All right, 1 Corinthians chapter four. 1 Corinthians chapter four. We heard this morning, this Sunday's the last Sunday in our stewardship month. I wanna leave you tonight with just some last minute helps, I guess you'd say, as we're going into the new year here. It's hard to believe January's gone, isn't it? Time is flying by, but as we're going into this year and we just had our stewardship month, just some helps to help us be a good steward through the year. All right, just some simple things to remember. You know, whenever we're challenged with something from the word of God, that's when the battle begins for Satan. That's when he really starts to put the war on and he'll fight us. You know, I don't know about you, I hope it's the same for you as it has been for me whenever we go through these stewardship months. You know, we hear the same basic idea every year. The same teaching, same doctrine taught from the Bible about stewardship, but I learn something new every year, something more. And I hope the same's true with you, but I know once God touches my heart about something else regarding stewardship, it seems like that's when Satan or just my flesh wants to get in the way more than ever before and to keep us from doing what the Holy Spirit has touched our heart about. So tonight, this is one of those messages just to encourage you, whatever decisions, whatever ways God has moved in your heart this past month over stewardship, it's just an encouraging message of things to watch out for. and things to help us to obey what God's taught us this past month in stewardship, all right? So 1 Corinthians 4, look in verse one and two, and it's some verses we've read several times throughout the month, but let's read them again. It says, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God. And then verse two here, if you don't have this memorized already, you've heard it so many times this month and in years past, some of us probably do have it memorized, but look what it says. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found, what? Faithful, faithful. That is what God commands of us as a steward, is just simply be found faithful in it, faithful in it. In the last several weeks, we've been looking at the subject of stewardship. And you know, the Word of God, we've looked at a lot of passages throughout the Word of God that speaks on the concept of stewardship or gives an example. In fact, we can easily say from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21, it speaks on stewardship, the whole Word of God. You read it from the beginning to the end, and there's just so much in there about stewardship in the Christian life. But it seems that even though we hear stewardship every service this past month, we've heard stewardship. Last year, in January, we heard about stewardship. The year before that, how many years have we been doing the stewardship in January? Only the Lord knows. So for a long time, in other words, Not to say it's getting old, we need it. It's a blessing and we need that from year to year. But the point I'm trying to make is, it's amazing for myself how many times I've heard it over and even taught it over and over and over again, but at some point this year, I'm gonna fail in my stewardship. Why? Or I'm gonna get missed, I'm just gonna start forgetting how I'm supposed to be faithful about a certain thing. That temptation rises up and we want to just relax a little bit. You know, January, we're all pumped up about it. February, let's keep on going. March, all right, we're doing good. April, May, June, July, and we start getting tired about it. We're starting just kind of relaxing a little bit about our stewardship. And we need to keep, what does that verse say? That we need to be found what? Faithful. That means all the time. without fail, you never quit. You just remain faithful at it all the time. We've looked at different areas of stewardship regarding our treasure, regarding our time, talents, our testimony, the truth. We've learned that it's more than just conveying the sense of managing our money in a wise way for the Lord. It's in every area of life. It goes way beyond just finances. It's every minute of our life, the time that we spend, what we do with God's word and the truth, sharing the gospel, our testimonies. We've looked at all of that. God has called each of us not just to be a steward, but to be a faithful steward. In order for us to become faithful stewards, proper stewards, we must first understand, excuse me, the issues of stewardship. And we've been looking at that. We've been studying the different kinds of areas in life that we're to be stewards over. But it's good to also know, once we get, like we just got through mentioning, right now we're pumped up, ready to go. We've been encouraged, we've been challenged in it, but there's got a few months down the road we're gonna be tempted to kind of lay back a little bit. What do we do during those times? What can we lean back on to help remind us that we need to be faithful, continue to be faithful? I want us to look at a couple different issues tonight and some different things underneath each one of those that will help us to just simply remain faithful through the year in our stewardship, okay? Two things that we need to realize, basically. The first one that I want us to look at is the issue of ownership, ownership. Some of us in here, we're working on it. Some of us have already done this. Some of us haven't paid off, and you're the owner of a home. I think a lot of us have probably paid off a vehicle. Isn't that a good feeling? You finished paying those payments off. Your car now has 352,000 miles on it, but it's paid off, amen, praise the Lord, right? Right, Brother Ed? That's a good feeling, isn't it? Because you are now the owner of that car, right? Well, we've been looking at stewardship. That's a trick question, Brother Jim, that's a trick question. It's not a trick question, I think we all understand. Yes, you are the owner, but who owns the car? It's God's car, right? It belongs to him. And we can say that about