thankful. We'll talk stewardship and we're gonna obviously look at it from a perspective biblically of really what it looks to be as a steward of the things that Christ has given us to steward, yes. But then obviously particularly we are men and men are distinct in certain ways and so we're gonna have some realms within you could say creation, yes, but also within just what God has given us in spiritual leadership to steward at every level that the Lord has given. And so I'm very thankful though. I'll say one thing about women. I'm very thankful for my wife. Hugh, you know, finds an excellent wife. She's worth far more than pearls. And like I said, I got three more boys. My son Owen's here, three more boys at home. So they're gonna be helpers. I told her if I brought Owen, he wanted to come. He loved, he did the retreat with the guys this summer with a middle school retreat. She really wanted to come, but he's the best helper. So I said, are you willing to give up your best helper who can actually take the dogs out and all those things? She said, absolutely. And so she's back there with those four week old. And so all those fun stuff. But you can, if you would take your Bibles, open up to first Corinthians chapter four this morning. Also, I didn't get the guy's name who's leading music. He said, is anyone actually here from Fargo? Who's first Fargo? Okay. Where we're at in Fargo? Okay. What church? I have a buddy in Castleton and I just was in Fargo not too long ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cody Weckerly. Okay. Small, small world. I could say this too. So I see some Red Husker fans. I'm a Husker fan. But just so you guys know, no partiality. I've hired a Hawkeye and my current intern is a Hawkeye as well. So I'm even outnumbered in Omaha. So I'm… there are more important things. But let's, like I said, take the time. Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4 this morning. I'll kind of introduce and let's just see where we go with this because I have four sessions and if I get through each one the way I want, that'd be cool. But we're here together and I really do want to dive into this important topic as Paul explains it and especially get us kind of up to speed with verses chapters, excuse me, one through three. But let me pray and then we'll look at it together. Father, I do thank you for the time that we have just been given to come together on a Friday night. Lord, even the desire for the men here to think of spiritual things when they could be doing other things. Lord, we need equipped from your word if we are to steward the things that you have given us well. Lord, if we are to recognize the true owner of everything that we have been given, the very breath that we are breathing this evening, that it is yours and we are simply given the opportunity to steward it, to manage it for the time that you have granted for each one of us. So Lord, help us to see our lives in that way. Lord, everything is a gift. And everything is something, Lord, that we will also then give an account for one day before you. So encourage us with these truths this evening as we desire for you to be glorified. We just pray this in your son's name. Amen. Well, the title of this conference is obviously looking at biblical masculinity, but I don't want to look at that generally. I want to look at it specifically. And, you know, for me, I really want you to take something that we can kind of really dig deep into. And so I didn't really want to go a lot of different places. I wanted to look at a chapter and hopefully by the end of today and tomorrow, you have a grasp of what Paul's communicating, what biblical truth the Holy Spirit's inspiring him to communicate to the church. Corinth here in chapter 4. And to do that we're going to kind of like just give you the overview of the next like four sessions is looking at the stewardship of true masculinity. And this is going to be on the nature of stewardship. And so we're going to talk about this as servants of Christ, yes, but that that is a stewardship. You have been given a certain way in which to serve others, and even more specific, let's say as men, you are sons, some of you are husbands, some of you are fathers, some of you are pastors, elders, Sunday school teachers, all those things. Then you're stewarding those things in a very specific way. I was gonna see how Paul lays that out for his church here, which we're gonna see has lots of different issues. Then we're gonna look at kind of the conscience and what it is and who is going to judge you and really what can you trust? How do you know you're headed in the right direction? And so what is the compass that we're gonna set our kind of standard by to say we're doing it well, we kind of get some feedback in this life rather than wait till the end and then get feedback at the very end. And then we're gonna look at, in session three, what it is to be a true servant. And of course, you can't get far except for to look towards Christ there as well. And then just to kind of end with looking at this accountability. And so, look at chapter one with me. Let's introduce this book a little bit. Because I think it'll give us this framework to understand