======================================================================== FAITHFUL IN THE SMALL THINGS by Anton Bosch ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the challenging parable in Luke 16:1-13, focusing on the story of the unjust steward and the lessons it holds for believers. The passage highlights the importance of faithfulness in managing resources, both material and spiritual, and the need for Christians to be wise stewards of God's blessings. It emphasizes the contrast between the world's shrewdness in handling worldly matters and the sons of light's responsibility to be faithful in all aspects of life, reflecting God's character. Topics: "Faithfulness in Stewardship", "Wisdom in Resource Management" Scripture References: Luke 16:10, Luke 16:11, Luke 16:13, Romans 12:11, Amos 3:10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the challenging parable in Luke 16:1-13, focusing on the story of the unjust steward and the lessons it holds for believers. The passage highlights the importance of faithfulness in managing resources, both material and spiritual, and the need for Christians to be wise stewards of God's blessings. It emphasizes the contrast between the world's shrewdness in handling worldly matters and the sons of light's responsibility to be faithful in all aspects of life, reflecting God's character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Luke chapter 16, and I'm going to read 1 through 13. This is the most difficult parable of all the parables, and there's a couple of verses in this passage that are the most difficult verses in all the Gospels, if not in all of the Bible. So this is not an easy passage. I don't claim to have any special insight. The solutions I'm going to present to you in terms of understanding and interpreting the parable this morning is the understanding I have, but I don't profess to say that that is the answer, that that is the only way the passage can be understood, but we'll do the best we can. And so having said that, let's read Luke 16, 1 through 13. He also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought against him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, what shall I do? For my master is taking away the stewardship from me, and I cannot dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said a hundred measures of oil. And so he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. And then he said to another, and how much do you owe? And so he said a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write eighty. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of the world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when they fail or when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. And he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now one of the challenges is where the parable ends. So traditionally Jesus would tell a parable and he would give, in many cases, the interpretation or the application. And if you look at from verse 9 onwards, there are several applications or interpretations. The question obviously is, which of these apply to the parable and which of them are a change in subject? If we could determine that, then it would be easier to interpret the parable. So dealing with parables is like dealing with a riddle sometimes, and some of them are riddles. And so if you have the answer, then you can go back to the riddle and understand what the riddle means. The problem here is that there are several answers, and we don't know which of them is the answer. Is verse 9 the answer? Is verse 10? Is verse 11? Is verse 12? Or verse 13? Or are all of them? So these are some of the challenges. But let's look at the parable, and there's not a lot to comment on the parable itself. He said to his disciples, you'll notice that the previous sections, the previous chapter or two, he's been speaking to the Pharisees. Now he's changed and he's speaking to his disciples. So there's a change in the message. He has one particular message as far as the Pharisees are concerned. He obviously has a different message for his disciples. And he says, there was a certain rich man. And this may be based on a true story, because in the next parable, which we probably get to next week, the parable or the story—and it's not a parable, it has the other challenge—the rich man Lazarus, which is the latter part of chapter 16, begins in the same way. There was a certain rich man, and then there was the beggar sitting at his gate. Now, we know that the second one was not a parable, but was a true story, but that had a spiritual meaning, just like a parable does. So this may have been a real account that Jesus gives. It doesn't really matter. But there was a certain rich man. This man was clearly very rich, as we'll see in a moment. And he had a steward. It's not a term we use much anymore, but today we would call him a manager. So his business or his job was to manage his master's affairs. And so he was a manager, and an accusation was brought that he was wasting his master's resources. He was wasting his goods. So it doesn't get into detail, but clearly either he was wasting it on just bad management, or he was using it for his own purposes, but whatever it was, it was a fireable offense. So he called him. The master called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? So the master clearly is not that much in touch with the business. He's relying on a third-hand or a second-hand witness that this man is not dealing properly with the business. Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. So he says, You're fired. These days it doesn't happen that easily anymore because of labour relations and various laws that protect labour. In the old days when I was in business, it was this way. You could literally, the company I worked for, for a long time, the managing director or the owner really of the company, it never happened to me fortunately, but I heard many times that he would appear at the store of a manager in the morning, and what he had done is he had gone through past the stores and checked the windows and made sure that the windows were displayed properly and the lights were on and things were clean, and if you didn't do your job, he would be there the next morning when you opened the store, and he would say, Can I see your keys? And obviously the keys was a symbol of the manager's authority. And the guy would say, Well, here's my keys. He says, Thank you very much, clear your desk. That was it. No notice, no warnings, no disciplinary process. End of the story. Well, that's the way it was here. He calls him in, he says, You're done. Now tell me where we're at, what's going on in the business so that I can take over from here? So give an account of your stewardship, you're out of here. The steward said within himself, What shall I do? So he has some time to wind up the affairs and to hand over the business to the master again, and so he's now having a discussion with himself, What am I going to do? My job's gone. I have no future in this company or in this job. I can't dig. Either I'm too lazy or too weak, or my hands are too soft, but it's just beneath me to dig, which would be the lowest form of work those days, I guess very much like it is today. We still have that in our language. You speak about digging trenches as being the lowest form of work that you can get. He says, That's not my scene. And he says, I'm ashamed to beg. And those are the only options. I can be a steward, which I've now been fired off. I can't beg, I can't dig, so I'm stuck. What do I do? So he resolved what to do. He says, When I'm put out of my stewardship, so whenever this happens, in days or weeks, I don't know, that they may receive me into their houses. Now, obviously, the they is not clear at this point, but it becomes clear in the next verse. The they is the people who owed money to the master. So the master's debtors. And so he called every one of his master's debtors to him. And he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? Now remember, a lot of business those days would be done on a barter system. So it's not always counted in denarii or in money, but it is counted in goods. And so, how much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And so he said to him, Take your bill and sit down and quickly write fifty. Now this is where things become difficult. First of all, a hundred measures of oil is a tremendous amount of oil. It's 875 gallons of oil. That's, I don't think we can easily imagine how much that is. My point of reference is when I grew up on the farm, we had a tank for diesel, and it held a thousand gallons. And it was about eight feet long and probably four feet in diameter. Massive, massive tank. So this is a lot of oil. In money, this would be three years' wages. So this is about a thousand denarii, thousand pennies, three years' wages. So he said to him, Take your bill and write it down from a hundred to fifty. Now there's a lot of debate as to what was going on here. It seems that the most likely possibility is that what he is writing off is the interest. Now remember, according to the law, you could not charge interest of another Jew. Muslims still have the same law, so they don't charge interest. They have other ways of getting the money. And the way the Jews would get around the law that says you may not charge another Jew interest is they would inflate the capital, the equity, the amount that is owed. So they would build the interest into the amount that is owed before the time. So it's possible that the interest on this was fifty percent, or a hundred percent, sorry, fifty on fifty, and that he's writing off the interest. The other possibility is that as a manager, this is his commission. We're not sure, but whatever it is, he gets the guy to reduce, or he reduces the debt that the guy owes. And the same with the next one. He said to another, how much do you owe? Now remember, it began in verse five, saying he called every one of these masters debtors. So he's giving us two examples, but this is obviously, he'd gone right through the book, and he had gone to each one of these guys, and he had done the same with each one. And so he said to the other, how much do you owe? And he said a hundred measures of wheat. Now, I'm not going to give you all the calculations, but this is between eight and ten years wages. Eight and ten years wages. This is an enormous amount of money. So when I said at the beginning this guy was rich, these are the kinds of debts that was owed to him. So we're talking about a very, very wealthy man. And so he says a hundred measures of wheat, and he said to him, take your bill and write eighty. Now, he gets a twenty percent discount, the other guy got fifty percent, and again, there's a lot of debate. What does this actually mean? And at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. It's the principle that applies. Now the problem is, and I think you can see the problem. The problem is we would look at this and we would say, well, this is dishonest. This is not good. As a manager or as a steward or custodian, his job was to look after his master's interests, not his own. And yet he is hurting his master's business for his own benefit. That would be the way we would see that, and I think we would be right in that estimation, and that's why this parable is difficult. So the master commanded the unjust steward. Now I want you to see, before we stumble over this word commanded, that he is called an unjust steward. So Jesus confirms that what he did was not right. Folks, this is important, because I've heard Christians say that all is fair in, not love and war, but in business, and that you can cheat your master, or your boss, or your company, because as Christians, remember the Israelites, and again, sorry, I'm going off on a long tangent here, but remember when Israel came out of Egypt, God says, borrow stuff from your Egyptian neighbors, gold and silver and earrings and all sorts of things, so that when you go, you've got something to go with. And so the language used in the King James is, you need to spoil the Egyptians. You need to take from them, because they have taken from you your freedom for these four hundred