everything. This issue of ownership, we like to own things, don't we? We like to say that we are the owner of a certain possession. You know, we buy it, we pay for it, you know, and some bigger things like a car or a house, you get a title for it. It's like an official approval, a proof that it belongs to you. And there's something about owning that possession. It makes us feel good about it, doesn't it? But you know, if we're not careful, we'll get to be the owner of everything and forget who owns us and everything we have. And I think that if we're honest with each other tonight, we would agree that this is probably one of the biggest challenges we have as a Christian in keeping faithful as a steward is this issue of ownership. Who really owns it. Who really owns you? That's what I'm talking about here tonight. Let's look at a few verses. Go to Psalm chapter 24. Psalm chapter 24. Keep your Bibles handy. We're gonna look at a few verses here tonight. Mark them down, write them down if you need to. It'll help you throughout the year with what we're talking about with being faithful throughout the years in our stewardship. Psalm chapter 24, look in verse one. Read what it says here. It says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Now it's easy for us to understand that part. This earth belongs to God. He created it, didn't he? He created all the animals, all the birds, all the fish, everything that's in it, all the trees, the lands, the mountains, just the beautiful creation that He has here. It's easy to understand there that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, but keep reading that verse. The world and they that dwell therein. Hold on a minute, now we're getting personal, aren't we? That means He owns us. He owns us. Go to flip over a few pages to chapter 50. Psalm chapter 50. Look in verse 10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Let me read a couple other verses to you. You can write these down, the references, if you'd like. Haggai chapter 2 verse 8 says, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4 says, Behold, all souls are mine. You know, as creator, as God our creator, when we stand back and we see verses like what we read here and other verses that we're gonna look at in just a moment, in fact, while we're talking about this, skip over to Psalm chapter 100. But when we talk about God being our creator, we learn that, listen, creation belongs to Him. He's the owner of it. I think we all understand that term ownership, what that means, what all that entails, okay? In other words, God has the right to do anything he wants with his creation. He owns everything. In Psalm chapter 100, let me get over there myself, finish flipping the pages here. Look in verse three. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us. And not we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. You know, one thing that man prides himself in, especially in this world, and a man that works hard and he gets out there and makes a living, or a lady that gets out there and works hard, is we like to say that, man, I made myself. I made what I have with me today. I made who I am. You know, and we pride ourselves in that. But as a Christian, especially, we need to understand that, listen, we didn't make us anything. We have no ownership of ourselves. Paul said, I am what I am by what? The grace of God. You know, it's not because of the hard work that we put into everything that we made ourselves who we are today. No, God made you. God made me, and he owns us. We are his creation. You know, this world that we live in today, how often we heard this in the news, and we hear people say, where's my right? It's my right. Now, I understand in our constitution, we are given certain rights. We live in a free country, and God has given us freedoms. But when it comes down to the end of it, God rules. He is a sovereign God. What he says goes. He is the owner of us. We are His creation. That kind of leads us into this next part right here. Not just as creator God, He owns everything, but let's get more personal as a Christian, as a crucified Christ, He owns every believer. We know this verse, but let's look at it anyway. These verses go to 1 Corinthians 6. You know what verses I'm going to? Look what it says here, 1 Corinthians 6. Look in verse 19 and 20. 1 Corinthians 6, start in verse 19. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? Look at the next phrase. And ye are not your own. Why? Verse 20. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You know, when we stop and we look at that verse, we realize, listen, we don't just belong to God because he created us. God gave us a free will to choose to accept his gift of salvation or reject his gift of salvation. He gives us the choice to accept salvation and go to heaven, have our sins forgiven, or he gives us the choice to reject it and spend eternity in hell. But for the believer, for the one that chooses to accept him as a savior, and the Lord washes away his sins, he has a home in heaven, we're also told that God now owns you as a believer. You have a different purpose. You're set aside for his use. He is your owner. And it's not looking at it as far as ownership, as far as he's a slave driver. It's not that he's cruel. He's not a tyrant. He's a crucified savior. He loves us. He's our heavenly father. But along with me, you know, you think about what this means in light of us as a Christian and how God's ownership and of God's ownership over us. God owns, first of all, he owns my body. He owns your body. You know, when we hear preaching from our own pastor, from other preachers that come up and stand behind this pulpit and they tell you how you shouldn't do certain things to your body, it's not their opinion. They're saying that for this reason right here, your body belongs to God. and it needs to represent that. It should bring honor and glory to God in that sense. Everything we have, my family, my wife, my son, my daughter that's in college, they belong to God. Yes, Kelly is my wife, but she belongs to the Lord first and foremost. Same with my children, my family, our homes, our houses. Some of us in here have a business. Brother Tom, what's the name of your business? Who owns that? I'm just kidding, don't answer. Why is the name Wilson on there? That's the family that started it, right? But Tom understands what I'm saying when I say this, that business doesn't belong to the Wilson family. That's God's business. You think of, Open your minds to how much God owns in our lives. Everything we have. It's not just limited to the billfold. Everything that we can do from day to day. The abilities that we have. It belongs to God. He owns, we looked at this, he owns our time. Our talents that we have, gifts that we have. Obviously our treasures, we said that. He owns the first place in our hearts. And I think all of us in here, if we ask, you know, there's a lot of special people in our lives. Those of us that are married, our spouses, we would definitely say our spouse, I would hope you say your spouse, right? You know, Kelly is very special to me, but she understands what I mean when I say this. She has second place in my heart. God is first place. That's how it should be. He should have first place in our hearts. He owns the first day of the week. Sunday is called what? The Lord's day. Why? Because he's the owner of it. Now, well, does that mean we can do whatever we want with the other six? No, it doesn't. We're to be good stewards over that. They still belong to him, but he's made us stewards over that time. He owns the first part of our day. We can keep going on and on and on over what all God owns. God owns it all. Now if we, and you don't have to answer out loud on this, but just think to ourselves, when the time comes, and it will come sooner or later, we're gonna be tempted to not be so faithful as a steward from time to time. You know what the argument starts arising is, well, why do I continue to try robbing God? Not being a good steward, why is that temptation still there? Well, the Bible tells us why it's still there. You know, when you got saved, does that mean sin ended completely and you never have any more trouble with it? Anybody here not have that problem anymore? Okay, I know I'm not the only one. We do, don't we? We still wrestle with sin, we still battle with it, we still wrestle with temptation. Now, when you got saved, did you automatically, just like that, know everything there was about being a good steward for the Lord. If you're like me, you're still learning. From year to year, I learned, like I shared with you a few moments ago, I learned something new every year, praise the Lord. So either we're still, we're not obeying God, sometimes out of ignorance, most of us probably didn't know that we were supposed to tithe the instant we got saved. But you learn that, right? Not all of us knew how to talk the instant we got saved. Not all of us knew how to dress the instant we got saved. But we learned how to do that. We learned how to be good stewards as we grow in the Lord. But once you do know, God holds you, he holds us accountable for that. Once you do know you're supposed to dress right, God holds you accountable for that, right? Dads, once you do know you're supposed to keep your family in church, God holds you accountable for that. You're to be a good steward over that. Once we do know that we're supposed to give a time and an offering and how to handle our billfold and our finances with God, he holds us accountable for that. And along with our time, everything that we've looked at. So if we choose to do it after that point, it's just plain rebellion to God. So that brings us to point number two here. We also see the issue of obedience. I want you to look at this verse with me. Go to Luke chapter six. Jesus was speaking here and he says a very simple, a very simple statement here, but very profound, I guess would be the word to use as well. Look at what he says here. He asked a question. is Luke 6, verse 46. And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? That can be asked anytime we disobey God, especially when we disobey God willingly time after time after time. We went around this room tonight and asked you, do you love the Lord? Who is God? Oh, he's Lord of my life. I think we would all agree with that. Well, you look at this verse like this, and so many times, you know, we disobey God, and we know we're disobeying God, but yet we say, oh, I love you, Lord. He's Lord of my life. Jesus is probably asking us, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? The question we can ask ourselves is, is Jesus truly the Lord in your life? If he is, we're gonna obey him, aren't we? But if we do not obey Him and we willfully are just disobeying Him time after time, especially with what we're looking at in light of what we're looking at here tonight, being a good steward, we just don't care. Don't you dare say that Jesus is Lord in your life, because He's not. He's not. Luke 16, 13 says this, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. You know, lordship, this idea of lordship is directly linked to obedience. If Jesus is the Lord in your life, you're going to obey him. You will obey him. If God is the owner, And you understand that and you apply that to your life and to our stewardship with what we're looking at here. If God is owner and we're convinced of that, guess what we're gonna do? We are going to do what he wants us to do with what belongs to him. And we just got through looking at what belongs to him. Everything, even ourselves. belong to him. When we look at obedience, obedience can be divided into three different areas here. You know, if I ask my son, if he's sitting there, you know, playing a game or doing something, reading something, playing the piano or whatever, and I ask him, hey AJ, would you please take out the trash? And he looks at me right in the eye and he says, Dad, I would love to take out the trash. I'll get right, you know, I will take out the trash, no problem. Wonderful response, isn't it? But then an hour later, I come back and he's still sitting there reading a book or playing the piano, doing whatever he's doing. The trash hasn't been taken out. Did he obey? No, he didn't, did he? What is it that would cause obedience to a command? It's the action of it. You notice what the Lord said there? He said, why call me Lord and do not? There's an action there, the doing of it, right? The pastor talked about that verse, I think this morning, and performed the doing of it. He mentioned that. Obedience requires action. You know, we've heard a lot on stewardship this month. Some of us have learned something new about stewardship that we need to start applying to our lives. We've heard it. And maybe we even responded to God and said, God, I know that's me right there. I need to start doing that, Lord. So what do we have to do to obey it? Do it. Put some action behind it. But it's not just the action. Going back to that example there, I can ask AJ to take out the trash, and he could look at me with a scowl on his face and say, fine. I'll get to it when I get to it. He's never done that. Have you, AJ? No, he's never done it. But just using the example there, what kind of attitude is that? Now, let's say he gets up out of his chair and he shovels on over to that trash can. He yanks it out and just storms out the door and throws it in the trash bag and gets back to what he's doing. Did he obey me? Yeah, he obeyed. He did what I asked him to do. But I wouldn't say it's obedience simply because of the attitude. You know, there's a reason why God says, for example, that he loveth what kind of giver? A cheerful, He didn't just say, I love that the Lord loves a giver. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. It speaks of our attitude and the way we obey him. Romans chapter six, verse 17 says, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered you. How did they obey from the heart? There was an attitude involved there. Ephesians chapter six, verse six, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ. Now listen to this, doing the will of God from the heart. It's obedience with the right attitude. You know, there's some things about stewardship that I've learned over these years that are hard to swallow. It's hard to get used to, especially when we get to talking about how certain things belong to God and not me. Letting go of that and allowing God to use it the way he wants it used. Sometimes it's hard to have the right attitude and obeying God as a good steward of God. But that's where we need to ask God to help our attitude, to help us have the right heart, help us be a cheerful giver. And then the third thing that deals with obedience is timeliness. Timeliness. Many of us have heard something similar to this phrase, delayed obedience is still disobedience. Timeliness. Let's say AJ takes out the trash the next day. He didn't listen. You're just a wicked kid tonight, AJ. I'm sorry. Better take the trash out when you get home. No, he obeyed. He did what I asked him to do, didn't he? No. You know, when God touches our heart, in light of what we're talking about here, being a good steward of our time, treasure, our talents, everything there, well, I've got some things I've got to work out first and, you know, eventually the circumstances will come in line better and I'll be able to do what God wants me to do. Is that obedience? No, it's not. You will be, and this is something just learning as you grow in the Lord, you'll find things a whole lot easier if you just immediately obey, well, God, what He wants you to do. Let the circumstances be taken care of by God. He controls them anyway. And just trust Him, especially, and just be faithful as a steward in light of what we're just obeying Him. And then last of all, we see the issue of operation. Go to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Look in verse 21. Once you think about this idea as we're reading these, we're gonna read two verses here. Stewardship implies objectives. And look at these two verses and we'll explain what we mean by that. Verse 21, it says, his Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy Thy Lord. Look down in verse 23. And the Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Stewardship, when we stop and look at it and we think about it, one of the other issues is the objective of it. We have been given gifts for a reason. We've been given talents, we've been given treasures, we've been given our time, the truth, all these things that we've been looking at. It's not just so God can test us or God can just give us something to do in the meantime. There's an objective to it. There's a goal. You know, when God saved us, and we've said this before, when he saved you, he left us here for some reason. Of course, we know what that reason is. is to bring honor and glory to Him and tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him and just serve the Lord till the day He decides to come and take us home, amen? We've all been given gifts to accomplish this. We've all been given gifts of some type. We've all been given talents of some type. We've all been given treasures of some type. We've all been given time. that we can give to the Lord and use wisely as a steward for Him. I know that that's one of those things that it seems like we just don't have time anymore, do we? There's no extra time to do things. That's where we need to be a good steward. Who did we say should have first? The Lord. You know, things like that. We've all been given these things. Why? To accomplish His purpose. to accomplish what he wants us to do, to accomplish what he's commanded us to do. To go ye therefore and teach all nation, to preach the gospel to every creature. You see, we act as conduits of God's grace. And the way it works is he will give and give and give as we give and give and give. What do we mean by that? I think we all know how the basic idea of plumbing works. Aren't you thankful for plumbing? Oh my goodness. You read some of these history books about what it was like in the medieval times. You'll be very thankful for plumbing very quickly. Tom, you work with plumbing every now and then, I'm sure. He puts in a lot of septic systems and stuff like that. Plumbing is an important thing. But the basic idea is plumbing. You've got these plumbing tubes or PVC pipes and everything. They run through the house. And it delivers water from one point to another point. Those pipes act as a conduit to get that water from one place to another. The same thing with electricity. We all have electric circuits in our house, wiring. What is the purpose of that wiring? to get that electricity from the pole outside to the light bulb in your bedroom, right? Or wherever it might be. Those are conduits. We are conduits of God's grace. You see, God wants to pour his grace out on people. He wants to give his blessings to people. He wants to get the gospel to people. He wants to get the truth to people. You know how he does that? You and I. We're those conduits. We're just like that pipe delivering water from the pump outside to the shower so we can get ourselves clean. If that pipe isn't there, guess what? You're not going to get clean. you're not gonna receive the water to do it. Well, listen, God has placed people in your life. He has the gospel and he wants them to hear it and you're right in between. You're that tube, that pipe that God's using, that conduit that God's using to get it to them. Unfortunately, if we're not careful, instead of being a conduit, we become a basin. I think we know what a basin is. A basin could be any kind of pot or bowl or something where the water goes into it, but it doesn't go out. There's an in, but there's no out. What happens to water when it just sits there? It's stagnant, doesn't it? Anybody ever been around a stagnant pond? Where it's just gotten clogged up, it doesn't drain right, and it gets so ugly looking, it kills everything in it. And it isn't long, it stinks horribly. Stagnant water stinks horribly. If we're not careful, that's how we can become. Spiritually, we become stagnant. We're taking and taking and taking everything that God can give us, but we're never giving it back out to anyone else. Folks, you are blessed to be in a church where you hear the truth. But God didn't put you in this church to hear the truth just to keep it to yourself. You're gonna get stagnant. That's what'll happen. He gave it to you so you can give it to others. So you can be that conduit. We must practice stewardship, like we've said, in all these areas, you know, with our treasure, our talents, our time, our testimony, the truth. I have written down here one other that I thought about. Go to 1 Corinthians, or I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians. There's many areas that we can keep naming off, but 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, what about your thought life? Be a steward of your thought life. in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Even to be a steward over our thought lives, what we think from day to day. That's why we say that God has made us a steward over every area in our life. So to wrap this all up, remember that God put us on this earth to cooperate in fulfilling the goals and functions that he has given the church. That's why God has kept us here. He uses this church to get his will done. He uses this church to get the gospel to this world. He uses this church to bring honor and glory to him. This all deals with being a good steward individually. As proper stewards, what are we gonna find ourselves doing, especially as a church? First, we're gonna exalt the Savior. We don't meet here on Sundays and Wednesdays and have revival meetings and special days and everything so that everybody can know what Trinity Baptist Church is doing. But we do want them to know what God is doing. and what God wants to do. Our purpose as stewards is to bring exaltation to our Savior. The second thing, as proper stewards in the church, we're edifying the saints. It's not just the pastor's job to edify the saints. That's something given to all of us. All of us. We should be teaching our kids from a young age how to be an encouragement and lift one another up. especially spiritually and in the Lord, edifying the saints, building up one another as a steward. The third thing is evangelizing the center. We looked at that a couple weeks ago and we've been talking throughout the month, talking about being a steward of the truth, steward of the gospel, that is evangelizing the center, sharing the gospel with them. And then the fourth part deals with our testimony, being an example to society. You know, the instant you tell somebody that you go to Trinity Baptist Church, or even just give them a track, what's right on the front of that track? Trinity Baptist Church. The instant you tell somebody else or they figure out you go to this church, you instantly become a testimony of this church. From that point on, they're gonna, They're gonna put together what they know about you, that's how that church is. That's how they're gonna think about it from that point on. So what kind of example are you being? Now we're talking about in this point right here, just being a steward of our church and how we're to be good stewards within the church. Your example that you give to society, we are to be good stewards of that. So with that being said, with everything we've heard this month, let's resolve in our hearts, like we saw those verses that said this, with the right attitude and obedience, let's resolve to live as stewards instead of owners. Because as owners, Who's the main thing? We are. But as stewards, who's the main thing? God is. Start living as stewards instead of owners, and then God, then what we'll see is God will bless us for that. He'll bless you individually in your own life, but he'll also bless the church that you're a part of. You see, your stewardship doesn't just affect you and your family. It affects this church. And because it affects this church, it affects the society that we live around. Walker County, Warrington, Culpeper, wherever it is, wherever we reach out to, wherever they know who Trinity Baptist Church is, it affects us all. So let's be a good steward this coming year, amen?