why Paul wants to say what he wants to say. It really will give us an understanding of why he wants to go after servanthood, why he wants to go after stewardship, because it's really going to come back to chapter one and what he's trying to accomplish in this book. So whenever I look at a book of the Bible, I'm thinking through the most basic things. It's not rocket science. I do what you should do, and I do it at the most basic level. When I'm preparing for 1 Corinthians chapter 4, I'm asking as basic questions as, who wrote the book? Right? And you're looking at the apostle Paul and you're going, okay, we know Paul, yes. But it also helps us understand what Paul has sacrificed in his ministry. That he, yes, was radically converted on the road to Damascus, the Damascus Road. And then he, of course, got the call from Christ, which he, of course, is feeling the weight then of this stewardship of this ministry that he's been given to not only explain the gospel to Jews, but even more so to be this gospel sharing apostle to the Gentiles and we are gonna see him move in that way to then go out and plant churches. And for this church, we're gonna see this in a couple sessions, he is not just anyone, he is a father. So on Sunday mornings I'm preaching through the book of Colossians and in that case Paul's like never met them. But in this case, he's not only met them, he was the means by which they heard the gospel. He's gonna argue then, he even has more kind of accountability or more weight or more responsibility. He's more concerned because he is a spiritual father to them. He's addressing this church in Corinth, which is kind of a diverse church, very busy, culturally diverse city here, where there's a lot of different backgrounds. And there's going to be a marked difference than a lot of books where this is a church that has massive issues and divisions. And so he's gonna write with the purpose of correcting errors that he wants to unify the church. You look down at verse 10 of chapter one, he kind of starts to lay that out, that I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. And so he started to lay out in the very first chapter, okay, what am I trying to accomplish in the next 16 chapters? I want all of this to work towards unifying you in the body of Christ at this church. And so it's gonna be helpful then to start going, okay, well, in what ways do you want us to unite? He wants them to consider that they have been called uniquely, verse 26 of chapter one, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. He's just reminding them, just so you know, if God chose you, it's because he chose the weak. And he starts to erode the pride. Who do you think that you are? Maybe you think you've accomplished something in life and you don't recognize that everything that you have has actually been given to you to some degree or another. And of course he goes into his ministry and he goes into this issue of even divisions among those who have come and preached the word. And that kind of just brings us into chapter three, which I think is super foundational here, because you see the immaturity displayed by the Corinthian church is they don't understand that this is not about them. They don't understand that this isn't about Paul. This isn't about Apollos. And so he starts in chapter three, leading up to where we're gonna be, that brothers, I was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men. but only to you as fleshly men, as infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, no solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able, for you are still fleshly. What does that fleshliness kind of, what does he mean by that? He means you're still being worldly. You're still looking at people like they're just, here's a good looking person, here's a bad looking person. You're high schoolers. Everything's about superficial appearances. And we think Apollos is a better speaker than Paul. We don't think Paul's very attractive. And he goes on to say, what then is Apollos, verse five? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. I planted Apollos' water, but God was causing the growth. And this starts to get us into the main issue here, which is this isn't Paul's work. This isn't Apollos' work. This isn't your work. This is God's work. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. For he who plants, he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. That is, don't worry about who's going to do the rewarding because it's what God is doing. It's his work. He's the one who owns it. We're simply here to do with what the Lord has given. If he gives you a large ministry, be faithful. If he's given you a small ministry, be faithful. According to the grace of God, verse 10, which is given to me like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And he's gonna go into this and he's gonna talk about this issue of the fact that anyone builds and he uses things Such as gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. Each man's work will become evident. That is you can pour your life and work and ministry into things that have eternal value that will last. And things that will not last. And he says that one