Faithful With All Things | More Than A Story

Well, Providence family, it is really good to see each and every one of you.

If you're a guest here with us, we are honored that you've joined us.

If we haven't met, my name is Brian, and uh I have the joy of serving as one of the pastors here at Providence.

Uh you've already heard about the air.

If you're new here, you think, oh, they just sort of run a little warmer room than normal.

And um, this is uh normal.

Uh I'm sorry, this is not normal.

This is uh it's warmer.

Um the harbor is really cool, and so Joe mentioned it.

If you are uncomfortable, you can hear everything you're about to hear.

You can just go right over here in this room.

And um uh, but we really are glad you're here.

If we haven't met, uh I would love the opportunity to do so.

I'll be out in the lobby uh when we're done.

Uh the last uh several um weekends I've been away, and for 10 of the days uh when we were a uh we were in Moldova.

And what I want to say to you as a church family, um, there's uh I can see a few faces who were there with me, but uh as a church family, I just want you to know that your generosity that you give to Providence and a pretty significant uh portion of that goes to supporting missionaries around the world.

So what we did was uh as a church family, we support um many uh missionaries and 110 church planters in the nations all around the world.

And we invited them to a camp in Moldova that we support.

Now, it wasn't to come to camp, it was just a camp that was there, has rooms, um, and we wanted to do a retreat for them, to simply be a blessing to them, to encourage them.

And so um about 75 of them came um from all over the corners of the globe.

Uh, some of them are in places uh to where the police are constantly looking at them, so they have to move their church family every three months so that they're not found out.

Some of them, they're the only believer they know in their city.

Um and uh and we had the opportunity to simply try to be an encouragement to them.

And so for your prayers and your generosity to not only support them but to encourage them along the way, I'm just so incredibly thankful and they love you and express their gratitude for you as well.

So let's pray for them now, okay?

Father in heaven, as we uh gather here, we know that many of our extended family members here at Providence are all over the nations.

And we pray for those who are fearful of interrogation and worse.

We ask Father that you would comfort them and encourage them and that you would give them wisdom and knowing when to speak and how to speak, the truth, the hope that they have in Christ.

We pray for those who they live in a city where there are very few and maybe none, other believers in Christ, other followers, and they've moved there to these very difficult places in order to speak of the hope that they have in Christ, that people could hear the gospel and be saved.

We pray for the families who have children and those kids in vulnerable places and hard places.

We ask, Father, for your grace, for your protection upon these families, your help in their lives.

And now we pray, as we open your word, that you would do a miracle once again.

As we sit in front of your word, your word tells us that it's like a mirror, that when we look at it, we see parts of our life that are out of step with reality.

And so, would you help us to see where we need to be transformed, where we need to change, where we need to repent, where we need to obey.

I pray, Father, that you would speak through weakness, that we would be helped and encouraged in this journey of life.

Thank you so much for the privilege.

Help us now, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

If you have a Bible, turn with me to Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And imagine with me a friend of yours comes to your house, knocks on the door, you invite them in, they're a close friend of yours, and they hand you something that is immensely valuable.

And then they say to you, This is important to me.

This matters to me.

And I'm going away, and while I'm away, I'm asking you to care for this and steward this, manage this as I would if I wasn't going away.

And I am going away, but I'm gonna return.

And when I return, I'm gonna want this back.

But not only that, I'm gonna ask you how you cared for it and managed it along the way.

Well, what I just described is how Jesus describes our life in Matthew 25, where he, the creator of the universe, entrusts to us things that are important to him.

He's given us a mind, a body, a heart, a soul.

He's given us time and talents, treasures, people in our life, friendships, family, a church, the gospel.

He's given us so many things that surround our life in order to steward while he's away.

And the day is gonna come, he tells us, in Matthew 25, when he's going to return.

And he's gonna settle accounts, and he's gonna ask us what we did and how we cared for what he entrusted to us.

Matthew 25 includes at least two parables.

We're in a series, this is the last week of it, of looking at many of Jesus' parables.

A parable was Jesus' way to try to connect spiritual truths to earthly realities, where he would tell a story with very familiar things and people and experiences that we can all understand and grasp, and then he would connect spiritual truth to it in order to teach us something, something that we really needed.

All the parables are spoken into a context, a setting.

And it's important for us to know the setting of Matthew 25 that begins in Matthew 24.

When he, three days before he went to the cross to die for our sin, rise from the dead, he began telling us that when he rose from the dead, he would spend a little bit more time on the earth, and then he would ascend and he would leave.

