Faithful Stewardship

Pick up our Bibles and let's wave those Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad, and let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I've tuned in on Wednesday night because I'm hungry for more and I know tonight I will hear the Word of God, not hear just with my natural ears, but I'm gonna hear with my spiritual ears and your Word is going down and it's building up my spirit, nourishing my faith, and I will accomplish what you've called me to do in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to two places First Corinthians, chapter four.

And while you're finding that one, find First Timothy, chapter one, and I'll read a few verses to get started here.

First Corinthians, chapter four, verse one Paul writing to the Corinthian church, he said let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful, all right.

And then over in First Timothy, chapter one.

Yeah, verse one.

First Timothy, 112,.

Here you go, and Paul is talking about how God called him to the ministry.

He said and I thank Christ, jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that.

He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

So tonight I wanted to share a message entitled faithful stewards.

Faithfulness here is required.

It's not optional, and it's required in stewards.

And what is a steward?

Well, a steward is a minister, a preacher.

Somebody said well, that lets me off the hook.

I'm neither one of those.

Well, yeah, you're a minister of the new covenant.

You may not be employed as a minister, but we're all able ministers of the new covenant, holy ghost people can preach what is preach.

It just means to share truth.

It's so.

A minister, a steward, is a treasurer, a trustee, a manager and an overseer of the mysteries of Christ.

Just think about that.

We're chosen to be stewards and we, as stewards, we must be faithful.

And faithfulness being required is proven over a period of time.

I mean, you don't really mark faithfulness just in a couple of days.

Someone has to prove out that they are faithful.

You know a lot of people, in fact.

In Proverbs 20, verse six, it says many shall proclaim their own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?

And so faithfulness has to be proven, it has to be demonstrated over a period of time.

So here, jesus watched Paul and he counted him, he deemed him, he judged him, he considered him faithful.

Faithfully, it was, over a period of time, putting me into the ministry.

Notice the word putting me.

A lot of times people think, yes, he put me up on a pedestal.

No, it's the opposite.

Actually, it means he laid him down, he prostrated him, as opposed to lifting him up.

I mean, you know, jesus said that he that wants to be the greatest among you, let him be the least of all.

Let him be the servant of all.

He that wants to lead, let him be the servant of all.

And so all of us, whether we're full time ministers or not, we're servants of the most high God and we're servants of the people to whom we've been sent.

We're servants to each other and we're servants to those who don't know.

So it's a humbling experience to be called, because you're not elevated, you're put down, you're lowered into, so to speak.

And so we're not all just ministers and treasurers and trustees, but we're all stewards, and every believer is a minister.

We teach that here at Gloria's Way Church.

That's what Brother Osteen taught me 40 odd years ago.

I learned it early on.

I realized early on that I had a ministry, that I had needed to be busy about it and I needed to be faithful over it.

You know God calls and God qualifies and then God commissions.

You know the idea that Jesus counted Paul faithful, putting him into the ministry.

So that meant that there was a qualifying and there was a qualification period.

I mean, he might have been called a certain thing early on, but he didn't get to be that certain thing until a proving, until a qualification.

So there's calling, then there's qualification, and then there is the commissioning or the placing of the minister into that position to which he's been called.

And so as managers and trustees of something supernatural given to us by God, then we have to be faithful.

See, you said God enabled him.

See, god enabled him.

Not man man can enable you in the calling.

It has to be God.

God has to enable or equip you or give you supernatural endowments and gifts in order for you to fulfill your ministry.

You know, I just got through reading this in the book of Acts, chapter six, where the apostle said hey, it's not reason for us to leave the word of God and wait on tables, but look you out among you, seven men of honest report, a full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, to a point over this business.

And they found seven.

Two of them were Stephen and Philip, and of course we know we talked about this past Sunday, but Stephen was martyred for his faith.

Later, philip went into the, into a scenario and preached Christ unto them.

So, but where they where, their ministry was a ministry of deacons.

They were deacons, they were, they were what we would call ushers, and they waited on tables.

They made sure that the widows had their share of the food, and so the apostles needed to take care of the higher things, the things concerning the ministry and the word and so forth, and so, but even in order to be a servant like that, to serve breakfast, you know, to clean the tables then you needed to be have supernatural equipment.

The apostles laid their hands on them and gave them supernatural enablements to allow them to do their job.

And so it doesn't matter what position we hold in a church or outside of a church.