day, the day will indicate it because it is revealed. with fire, the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he is built on, it remains, he will receive a reward. And if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet even though as through a fire. Do you not know, verse 16, that you are a sanctuary, and the same idea here, temple, house, house of God would be, you can think of the Old Testament, Paul uses the language in First Timothy, the household of God, Do you not know that you are a sanctuary, that the Spirit of God dwells in you, and if any man destroys the sanctuary of God, God will destroy him, for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are. That is to say, don't build the way the world builds, build the way that God intends to build. And of course, Paul's gonna lay this out, what it looks like. And so then going down, verse 21, leading into chapter four, he says, so then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. Which brings us to verse one, which is this issue of then let a man consider us in this manner as servants of Christ. and stewards of the mystery of God. And what Paul's doing there by transitioning that way is he's saying, okay, I've established you aren't owners. I'm not an owner. An apostle's not an owner. He's simply a caretaker. He's simply a manager. Understand, they're just servants. And what he's gonna work through here, just to get to 16 real quickly, therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He's not going to say this just applies to apostles or to pastors. or to elders, this applies to every Christian. But even more so, of course, as you understand spiritual leadership, I think particularly with men and masculinity given to you, things made in the image of God uniquely displaying certain things, especially leadership in the church, how more important is it for us to then be servants, I see what that word means, and stewards of this mystery of God. This becomes the key issue of stewarding this mystery, which the mystery is old, and it's simply Paul's way of saying it was a mystery of how God was going to save the world, but now that mystery has been revealed. That is, you know now how is God going to take care of Sin. How is God going to take care of this gap, this irreconcilable difference between a perfect and a holy God and imperfect humanity? And we understand now who bridges that gap is Christ, the God-man who bore our sin. That we can be forgiven and have a relationship with Christ. We put our faith and our trust in Him. He's saying, you know that mystery. We don't know how men are going to get reconciled. He's saying, You're the ones who steward this truth, and this truth, and that you're going to minister to others in the way that you go about. Now in his case, he's doing it a very specific way, but each one of us is going to do it in our own way, and we're going to have to be faithful in whatever capacity that we are given. Let each one, each man, consider us in this manner as servants of Christ. Now let me introduce this kind of concept. Like I said, I want to introduce within this, talking about this nature of stewardship. Because stewardship in the scripture is a kind of category and term that's used so often. It's used in Jesus's parables. Paul loves it. He uses it throughout his letters. He loves it in say 1 Timothy. Over and over again he talks about, he uses that kind of language of an estate and stewardship and all of those things. But for us, we don't quite have that kind of economic system. We have a lot more small businesses, which, you know, we're Americans, we love small businesses, but in Rome, you'd have these massive estates, and you would never have an owner running them. It's just not the way it worked. You had more of a class system, someone who was a very wealthy person who might go just kind of enjoy Rome, and might have estates throughout the Roman Empire, and they're never gonna visit them. They might spend years between visiting the lands and the properties they own, and they're gonna put somebody in charge to care and to steward and manage those properties. He can't run it. And just imagine, of course, a different world. No airplanes, no private helicopters, no cars, no trains. And of course, you need to then, even more importantly, find trustworthy men, because that's who's gonna be the stewards in ancient Rome, who are going to take care of your property. They're gonna run the books. The right way, right? They're not cheating. They're faithful. They're growing and they're making you money. You put all the trust into that person because you have no external systems. No accountability, right? A lot of you guys work in places where you might have some level of check-in and check-out. There might be a camera to make sure you're working. You might be an open office space where things, people are there seeing, are you actually doing anything? Nothing is in place in this world to make sure this person who is thousands of miles away is doing the job of caring for the estate and that it flourishes under his care, of course, until the owner comes back. And then he's going to do some judging, which is where we'll see that carries on as well. But