years. Now Christians apply that, and they say, well, it's fair for Christians to take from unbelievers, because they are the world, we are the church. Folks, it is not right for us to do that, and you cannot, and so those who like that idea, like this parable, because they say, you see there, this man is commended for enriching himself at the expense of his master. No, Jesus says he is unjust. Unjust, unrighteous, dishonest remains dishonest, whether you're dealing with a believer or an unbeliever. Folks, we are not Muslims. Muslims believe it is their duty to cheat the infidels, to steal and to deceive Christians. That is their God-given duty. This is not Christian doctrine. As Christians, we need to be righteous and just in all of our dealings. We must be 100% trustworthy, and when our masters entrust us or our companies or our bosses or supervisors entrust us with money, with time, with resources, with opportunities, our responsibility is to be 100% above board, 100% honest in all of our dealings. And so Jesus is not approving of what this man did. He is using a parable, and he's telling us, he's trying to make a point. So, the unjust steward, but the master commends him, so here's part of the problem, you know. This master has just been cheated out of thousands, maybe even in our language millions, and he's commending the guy. I don't understand that, I admit that. But here's the point. The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. Okay, now let me deal with this word shrewd. The old King James uses the word wise. There's a problem with the word shrewd in the sense that we tend to, not always, but we tend to connect it with slightly dishonest, devious dealings. We think about Scrooge. He was shrewd. But the Greek word does not have that negative connotation. It simply means clever in business, wise in business. So somebody who does well in business is a shrewd businessman. It doesn't mean he's dishonest. It doesn't mean that he is unjust. It simply means that he is clever in the way that he deals with his resources. Alright, so here's the bottom line, and here's the point that we need to get without stumbling over the bits that we don't get. The sons of this world are more wise in their generation, the word generation in their world, in their environment, than the sons of light. Now that hits hard, because that's true. The world applies itself more wisely to money, to time, to abilities, than Christians do. Folks, this is the truth. This is what Jesus is saying. He is not approving of what that guy did. But what he is speaking against is the slackness of the sons of light, Christians, in that context Jews. Because we are Christians, we are slothful in business. Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, not being slothful in business. Now, whether it's your boss's business or your own business, Christians tend to not be good at dealing with money. Now folks, this does not encourage us to be hoarders. And in fact, you'll see that it's against the idea of hoarding. It does not mean that we must make money at every expense, that we must chase money. Because one of the conclusions in, I think it's verse 10 or 11, he says that you can't serve two masters. So you cannot make money your master, your boss. But when we deal with money, and remember, it's not just money. Time is money. When we deal with these things, we are dealing as trustees, as custodians, as managers of God's time and God's money. And we need to deal wisely with those things. The problem is that Christians look at the money that they have and they say, well, it's my money, I can waste it. I can spend it on whatever I want. No, it's not your money, it's God's money. Because everything we have is His. All of our energy, of our time, of our skills, of what we possess is God's. And He's going to call us to give an account. What have you done with the resources I gave you? And so may God help us that as Christians, we may not be put to shame by the world. That the world looks at us, that your colleagues or your friends or family look at you and say, he's a Christian, but he can't even pay his bills. He's a Christian, he can't handle his money. He's a Christian, but he's wasted his life chasing after things that don't matter. No, as Christians, we need to put the world to shame. The world needs to look at us and say, those Christians, they have something that we don't have. And it extends beyond eternal life. It needs to extend to the way that we live our lives. And as we've said many times, the way we do our jobs, the way we run our families, the way we keep our homes, the way we look after our possessions, these are all part of our Christian testimony. That God, in fact, has made us to be wiser than the world. You see, we say we have all the wisdom of God in the Lord Jesus. We have all God's wisdom in His Word, and yet we often live as more foolish than the world does. And the world is not interested in our theology until they can see the practical outworking of our faith in the way that we live our lives. So the sons of this world are more shrewd, more wise in their generation than the sons of light. Now here's the next difficult one. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. And this is probably the most difficult verse for me, probably, in the whole of the New Testament. On the surface it seems, and obviously unrighteous mammon, we understand that's money. So make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon. Is he saying we must buy friendship? What did this guy do? He bought himself friends. Because remember, his plan was he's going to forgive these guys their debts. They're now going to be in debt to him. So when he's out on the street, they will receive him into their homes, maybe even give him a job. And obviously, God is not saying, Jesus is not saying, you need to buy friendship with money. So how do we understand this? Well, let's look at the last part of the verse, because I think that that has the key. So I say to you, make friends for yourselves, so friends, by money, that when you or they, and that's not very clear, they may receive