He would go on a journey.

And then one day he would return.

And so in chapter 24, he speaks about the fact of when he would return, his second coming to the earth when he would judge the world.

And it's interesting as you read Matthew 24, you find two dominant themes that are repeated over and over and over again.

One of them is difficulty.

He speaks that just before he returns, there will be wars and rumors of wars and plagues and earthquakes, false teaching, persecuted followers of Jesus Christ, great difficulty that would culminate with something that the Bible calls a tribulation.

A block of time that is very brief, most people believe seven years, that Jesus says in Matthew 24 will be the most difficult days in human civilization.

The tribulation.

And in Matthew 24, he says, After this tribulation, they will see the Son of Man.

The Son of Man was a title given to the Christ in the Old Testament.

Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, able to mediate God and man because he is fully God and fully man.

So we know that there's going to be tremendous difficulty, but not only that, there's a constant theme in chapter 24 of readiness, the need to be ready when he returns.

And so he says things like, be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour that you do not expect.

In order to motivate and urge us to be ready, to live in a state of readiness, he tells two parables.

We're going to read both, but really only talk at depth on the second.

The first one is about salvation, of being ready in our soul.

Starting in verse 1, he says, Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them.

But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

But at midnight there was a cry.

And all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him.

Those who were ready went in with him.

To the marriage feast, and the door was shut, and afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

So within three days, Jesus was going to go to the cross.

He who had no sin was gonna die for people like me and you who have sinned.

The Bible calls him a propitiation, a substitutionary sacrifice, where God sent his son to the earth just as he promised to rescue us from our sin by dying for us in our place.

He was buried and then he rose again.

And when he rose again, he extended an invitation to humanity.

He said, If you will acknowledge that you have a sin problem before me and a debt that you cannot pay, and if you will see and believe that I can pay that debt, indeed I have paid that debt for you in advance.

And if you will believe in me, my life, death, and resurrection, and confess to me as Lord, I will forgive you, I will save you, I will give you my righteousness.

And another amazing thing he says is I will fill you with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of heaven for you.

The Holy Spirit is represented in this parable as the oil.

Whoever does not have the Holy Spirit in their heart is not ready for the return of Christ.

And yet you notice that all ten virgins are waiting for the bridegroom.

Jesus tells this parable where he's saying humanity is represented by these ten women.

Their job is when the bridegroom comes, they are to light their lamp to provide light and celebration and a welcome when he returns.

All of them externally look ready.

They walk around and they have all the external trappings of being ready.

For people in the church, that can mean religious activity.

They pray, they sit in these seats, they sing the songs, but they're not born again.

If you're not born again, you don't have the Holy Spirit within your heart.

And if the Holy Spirit's not in your heart, you're not ready to see Jesus.

For people outside the church, it might be decency or kindness or good works.

People who never go to church and yet they volunteer at hospitals.

And people look at him and say, clearly, if there is a God, you are ready to see him because look at all the good things that you're doing.

And Jesus' parable is simply saying this the only people who are ready for his return are people who have the Holy Spirit in their heart.

The very fact that in Jesus' parable, he's, of course, he's making this story up to tell us something about spiritual truth.

And you notice he says that the five who have oil, they don't share.

Jesus is not teaching the stinginess of people who have the Holy Spirit.

He's teaching the impossibility of sharing, giving your faith to someone else in that moment when he has returned.

Once he returns, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, it is too late.

And so the first parable is obviously sobering.

It deals with the heart, it deals with is the Holy Spirit in your heart today.

The second parable is not about salvation, it's about stewardship.

But it's very interesting what Jesus does is he reveals that stewardship is not simply a matter of managing the things in our life, but that stewardship is actually a reflection pool.

That when we look into the reflection pool of our stewardship, it tells us something about the condition of our heart before Him and our readiness to see Him.

So notice what it says, verse 14.

To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability.

And then he went away.

And he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.

So also he who had the two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents.

Here I have made five talents more.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.

And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here I've made two talents more.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here you have what is yours.

But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have scattered no seed?

Then you ought to have invested the money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.

So take the talent from him and give it to him, who has the ten talents, for to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has none, even what he has will be taken away.

And cast the servant into the outer darkness, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In this second parable, he teaches us about stewardship or management of our life.

And I'm going to show you a number of principles here that all stack up on the first one.

And the first truth is this is that Christ owns everything.