I mean, I just remember when I first got saved and I started going to full gospel business men's meetings, they had two meetings a month.

They had a Saturday evening meeting and a Saturday morning meeting, and the Saturday morning was, of course, a breakfast, and I'd always go early and the president of the chapter, he took a shine to me and he started giving me things to do.

And then, on the Sunday night meetings, he said, john, would you mind coming a little early?

I need to help getting the room set up for the banquet and I would help him hang the banner.

He had about a 12 foot banner that we needed to hang across the front.

It said full gospel business, men's fellowship international, big, long name.

It took a 12 foot piece of cloth with fringe on it and we had to hang that.

And then we had to unhang it.

Well, I started off.

I knew I had a call of God on my life, but did I get to do that?

No, I got to hang banners, I got to sweep the floors, I got to kind of be there.

I got to be on the tear down committee.

You see, regardless of where you are, god is watching and God is qualifying you.

And so be a faithful steward.

That's what we wanna talk about tonight.

I've preached this many times in different ways.

You know, one of the things that Jesus talked to the disciples about right before he was crucified was being a faithful.

And he said faithful to watch, watch and pray.

Be faithful.

So I've preached that way, but this is a little.

We're coming at it from a little different standpoint tonight.

Faithfulness is so important and so let's be a faithful steward, and I've got one, two, three, three things.

There's many things we need to be faithful over, but I've got three things tonight I wanna share with you.

Be a faithful steward.

Number one over God's call on your life.

I said, pastor, I'm not called.

Yes, you are.

You're called, or you wouldn't be saved.

He called you.

You're not saved because it was your idea, it was his idea and he pursued you.

He found you.

You were the lost one, he wasn't lost.

People say, well, I found the Lord.

No, he found you.

It was his idea and he pursued you and he called you.

And so be faithful over God's call on your life.

Well, I don't know what my call is.

Well, sometimes we don't know For many years.

Sometimes people are blind to what the real, true purpose is, and so they start off simply getting involved.

It's always best to be involved and be busy about serving the Lord, not just in prayer at home, but also in the church or in other places.

You know he said this twice.

Jesus said this twice in his ministries, twice in the gospels.

Many are called but few are chosen.

Or we could say many are called but few are commissioned, few are released into their calling.

And he gave two instances where he said that.

The first one was in Matthew 20.

And when we look at that, I'm not gonna bother reading the whole thing, but it's the parable of the householder going out and he needed workers and he went out in the, you know, first in the morning, six am.

Then he went in the third hour, which is nine o'clock in the morning, and he agreed to give them a penny.

Let's just say it's $100.

That's a whole day's labor.

That would be what, 12 hours times $8 an hour.

That's kind of almost minimum wage now.

So let's just round it off to $100.

A penny didn't really mean a penny like one sin, it was a different.

We don't know exactly how much that was, but it wasn't a lot of money.

But the first group, they were glad to go to work.

They didn't have a job, so they hired on, let's just say for $100 for the day and they started out there working and then he didn't have enough guys.

So at nine o'clock he goes again and he gets them hired, then at noon and then at three o'clock, and then at five o'clock, one hour short of quitting time, he goes again the 11th hour and he hires that group and now six o'clock comes and he lines them up to pay them in reverse order.

He pays the newcomers first and guess what?

The people that came and only worked an hour, that got there at the 11th hour they got $100.

And then the people that got there at three got $100.

People got it in noon and the people at nine.

And so the guys that got there at six am and started the day bore the heat of the day.

They kind of assumed that they would get paid more because they worked longer and harder and they only got what they had agreed.

They got $100.

And so they began to murmur against the householder hey, we were cheated, this isn't right.

And so he heard about it.

He started confronting him.

He says what in the world?

I mean, did you agree to work for $100?

And gave you the $100?

What gripe have you got coming?

Is your eye evil?

Just because my eye is good?

Just because I want to do good to these people?

I want to give them.

I wanted to give them more money.

I gave them more money.

I gave you what you agreed to.

And he said many are called and few are chosen.

And so that has to do with attitude.

A poor attitude will keep you from being released into your calling.

You have flunked the qualification process with your poor attitude.

I'll tell you, we've got to be good stewards over the call and we've got to make sure our attitude stays sweet and appreciative.

And then the second time that he mentioned many are called, few are chosen is in Matthew 22.

And it's the wedding feast and he said go out into the highways, we don't have enough people here at the wedding going to the highways and byways and compelled them to come in.

And they came in.

They all had a wedding garment on.

And this one guy shows up and he doesn't have a wedding garment.

Friend, where's your wedding garment?

Oh, I don't have one.

Well, you can't be in here.

You've got to have a wedding garment.

Get rid of him, throw him out into the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called and few are chosen.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, it means lack of preparation.

Lack of preparation.

You know, preparation time is not wasted time.

I've seen a lot of ministries aborted because there was little or no preparation before they launched into their ministry and basically they kind of they commissioned themselves.

They didn't wait on the Lord to place them into that position.

You know you need to watch your attitude and you need to prepare yourself.

Both of those.

Those are things that you've got to be a good steward over.

I mean, grow up and use your gifts and talents to glorify God.

No, don't allow yourself to be immature.

Don't allow yourself to be a murmur and a complainer.

Don't allow yourself to be envious and jealous of others and competitive man.

I've seen competition in the ministry and people want to compete with you.

Well, I'm not competing with anybody.

I'm ruling over the devil.

That's what I'm doing.

I'm not competing with anybody.

You know that's not what it's all about.

And so we have to develop an attitude of humility.

Humility is a fruit of the spirit.

It can be grown, it can be developed.

You know, when you first get saved, you might not have very much of it.

So see to it that you grow in humility, grow in love, grow in thankfulness or gratitude, peace.

You know it's a blessing to do anything for the Lord, and over many years.

You know, when I got saved, I was a full blown adult.

I had my own business and I was a home builder and I was the boss of my business.

I was the president of my company.

I had people that depended on me for their living and they got paid by the.

I didn't pay them by the hour, they got paid by the job, but yet the job had to make a profit or where, or I'd go out of business and then they wouldn't have a, you know, wouldn't have a job.

Some of them wouldn't, and so.

But you know, I wasn't too good to stack chairs, I wouldn't get too good to go mow a lawn one time at the church.

I wasn't too good to do the menial tasks, like I already talked about hanging a banner.

You know that's all.

I was qualified to do it First I had to start in the bottom rung of the ladder.

You know a lot of people want to start, start at the top.

Well, you didn't graduate from high school in the first grade.

And see the thing about faithfulness it has to be judged by others.

You're not the judge of your faithfulness, you're not the judge.

God is, and he has people that he wants you to submit to.

And so you develop your an attitude of humility, gratitude attitude, your faithful over and to your church, to your pastor and his leadership.

Yeah, that's another thing.

I've seen people you know give lip service to the pastor, in some cases me, and then you know, treat my, my children, who are all associate pastors and in great authority in the church.

They've earned the place that they are in and yet they treat them with a lesser amount of honor.

Well, see, I know that and I hear that, I see that and that's that's in my mind.

That's a disqualification of that person for me to be able to commission them into whatever it is that God has called them to do because they're flunking the, they're flunking the.

The qualification process that's a big part of my job description is proving people, proving people out, and and so it's.

That's what happens in a local church.

Do we encourage people?

Absolutely, we love on people, encourage people, but we always want to also add value to people and we want people to develop in their calling so that they can be qualified and then eventually commissioned, whether it's to go into a ministry of their own, like a church, like a pastor, or just to be highly developed within the church and take over leadership positions.

I tell you there's.

There's great need for leaders.

There's great need for laborers in the harvest.

Jesus said the the fields are already white for harvest.

He said the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few.

And those laborers need leaders.

They need leaders, amen.

So be a good steward over your own word.

I mean, if you can't.

You know, my dad used to have this saying.

A lot of folks from his, his, a lot of folks from his generation would talk like this.

He said you know, my word is my bond.

When I think about that now, I think about personal recognizance bonds that they've been given out at down at Harris County courthouse.

Criminals come in there, they're arrested for all kinds of terrible things Some very serious murder, for instance car jackings and they're given what is called personal reconnaissance bond.

In other words, they just promised to show back up at their at their court date and there's no money that changes hands because they're poor.

Oh, they're poor.

No, they're not poor, they're.

They're criminals and they get their living.

They make their living off of robbing and stealing from others.

They're not poor.

They ought to be locked up if they can't make bail.

See, there shouldn't be any of this personal recognizant.

Their word is not their bond.

That's the bottom line.

Their word is not their bond.

My dad's word was his bond.

I mean, if he said it, that was it and he did whatever.

He didn't just do his best, he did whatever it took to make his word true.

So you know, I hear this all the time.

Oh well, pastor, I'll do my best.

No, that's not good enough.

Your best is not good enough.

You need to do whatever it takes.

Whatever it takes, that's what you do, or you don't agree to do it.

I just can't do that.

Okay, nobody's got a gun to your head.

But if you volunteer and you say you're gonna be there, you say you're gonna do it.

And well, I did my best.

No, your best isn't good enough.

You have to do whatever it takes, otherwise, don't make the promise with your words.

You see what I'm saying.

We want God to honor his word, but we don't honor ours.

See, that's part of what you learn in church, or you're supposed to learn it.

You're supposed to be held accountable to that standard, and so you can be developed into a faithful steward.

Faithful steward, and so I wanna stress your best, it's not a matter of heart.

Dr Fred Price say that I don't know, 30 odd years ago, I had a six tape series that I was listening to by him and he was giving a testimony about his wife and he had promised his wife something and that didn't come to pass.

He didn't deliver and he said well, honey, I did my best and she said your best just ain't good enough.

I've never forgotten it and that's true.

That's the truth.

I mean, we have to do whatever it takes to fulfill what we have spoken with our mouth, all right.

So God's call on your life be faithful over that, be a good steward over that call.

It involves being prepared, it involves your attitude and you're gonna have to be hard on yourself.

You're gonna have to not give yourself permission to deviate.

Don't wait for somebody else to say something.

You hold yourself under a short reign, all right.

The second thing is be faithful over, a faithful steward over your family, over your family, first your spouse and then your children and strike the balance.

Don't just pay all attention to the spouse, leave the kids out, and don't just pay all the attention to the kids and leave the spouse out.

You need to have a godly balance, and the Holy Ghost is the God of order, he's the God of balance, and when it comes to parents and siblings, they're way down the list.

I mean, once you're living on your own, you have your own children, your own family.

That is where the bulk of your faithfulness has to occur and that's where your attention has to be when you're always pulled aside by others and to the hurt of the nuclear family.

I've seen marriages go on the rocks.

I've seen children go astray because the parents don't know how to draw boundaries, they don't know how to prioritize their lives.

So of course God is first, but after that is our family, and it's our spouse and our children.

You have to strike that balance or you will not be set into, you will not be commissioned into your call in the maximum way that God has in mind.

I'm convinced that there's so little teaching on these things, so little churches that are not holding people accountable in this way, that that's why the church isn't such a mess.

You have people that are entitled.

You have people that think they deserve everything.

They think they want to be served.

They don't want to be the servant.

So you have to serve husbands.

You've got to serve your wife.

Wife, you've got to serve your husband.

It's not just one way.

It's not the husband, the wife serving the husband.

All those husbands have to serve the wife.

In fact you ought to run a race between each other, see who can out serve the other and who can out love the other.

I knew a preacher one time.

I'd known him at Lakewood and frankly, he just stand against the wall and he'd jaw and he'd talk and he was always kind of a big.

He was a big guy, he was a big talker and I don't know.

I just never had a witness to get very involved with him.

I never got to know him very well, I just saw the external and I just realized that he wasn't an usher, he wasn't a prayer partner, he didn't have anything to do, he'd just hang around and talk about his ministry.

So I was kind of young at the Lord.

I asked him what he did.

Oh, I'm called to be a pastor, I'm gonna be a pastor.

Are you got a church?

No, no, not.

Yet I'm gonna be sent out.

Well, years later I lost track of him.

I don't even know what happened to him.

Years later I found out he was up in the Midwest, some state I won't say, where it's not exactly the Bible built and he had a church up there and it was struggling.

He was having a hard time.

We had a mutual Preacher that that would go up there and minister from time to time.

So he was telling me about him and he was concerned.

He came back, concerned about him.

He said you know what he told me?

He said that he felt led of the Lord to go on a missions trip for a month and he left his church and his wife.

And he said and he told his wife, he said here, here's a five pound bag of potatoes.

Now you make this last till I get back no money and a five pound bag of potatoes.

And he goes on a missions trip.

Now see, I and I don't know everything, but I that's out of order.

He is not faithful Over his church.

He's a pastor.

Pastors don't leave their churches like that for a month and they certainly don't leave their wife and children with almost no food and no money and Leave the church in her care.