you into an everlasting home. There's the key. Who has the everlasting home? God. No one in this world can receive us into an everlasting home. Only God can get us into an everlasting home, into heaven. So does this then mean, here's the other problem, does this then mean that I can get into heaven by using my money? And clearly we know you can't. We know there's many other scriptures that deal with that, that we are not saved by these things. We are saved by grace and by grace alone. But clearly, the point that he is making, and this is the best I can do in interpreting this parable. Let's go back and understand the context. The guy is about to lose everything. But he makes provision for the future, by hook or by crook. More by crook. But he makes provision for the future. In verse 9, Jesus is speaking about the future, our future in heaven. When will we lose everything? Not when we go bankrupt, hopefully we don't. But at death. So the man losing his job, I understand to mean death. So what's going to happen after he's lost his job? Where is he going to end up? On the street? That's a real possibility. So he says, no, I need to make provision for where I'm going to end up once I lose the job. And I believe what Jesus is saying is that you're going to lose life at some stage or the other. Then where are you going to be? On the street? In hell? Or in heaven? So he's saying, make provision while you're still in the job. While you're still alive, make provision for the future. And how do we make provision? Obviously by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, by salvation through faith. But also remember that there's many other scriptures that speak about laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Folks, I want to emphasize for those who are watching and those who may be here and have dozed off for a moment, we don't get into heaven by buying our way into heaven. But the way that we use our finances and our time and our energy determines our reward in heaven. And we've spoken about these investments before. You can have a short-term investment in this world and it will fail. But if you have investments in heaven, and I'm talking about money, I'm talking about dollars and pennies. If you have investments in heaven, they will last forever. That's the point that he is making. So he's saying, don't be short-sighted. Make provision for the future in the sense of sending money up there. Now, I'm not saying—you know, this is more than just money. This is about time. This is about energy. This is about effort. This is about how you live your life. And if you're going to live your life like this servant did up to that point, how was he living? He was living for today. He was wasting his master's resources. He was not being careful. And then suddenly he wakes up and he realizes, no, this is not going to last forever. And as Christians, we need to not be like he was before, in the sense that we just waste our time, waste our resources, waste whatever we have, but that we need to be like he became when he woke up and he said, uh-oh, this is not going to last forever. I'd better make provision for after. And he begins to make provision for after. I believe that that is the point that Jesus is making. Now, verse 10. So he's now, as I said, bringing application. These may be directly related to the parable, or they may be in addition to the parable. Obviously, the connection is the issue of money and of resources. And I'm not going to try and tie this back into the parable. I've given you the best I can do with the parable, and I know it may not satisfy you entirely, but that's all I got. All right, so let's look at these applications which are specific and clear. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. If you can't look after your pennies, you're not going to look after your dollars, just in plain language. If you throw your pennies out in the parking lot for me to pick up, then you will not look after your dollars either. You see, this is not about how much. This is about character. This is about morality. This is about your view on things. And if the minutes don't matter, the hours and weeks and months don't matter. If you're going to be wasting your time in the short term, you will waste your time in the long term. He who is faithful in the least is faithful also in much. So this has an application as far as material things are concerned, as far as this world is concerned. But they also have application as far as spiritual things are concerned. Folks, there are many Christians who want to be preachers, who want to have a ministry, but they can't even be faithful in attending the services. It's as simple as that. If you can't be counted on and being in your seat every week, and I'm not legalistic, but this deals with a spirit. It deals with an attitude. It deals with character. And if being faithful in the services, in meetings, is not important, how will preaching the word of God be important to you? Other than it's an ego thing. And obviously we have a problem today because young people want to start their job as being the CEO on the first day. But if you've not been faithful in sweeping the floor, you can't be entrusted with the company's resources. It's as simple as that. And folks, I know that this goes contrary to modern thinking. I know most young people, if any young people are listening to me, will say you're nuts. The fact that I am not faithful in sweeping the floor has got nothing to do with whether I can be a good president of the company. It has everything to do with it, because it has to do with character. If sweeping the floor is important to you, then the company's resources will be important to you. If being faithful in your prayer and in your reading of scripture is important, then God will entrust bigger things to you. But if you can't be trusted with the small things, how will you be entrusted with bigger things? It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. This is a statement. This is not a parable. This is a statement of fact. Jesus is not saying most of the time or sometimes. It's a