He's the creator of the heavens and the earth.

Colossians chapter one tells us of Jesus that by him all things were created.

That all things were created through him and for him.

And as the creator, he has creator rights and ownership over all things.

That's all his.

And in Jesus' parable, if you remember the context, he's saying, I'm going to leave and then I'm going to return.

And so he tells a parable about a master who is leaving and who will return.

But notice one of the key important points in verse 14 that's underlined.

It will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

It's all Jesus' property.

And it's vital to understand ownership anytime you're trying to manage the different parts of your life.

This is why Romans chapter 11 says, from him and through him and to him are all things.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

All things include your life, your mind, your heart, your soul, your body, the people in your life, the resources in your life, your home, your possessions, your opportunities, the gospel, if you know the gospel, the Bible in your hand, the church that you're a part of.

All things come from him, all things are going to him, and those who understand his ownership take the things and say, I want to manage through you, which means the reason it's so important to understand divine ownership over every part of your life is twofold.

Not only in our life, every part of our life that we hold back and we say, I'm gonna own this, I'm gonna give this to him, but I'm gonna own this, what you find is tremendous anxiety in the parts of your life and dysfunction in the parts of your life that you take ownership of.

But more important, this is his world.

And he's given us instruction on how to live in his world.

And when people understand that he's the owner, that it all comes from him and it's all going to him, then what we're our heart is more inclined to do is to say, okay, Lord, this friendship, this marriage of mine, these children that are in my life, they're from you, they're going to you.

I want to try to manage through you.

What do I do with this?

And this becomes an important differentiator here on the earth between people who manage in a way that hear well done and who don't.

Now the Bible affirms personal property.

In the Bible, people own things.

In the Bible, there's stories of land being returned to original owners who had a property deed.

That's all real.

So we hold deeds, property deeds, in order to define and distinguish ownership and management.

In other words, you have a car.

If you have a car, you have a car.

It's not my car, it's your car.

You have to steward that car.

I have to steward my car.

You're gonna be held accountable for how you stewarded your children.

I'm gonna be held accountable for how I stewarded mine.

And so anytime there's a property deed or a mark of distinction between what is yours and what is mine is, and understanding each one of us, this is what I have been tasked to manage.

But friends, listen, we may hold property deeds, but he holds us.

And so he clarifies over and over and over again.

We're like, This is my land.

So God comes to us and he says things like, actually, the land is mine.

We say, This silver and gold is mine.

He says, Actually, the silver is mine, the gold is mine.

What I have on the earth is mine.

And he says, Actually, the world and its fullness are mine.

Now we've all seen a toddler in the corner hoarding his toy, saying, It's mine, it's mine.

We think, is this what's happening here?

And the answer is obviously no.

There's never been anyone as generous as the Lord God.

Everything we have is his, and yet look at all we have to steward.

He's so generous.

But he reminds us of divine ownership so that we will look to him.

And friends, for those of us who have put our faith in Jesus and have been redeemed by him, I want you to know you're doubly owned.

For not only did he create you and has ownership, but he died for you.

And 1 Corinthians 6 says, you are therefore not your own, for you are purchased, bought with a price.

And so let me encourage each one of us before we move on to affirm his ownership over our life.

Begin thinking about the things that you think are yours.

What's in your life, the people in your life, the things in your life.

And let me encourage you to say, Lord, I recognize now that it's all your property.

The second thing I want you to see is that Christ entrust.

Us with a portion to manage.

A portion to manage.

He leaves, but he leaves no one empty-handed.

A talent, we use the word talent and we mean ability or special skill.

But in this story and at this time, a talent was an amount of money.

It represented 17 to 20 years of wages for a day laborer.

A tremendous amount of money that's being entrusted to others.

And you notice in verse 15 it says, And to the one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability, and then he went away.

So Jesus in time and space is saying, I am leaving and I am coming back.

And now he's telling a story, and he's saying, I am leaving, and I'm entrusting my property to you.

He gives different amounts, and then he leaves.

But nobody is left empty-handed.

Everyone has stewardship, responsibilities.

And it's interesting when you look through the scriptures and you try to answer the question, how does God entrust to us?

You find two different ways.

One is divine prerogative, and the other is his understanding of our ability to align our management to his wisdom.

So let's talk about each one of these, okay?

Divine prerogative.

What does that mean?

Well, let's just think about the number of days that we're going to live on the earth.

They differ from each one of us, don't they?

