Faithful Stewardship | Pastor Paul McGee

Welcome to the First Apostolic Church podcast.

Our church mission is to love as God loves showing compassion

every soul, thus winning those souls and equipping them to be

sent out to plant and to harvest.

Thank you for joining us today and we hope that you are blessed

by today's podcast. Amen, going to allow you to turn

to First Chronicles Chapter 23. Seems like I've preached out of

1 Chronicles 23 · chapter mention

Chronicles quite a bit this year, but that's OK Gets

everybody familiar with a book that you want to skip over.

Amen. First Chronicles.

Please also be advised that today starts the ministry

Appreciation for brother and sister Mason, That's Jerry and

Roberta Mason. The event is up on Facebook that

will continue for the next two weeks.

So that is there for your perusal.

Maybe pick a day or show something type of appreciation.

Listen to show an appreciation doesn't always mean monetary

gifts or or gift cards. It could just be a simple note.

Just be a simple and, and whenever I say simple, I'm not

saying that a note is simplistic.

Matter of fact, it it's very meaningful and so it could just

be just a few words scrawled if scrawled on a napkin.

If you got to a man that could just be at you text something

like that. I guarantee you that that that

goes so many miles. Just just a just a few words of

appreciation, even just like that.

Also the the 4th Sunday of this month, All right, is brother

Stumbo and sister Stumbo, a man is going to be with us in

service. And this is the older Stumbos,

not the younger Stumbos. A man, they're going to be here

in service, share with us their burden and what's going on in

Russia. Amen.

So that'll be exciting to hear. And they are out of the district

that we participate in and have been in Russia for many, many

years. I can't even count the number of

years that they have been in Russia off the top of my head.

But many a man entered into a very oppressive and somber

country. A man have done a work there for

the past several, several several years.

So come and be a part of that as we invite them here to the first

episode Church. To my knowledge, you'll be their

first time being here. Mark and Wanda, I think maybe,

maybe their first time, unless they did under Bishops

leadership. But first time being here as far

as I can remember. I know they were at Brother

Frills. We went and was in a collective

service over there at South Gibson with them, Amen.

But none the less, whether it is or isn't their first, we're glad

to have them. Amen.

And then the very last Sunday of this month in the AM, it will be

our fifth Sunday. We'll have Pastor Tony Frederick

and his wife, Linda. They're going to be here,

Minister, we're the Lord throughout this year.

Our fifth Sundays will be guest speaker.

Sundays, I don't know if I said that thus far, and this year,

but our fifth Sundays are be guest speaker Sundays.

We'll have somebody in those AM services from different place.

I think the first one, of course, was Easter.

I was your guest speaker. But beyond that, the other ones,

Brother Frederick's coming up this month in the month of

September I think is the next one is brother Travis Gardner

and his wife and family. And then in December is the

other one, the very last Sunday I think of the year, I think it

is, will be a fish Sunday. And that will be Kevin and Nikki

Hopkins will be here to minister the word of the Lord.

And so that's just a little preview of those that will be,

Amen. The 5th Sunday's also that 5th

Sunday will be our Sunday school picnic.

By Wednesday, I'll have me a list out for food and things and

such to bring them people and start signing up.

It'll be the culmination of the pie in the face for the youth.

That's going to start, I believe, on Father's Day.

So that's going to be a culmination of that as well.

So good, good times, good times, Amen.

The First Chronicles, chapter 23, you might need to make a few

1 Chronicles 23 · chapter mention

extra pies on the list for Sunday school picnic, since some

of them is going to be used for people's faces.

Amen. Second Chronicles chapter #23

I'm going to read verse number six.

Glad to have you here. Glad to have Hadley.

All right with Sister Cox. And she turned into a just a,

just a beautiful young lady. Amen.

I'm so glad to have her. Don't want to embarrass her.

I'm trying to tow the line, Hadley.

I really am, Amen. First Chronicles 23 and verse

#6. And I'm going.

To skip around a little bit. OK, So just follow my lead,

Trevor. Follow my lead.

Amen tonight. Thank you, Trevor.

Trevor's doing a great job filling in as a media director.

Live stream up everything going. It's not just it's not just

flipping one switch folks. I'm here to tell you right now,

and I'm not just saying that just because he's my offspring.