his job has nothing to do with personal gain. That steward is not there simply to create a reputation or build a brand or be a stepping stone. He is there to be the trusted, responsible one who's faithful in the task that he has been given. It's exactly how the Bible is going to describe our role as Christians. We don't own our lives. We don't own our families. You don't own your ministries. I don't own my pulpit. I don't own my preaching. Everything I have is something that has been given to me that I've been entrusted to by God. He's the true owner. We simply are the stewards. Our job is to handle it and handle it in a faithful way. Are we being faithful with what God has given in our hands? Are we using the time, the influences, the resources to honor God and bless others, or are we using those things to simply serve ourselves? One thing is very clear is that this journey on stewardship, which again, you think of this as the kind of controlling picture of the Christian life, for Paul right here, this journey of stewardship is going to come with, for sure, accountability, but it's also gonna come with this kind of journey along in which we have nothing, we are entrusted with something, and in this case, the mysteries of God, the very gospel, something of infinite value, And then it's gonna move from being entrusted to being tested. And then ultimately, we're gonna start to touch on what it is then to be held accountable or to be judged. Verse one kind of lays out what it is, the identity of the steward, and we're gonna look at what it is from going from nothing to being entrusted. So if you're taking notes, I kind of wrote it that way, that there's a journey of stewardship, the first step of which is you're going from nothing to being entrusted. You're going from nothing to being entrusted. And really, if you looked at it from that perspective and you're here tonight and you're wondering, well, how do I get this gift? How do I, how am I entrusted in it? What it starts with is, do you have a relationship with Christ? Do you know Christ? Because it is in Christ who is this foundation of which nothing else can be built upon that is going to have anything of lasting value. It is ultimately, Colossians says, Christ who is going to be the one in whom all the wisdom and knowledge is going to be found. It's the kind of inheritance, using that language of finance, in 1 Peter where he's saying it's undefiled, it's imperishable, it's everlasting, waiting for those who have him. But to have that, to be entrusted with that, starts with putting your faith and trust in Christ. And part of that has to do with the humility side of which Paul is reminding, if they're true believers, Corinth, of. He's saying, do you remember who you were? Do you remember that you didn't have these things? Do you remember that God took you, a sinner, and saved you? Because you're never going to come to Christ apart from entering through that gateway of humility. God draws near to the humble, right? He's gonna oppose the problem. If you recognize you're a sinner, if you recognize you're in a need, saying, I can't save myself, I have to look outside of myself, I have to deal with this problem which I have, which is sin. in a different way, someone has to take that sin, I know it's Jesus, and I put my faith and trust in him, then he's saying, okay, then you've been reconciled, then you understand this ministry, and now you're going to spend your life doing what Christ did, which is, he really, you could say, is the ultimate steward, of which God gave him a mission, a ministry, of which he was faithful, Philippians says, right, even to the point of death, death on a cross. So if you believe that it's true, then this becomes this issue of, okay, going from all these good things, and there's something about the gospel that is so good, and the language of the scriptures is, you're free, right? You're imprisoned in chains, and Christ has come and taken the key and unlocked you free. You're no longer enslaved to sin, you're free to glorify God. And that moment is like someone who is inherited You probably save millions, maybe now, you know, there's a lot more billionaires out there. It's the idea of billions of dollars and you could do anything and everything. You have absolute freedom. You never have to work again. And so you're excited because the burden of sin has been lifted from you and you get to do and live however you want. And then all of a sudden you get to know the scriptures. And hopefully someone's coming alongside of you who shared the message of the gospel to say, yes, but there's this other side of this which we are responsible. There's this other side of which now we are to live for Christ. And so even though God forgives sin, we're not to keep on sinning. In fact, we're no longer to live for ourselves, but we're to live for Christ. So there's the freedom in Christ, absolutely. but now you've been given this huge weight, this huge responsibility, this huge, you could say, inheritance of which you now are a steward of, and you're gonna be entrusted with that, and now what are you gonna do with it? I know kind of in the Christian circles, a lot of people are fans, you know, financial