And in Psalm 139, he says, All the days are ordained for me before one of them came to be, which means he knows when you were born and he knows when you will die.

And it was his prerogative for some of us that you get one talent of days.

Some of us, we know people who have already passed when they were 20 or in their 30s, and we think they were so young.

Others, they live into their 40s or 50s, or maybe 60s, and we think, wow, they received two talents of days.

Others live into their 80s, 90s, and into the hundreds, and we're like, wow, they received five talents of days.

But it was divine prerogative of God saying, I know how many days I'm giving you.

Think about our talents and abilities.

Each one of us, we're little babies, he plants little seeds of aptitude and intelligence.

I want you to know every single one of you are intelligent.

But not everyone here is intelligent in the way that the school systems test.

There's lots of books that talk about eight different kinds of intelligence, and school systems test three.

You are intelligent.

And as you grow, what you find is your interest and aptitude and different levels of intelligence and places of intelligence, they they start to they start to arise.

And it it isn't interesting that some of us we learn we were meant to run like races, and some of us we were we learn we're not meant to run races.

Some of us, math comes real easy, and some of us should never build a bridge.

Many of us have siblings, and you didn't get to choose how many.

Some of us, you got one talent of sibling, some of us got two talents of siblings, some of us got five.

But don't you understand that all of those siblings are now people in your life that you have been tasked to steward and manage.

So in some areas, there's divine prerogative, other areas, there's his awareness and understanding of our ability to manage according to his wisdom.

What do I mean by that?

Well, if you open up the Proverbs and you just read Proverbs, what you find, let me just give you two examples.

Friendship and money, okay?

What you find in Proverbs is that if you're a good friend, you tend to have more friends.

If you're just cruel to everybody, turns out that not everyone wants to hang out with you.

Then he also says that he who works a job tends to see more money.

He who spends less than what they make sees a surplus in what they have.

And so sometimes he just chooses this is what you get, and other times our his awareness of our management of those things is what we get to touch and manage.

Different amounts, but hear this the expectation is the same.

What's the expectation?

Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, it says it's required of stewards that they be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

That was the expectation.

Faithfulness.

So what is faithfulness?

What is faithful stewardship of life?

This is how I would define it.

It's managing the master's property according to the master's values while the master is away.

So let's apply that in a few different areas, okay?

If Jesus was the parent of your children, how would he parent them?

And the proximity of how you parent them to how Jesus would parent them is faithful stewardship.

If Jesus had your job, how would he spend your paycheck?

The proximity of the different places that you would send money to where he would send money is faithful stewardship.

Or think about this church.

Here we are, we're all in here.

What if Jesus came to Providence?

Well, we'd all say, me included, he should be the pastor, right?

He gets to be the pastor.

And I would agree.

But that doesn't help with this illustration.

And so let's just say he came to Providence and he volunteered in the place where you volunteer.

I mean, it's true for me.

I asked Jesus every single time before I write a sermon.

I said, Jesus, if you're gonna preach, this is what I did, if you're gonna actually stand up and have to teach Matthew chapter 13, chapter 25, verses 13 to 30, what would you say?

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

That's what I want to say.

But if you work the front doors, hospitality, you're greeting people as they come in, you should ask the question if Jesus was holding these doors, how would he greet people as they walked in?

And the proximity and whatever it is that you do of how Jesus would carry that out on the basis, we don't have to guess because we know how he behaves.

It's all in the scriptures.

The proximity to how we would imitate how he manages, how he would manage our responsibilities, how we manage those, well, that's faithful stewardship.

And so let me encourage you to consider our management with what we have been given.

Consider the management of your life with what you've been given.

Take stock of your life.

What are the categories in which you are managing?

One of the most important questions and helpful questions that I've asked Tabitha repeatedly through our 29 years of marriage now is I say, when you stand before the Lord and you won't get to stand there with me, and I won't stand there with you, we'll stand there alone.

But we're partners now.

But in this area, what do you want to be able to say?

If he asks us about this, and he asks you about this, what do you want to be able to say that we did with our sons, with our neighbors, with our finances?

You manage towards that.

You see, the good stewards we find in verse 16 and 17, it says that the man who had received the five talents went at once and put his master to work.

And then it says, and also the one with two.

Now I want you to just notice a few characteristics of faithful stewardship among the good stewards.

First of all, you see no comparison.

The five doesn't say, Why do I have so much to go to a steward in relation to the one with two?

And the two doesn't say, Why did he get five and I get two?