I'm just saying I appreciate him and his diligence.

Amen. Tonight, First Chronicles 23,

1 Chronicles 23:6

verse 6, and David. And listen folks, you're going

to hear some stuff you don't like, right?

Connection of names, sorry, sorry.

And David divided them into courses among the sons of Levi,

namely Jershan, Kohath, and Mirai.

Verse #12 the sons of Kohath. Please note that was one that

was just mentioned in verse 6. Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzzle 4

going on with verse 13, The sons of Amram.

That was already noted in verse 12.

See the connection happening here.

Aaron and Moses and Aaron was separated, that he should

sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons forever, to burn

incense before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to bless

in his name forever. Verse 14.

Now concerning Moses, the man of God mentioned just in the last

verse, his sons were named of the tribe of Levi.

Verse 15, the sons of Moses were Jershom and Eleazar verse #17

and the sons of Eleazar. So this strings all the way from

verse number six, mind you, from Levi Ford and the sons of

Eleazar were Rehabaya the chief and Eleazar had none other sons,

but the sons of Rehabaya were very many.

Tonight, title of my message is faithful stewardship.

It has nothing to do with money. We're stewards of more than

monetary goods. We're stewards of more than

money. We steward people.

We steward whatever has been set under our care.

I feel the Holy Ghost. I want to talk about tonight,

Faithful steward ship. When I was younger, I could come

up with a whole lot fancier and catch your titles.

Now I'm just like boring but faithful stewardship.

But I guarantee that the Lord has something to say.

Father, I come to you tonight and I'm thankful, Lord Jesus.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your diligence.

God with us in our lives. I pray, O Lord, help me God, to

relay God from my spirit, what I feel like you have poured into

me, Lord Jesus, today, Lord, and even prior today when I first.

Pinned some things. Down.

I pray God that you ever to bring all these things to a

culmination here Lord, in this service God touches in this

place in this atmosphere today, God will not fail to thank you

for it. The lovely name of Jesus Christ

that I pray. Amen of the church say Amen.

Dear wife, if you could get me a bottle of water.

I don't hardly ever use it, but sometimes an allergy season I

do. There is a string of names that

was presented before you tonight If if you followed it, and maybe

you had trouble following it. But.

Who I want to concentrate upon, or at least the sector of this

whole line that I want to concentrate on, is that which

was found in verse #17 when it speaks of the sons of Eleazar.

Yet he only had one son, and he had no other sons except that

one. His lineage is very impressive.

He is the son of Moses, the son of Amram.

The son of Kohath, the son of Levi, Eleazar's father was

Moses. Moses of all people, the notable

one who was the deliverer for the nation of Israel.

Eleazar's uncle was Aaron. Aaron, the high priest that

served in the priesthood of that that level of importance to the

same nation that his father Moses had delivered with within

his family line are these two prominent men that were largely

responsible for Israel's exit from Egypt.

He comes according to, if I could use the word, Brother

Louise, according to the genealogy, he he comes from the

stock of the Kohathites, who, unlike the others, they did more

than transporting tabernacles, coverings and curtains and

frames and structural components.

The Kohathite division were those whose duties were caring

for the most sacred aspects of the Tabernacle, such as

attending to and covering and carrying more importantly the

Ark of the Covenant and the table of shoebread and the

lampstand and both altars and all of the sacred utensils that

were used in the Tabernacle throughout their wilderness

journey. The Kohathites carried the

sacred furnishings between each of their encampments, and the

Bible tells us in Numbers 33 that there were 42 of those

encampments of them pitching the Tabernacle and pulling it back

up and traveling. So in between these 42 times,

the Kohath Heights, which Eleazar was a descendant of,

were those that carried these precious things and even carried

them across that miraculous journey across the Jordan River

into the land of Canaan. Eleazar, the son of Moses, was

born during Moses's exile to Midian, before he was ever the

deliverer of God's people. Therefore, it's easy to deduce

today that even Eleazar himself carried some of those precious

things through the wilderness journeys that he touched some of

the very things that God had touched.

He touched some of the very things that God presence had

touched. He we understand in Scripture

that Eleazar's father Moses, the Bible says that his he climbs up

the mountain and God gives him the privilege of looking into

the promised land and he would die there.

The Bible says that Moses was 120 years old when he died.