peace, Dave Ramsey, and I've heard him talk about his kids, and you know, he sat him down when they kind of turned 21, and he said, I opened the books, and I showed him, dad has got a lot of money. And someday, you're gonna be managers of that money. But he made it very clear, he owns none of it. He's just managing it, right? He views it as the financial piece. He's a steward of what God has given him. And one day, for his son and his daughters, they're gonna inherit that, and they're gonna be managers and stewards of that. And he kind of goes on and forth and talk, warning them, if you manage it poorly now, you're not gonna get it. But if you recognize this is all God's, then you're gonna get it and you're gonna have the weight, the responsibility. What he says to his kids, he wants them to understand this is not just, you know, the ability to do whatever you want or to stop working. It is, what it is, is this a huge responsibility now to bless and serve others. And so it's like, oh wow, I have all this. But yeah, but no, now you gotta manage it. Now you gotta grow it. Now you gotta use it to serve others. And it's that kind of weight of responsibility that this stewardship kind of makes you feel. And Paul is saying, consider me, consider Apollos, consider all that serve Christ, in this case, who have come and ministered to them, whether the one who watered or the one who planted. consider us in this manner simply as servants of Christ." And so first servants and then stewards. And this is a great word for servants. So some of you might have a translation, like my translation, Legacy Standard Bible, often translates the word doulos as slave. It's kind of one of the markers of that translation. And so oftentimes you'll see that it says, I am a slave of Christ. It's one of Paul's favorite Just phrases. Slave of Christ. Slave of Christ. And you could translate this as slave of Christ because this kind of servant, although not the Dulaw's bond servant, this is actually the lowest slave. That's the Greek term here. In the Roman Empire, it is a servant of Christ, the lowest slave, who is simply one who is going to be a under rower on a Roman galley ship. That is to say, they're the lowest rank of slave. You'd have slaves on the top deck, and you'd have slaves on the bottom. And just as that's a very visual picture, that is who he's saying, we are the under rowers, we are the lowest ranking slave of Christ. Paul, your father in the faith, an apostle, is the lowest ranking servant, slave of Christ. These are the slaves who would sit in the belly of the ship. They're simply rowing. They have no input in direction, right? They're not steering. They're not changing the sails. They're not looking out. They're just simply there rowing, rowing, doing what the captain tells them to do, completely dependent. Where the captain says, row harder, there'd be a drum that would beat. That's all they did all day, no control over anything. They simply did what they were told. Stop when they stop, go when they go, never question the captain and what he says. That's the word here when he says, I am not just a slave of Christ, Dulas, but actually I am a third class lowest slave on the under rower of a Roman ship. They would read that and they would know, and they would picture, because that's the way we think, right? We think in pictures. They would think, that is who you are. That is who, that's how you view your ministry. You can see then, well, why bring this up? Because you remember, what are some of the issues? We didn't get into all of them because it's kind of, in general, the issues of division. One of the divisions is they're fighting over who's the best preacher. You're gonna see there's other issues. People are suing one another. There's sexual issues in this book. There's all kinds of different issues about the resurrection, etc. He's trying to bring them into this unified position, be unified, have the same mind in Christ. And the first thing you're gonna need to realize is every single one of you needs to humble themselves and realize you are the lowest slave of Christ. Just like me, Paul, and just like Jesus. Apollos. That is to say, he is defining the highest form of leadership in the church, apostles, as one of servanthood, not one of self-promotion. He's not offended by Apollos. He's not offended by those who have spoken poorly of him. He's simply saying, listen, this is who I am, this is who we are, we have a bigger mission because we're all pulling in a different direction towards the glory of Christ and his message and his ministry. So true strength's not gonna be about being the top dog, the owner, the one calling the shots. Rather, it's about submission to Christ completely. And when the captain, when Christ says to row, we row. And when Christ says to stop, we stop. When Christ says, this is gonna cost, in Paul's case, he's gonna go to prison multiple times. He's gonna say, okay, because that's the job. That's what I signed up for when Christ came after me. He saw Christ and he believed. A man doesn't row to his own rhythm, right? He follows the direction of Christ. And we can talk specific instructions of scripture, but if you just think about, for us here tonight, thinking about within marriage, why then does the scripture over and over again talk about the role, particularly of a husband, as one of self-sacrifice rather than dominance? I get often questions with marriage, and it's okay, we're doing a men's conference, and you're looking at Ephesians chapter five, and it's like, what does it mean to be, for a wife to be submissive? What does it mean for a husband to be ahead? And usually, because of cultural issues, you're just going, okay, hold on. First of all, whatever you're thinking, number one, think less authority and think more responsibility. Absolutely there's authority, even in the kind of Greek word that's used in Ephesians 5, and it has a military background of rank and all those things, but that's not the point. The point is you're the one who's going to be held accountable. That is, you're the head of the home who is going to be called to the carpet over where your family is headed. My wife's really good about reminding me of that whenever I want to make a bigger financial decision or different things. And she's very quick to be like, well, whatever you want to do, it's between you and the Lord. Okay. You know, cause then I'm going maybe, well, you think it's a bad idea? She's like, well, probably, but it's, it's between you and the Lord. She's really good at that. And she's right though, in one sense. And I'm, I'm thankful, but I'm almost afraid that she's like, why are you so quick to, you know, just give me enough rope to, you know, But that's this issue of thinking of headship as, in this thing I'm talking about, husbands here and wives, that you're the one who has the accountability, the leadership, but it doesn't mean you domineer or you're authoritarian. It means you serve and you lead and you don't push, but you're meant to, obviously, pull is the idea here. You might think, wow, headship, it's glamorous, I'm in charge. Paul's going, no, he is an apostle, that sounds glamorous. I wish I had the spiritual gifts of Paul. And he's saying, no, I am the lowest slave there could be. It's not glamorous, it's vital, but it's not glamorous. If you think of Christ, John 5 30, he says, I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. It's Christ who then takes on the form of a servant. He's looking to the Father and the Father's will. That's who our model is. We imitate Paul and only as much as he imitates Christ. And so consider Paul, consider Apollos, consider any leader as simply an under rowing lowly slave of Christ. Again, just willing to do anything and everything he can to serve others, whether it's family, whether it's church, anything. Chairs, clean the toilet. You're saying that's, I'm here. How can I serve you? That's what it means ultimately to be a Christian man who is showing true masculinity. It's not puffing your chest. It's not being the one leading. It's the one who is serving. And then the second word he uses here is this idea of steward. The stewardship of the mysteries of God. The steward, as we talked about, isn't there to make up his own plan. It's to carry out the plan of the owner. Not simply one who is They're looking, how do we make more? How do I advance myself? Rather, you understand the weight of your responsibility and the seriousness of what is at stake. Another word that's often used for servant, and it could be a slave in the Roman sense, would be diakonos, or deacon. We transliterate the same idea, but it has a similar picture here. And it's these different words. You're a servant of Christ, a slave of Christ, an under rower, a bond slave. Diakonos, you're a servant. It has its root in you are one who is waiting tables. It's kind of at the core of that term. You're there to wait tables. You're there to simply stay out of the way. And so the picture there is, imagine yourself as a waiter in a very high-end restaurant getting very nice and expensive food. And the truth is, if you go to a nice restaurant, a couple nice ones in Omaha, every once in a while for anniversary, we would give gift cards, we'll go. And there you go. And if I remember the waiter, if I remember the waitress, it's not a good thing. Right? You go, you have a great time, you say that's a great steak, maybe that's the best steak I've ever eaten, and you do not remember the name of the waiter. You might remember if their service is bad, but again, you don't really remember if their service is good. They're simply there to get out of the way. The chef did it right, and the waiter's trying to get it from the chef to the table without screwing it up, right? to give it the way exactly the chef intended. Imagine if a waiter was to add some random ingredients. I know a little bit better. I know the chef is world class, five star, Michelin chef, whatever. But I think this could use a little more of that. You'd go, you're the waiter. The waiter doesn't add salt. The waiter doesn't add spices. That's crazy. Yet kind of the same thing I think at times you can see we often are gonna add things or say we maybe know how to do this a little bit better. No, we're simply stewards, we're simply servants of Christ. You might think well I know how to advance or grow this ministry or whatever it might be and the answer is no, don't do that. You're simply caring for what God has given in his word or in this case the mysteries of God, chiefly the gospel, but even then you could say all that God has given and done for his church, the gospel and his word. You don't adjust it with kind of your personal flavor. You don't want to water it down to avoid offense. No, as Spurgeon said, just let the lion out of the cage and trust that the Lord will do his work. If you're gonna be a good steward, you're gonna have to trust that the Lord is good. You're gonna have to have faith that his word is right. And it may seem like there's a better way, but you're going, you know what? No, God's word is the right way, and my job is to be faithful to it. So am I being a faithful steward, or am I living life in a way that is running in any direction that I personally want, or am I living it for, let's say, the master? And so, you're one who now recognizes, and Paul is saying, you, as a man, as a leader, in this case Corinth, for us tonight, you've been entrusted with this amazing thing, this amazing ministry, the mysteries of God, the gospel, yes, the riches of Christ, yes, and on that journey, you're saying, I had nothing, and now I have everything, well, what next? The next is, you're going to be tested. So you go on this journey from being simply entrusted to secondly, being tested. You're gonna be tested now. Verse two. and find out what is required of you. And we've already been talking around this issue, don't spend as much time here, but in this case, it's not a, you need to be innovative, rather, verse two, in this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful. There's simply one non-negotiable requirement for a steward, and that is faithfulness. You don't have to be the smartest guy in the room, You don't have to be the best looking. You don't have to be the most talented. You don't have to be the richest. You don't have to be the most popular. You simply have to be the one who is faithful. That's the requirement, which is good. Because you might look around and go, I can't do that, I can't do that, I can't do that, I can't do that. But I can promise you, you can be faithful to whatever God has given you to do. That is, you need to be faithful, trustworthy, reliable, dependable. Paul sits behind that word. It's completely non-negotiable for what you need to do. You're the steward, you're not there to change, you're not there to grow. You're in the same way, I mean, you're meant to grow in the right ways that the master has instructed, but you're simply to be one who's faithful in everything you do. You think back to a story like Joseph and Potiphar's house. Joseph doesn't own anything, but he is faithful, and so Potiphar puts him over everything. And he manages, why? Because he does what is right and he is faithful and shows integrity. Again, the same thing you see it in ministry all the time. You see someone who serves faithfully in something that is small and then they carry and you want to give them something more. They're not looking necessarily for popularity or for more ministry, but you're simply going, but you're so faithful here, how can I, I want someone who's done this then to be faithful and a little bit more. If you're consistent in those little things, Luke 16 10, he was faithful little, then he'll be faithful in much. And so we start to have this issue here of faithfulness and stewardship and realizing that no one goes from A to Z, from little to big, just by accident. I know I'm one who thinks there's gotta be a quick thing for everything. And I suppose the book of Proverbs told me long ago, it just doesn't work. There's no quick way to get rich. There's no quick way to lose weight. There's no quick way to shortcut really anything that is good in life. It just doesn't work that way. Character is something, particularly if you think about character and the steward, is built over the long haul. In fact, it's going to be built over the long haul where no one can see. So if you look at someone and you're amazed, you're going, how did that person get so godly? Well, I promise you, they're like the iceberg. You see a little bit of the tip and you go, wow, that's amazing. But something's gone on in their life probably over years that you can't see where they've been faithful, whether they've been faithfully in the word, faithfully in ministry, faithful to their spouse. They've chosen over time to be faithful, faithful, faithful in all that God has given. And they come out and you go, man, I wish I was like him. And they might even look at you and go, well, be careful because sometimes those men have been through a lot of difficulties. But the Lord has used those to grow them into the kind of steward they are because they steward the things that were little, the Lord has given them more in their ministry and in different areas of life. I mean, I would love to just have a massive memory of scripture. but you just can't just memorize, right? A thousand verses, you memorize one verse. If anything, someone was asking earlier just about my dissertation and like I said, if I knew what I know now, I would not do it. If I knew the mountain was that high and I would not have started climbing. But you know, there's good because challenges are good. I think, you know, I've grown in certain areas and it's good reading, writing, all those fun things. But you understand that you can't, as they always say, eat the elephant in one bite. Like you're going to have to eat it slowly. And so how do you eat them? You eat them at one bite at a time in small increments over time. You just can't have a 300 page dissertation just pop onto the page. It doesn't work that way. Stewardship, ministry, character doesn't work that way either. It's built day after day, faithful after faithful after faithful. It starts with the most simple things. I mean, if I look at somebody, I'm going, man, let's look at somebody, a young man, if you're a lot of young people here, for opportunities for ministry, and they don't come to church every Sunday, it's like, well, man, if you can't get up and go to church on Sunday, I don't really know if we're looking at you for the next level, right? But also, if you're going to church every Sunday, it's not like your next step is, why don't you go ahead and give the sermon on Sunday, right? It's like, well, there's a few things in between. But you're doing the basic things, you're coming, you're hearing, you're sitting underneath the word, you're growing in the Lord, you're joining a study, you're maybe working through discipleship with someone, learning how to disciple another person, and growing in those steady ways. Maybe no one can see those, but you understand you are doing the work. And the Lord's gonna use those things, those faithful little things that you're gonna do, if you steward them well, and he's gonna slowly grant more ministry over time. being faithful, because we have been entrusted with something that should not only go, wow, we have so much in Christ, but then you realize what a responsibility, and you're gonna be tested. What are you doing with that responsibility? What are you doing with what the Lord has given you? Not only the gospel message, are you sharing it with others, but are you serving others the way Christ has called you to? Are you the same man in, say, private that you are in public? Or would people be shocked when they came into your home and you're different than you are on a Sunday morning and those things? Are you stewing it well in every area of your life? Because you go from being entrusted to being tested and then ultimately to being judged. I'm going to leave some of that because that's going to come into play for this whole chapter because ultimately who is going to judge is all about what responsibilities we truly have. Because they're going to judge Paul. but he's not gonna care so much about their judgment. In fact, Paul's gonna say he doesn't care much about his own judgment. Rather, he cares about the ultimate judge. And that's the same that is true for us. Ultimately, it comes down to, are we reflecting the Christ-like servanthood that Christ has done for us? Hebrews 3, 6 says Christ is described as the faithful son over the house. Do we look at our lives and simply realize whatever Christ wants, I'm willing to give, I'm willing to serve. That's the kind of radical stewardship, the radical servanthood that Christ desires of us. And so kind of wrapping this together, I said we're gonna look more at the judgment in the next talk, but it's called to being a faithful steward of what God has given you, particularly as a man. So evaluate your own heart, your own life. If you have that area, again, everyone here is going to be a son, because you came from somewhere. You're gonna be a friend. Some husbands, some fathers, some, again, leaders. Just be reminded In all those relationships, you are simply the lowest servant, just like Paul, but that's a privilege because you get to serve like Christ has served you. Faithfulness is not about fame or the mark, rather the mark of a real man is going to be faithfulness in the kingdom. So my challenge is thinking about this, is that you start to feel that responsibility that Paul wants them to see in his life, and that I want you to see in your own life, because what comes next here is this reality of we will be judged for these things. Each man's work in chapter three, he goes through, God owns it all, therefore God is going to judge it all, and he's gonna describe what we can learn when we are examined. We want to be ones that will hear, well done and good and faithful servant, rather than in Matthew 25, the phrase, you wicked and lazy servant, rather we've taken what the Lord has given, small or big, whatever it might be, and we've been faithful to it. Lord, just help us to be faithful stewards, faithful in your truth, faithful in our families, faithful in our ministries. Help us to embrace the humility of an under rower, the lowest slave, and the trustworthiness of what you have called us to be as stewards of the mysteries of God, namely the gospel of your son. May we serve not for our own glory, but for yours. That when we stand before you, as we'll examine in a moment, Lord, that we live for an audience of one or that we would ultimately be found faithful. We just pray this in your son's name. Amen.