Transcription
If you want God's blessing on your life, you're going to have to learn to live by faith. Because everything God does in you, through you, for you, and to you, he does because you put your faith in his grace. God always moves according to your faith. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. The Bible says according to your faith, it will be done unto you. The Bible says without without faith, uh it is impossible to please God. It says whatever is not of faith is sin.
The problem is everything in this world focuses against you to keep you from living by faith. That's why this weekend in this series, I want us to look at being faithful in a faithless world. In in Luke chapter 18, Jesus said this. He said, "When I the son of man return," and Jesus is coming back one day. "When I the son of man return, how many will I find on earth who have faith?"
Why is it so important? Well, the Bible tells us three things about the importance of faith. I want you to write these down. Number one, the Bible tells us that God is looking for faithful people. God is physically, visibly, actively taking the initiative to look for faithful people that he can bless. God is looking for people that he can bless. And what he looks for is people of faith. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says this, "For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole world, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him so that he can show his great power in helping them." This has been one of my life verses that God is looking for people to use. And if you get usable, he will wear you out. If you get blessable, he will bless your socks off. That's why I don't wear socks. And God says, "I will use you if you will be usable." God is looking for people, faithful people that he can use.
Number two, the second thing the Bible teaches is that faithful people are hard to find. They're actually quite rare. People who trust God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength, they're actually quite rare. Faithful people are hard to find. The Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse uh verse 6. Everyone talks about how faithful he is, but it is difficult to find someone who really is. A lot of people talk the talk, but they don't really trust God. They don't really believe God. They're trusting their credit card. They're trusting everything else. They say they believe in God, but they don't really trust him when it comes to their finances, their health, their job, and these other things. Psalm 53 says this, "God looks down from heaven at the children of man to see if a single one is wise and seeks God." But he says, "All of them have proven faithless." Circle that word, faithless. They've all proven faithless. They've all been corrupted by by the world. And not one of them always does right. Faithful people are hard to find. God's looking for people to bless, but he can't find people who are blessable, who are going to live by faith.
Now, the third thing the Bible says is this. Faithfulness is the key to blessing, to victory. It's the key to victory in your life over all of the problems in your life. And it's the key to blessing in your life. Just being a faithful man, a faithful woman. The Bible says this in 1 John chapter 5. Every child of God can defeat the world. Remember, we're in this battle called the invisible war. And it is our faith, circle that. Our faith that gives us the victory. That's how you're going to overcome your problems. Not by intelligence, not by money, not by creativity, but it is by your faith you're going to be able to overcome difficulties, distress, despair, things like that. Every child of God can defeat the world. And it is our faith that gives us this victory. No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the son of God. And the Bible says in Proverbs 28:20, "A faithful man will be richly blessed." I want your life to be richly blessed. But in order for you to have that blessing, you're going to have to learn faithfulness. You're going to have to learn how God tests it. and you're going to have to learn how God grows it.
So, let's look this weekend at the six tests of faithfulness and how God uses these things in your life to grow your faith so that then he can bless you. Let's get right into it. Number one, the Bible tells us that God uses little things to test your integrity. God uses little things to test your integrity. Now, we often think, oh, it's the big things in life that create a leader. No, the big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is built not in the big things of life. It's built in the small things of life. That's where integrity shows up. In the stuff nobody sees. In the stuff behind the scenes, in the small, unseen, unspectacular moral choices of life where you do the right thing and nobody's ever going to see it. God tests your integrity in the little things. And faithfulness requires integrity. Faithful people reveal their integrity in the small, the unseen, and the unnoticed acts that nobody ever knows about. Luke 16:10, Jesus says this, "Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones, and who is ever dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones."
Now, what is he saying here? He's saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity. Did you hear that? Every time a politician has a scandal, you can always count on his defenders to come out and say this. It really shouldn't matter what a guy's private life is like. Have you ever heard that one? It really shouldn't matter what a guy does in his private life. It hasn't has anything to do with him as a leader. It has everything to do with him as a leader. Because if a man lies to his wife, he'll lie to his constituency. Believe me, if he'll lie to his best friend that he said till death do us part and be dishonest and he'll reject and cheat on her, he will cheat on you, voter. Count on it. Count on it. My public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. Your public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see. God uses little things to test my integrity. Not only that, notice the next verse. Jesus says this, "And if you have not been faithful with that which belongs to somebody else, who will give you what belongs to you?"