He, he was not allowed to enter the land of promise, only to

look into the land of promise. And the Bible describes that

when he died that his eyes were not weak, neither was his

strength diminished, which tells me that there was some more

living that Moses could have done had it not been for God's

decree upon his life to not enter.

So that means this, that his son Elie Azar then did cross over

the Jordan. He walked on what only his dad

could see. He touched what only his father

could look at. And if Elie Azar lived the

number of days and years of his father if not more because Moses

still had some life, then he, Elie Azar even witnessed some of

the events in the land of Canaan.

Can you imagine? Here is Eliezar.

He is a man that has a great heritage.

He has a great heritage and a man no doubt was such a notable

heritage would would want to increase his offspring as

inheritors to such a heritage. He would like to attach no doubt

as many souls as possible to that type of ancestry and that

type of background of having both a deliverer and a high

priest in his family tree. Not to mention all those

Cohathites that were transporters of of God's ark and

shoebred and coverings and and sacred things and altars.

You, you want to attach people that to that type of legacy, you

know, because it seems to be a famous, if you will, or it seems

to have some type of importance to it.

He would want to do that. He would want to broaden the

scope of that type of heritage. That would be paramount in the

mind of Eleazar to do so. Yet the Bible records that

Eleazar had rehab but no other sons.

He had been endowed with a priceless heritage.

These people had carried the weight of God's presence, if you

will, by carrying the ark on their shoulders.

But Eliezar, no doubt one to pass that on.

What numbers to be many that could inherit that he has only

one son. I mean, Eliezar's daddy was a

crucial component in deliverance, his uncle the high

priest, but that did not guarantee that Eleazar would

have many sons. Eleazar operated in all of the

functions that concerned the sacred things of God's house,

but that didn't ensure he would have numerous sons.

So what Eleazar is left with here is a choice.

What he's left with here is a decision.

He can either complain about all the sons that he doesn't have,

or he can pour himself into the sun that he does have.

I've come to preach on this Sunday night that we got to as a

church. We got to as a pastor and as

youth pastors and as administrative pastors and as

musicians and as teachers. We have to steward what we have

rather than focus on what we don't have.

Someone say Amen. In Second Kings chapter #4 May I

remind you tonight of the story of the widow who has a couple of

sons. The creditors were going to come

and take those boys. She is at wits end.

But that widow's miracle came again from what she had not what

she did not have. She did not be.

She did not become consumed or consumed in her time with what

she lacked. She poured herself into what she

had, which was a solitary pot of oil.

You'll remember when the Prophet came to her house and he says,

woman, what do you want me to do for you?

What do you have in the house? She said, Sir, I do not have

anything in the house save a pot of oil.

When God is in it, even when it appears small debts can be paid

and you can live on what it is if you steward what you got.

Sure, the lady in that moment probably thought, you know, 12

pots of oil would be lovely, but she didn't have 12 pots.

She had one. She had been, she didn't get

deterred by all the have nots. Well, I have not this, have not

that, have not this. She may have missed the miracle.

What was in the one? Had she been concentrating on

what she didn't have? God wanted to work through the

one. Someone say man, the church

tonight is a spiritual mother. The church is a spiritual

mother. For that matter, the collection

of churches all across this world are churches worldwide.

They are a collection, if you will, fragments, pieces,

portions, body parts, if you will, of the overall church.

I know we say well, there's you know, five churches in that city

and that state has X number of churches.

There's only one church. We're all parts and pieces of

the church parts and pieces of the church.

Isaiah spoke. He said for as soon as Zion

Speaking of the church, if you will travail.

She brought forth her children and throughout Scripture this is

a common occurrence. This is a common association

that the church is pictured throughout the Bible as a

mother. Other times it's pictured as a

birthing mother. Amen.

As such, nonetheless, we aspire as a part of the church.

We aspire to have children, we aspire to have converts, and

there's various variables that impact that.

Some of them we have control over and some of them we don't

have control over. What I'm saying tonight is this

many times, like Eleazar, the church has a very rich heritage.

They've had intimate involvement in sacred matters, and we want

to broaden that base of inheritors by seeing babes born

into the Kingdom of such a noble legacy.

That's an honorable desire, but sometimes you're given one.