done deal. If you are faithful in the least, you will be faithful in the much. He who is unjust in what is least is unjust in much. End of story. You say, well, I'm different. No, you're not different. Look, this is just the reality. This is the way it is. And yet somehow we want to excuse our slothfulness and our slackness when it comes to small things, because we say, no, they're just small things. No, they're not just small things. They speak to character. They speak to commitment. They speak to value or values. What is important? And I think I told you before about the man I worked for in the ministry for many years, that whenever he interviewed a new—we used to call them workers—pastor, one of the first things he would look at is the man's shoes. I'm going to check mine. And if—folks, and this is literal—if his shoes were dirty, he would never get a job in that man's work in that part of the ministry. And he's right, because he was quoting the Scripture. If you can't keep your shoes clean, how are you going to keep the church clean? And not speaking about the church physically, spiritually. And the same thing applies to the church. If we—folks, and we've spoken about this before—if we can't look after this building, how will God entrust souls to us? Because if we're not faithful in the little things, in terms of the material things of this building and the money that we have, then how will God entrust to us the true riches and the souls of man? Because you don't switch faithfulness on and off. You don't change character. Can a leopard change its spots? An unfaithful man will be unfaithful in the little and in the greater. And so, folks, we're really dealing here with a very, very deep issue. And I know that it's easy to gloss over this and say, well, this is no big deal. No, this is a big deal. And I don't want you to go away and say, I've got to work on my faithfulness. I've got to work on making sure my shoes are clean. That's not the issue. It's character that needs to be changed. And if you have a problem with faithfulness in little things, then you need to sort out your heart. That's where the problem is. It's not in what we're doing. It's why we're doing it. It's what drives us and what motivates us. And when I come into the building on Sundays and Thursdays and the rest of the week when I work here, I want things to be right. Not because I am, what's the word, OCD. I may have some of that. But I want God to be glorified in the way we keep this building. And those who've been with us some time, who've been with us when we came to this building, will remember that our testimony in the community, when they saw how we fixed the building and how we maintained it and how we kept things right and kept things clean, how that it changed the community's perception of who we are. I've lost count of how many people came in through those doors and were visibly physically, emotionally moved. By what they saw here. Because they saw a testimony of God's goodness. They saw a testimony of a people who want to worship God, not just on Sunday morning through the hymns, but want to worship God in everything that they do. Who want to be faithful in the little things. Who want to be faithful in making sure there's no gum on the patio outside. Because it all speaks to our relationship with the Father. So I'd encourage you, look at your heart. If there's unfaithfulness there, then fix your heart. Don't try and become more legalistic and say, well, I've got to, got to, got to, got to, got to. No, what you need is a change of heart. And God alone can do that. All right, verse 11, and I'm going to end on verse 11. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous manner, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Many people want to be pastors. They think it's an easy job. Let me just tell you, I've done many jobs, but I've always been a preacher. But I've done other things on the side. It's the hardest job you can do. It's the hardest job you can do if you're going to do it right. If you're going to be a hireling, it's easy. But they cannot be faithful in their jobs. There's a joke that goes around that if you failed at everything else, try the ministry. God help us. If you failed at everything else, you are the least suitable for the ministry. And it's not, I'm not, I'm using the ministry as an example, but it's not just the ministry. It's, it's everything that, that's important. You say, well, you know, I want God to, to, to use me in some way or the other, to give me some spiritual gift. But God has given you natural gifts that you're squandering. Natural talents and abilities to do your job or to do whatever you do. And you're, you're not faithful in those things. And you say, but you know, God, I want you to use me in a spiritual way. He's not going to use you spiritually until you learn to be faithful in your day-to-day living. If you're not faithful in your family, how will God give you the spiritual family? If you're not faithful in looking after your own finances, how will God entrust the finances of the church to you? If you're not faithful in, in your, in your relationship with your children, remember that's the basis of, of elders. That if a man cannot run his own home, if he can't manage his own home, how will he manage the church? And folk, guys, people want to be elders. They want to have some position in the church, but they can't run their homes. If you have not been faithful in these things, who will commit to you the true riches? And obviously the answer is no one. God is not going to do it. You may find a denomination or organization or some human thing that'll say, okay, you know, here's a job. Folk, at the end of the day, it's not about money. It's about the true riches. It's about eternity. That's what it's about. But you cannot get to the one without the other. You can't, you can't say, well, you know, I'm going to become, I'm going to go to heaven. So I have another X number of years to live, and I'm going to go from here, I'm going to go to heaven. Between here and there, you have to live your life. And how you live your life