There's no comparison.

Everyone is not looking at what's in another person's hand, everyone is seeking to manage what Christ has put in their hand.

The second thing you find here is there's no procrastination.

It says they win at once.

What that means is this is that if you're a steward of your soul, today should be the day that you begin to imagine how to steward that.

Don't wait 20 more years.

Today is the day to think about your money and your children and your friendships and your relationships and your extended family.

Today.

And the third is there's no laziness.

And we know this because these two are compared to the servant that Jesus calls slothful.

And then what you find is two servants conscious of the master's return, asking themselves, what can I do to manage what the master has given?

The third truth you find is that Christ instructs how we are to manage.

Now you notice there's no direct mention of instruction within the parable.

It doesn't say, and he entrusted him five talents and said, I really want you to double this.

We don't find those words.

But notice the good stewards within the parable are called faithful.

In verse 21 and 23, it says, Well done, good and faithful servants.

You've been faithful with a little.

And this is what we know in Scripture: there is no faithfulness without instruction.

The Bible is written in a way where God says, Let me give you my wisdom, and then plead with you, would you believe and have faith?

Trust my heart, trust my wisdom.

And faithfulness is the evidence, the visible evidence of our faith in his good intentions and his instruction.

You think about if you're a babysitter, let's just say that you are a babysitter for first-time parents, okay?

This is their first date, right?

So they've had a baby, I don't know, two, three months, and they're like, you know what, I think we could maybe leave the baby for three hours.

Let's find a trusted friend.

Right?

So this isn't like a parent that's on the fourth time around, just like, yeah, the kid's over there, and there's some diapers over there, and they go out the door.

No, this is like, just like, ma'am, this is really serious.

So they got a schedule, it's like it's 6:37.

This is what we want you to do, and this is here's the diapers, and here's the formula, and this is you everything.

Well, the fact is, today there's video cameras everywhere.

So if you're there and you're just like, yeah, whatever, I'm I'm just gonna scroll, and they're watching you, and you're not following instruction, they deem you unfaithful.

And therefore, you can't babysit there again.

And so, one of the things you need to understand about the Lord who observes all of life, nothing is hidden from his eyes, is that everything he entrusts, he instructs.

We've given, we've been given a soul, and he comes to us in 1 Peter chapter 2, and he says, Abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

We've been given instruction on our time.

We've all been given time.

And he says to us in Psalm 90, conscious of the fact that your days are limited, this is how you should manage your time.

You should look up to me every day of your life and say, I know whatever you put your hands to, Lord, is gonna be established.

And so with the limited time that I have left, I want to take every day of my life and leverage my life work.

And I want to mirror your life work, knowing that my life work will then be established.

He gives us instruction about marriage.

If you're married, he's entrusted you with a spouse.

He tells us in Genesis 2, one man, one woman.

He tells us in Proverbs 5, fidelity.

He tells us in Ephesians chapter 5, out of reverence for Christ, to show love and respect to one another.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

For those of us who have children, he's given us instructions.

In Deuteronomy chapter 6, he comes to us and he says, This is the first responsibility you have as a parent, is to love me with all of your heart, that they can see it.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And if you'll love me, you'll love my word.

And if you love my word, then as you walk along the path, and if you're sitting in the living room and you're driving the soccer, all of a sudden you can impart these truths to them.

Everything that he entrusts, he instructs.

And so let me urge each one of us to pursue and to yield to his instruction.

There are two ways to learn how to live.

One is to die, because moments after you die, you will know, and so will I, how we should have lived.

The other way to figure out how to live is to read the Bible, because the Bible is God's revelation of who he is, who we are, and how to live in his world.

So we don't have to wait to die to learn how to live.

We can simply read the Bible, study the Bible, which is why we put out every single week either a weekly guide like this, of every day.

This is what we as a congregation could be reading.

That sometimes we put out monthly guides on a card.

This is why we have life groups.

This is why we have studies through the week for men on Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays, and while we have studies for women on Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there's plenty of opportunities, but you have to take advantage of these opportunities.

I urge you to pursue the instruction that God has given to us on how to live so that you know how to steward the different arenas of your life.

On August 30th, there's an event I think is so critically important for us as a church family.

It's gonna start at five o'clock on this Sunday night, and you do have to register for it.

And I want to encourage two different groups of people to participate in this.

First of all, if you're a parent, if you're a parent, this is for you.

And second, is if you are involved in a church with kids, this is for you.