Now, he's talking here about the concept of apprenticeship. That before God gives you something, he will often loan it to you. He'll often see how you work in somebody else's. For many centuries, the only way you learned to job skill is you became an apprentice in somebody else's job. If you wanted to learn to be a shoemaker, you apprenticed to a shoemaker who mentored you. If you wanted to be a mechanic, you apprenticed to a mechanic and you worked in his mechanic shop before you got your own. The problem today is we have many people going out and starting things and they've never apprenticed under anybody else and they get in all kinds of trouble. He says, "Before you get your own, you need to serve in somebody else." As a pastor, I apprenticed under many other ministries before I was given my own ministry. I served as a youth pastor under a guy's ministry in Norwok. I served as a Christian teacher in a college before uh under somebody else's ministry. I served as an associate pastor. I served as a writer in a Christian organization long before God gave me my own ministry. He says, "If you're not faithful with somebody else's job, who's going to give you?" Are you as particular with somebody else loans you something? Somebody loans you a car, do you treat it as nicely as you'd treat your own car? Somebody loans you their home to go on vacation, do you treat it as nicely as you would your own home? You see, I learned a long time ago this principle. I don't have to own it to enjoy it, but I can take care of it even though it's not mine. And so I don't have to own stuff for people to, you know, this week a guy uh I I I had to fly over to um to Phoenix to speak at a convention. And the guy said, "Rick, why don't you get your own plane?" I said, "Absolutely not. Never. You will never hear me get my own plane. Now, if you want to buy one, I'll use yours. I'll be happy, but I don't have to own it to enjoy it." He said, "But you fly all around the world." I said, "No, no, I don't. I'm not going to buy a plane." first place. I don't think it's good for pastors to own that kind of stuff. And and but I said you I don't have to own it to enjoy it. If somebody else wants to provide you got a plane, fine. I'll use it. But don't worry about having to own something in order to enjoy it. God will often tr entrust you with something at somebody else's before he gives you your own.
Number two, second, very important. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness. Now, you have to decide in life who or what you're going to live for. And you've really got two choices in life. You're either going to A live for yourself, a self-centered, miserly life, or b you're going to live for something greater than yourself, which I highly suggest, the kingdom of God. Live live for Jesus Christ. You're going to live for yourself or you're going to live for something bigger than yourself. Faithful people don't live for themselves. They realize that the talents God gave them are not for their own benefit, but they're for the to make the world a better place. Do you realize this? That when God made you, he gave you all kinds of gifts, all kinds of talents, all kinds of abilities. We call it your shape. If you've taken class 301, your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality, and your experiences. These five things make you you. And God made you you. And there's nobody like you in the whole world. And he wants you to be you for his glory. Now, God shaped you to serve him. How do you serve God? There's only one way to serve God. by serving other people on this planet. You cannot serve God directly because you can't see him. So the only way you can serve God is by serving others. And when you serve others, you are serving God. And God shaped you to serve him. Now faithful people realize that their talents are not for their benefit. You know those talents you've got, I'm sorry, they weren't given for your your sake. You were given the abilities you got to help other people. For instance, one of my gifts, one of my talents is I have an talent at teaching. But God gave me the teaching gift not to benefit me but to help you. My gift helps you. In the same way, God has gifted you. And your gift was meant to help me and to help other people around you. Now, if I don't use my gifts, my talents, you get cheated. If you don't use the gifts and talents that God gave you, I get cheated. Now, you may have a talent for art and you say, "Well, why do I do art?" "Cuz I just love to do it." Well, that's nice, but that's not a good enough motive. Because God didn't give you artistic ability just so you can love to do it. He gave it to you so you can use your art in some ways to help other people. Some of you have an ability to fix things. Some of you are good at mechanics. Some of you are good at math. Some of you are good at closing deals. Some of you are good at uh music. Some of you are good at organizing. and you can organize something really quick. And some of you are good at trimming and gardening. And you know what? God made us all different. So everything in the world gets done. If we all like to do thing the same thing, there'd be a lot left undone. So God made us all like to do different things. Now those things that God gave you are not for your benefit. They are given as a stewardship. And God is watching you to see if you use what he gave you effectively on earth. And if you use it effectively on earth, listen, he's going to give you more responsibility in heaven. There's a whole lot of teaching on this in scripture. Jesus told many parables about it that God is studying your faithfulness. Have you ever thought about why didn't God just create us and take us to heaven? Why does he put us here on a broken planet for 80 years or 90 years or whatever? He puts you here because life is a test and life is a trust and life is a temporary assignment. And he's watching to see if you are faithful with what he gave you here on earth to bless other people. He's going to give you greater rewards, greater responsibility, and greater roles in heaven. This is a test. Now, the Bible says this, 1 Peter chapter 4, each one of you should use whatever gift he has received to make a ton of money, retire, and die. No, no, no. He says to serve others faithfully. You circle that word faithfully. Faithfully administering. You're a manager and you're a manager of the talent you've been given. Ma faithfully managing God's grace in its various form. God gave you talents and he's watching to see if you're faithful with them. Now, one of the principles we know is if you don't use it, you you lose it. Talent is like a muscle. If you use muscle, it gets stronger. If you don't use your muscle, you lose your muscle. If you don't use your talent because of fear or laziness or anything like that, God will take it away and give it to somebody else. Whatever you use wisely, God gives you more of. Would you write that down? Whatever I use wisely, God will give me more of. If you use your time wisely, God will give you more time. If you use your energy wisely, God will give you more energy. If you use your money wisely, God will give you more money. I have found that if you use your influence wisely, God will give you more influence. But if you're faithful in little, then you'll be faithful in much. So if I take my talents, if I use my talents wisely, God will increase my talent and I'll get better at it and I'll get more better at it and better and better and better because God gives to people who use what he gives them effectively. Look at the next verse. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove what? That's what we're talking about this weekend. God is watching to see, do I use my time, my money, my influence, do I use my intelligence, do I use my brain wisely, then he's going to give you more. Whatever I use wisely, God will give me more of. There are two great themes in the Bible, two great themes. One is salvation and the other is stewardship. They're taught from cover to cover. Salvation is, have I trusted Jesus for my forgiveness? Stewardship is what are you doing with what you've been given? And God is looking at both of these major themes in your life.