Son probably wanted many to share such a heritage with, but

God gave him one. Honey, we can get Millie mouth

and bite our bottom lip and talk about well, I wish the place was

full and I do too. But if you're going to spend all

your days off of what you don't have, you might miss what's

sitting right here. The potentiality, the

missionaries, the teachers, the preachers, the soul winners that

are right here and we all day can focus on what the have nots

are, but we got to wrap our mind around about what God has given.

Anybody wants to share the legacy of what we've inherited

with somebody else. But sometimes he won't give you

a nation, He'll give you a child.

He might not give us all Mount Carmel, but he might give us one

in Mount Carmel. I shared this with our

leadership on a Sunday some time ago.

According to Carl F George, 93% of American churches and this

this 93% of American churches are small.

What they consider small is under 350 people, while 80% are

very small. What they consider very small is

under 200 people. So, he said if size equals

success, then 93% of pastors or churches, mind you, are

unsuccessful, bad at their jobs, inadequate at fulfilling their

calling, while 80% are very bad at their jobs.

That fable has been perpetrated or propelled by society and even

by church society. That success is only equated

with numbers. I've traveled this United

States. I have seen just as many

unhealthy large churches as I have unhealthy small churches.

The mood, Brother Freddie, is not large or small.

That's not the matter. It's about stewarding what you

have. It's about being a faithful

steward over what you have. Please, somebody hear me

tonight. Someone online might be ready to

crucify me. So let me make this disclaimer

tonight. What I'm talking about tonight

isn't about an excuse for avoiding outreach.

It's not about using an excuse for winning souls.

But what I am doing is advocating investing in what you

have rather than waiting to do that when you reach a number you

hope you'll have. I've said it 1000 times and let

me say it 1001, the pilots going to fly the plane and take just

as much diligence if he has 12 on it.

Or if he has 80 on it, he's going to be just as diligent.

And so we can't just go half called because we feel like

there's not a number there. Amen.

In order to qualify our better worship, or our better praise,

or our better investment, it matters not if there's one or

two they deserve. I just had a conversation with a

home missionary pastor not long ago and he was talking about

there were periods of time in his home missionary work for a

month's time almost. You know what he did every

Sunday whenever they had church, he preached to his wife.

That's all he had for a solid month.

What is that? That's being a faithful.

You know what he could said, said, honey, no one's here.

Let's go on home. Or be thinking in the back of

his mind. I'm not going to put any hours

of preparation for preaching the word because there might not be

anybody here there, but there could be one child.

You got to quit looking at the have nots and look what you

have. And as a result of that, yeah,

I'm going to come in and lift up my hands.

I'm going to praise. I'm going to worship.

I'm going to put the same hours in that I do hear that I do for

a conference. It matters not because God has

just asked me if I'll be a steward of over what he's

provided to me. If so, it's Amen.

Sometimes there are the Eleazars with the finest of pedigrees who

have one son. One son who listened to me

Clearly that one son, Rehabaya, the Bible says, had many or

numerous sons. Eleazar could have come

preoccupied. With the sons he didn't have and

as a result neglected the sun he did have.

What are you saying, Eleazar? You have one sun.

Invest in that sun. Equip that sun.

Show that sun, the path, or if you will, the heritage of your

family. As fast as it is.

Push it all inside of that one son that you have, because only

the future and eternity can reveal what the outcome can be

of that one author and pastor Carl Vader's.

He struggled with the size of his church.

Which was, according to the standards I read before you,

small. He didn't have many sons, so to

speak. Didn't have many sons.

But he admitted this, he said. As it turns out, my church

wasn't broken until I tried to fix it.

What's that mean? We can't ignore what God has

given us by wishing we had more. And forget about the ones that

are sitting right here. The ones that show up faithfully

Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday.

The one that put in the work when you ask for a work day, or

the ones that clean and the ones that teach and the ones that

says I'll show up. The ones that says I'll cook a

meal if we don't watch it. We'll break something that we

think is broken, but we'll break it by trying to fix it.

There's nothing wrong with it, we just got to be a steward over

it. Eleazar, you may never have many

sons, but can you be contented with what I've given you?

Can you, Eleazar, pour yourself into the wand?

Because unknown to you, Eleazar, the many you desired are

embedded in the one you have. Someone say Amen.