You see, our family pastor and his team, Ben Old, and he's put together a plan, a model to disciple the younger generation and how the church can partner with families in order to raise up this younger generation.

And the fact is, is that if you call Providence home, you have been entrusted with hundreds of children.

If you're a parent with three kids, you've been entrusted with three.

But together, as a congregation and as parents, to labor together to stir the faith of the younger generation towards Christ.

I urge you to consider being there.

The last thing I want you to see is most sobering, and that is that Christ will inspect our management as a gauge of spiritual life.

He will inspect our management.

And that management is going to serve as a gauge, an indicator of spiritual life.

The day is coming when Jesus is going to return and he will inspect our lives.

And so in verse 19, he speaks about this in his parable.

He says, After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

Well, this is representative of judgment.

And most sobering about this parable, about stewardship, is it ends with people going to heaven or hell, and their stewardship is the reflection of their destination.

Now, I need to be very clear here, okay?

The Bible says we are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone.

He died for us, he rose from the dead.

He invites us to put our faith in him, to confess him as Lord, and if we do, we will be saved.

The invitation, Romans chapter 10, verse 9, says that if we believe, I'm sorry, if we confess that Jesus, with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

Romans 10:9

And you notice it doesn't say if you confess, if you believe, and if you're an amazing steward of your finances, stewardship does not save, but friends, listen to me, a heart that has been born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, is longing for the return of Christ, is guided by a relationship with Jesus Christ, will steward the arenas of their life differently than someone who has no regard for him or care that he's coming back again.

And this is what we find in the contrast of these stewards.

The first two servants were commended.

They're told, Well done, good and faithful servant.

And it's not because of their profitability, but because their relationship and understanding of the master who would return motivated them to be faithful managers.

The third, however, was not commended but condemned.

And his words that explain his management reveal the motivation of why he managed the way that he did.

Notice what it says.

He says, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

So I was afraid, and I went and I hit your talent in the ground.

Here you have what is yours.

Friends, we've looked at a number of parables, and some of them Jesus is using the parable to describe the character of God, like in Luke 15, when we learned about the prodigal son and how the father was full of compassion and ran out and saw.

We learned all kinds of things about the Father.

Some parables tell us about the Lord, some parables like this one and this portion of it, very important.

They tell us what happens in someone's life when they don't understand the character of God.

You see, this third steward, he didn't know the master.

He thought that he was harsh, but Jesus is anything but harsh.

He thought that he was lacking integrity, but Jesus is full of integrity.

And therefore, he did not look forward to Jesus' return.

He did not look forward to the master's return.

You see, friends, listen, the joy of stewardship is in the relationship.

If there's no relationship with Christ, there's no joy in managing according to his instructions.

And if there's no relationship with Christ, there's no motivation to be fruitful for his return.

So let me urge you as we close to prepare to stand before God by trusting Christ.

All three of these stewards knew the owner would return.

Two of them looked forward to the day.

And one of them dreaded the day.

And we did not have to dread the day.

We can put our faith and trust in Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be ready today.

Would you trust Christ?

And if you have put your faith in Christ, let me ask you: have you been baptized?

I say this because next weekend, celebration weekend, when we look back and celebrate and recount the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord at Providence over the last year, we're gonna have an opportunity to celebrate with people who are being baptized.

They're gonna go into the water and they're gonna come out.

And as they go in and out, what they're saying is this they're saying that Jesus' blood has cleansed me of my sin, not this water.

But I'm identifying with his death, his burial, and going under the water, and his resurrection.

And I want you to know that Jesus has changed my life.

And so my question is have you put your faith in Christ?

And if not, would you now?

And if you have, have you publicly professed your faith by being baptized?

And if not, would you please go to pray.org slash baptism and we would love to begin a conversation with you where we would be able to celebrate with you next weekend.

So let's pray together.

Father in heaven, we love you, and we thank you that you love us.

Thank you for giving us instruction, and Jesus, thank you for speaking in these parables that make so much sense to life.

I pray, Father, for those who are considering putting their trust in you, that you would incline their heart, draw them to yourself, lead them to the place of confessing you as Lord today.

And Father, I pray for those of us who have, not only that you would help us to sing in just a moment, but you would help us to take stock of our life.

You would help us to see that you own all things and all the parts of our life, in particular those that are out of step.

Would you help us to raise them up and say, Lord, how should I manage this?

And would you speak to each one of us, giving us instruction that we would be faithful?

We love you.

And we pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen.