you.
Speaker 1: And faithful people, faithful people share their faith. Faithful people
Speaker 1: share their faith. Faithful people bring others into the faith.
Speaker 1: If I don't share my faith, I am being unfaithful. Now,
Speaker 1: a good example of this is these four guys in
Speaker 1: the Bible had a friend who was paralyzed, and they
Speaker 1: had the faith to think, you know, if we could
Speaker 1: just get our friend to Jesus, Jesus would heal the guy,
Speaker 1: and then our friend would be well. And they had
Speaker 1: faith that if they could get their friend to Jesus,
Speaker 1: he'd be healed. The story is told here in Galatians,
Speaker 1: They're on your outline in Matthew chapter nine. It says,
Speaker 1: some men brought to Jesus a paralytic, a paralyzed man,
Speaker 1: a paralyzed friend, lying on a mat. He couldn't even
Speaker 1: get to Jesus. He was paralyzed. When Jesus saw their faith,
Speaker 1: circle the phrase their faith. When Jesus saw their faith,
Speaker 1: he said to the paralyzed man, take heart, son. Your
Speaker 1: sins are forgiven. I didn't print the rest of the verse.
Speaker 1: The rest of the verse says, And he said, take
Speaker 1: up your mat and go home. And the guy was
Speaker 1: instantly healed. Now, Jesus heals the guy. Now, according to
Speaker 1: that verse, did Jesus heal the guy because of the
Speaker 1: sick man's faith or because of the friend's faith? What? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the friend's. It says, when Jesus saw their faith, you
Speaker 1: guys had enough faith that if you could get your
Speaker 1: paralyzed man to me, I'd save him. On the basis
Speaker 1: of their faith, not the guy who was sick, but
Speaker 1: their faith, He healed the man. Now listen very closely.
Speaker 1: You have friends that are paralyzed and can't get to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You have friends who are paralyzed by guilt and they
Speaker 1: can't get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by doubt and they
Speaker 1: can't get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by fear. They're paralyzed
Speaker 1: by worry. They're paralyzed by insecurity and they can't get
Speaker 1: to Jesus. And the only way they're gonna get to
Speaker 1: Jesus is you're gonna have to bring them And if
Speaker 1: you have enough faith to bring them to Jesus, they
Speaker 1: will get saved. But they're not gonna get saved, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna be healed, their life isn't gonna be turned
Speaker 1: around until you have enough faith to bring them to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now when God looks out and he sees people bringing
Speaker 1: people to him, he not only heals those people, he
Speaker 1: blesses the person who brought them. If you want the
Speaker 1: blessing of God on your business, if you want the
Speaker 1: blessing of God on your family, If you want the
Speaker 1: blessing of God on your life, just start bringing friends
Speaker 1: to Jesus. And if you bring your friends to Jesus,
Speaker 1: God says, that's the kind of person I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: They are faithful. And God blesses faithfulness. You want God's
Speaker 1: blessing on any area of your life? Just start bringing
Speaker 1: your friends to Jesus. And you watch what happens. God
Speaker 1: will do things in your life, your finances, your health,
Speaker 1: your business, you could not imagine Faithful people bring friends
Speaker 1: to Jesus, which is why we don't ever stop reaching out.
Speaker 1: We keep starting campuses. We keep starting churches. We keep
Speaker 1: doing outreaches to bring more friends to Jesus. Why? The
Speaker 1: moment this church stops bringing people to Jesus, the hand
Speaker 1: of blessing is taken off of it. God is blessing
Speaker 1: this church because there are people in it who are
Speaker 1: still bringing their friends to Jesus, and they're getting blessed
Speaker 1: from it. One last principle. Number five, or six, faithful
Speaker 1: people build the faith of others. Faithful people build the
Speaker 1: faith of others. And when God sees your faithfulness, he
Speaker 1: blesses you. Now building the faith of others is called
Speaker 1: mentoring or discipling. It's simply encouraging somebody in the faith
Speaker 1: who's younger in the faith than you. Everybody in life
Speaker 1: needs a Paul and everybody needs a Timothy. What's a Paul?
Speaker 1: That's somebody who's older than you who can kind of
Speaker 1: encourage you and encourage you and be a coach to
Speaker 1: you spiritually and just be there to pray for you.
Speaker 1: Everybody needs a Paul, and everybody needs a Timothy. That's
Speaker 1: somebody who's not been a Christian as long as you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've only been a Christian one week longer, but
Speaker 1: they can be your Timothy. And you need to be
Speaker 1: mentoring somebody younger than you. Now, you don't need to
Speaker 1: be a hundred steps ahead of that person because they
Speaker 1: can't see you. You only need to be one step ahead.
Speaker 1: And if you start helping other people in their faith,
Speaker 1: you're going to find God blessing your socks off. Faithful
Speaker 1: people build the faith of others. God has called every
Speaker 1: Christian to do this. Notice this verse, 2 Timothy chapter two,
Speaker 1: verse two. The things, Paul is talking to Timothy. Paul says,
Speaker 1: the things you've learned from me, Timothy, in the presence
Speaker 1: of many witnesses, you are to entrust to other faithful people,
Speaker 1: there's that word faithful, who will also be qualified to
Speaker 1: pass it on to others. Now notice, in that verse,
Speaker 1: there are four generations. Paul says, I helped build up
Speaker 1: your faith Now you're to find somebody who's faithful and
Speaker 1: help build up their faith, who they will turn around
Speaker 1: and build up the faith of others. Four generations in
Speaker 1: one verse. Four generations. This is called mentoring. It's called discipling.