What are you saying? I'm saying this only God knows

what he'll do through a Reese Singer.

Only God knows what he will do through a Ray McVeigh.

Only God knows what he will do. Through a Ethan Wright, the

footprint of the Little Graceland and Julie and Addison

and Asher and Raya and Kade, Hey man, the footprint that they

will have up on this world has yet to be determined.

How many children will impact the Kingdom?

I don't even know the balance of my own kids at this point.

I don't know how they'll impact the Kingdom.

What do I must do? I got to invest.

I got to poor myself. I got to steward the ones that I

have. It's like, well God, I would

like 150, he says. Well are you stewarding the 50?

You want me to trust you with more?

But have you stewarded the few? So we can't weary ourselves over

how many you don't have. You got to invest yourselves in

the ones you do have. And the rehabbiah rehabbiah may

have numerous. And when that rehabbiah has

numerous sons or many sons, then the influence of Eleazar and the

stewardship of Eleazar has indirectly almost impacted and

facilitated the many that his son would have.

Everybody doing OK Church is a spiritual mother.

When a woman is born, you know this, many know this.

When a woman is born, she is born with all the unfertilized

eggs. She will.

Ever have in her life? That means that a mother, in

essence, when she is pregnant with another female child, is

carrying her grandchildren. When my wife was in her mother's

womb, Judy Mcbroom, at that time, those unfertilized eggs

were being developed in my wife still yet in the womb before

birth. Two of those eggs that was in my

wife in her mother's womb would later become Mariah and Trevor.

My mother-in-law was carrying one woman.

She nurtured that girl in the womb.

She followed the plan of the doctor concerning that girl in

the womb, but she wasn't just nurturing that girl.

She was nurturing in essence. Two that were yet to be born.

One child, one couple could have many children.

A mother of one child is still bearing the burden of many

potential children in the next generation.

Someone say Amen. For that matter, whenever we

talk about men and men on the other hand, and I'm not trying

to be graphic, but men can produce sperm cells for their

entire lives. So offspring in a monogamous

relationship, one man and one female.

And I know there's a lot of variables.

Just hear me for my context tonight in a monogamous

relationship is limited by the female.

If there is no medical issues because there's only so many

eggs to fertilize, everybody doing all right.

Stay with me here to get nerdy with scientists for a moment.

At about 20 weeks of gestation, the female fetus has about 6 to

8 million eggs in her ovaries. This number will decrease to one

to two million eggs by the time she is born.

About 30 to 40 eggs leave the wading pool in the peak

reproductive years. Daily of a female's life. 30 to

40 eggs daily are are are are released, but only 110th of them

enter a menstrual cycle and then typically only one egg develops

fully and ovulates. Are you following me?

The ovaries release about 500 mature eggs throughout a

lifetime of a female. Female egg numbers at birth

Listen to me clearly here. Female egg numbers at birth can

vary female to female, with some women having fifty times more

eggs than other women. With all that being said and the

church being the spiritual mother and drawing a parallel,

I'm just asking then, is it safe to say that some churches have

been born with the potential for more births than others?

Possibly. None the less, we still got to

nurture. What we have?

Because in doing so, we might be nurturing others in generations

to come. Heli Azar, you got one child,

but invest in that child because he's going to have an offspring

of many children. See, there's some great outcomes

that can come from very seemingly modest beginnings.

No wonder it was Zachariah that said very, very plainly, he

said, for who have despised the day of small things.

The enemies of Judah and even the Jews themselves considered

the temple that was being built in that moment, the Second

Temple. They considered it to be small

in comparison to what had become before it.

They almost compared it to something as nothing.

It was contemptible in their eyes.

The elders even pleaded that had seen the first Temple and said

that it basically pelled in comparison to the temple of

their day. I want to pause here just for a

moment tonight. And again, I'm not here to be

mean or in sensitive, but I want to pause and tell our older

generation not to prejudge this generation's church because

although it may appear less to you, we've not seen the outcome

of it start quite yet. Someone say Amen.

First Chronicles 23 David is organizing in essence singers

and musicians and porters or gatekeepers, if you want to call

them that other Levitical rose. He is organizing here the the

days of transporting the ark and the furnishings are over that

traveling through the wilderness.