will determine your usefulness in the kingdom and will determine your position in the kingdom when Jesus comes. And so may God help us to understand that there is no compartmentalization. There's no different compartments. My spiritual compartment and my family compartment and my recreation compartment and my TV watching compartment. You have one life. And you can't say, I'm going to be faithful in this area, but I'm unfaithful in that area. No, who you are is who you are. And if you're faithful in every area of your life, if you're faithful in one area, you'll be faithful in all. If you're unfaithful in one, you'll be unfaithful in all. Let me, let me close with this challenge. We've spoken about money this morning. So we're going to take up another special offering this morning. No, let's get more basic than that. Your time. How do you use your time? Are you being faithful in the use of your time? Or are you squandering it on Facebook? And I'm being challenged again myself about the time I spend on these things, on television, on recreation. We need time to rest. We need time to recover. And it seems the older we get, the more time we need. That's just natural. That's fine. But when your day comes and goes, you say, I don't know where the day went. When you sit down and they do a survey and they say, how much time do you spend a day, a week, a month on social media? Maybe you need to ask yourself that question. In fact, this is where, this is where the rubber meets the road. How much time do you spend on social media? How much time do you spend just sitting in front of that idiot box, learning nothing, doing nothing, thinking nothing, just sitting there? Look, it's God's time. If we're faithful in that, we'll be faithful in other things. If we're faithful in those things, he'll appoint to us and he'll appoint us over true spiritual riches. So can I encourage you to be like this servant and sit down and say, where am I at? How much time have I got? What am I doing with my resources? What am I doing with my time? What am I doing with my money? What am I doing with my, with the other things that God has given to me, with my talents, with my energy, with my friendships? Am I using them to build an eternity or am I squandering my master's resources and may find myself out on the street? Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, these are challenging things. Lord, we love, Lord, to look at these passages and argue about the theology without getting the point. But Lord, the point is a hard one because it affects every single one of us, Lord. There's not one of us, Lord, who is absolutely and 100% faithful in every detail of our lives. And yet, Lord, we need to be. Lord, we're reminded of the Lord Jesus, whose whole life, every detail of his life, was geared towards one thing, and that is to save us. Lord, we think of Paul and of the others whose whole lives were dedicated and committed to the work of the gospel. And so, Lord, I pray that you would, as we've said very hard things this morning, Lord, and I pray that folk would forgive me if they become too personal. But Lord, we need to be personal. This needs to become real for us. And Lord, I pray that if we find ourselves to be unfaithful, that we may come to you for a change of heart. Lord, you alone can change us, and we thank you, you do change us. You're able to make those who are unfaithful into those who are faithful. You're able to change those who are slack and slothful into those who are dependable and reliable, and who can be entrusted with the true riches. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand, but Lord, help us above all to look objectively at ourselves, and Lord, to understand where we're at, and to make the corrections that we need to make. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help us. Give us grace, Lord, to face the facts. Sometimes, Lord, we begin on this exercise, and then the picture just looks too bad, and we just look away. We just move on. But Lord, help us to face the facts, and to do the sums, and to come to the bottom line, and to come to the conclusions that we need to concerning our lives. Thank you, Lord. At the end of the day, our salvation is not dependent on our works. It's not dependent on what we do or don't do. It's dependent on what Jesus did. But Lord, we pray at the same time that what he did would so touch our lives that it would change the way that we live our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. I pray, Lord, that you'd go with us, and we pray for the Garcia family, Lord, and for the struggles that they have. We pray that you would be with them, strengthen them, encourage them, Lord, particularly for the children. We pray that you would protect them, and Lord, that you would cause them to be able to join with us in fellowship again soon. And so, Lord, we pray for your blessing. We pray, Lord, for Roger and his special day today, Lord. We pray that you'd comfort him as he is away from Mickey, Lord, and as he deals with the last days in his life. We pray that you'd be with him, and strengthen him, and encourage him, and bless him, Lord, as he has faithfully served you these many years. We pray also, Lord, for Henry this morning. Lord, as he faces this illness that has come upon him, Lord, we just pray that you would bless him and encourage him. As you've kept him these many years, 101 years, you've kept him, Lord. And, Lord, we pray that you would keep him spiritually. We know that he's going to go to be with you very, very soon. And, Lord, we pray for those who surround him, his family, and his friends in the church, Lord, that as we stand with our brother in his last days, we pray, Lord, that we may be found faithful in praying for him and upholding him in our prayers. We ask this in Jesus' name. Go with us now, Lord. Keep us and protect us, and bring us together again on Thursday. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/JyBcaWr1aD4.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/faithful-in-the-small-things/ ========================================================================