Speaker 1: Don't you wish when you were in your 20s and
Speaker 1: you're a young guy, if you had had an older
Speaker 1: guy who was a Christian who said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't know a whole lot, but let's just get
Speaker 1: together for coffee once a month and we'll just talk
Speaker 1: and I'll pray for you. and you need some help
Speaker 1: in your business, I don't know a whole lot, but
Speaker 1: I can tell you what I know. You need some
Speaker 1: help in your family, your marriage, I can tell you
Speaker 1: what not to do. I can tell you what not
Speaker 1: to do. That's mentoring. See, it's wise to learn from experience.
Speaker 1: It's wise to learn from experiences and mistakes of others.
Speaker 1: I don't have time to learn it all myself. And
Speaker 1: let's say if you're a young woman, wouldn't you like
Speaker 1: to have an older woman, a godly woman, who takes
Speaker 1: you under her wing and says, look, I know you
Speaker 1: got problems with your kids, problems with your husband, or
Speaker 1: problems with your career, or problems with this, going to school.
Speaker 1: I tell you what, I'll just be there to hang
Speaker 1: on with you. I'll be there to pray with you.
Speaker 1: I don't know a whole lot, but I'll just be
Speaker 1: there for you. Wouldn't you have wanted that as a
Speaker 1: young Christian? Of course you would have. Of course you
Speaker 1: would have. Here's what Jesus said to Peter, Luke 22.
Speaker 1: This is before Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus knew
Speaker 1: he was gonna do it, and he said this. Peter. Peter.
Speaker 1: Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I've
Speaker 1: prayed for you that your faith will not completely fail.
Speaker 1: He said, Peter, I already know you're going to fail,
Speaker 1: but I've already prayed for you and I know you're
Speaker 1: going to come out of it. So after you've repented
Speaker 1: and come back to me, after you've blown it and
Speaker 1: you've come back to me, strengthen and build up the
Speaker 1: faith of your brothers. In other words, say, be a mentor.
Speaker 1: What I want you to be able to do is
Speaker 1: you to take your biggest problems and failures and save
Speaker 1: somebody else from making the same mistake. And you'll be
Speaker 1: able to say like Job, look up here on the screen.
Speaker 1: This is what a mentor does. You'll sing God's praises
Speaker 1: to everyone you meet, testifying. Here's what you'll say. I
Speaker 1: messed up my life. I messed up my life and
Speaker 1: let me tell you, it wasn't worth it. But God
Speaker 1: stepped in and saved me and I'm alive again. That's
Speaker 1: called mentoring. I messed up my life. Let me tell you,
Speaker 1: it wasn't worth it. But God stepped in and saved me.
Speaker 1: He'll help you too. So hang in there. God is
Speaker 1: going to use you as a mentor. Let's bow our heads.
Speaker 1: I want you to follow me in this prayer after
Speaker 1: I pray for you. Lord, I know, Father, you're looking
Speaker 1: for faithful people to use. You're looking for faithful people
Speaker 1: to bless. I know the people of real faith are
Speaker 1: hard to find. And yet you have said faithfulness is
Speaker 1: the key to blessing. It is the key to victory.
Speaker 1: And that a faithful man, a faithful woman will be
Speaker 1: richly blessed. I want these people in our family to
Speaker 1: be richly blessed. So help us to respond to the
Speaker 1: sixth test of faith with the way that we ought
Speaker 1: to respond. Now you pray. In your heart, in your mind,
Speaker 1: say this. Dear God, please use the little things in
Speaker 1: my life to grow my integrity, the stuff that nobody sees.
Speaker 1: Help me to be faithful in that which isn't my
Speaker 1: own so that you can give me my own. And God,
Speaker 1: Use my talents to grow my unselfishness. Help me to
Speaker 1: realize that my giftedness, my abilities were not made for
Speaker 1: my benefit but to make the world a better place
Speaker 1: and to help others. Lord, the tough times I'm going through,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you to use them to grow my persistence.
Speaker 1: Help me to not give up. Help me to keep
Speaker 1: on keeping on. Help me to not look at the
Speaker 1: problem but the reward in heaven for growing in character
Speaker 1: And you know, Lord, the stuff that I lack, that
Speaker 1: I've got a shortage on in my life, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you to help me to grow in generosity through
Speaker 1: the shortages of my life, to be generous when I
Speaker 1: can't afford it with my time, with my praise. Help
Speaker 1: me to be generous in affirming others, to be generous
Speaker 1: with my money, Help me to be generous with my love.
Speaker 1: Help me to be generous not with criticism but with praise.
Speaker 1: I wanna learn to be generous in every area. I
Speaker 1: wanna obey your vision and expect your provision. I wanna
Speaker 1: do what you tell me to do and then watch
Speaker 1: you make up the difference. I wanna be generous so
Speaker 1: that you can be generous to me so I can
Speaker 1: be more generous. where I have a need, help me
Speaker 1: plant a seed. And when there's a delay between the
Speaker 1: seed and the harvest, help me to realize you are still,
Speaker 1: you're still testing my faith. Lord, I want your blessing
Speaker 1: on my family, on my business, on my life. Help
Speaker 1: me to faithfully bring other friends to the faith. to
Speaker 1: bring my friends to Jesus who are paralyzed and don't
Speaker 1: have enough faith on their own to come to you.
Speaker 1: And help me to build the faith of others. It
Speaker 1: scares me to death, but I'm willing to be a mentor.
Speaker 1: I ask you to help me be a faithful person
Speaker 1: so that you can bless me in your name. If
Speaker 1: you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, say, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: Come into my life right now. I want to put
Speaker 1: my faith in you. Amen.