It's done it's finished. So there's not the Kohath I

tribe that is carrying, you know, these things, those, those

obligations and rose have come to a place of ceasing now the

that the Kohath I have contended with those duties all these

years, but not anymore. And so David is repurposing the

Rose as as singers and guards and musicians.

He has all of this organizational structure

together because he knows his son is going to build the temple

and he's preparing ultimately for that temple that is to come

and for it to be implemented whenever it comes.

But there was even some implementation of these things

that he's planning for, for his old rude tent structure that he

had for the Ark of the Covenant. There was worship and praise and

singers and musicians. That took place even right

there. Much of what David even

organized involved the regular worship service, and it involved

the ministry of prophecy it it involved order and overseeing

the offerings and maintaining the temple premise, all these

things. And it's uncertain.

According to the Word of God and the scriptures I read to you

night, it's uncertain whether Rihabaya, his immediate

children, had any opportunity. To function as a singer or a

musician because again, after they come into the promised land

there, there's 400 in about 30 years that judges are going to

rule. And then there's going to be

King Saul for 40 years, King David for 40 years.

Before you even get to Solomon, there's a lot of years that

pass. So we don't even know about his,

his children functioning in any of those things.

But none the less, we do have this interesting little excerpt

from Scripture about an offspring that's from the line

of Eleazar and Rehabaya in First Chronicles 26.

The Bible says in verse 24, and I'm going to read a few verses

of Scripture names again and she Buell, the son of Josham, the

son of Moses. Josham was one of the sons of

Moses, was ruler of the treasures, verse 25, and his

brethren by Eleazar, meaning Eleazar the other son of Moses,

the one that we spoke of in chapter 23.

Rehabiah his son, and Joshiah his son, and Joaam his son, and

Zachary his son, and Shilomyth his son.

Verse 26. Which Shilomyth and his brethren

were over all the treasures of the dedicated things?

Which David, the king and the chief fathers and the captains

over thousands and hundreds and the captains of the hosts had

dedicated out of the spoils won in battles?

Did they dedicate to maintain the House of the Lord in Direct

Line from Levi to Amram to Eleazar to Rehabiah, all the way

down to this Manchilo myth? He's over protecting the

treasures of dedicated things. What are you saying, Pastor

McGee? Because a man, Eleazar, invested

in the one he had rather than wishing for more, paying

attention to what he had. Because he invested in what he

had that materialized Sister Sheila, many generations later.

That continued many generations later and flowed for generations

to the future of a man called Shiloh Myth, who was a Direct

Line from the one who would oversee the treasures of the

dedicated things. What are you saying tonight,

brother? I'm saying as a pastor, I'm

saying as a church that if you will pour the Kingdom in who you

have, it'll raise a generation who will pour themselves back

into the Kingdom. Let me repeat.

If you will pour the Kingdom in who you have in future

generations, it'll raise up a person, a group that will pour

themselves back into the Kingdom.

He was going to protect and guard the things that had been

dedicated to the House of God. He would protect what past

generations had thoughtful. This might not excite me.

It can excite me. That's all right.

I'm, I'm, I'm good about being excited all by myself.

It'll protect what generations before them had fought for.

And listen, folks, Sister Cox, if that isn't success, then I

don't know what success is. Success is not about how many

you have sitting on the seat now, it's how many of those feet

hit gold later in order for them to want to pour themselves into

the Kingdom. We got to pour ourselves into

what we have. Stewards.

Faithful stewards. This is the mindset.

That we must come to listen, folks.

I have a lot of friends. I have friends who pastor what I

would call large churches. I have friends that pastor small

churches and our organization that listen over half of the

churches. Over half of the churches in

America are small, but when you put them all together, they make

up the greatest population of the church.

If you did not have small churches, you would have a much

smaller overall church by over half.

So don't tell me they're insignificant.

God make me make make me steward of where I am.

Because maybe I couldn't handle 500, but there might be someone

that has 500 that couldn't handle 50.

They might be ready to leave before I am.

God prepared me through years of evangelism, gave me a thick head

and gave me thick skin. I preached many times when, you

know what, you could hear a, a, a mouse chewing ice in the

corner of the church. And I preached a lot of revivals

where there were a lot of few, few, few people and preached

night in, night out and sweat and yell and all this stuff.