And she may or may not have been a preacher, she may or may not have been a pastor.

Just because there's a pastor's a pastor's wife doesn't make her a pastor, it doesn't make her a member of the five-fold ministry.

She may be in the ministry of helps In fact she sure most certainly is that but you know, to leave that in her care with all that pressure and and so this preacher told me, says, well, I just, I just, they couldn't give me an offering.

So I, I just, I just gave them the ministry.

I said, well, that's it, that's a good way to go broke, go pay to preach.

I said you paid your expenses to go up there, yeah, and then you, then you just didn't get an offering.

So so he wasn't a very good steward over his ministry.

So I tried to help him.

I said God doesn't expect you, unless the Holy Ghost tells you to do it, god doesn't expect you to bail people out that are out of order.

You know, anyway, I Would have saved my money giving it to her and send her a check.

But anyway, that pastor that I'm talking about died an early death.

He got cancer within six months.

He was dead in his late 50s.

Or why did he die?

Well, the devil stole his life because he was out of order and he didn't.

He didn't honor God by watching over and being a good steward, a good treasurer of the mysteries of God.

Oh, what an honor it is to be a pastor.

And yet he.

What an honor it is to be a husband.

What an honor it is to be a father.

It's an honor, all of that's an honor.

He didn't count it as an honor.

Now, y'all with me?

Now Pastry is kind of heavy.

Well, no, it's me.

You want me to cut it up for you?

I'll cut it up later, amen.

Well, we need to hear these things so that you can understand that.

You know, of course, pastors have a higher degree of Responsibility.

Who much is given, much is required.

But that doesn't mean the individual believer Must not be Faithful, a faithful steward.

You have to be faithful over your ministry, faithful over your call, faithful over your family.

The last one is faithful over your money.

Faithful over your money.

I mean, be a tither.

The first tenth is the Lord's.

It belongs to him.

When you don't give it back to him, you're stealing from him.

He doesn't need your money.

But there is no such thing as as as honoring God.

You honor God with your substance.

You can praise him with your lips, you can worship him with your song, but you cannot honor him with anything other than your substance.

That's why he put in there that the tithe is the Lord, that belongs to him.

So give him the first tenth.

I can't afford it.

No, you can't afford not to.

Everybody can afford Whatever you have.

The first tenth is his.

And then there's offerings over the above the tithe, and so stir yourself up.

If there's no money left, you're in a tight.

I've had to tell people okay, temporarily You're unemployed and this that the other just tithe.

I never tell people not to tithe.

I've never told anybody not to tithe, ever.

Because why?

The Bible commands it.

It's God's way.

It's the only way we can really honor God is the tithe.

But I have told people okay, suspend your giving until you can get seed to sow.

Now, ask God for seed to sow.

He gives seed to the sower.

Tell him you're a sower and you need seed to sow, and he'll show you something.

In my case I didn't have any extra money.

I tied and there wasn't anything.

I just flat couldn't give much over and above the tithe.

I'd give a little something, but it wasn't satisfying to me At one stage of my life.

So I I saw this car sitting in my driveway that nobody hardly drove and I sold that car for 1,800 bucks and we gave the whole thing in the missions.

I Felt so good and my, my wife felt so good.

My kids felt so good.

It felt so good to write that check for 1,800.

I hadn't given that much money in two years all at one time.

But I had to sell something to get the seed to sow, and I was glad to sow it.

I mean.

So be, be a good steward over your money.

Quit living a life of indulgence.

What do you mean by that?

Well, you say things like I deserve.

I Deserve to go on a missions trip instead of staying home and Taking care of my family and pastoring my church.

It's not as exciting.

There's a bunch of boo birds in my church and they're kind of mad at me and and I want to get out of town and leave everything.

Oh, that's you're indulging yourself.

You know You're not spending your money, right?

I know it cost him money to go on that missions trip.

He took money out of his household account to go.

I keep going on that guy because that's the thing not to do.

You know, if Jesus is your Lord, he wants to have something to say about how you spend your money.

Well, you know, but the 90% is mine?

No, it's really not, as 100% is his.

Why don't you just settle that the first tenth is God's but really all of it is his?

He just requires the first 10 and Then he counts it as if you gave all of it, amen.

So let's not get to where we just mindlessly Spend our money wherever we want to without consulting him.

I Mean, I just would not go out and spend a big chunk of change on anything without praying about it and Consulting my heavenly father.

You know, if Jesus is Lord, he's Lord over how you spend your money.

He wants, he wants to have something to say about, about what you do with your money.

You also ought to make sure your wife agrees with you, and vice versa.

Oh honey, I just deserve I just felt like I deserve this my birthday and I bought this $5,000 diamond ring, and here you don't have two nickels to rub together and you put it on credit card.

Well see, that's foolish, that is not the way to live.

That's in.

That's self-indulgent, amen.

I don't know who that's for, but that's not right, because you're gonna wind up paying $10,000 for the ring if you put it on a credit card, or maybe more.

So Don't live that kind of a life.

Be a giver If you're gonna squeeze, squeeze into the giving area, because the giving area is part where the Bible says you'll give and it'll be given under you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.

So let the Holy Ghost and good financial practices govern your purchases.

You know, one time I told this story years ago and I haven't told it in a while, you know God saved a car nut.

I just love, I've always loved cars, and when I got old enough, you know, and prosperous enough to buy more than one, I bought several.

You know.

So at one point in time, right when I first got saved, I owned five cars all at one time, with two licensed drivers in the family.

And so, I mean, I had so many cars I didn't have any.

I have a three car garage and I didn't have enough room to park the cars I mean two of them's outside and the other three are crammed in this three car garage.

And so, slowly as I got saved, you know, I began to reorder my priorities and I gave one car 40 Cadillac it was a beautiful classic gave it, you know, in an offering, and then I gave another car to a brother-in-law that needed help.

And then I sold another car and that left me with another car and I had two drivers that I drove every day.

Gladys drove one, I drove one, so but I had another car and it was broke.

It was broke down, it wasn't running.

It was a 70 Mercedes 250 coupe, like a two-door, hardtop, beautiful car, but the engine was ruined and I it was just sitting there in my garage.

And so one time I was out in the garage and I was cleaning some things up and I walked around that car to get to the other car and I was gonna pull out of the garage and leave, and the Holy Ghost spoke to my heart real, you know.

And the reason I knew it was a Holy Ghost because it was loud.

You know, what are you gonna do with this car?

And no, he said what are you gonna do with the Mercedes?

He called it by name.

He called it by name.

What are you gonna do with this Mercedes?

Well, I hadn't planned on doing anything with the Mercedes because it was gonna cost a fortune to fix the motor.

I think the last estimate I had was $7,500.

And I just didn't have $7,500 to spend on it.

And then I said what do you mean?

And he didn't answer me, he didn't say anything else.

He said what are you gonna do?

And so I got to pray and I got to realize that this was not being a good steward over my assets.

I had a nice car that was going to waste.

It's sitting in my garage.

You know a lot of cars just rust completely down sitting in a garage and you know I watch a lot of these car shows, you know, and they have this garage squad.

They go in and help people get cars running that's been sitting in the garage 20 years, 10 years, 30 years.

They all got rust in the bottom of the doors, they got rust in the trunk, rust in the floorboards, the motor's all gummed up and you know it's a project to get it running again.

And God was correcting me and saying you're not being a good steward over your money and so I won't go into the entire thing.

But I had to go out of state.

I went to Jackson, mississippi.

I bought a 1971 Mercedes four-door sedan that had the identical engine and transmission.

I drove it back to Houston and I pulled out the engine and the transmission and put it in my car and put the junk motor and transmission in that car Went off and left that car.

I didn't want to hear what God was going to ask me about the junk car.

It had a tear down the side like I can opener.

It ripped the side.

It wasn't worth anything and the engine wasn't worth anything.

And I'm not in the scrap business.

So the only way to get any money out of it is scrap it.

And I just, but I did turn my Mercedes into a running driving car and it you know it costs money.

It only cost instead of 7,500, it only cost 3,000 for the car and 1,500 for the mechanic shop 4,500.

So I saved 3,000.

So God cares about your stuff.

It's laying around that you haven't thought about.

You know well.

Let's be good stewards over our money, let's be good stewards of what we buy and let's make sure that we please God in all things, being a faithful steward.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight, praise God.

I trust that was meat for you and I think we live in the days when there's so much lack of this in the church.

I think we ought to make sure that we're on the top level of faithfulness and stewardship so that God can use us to do great and mighty things in these last days.

Praise God, amen, amen, amen.