Number three, the third test. And if you pass this test, then God gives you more blessing. And this test will be on and on. Number three, God uses tough times to teach me persistence. God uses tough times to teach me persistence. The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful people keep on keeping on. Faithful people are determined. Faithful people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Fa faithful people don't know how to quit. Do you know how a little nut an acorn becomes an oak oak tree? An an oak tree is just an acorn that refused to give up. and it just kept on keeping on and and you you you just never give up. I'm not that smart, but I do know have one thing is I don't know how to quit. It is always too soon to quit. You are never a failure till you quit and it's always too soon to quit. God uses tough times to test my persistence. You know, when we started Saddleback, we just K I I preached the first sermon to one person, my wife. She thought it was too long. It's been downhill since. 31 years later, she's still saying it's too long. Over the next I thought when we started the church, we'd get a building real quick. We went 15 years without a building. In the first 13 years of this church, we used 79 different facilities. Do you know how many times I felt like giving up? Just every Monday morning. But I don't know how to quit. And we said, uh, God said, Rick, if I never give you a building, will you still serve me? I said, 'Absolutely. Saddleback grew to over 10,000 people before we built this first building. How would you like to set up and take down a church for 10,000 people every week? There's not a lot of glory to that. It's just hard work. God says, "I use tough times to test your persistence." Notice this verse. You're going through tough times right now. This verse is for you. 2 Corinthians 4. This is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and they won't last very long. But they will produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever. Because when you're going through tough times, you're growing in character. So he says we don't look at the troubles we can see right now. In other words, we don't keep our eyes on the problem. Rather, we look forward to what we have not seen, the reward for persevering. For the troubles we seen will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. You see, there's something God is more interested in than what you do. God is more interested in who you are than what you do. He's more interested in what you're becoming than what's happening to you. And God often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, problems, persistence, you know, in your life to teach you diligence, determination, and character. The problem you're going through right now, this is a test. It's easy to serve God when things are going great. Now, if you're going through a tough time right now, and almost everybody is, the next verse you need to memorize. So, put a star by it. Go home and write it down on a card and memorize it this week for encouragement. Galatians 6:9. Don't get tired of doing what is right. You will circle, not might. You will be rewarded when the time is right if you don't give up. I want us to read that verse aloud together. Read it with me. Don't get tired of doing what's right. You will be rewarded when the time is right if you don't give up. You need to memorize that verse because God uses tough times to test your persistence. One of my great spiritual lessons I learned from that theologian Forest Gump. Everybody remember the story Forest Gump? Okay. In Forest Gump, there's a story of a hard time that they go through which a hurricane tsunami comes into the south part of America. Okay? And all of the fishing, remember Forest Gump has a fishing boat. Bubba Gump shrimp. Okay? He's got a fishing boat and all of the other fishing boats say, "We got a storm coming in, so we're going to play it safe. We're not going to be out fishing during the storm. We're going to pull into the harbor. We're going to batten down the hatches. We're going to tie up next to shore and we're going to wait out this recession, this storm. Economic tough times are coming. We got a storm coming in. It's a parable. And so we're going to tie up and we're going to play it safe. We're not going to be out fishing. We're going to wait it out the storm. We're going to be play it conservative. Nothing ventured, nothing gain. Only one fishing boat is doing what fishing boats are made to do. Fish. And so Forest Gump is out on the ocean fishing in the middle of the storm. If you remember this story, at the end of the storm, every boat that had tied down in the harbor was destroyed. They had all been dashed against the rocks. They were completely dominated and broken up and they were all destroyed. And after the storm, Forest Gump dominated the market because he was the only one who didn't play it safe.
Number four, the fourth thing that you need to understand is that God uses shortages to test my generosity. God uses shortages to test my generosity. Faithful people are generous when they don't have it to give. Now, now follow me on this. Anybody can be generous when you got a surplus. I can be generous with my time when I got a lot of extra.