You know what he was doing? He was preparing me for Mount

Carmel. He says I'm going to make you

where you'll be, a steward of faithfulness, that no matter

tide high, tide low, you'll just steward what you got.

Anybody says please don't look down upon me because we have a

Church of 50. Listen, don't be calling me and

say, well, one of these days Brim Gee threw you on.

One of these days I got fifty people to steward.

And when I'm cold in the grave, who knows what they will be

doing and their offspring are doing and those day of touch

will be doing. Don't weep for me.

Don't clasp your hands and feel embarrassed for me.

I'm not embarrassed. God's chosen me for this place,

for these people to steward. We're not broken.

We're not broken. I sometimes think Medora

Pentecostal Church, Brother Walls there have been in the

little town of Medora for years. You know what would be

considered a small church? He has two families of Stumbos

out of his church that are missionaries.

I wish you would now take their numbers and add it back to

Medora. You know, within our district

they are one of the largest givers to missions.

Then some of the quote UN quote large churches.

How can they do that? They don't have as much

overhead. I'm not.

God has blessed this assembly. We had a water leak this week

week out here almost in the same place.

We had a water leak before years ago.

And all the men get out there on this.

I came on a Sunday morning and the parking lot was filled with

water. Water was just running over the

parking lot. It was like in the fall.

I think it was after we had a, a chili supper one time sometime

after that because we ate chili back here that day.

I remember clearly. And all the men out there were

were shovels. We're digging through whatever a

foot of gravel and all that stuff and finally got dug.

And you know, Mike Penro got down that hole and we're trying

to fix all this pipe and stuff doing all this garbage.

You know what happened this week?

That thing happened and and while I was gone and and and and

it has been happening. We just couldn't have no visible

sign it was taking place. Brother Fred called guys like to

come dig a hole and whenever they were here for everything,

you know, maybe we should, you know, fix it or we do it

ourselves and guys like was here and I said if they can do it,

let's just let them do it and we can do that.

I'm not worried about the money situation.

But Brother McGee, you only have whatever.

That's all right. You know what we have done over

the years with the little we've had?

We've steward them about how to give and how to tithe and how to

be faithful and this little thing can take care of that.

Why? Because we poured our lives into

who we have and they poured back into the Kingdom.

There are not many churches this size that can, if you will, take

care of a full time pastor and wife and family.

But this church can. How in the world can that

happen? Because we stewarded people for

years. We have stewarded people, and

they poured back in the Kingdom. I don't have anything to hang my

head about. Someone say, man, stay with me.

I'll come to a close quick. Huh.

So Eleazar hailed from a lineage of great significance, being the

son of Moses coming from the tribe of Levi.

But he only had one son. And despite his rich heritage

and involvement in sacred matters, Eleazar face the

reality of having a solitary heir.

But one's value cannot be underestimated.

Just as the widow and 2nd Kings chapter #4 poured herself in one

pot of oil she had so too. Ladies and gentlemen, you and I,

we got to invest in what we have, whether it be a quote UN

quote small congregation or limited resources, we got to

pour steward what we have. So what are you saying?

I'm saying tonight as a church, as those that are numbered right

here, let us embrace the stewardship challenge tonight

and invest in what we've been given in the moment.

He may give us more and I that's fine with me.

But we got to be faithful over what he's giving us right now,

in the moment, shepherding our congregation, stewarding our

resources. We got to pour ourselves into

what we have, knowing that the impact of that investment may

exceed far beyond what we can ever imagine days in the future.

Because listen, I understand clearly God can magnify and

multiply your efforts and he could use them to maintain and

advance his kingdom's purposes. So he and Sam for the McGee,

please, if this is you, if this is you that you come in church

and you just get discouraged over what's not here, you walk

in and the foreboding emptiness and the seats just depresses

you. Don't be discouraged by the

apparent smallness, Rather, become a faithful steward over

what you have, trusting that God can bring forth great outcomes

even from modest beginnings. When we first came to town in

2007 and during a range after we came to town, it wasn't in

anything. You can go back and look to

range running around 100, little over 100 or in the 90s

consistently. It was here that we broke our

record attendance of 136, I think.

Yeah, it went back at the second church, 138 back at the second

church here. It was on the Easter.

It was 163 on that Easter, Brother Fred, we didn't give

away one prize. We did not have an egg hunt.

There was nothing quote UN quote special outside of normal church

that we had on that Easter and we broke our record 163.

It don't have to be a gimmick. I know what can be done, I know

where we can go to, but I can't get my mind so fixed on that.

I ignore where I'm at. I can't just relive the glory

days and allow that to be a chain and ball, to neglect where

and who I. Have.

Are you hearing me right now? I can say, well, you two come

before church an hour early and pray, and that's great, but I

can't forsake then the investment of who's here.

I was in all those days too, folks.

I was there when we first walked into the first church and there

was 15 people included in our family.

I was there. I know I wasn't during the

evangelism years. I come, you know, here and

there, but I've been there. I've been here.

I've been here ever, ever since before 1990, whenever Dad was

voted in and we went 18 months helping this church, I was

there. I've been there.

So since around 1988, something then since around 1988, I've

been here, I've seen her high, I've seen her low, I've seen her

on fire, I've seen her almost twice, dead, plucked up by the

ribs. Do you know what?

We're still here. What are you doing all those

moments? You steward what you have.

You might decrease the number of Sunday school classes you have

and go around that route. You might change the format of

how you do Friday nights. You might change the format how

you do Wednesdays and offset teaching and then connect.

Methodology may change, but the doctrines stay the same.

But the stewardship should as well, because who knows those

that are presently in the womb, how many unfertilized eggs, so

to speak, is in their system yet to be born.

Oh, can we just right now reach out to the Lord here tonight.

I didn't plan on doing this, but

with with that tongues tonight. I feel the lead in the spirit

this in conjunction with that there was a pastor purely just a

an acquaintance really to me that text me early Friday

morning stated these words. I believe this is what the Lord

wants in conjunction with that he text me just really an

acquaintance. I wouldn't call myself friends

with this person really just an acquaintance.

He said child of God, hold on and keep believing in the dreams

and visions. God has burnt deep into your

spirit, your guts. The painful truth is there will

be some fall by the wayside on your journey.

Some that simply can't or never could see, or simply never did

see or believed. Some will never truly understand

it because it was never a true vision like it was to you.

To some it was simply just an opportunity to work at it.

But yes, with you it was a divine God-given dream and

vision from God. Yes, you will die before

compromising even one part of the God-given vision.

To you. It's been plain from the very

beginning. You chose to make it plain

because God made it plain to you years ago.

To you it's more real today than when God first gave it to you.

The back of two. One, I will stand up on my

watch, and set me up on the tower, and we'll watch to see

what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am

reproved. And the Lord answered me, and

said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, and He

may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for an appointed

time. But at the end it shall speak

and not lie though it. Terry, wait for it, because it

will come, surely come. It will not tarry.

He quoted a man by William Feather.

He said success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on

after others have let go. He says I'm still standing and

making it plain, because the vision never lies.

It shall speak though it tarry. Wait for it.

It is surely to come. So in the interim, just steward

which had been given. Can we raise our hands again?

Can we be mindful? The Lord, this altar is open.

This altar is open tonight. If there's someone in here that

says God, I just, I just want to steward my position and my

place. I want to be a steward.

I want to be responsible, God for those that that I come in

and sit down beside and that I worship with them.

Those that I have conversations with before and after church,

help me God just to be help me to be a steward.

If you serve in any capacity or role in this church, I'm asking

you to reflect upon your life in the past and ask yourself, have

you been a good steward? Have you been a good steward

over teaching that Sunday school class and those kids that you

have regardless the number, have have you been a good steward?

Musicians and singers and how you sang and how you prepared a

man for singing and presenting because it was few or many did

did did you plan for the event you had at your church the same

way that you planned for when it was just your church?

Have you been a good steward over what you have been given?

Preachers that are using this church, teachers that are using

this church? Do you put do you put the time

in? Do you do it based upon how many

you think are going to show up or do you do it just with

abandoned regardless of who's there or not there because what

you have is what you invest in. What you have is what you've

poured and will pour yourself into.

Would I spend more time in prayer?

Would I spend more time if I knew there was more that was

going to be there for the worship service?

Or, or does that matter? Are you a steward with what has

been given unto you? I love you, Lord.

Thank you for listening. If you would like more

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Again, that's FAC MC Thank you and have a blessed day.