Will God Find You Faithful?

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "Will God Find You Faithful"

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I want to read it to you, and I want us to stand together as we read God's word. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. It's, you know, outside of John 3.16, outside of for me, 2 Corinthians 5.17 about the new creation, outside of some of the passages in Romans, this is one of the most meaningful passages to me as a pastor and has always been as a as a Christian as to what my responsibility is. And it's spelled out very clearly here. Verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 4 says, This then is how you ought to regard us. Paul speaking to the Corinthians, saying, This is how you ought to think of us, as servants of Christ, and as those entrusted, or in some translations it says, as those who are stewards. So regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. It is required that those who have been given a trust, we have been entrusted with the mysteries of the gospel. God has entrusted us as Christians in this modern day to take the ancient message, but the relevant message, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Him. He's entrusted us with that message, the mystery of the gospel. How it is free, how Jesus died for us, and that we are to receive Him into our lives, receive the free gift that He gave us by faith. We've been entrusted with that message. And we are stewards, we are keepers of the house. And the owner has gone away for a while. But one day he's coming back. We don't know when. We know the season, but we don't know when. And will he find us being faithful in our stewardship? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you for the truth of the gospel and help us to be faithful as your servants. And I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And you may be seated. Now, before we get into the heart of the message, I want to give you three observations that I that I just pulled right out of here that I saw. I've seen it years before, and but but I see it time and time again. Here are the three observations. Number one, as Christians, it is understood that we are servants. It is implied and understood in this passage that we are to be servants. And as servants, we don't demand our rights when it comes to Christianity. As servants, we are under Jesus and we say, How can we serve you, God? We are servants, we are keepers of the house. As a matter of fact, you know, the Bible tells a story of the unfaithful or the unwise servant and the wise servant, and it tells the story of these two servants, these two stewards, and the owner went away, and the unwise servant acted as though he had plenty of time to get the house in order and to take care of things. So, you know, he decided perhaps, well, the owner's not going to be back for a while. So, you know, we don't have to feed the animals right now. We don't have to plow the fields, uh, we don't have to take care of the vineyard. We don't have to do all of these things. We can just party and be lazy and do what we want. And then, you know, maybe when when at the season when in which we think he's coming back, then we can get the house together and we can get everything ready and we can plow the fields and do it all, and and and the certain the owner will be happy. But the Bible says the owner returned when the servant wasn't ready, and he found that servant to be unfaithful. And the Bible says that the owner had him bound and tortured and what have you. But the faithful servant is the one who acted as though the owner could come back any day, at any moment. And the faithful steward realized that I have a stewardship. I am the keeper of the owner's house. I am the manager. It's not mine, it's his. And every day that I live, I've got to manage this house. I have to be a good servant. I am entrusted with all of my owner's wealth and with everything that he has. And so I don't know when he's going to come back. And so I have to serve and act in such a way as though he could come back at any moment in any time. And so we're going to plow the fields like we're supposed to. We're going to tend to the vineyard as we're supposed to do. We're going to treat each other the way we're to be to treat each other. And the owner came back and he found that servant being faithful. And that's where we get the scripture that says, the owner said to that servant, Well done, my good and faithful servant. And that's what we live for, don't we as Christians? We live for the day that when we leave this life and we enter into heaven and we cross over, that it could be said of us by our Heavenly Father. Well done, my good and faithful servant. So as Christians, it is understood that we are servants. Number two, the second observation, as servants, we must be trusted. As servants, we have to be trusted. You know, I truly believe this. Paul spent, what, three years after his conversion before he was trusted by the apostles and all the other disciples, before God allowed him to be in a leadership role. As a matter of fact, Paul says in 1 Timothy that God counted me faithful, then thereby he placed me into the ministry. So faithfulness came first, and God saw that Paul could be trusted with a God-sized task, and then he placed Paul in a not a position but a servant role and a place of leadership in the early church because Paul had proven to be trustworthy. You know, and I hear people say a lot of times, man, I just want God to use me, and I want God to use me. And I've heard a preacher say this time and time again. I don't know who this quote is attributed to, but I've heard it time and time again, where it says, get usable and God will use you. In other words, be faithful in the small things. You know, if you're not gonna have a daily devotion, if you're not gonna rely on God for your everyday decisions, why would God allow you to be a teacher if you're not gonna apply the very things to your life that you'll be teaching? So as servants, we must be trusted. And then as one who is trusted, we must be faithful. So those are the three observations. As Christians, it is understood that we are servants, and so therefore, as servants we must be trusted. This is all in verses 1 and 2. And then as one who is trusted, we must be found faithful. Faithful to the end. All the way. You know, coach has a saying, and he actually turns the old saying on its head. And it's this saying. The old saying is this I'm not just gonna be checking the box today. I'm gonna be, you know, I'm I'm gonna be all in. I'm you know, I'm not just doing what I do to check the box. That's the old way of looking at it. But he turns it on his head and he says, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. Checking the box is important. In other words, it's not just the formality. I'm checking the box because that box and the principle that goes with that box is important. So I'm having my quiet time today, not just so I can check the box, I'm having the quiet time today because my life needs it. And so therefore, I'm following the principles and I'm and I'm checking the box. Did that did I confuse you on that? He can say it better than I can. But but there are some things worth checking the box for. Right? And it's called being faithful. So four required areas of faithfulness. Four areas that that I think we need to have. And I and I believe this. Listen, look, as I was watching our people serve this week, I find that most of the people serving, if not all, are working hard in these four areas. They're really giving it their. Are they perfect? No. Am I perfect in it? No. But they they're working in that area. And these four boxes, if you will, coach, these four check marks, these four things are important to true faithful servants. Number one, four areas that we are required to be faithful, first of all, in our relationship with God. In our relationship with God. Here is here is the standard for that faithfulness. Here it is. Matthew 22, 37. Look at what the scripture says. This is a standard for our faithfulness. And Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, heart, soul, and mind, with your entire being. Love the Lord your God with all of it. You see, going back to the check marks or the boxes, God is not number one in our life, and then like maybe our family number two and our our church number three, and maybe you know our job number four, whatever. No, no, no, no. You see, God is number one in our relationship with Him, and then God is number one in the number two. He's number one in our family, and then God's number one in the number three in our service to our church, and then God's number one in the number four into our vocation or our job, and God's number one and uh number five in our recreation, right? All right, just to give you an example. So tonight, Lord willing, I mean, that's the plan. I don't know. I may get home and want to take a nap and not want to go anywhere when I get up, but we'll see. But the plan is tonight, we're just going for the evening and we're coming back home, but we're we're going to watch fireworks tonight in Steenhatchie. Okay? That's the plan. Now, in doing so, that that that that fills that number five box for me, you know, our our in our recreation, in our fun, and and the things that we do for enjoyment. And we're gonna be around some family, and then we're gonna celebrate America. But in doing so, God is always number one. So not just because I'm a pastor, but this cat right here, you're not gonna see me getting drunk and being all stupid and acting the fool. Uh, I might be acting the fool without getting drunk, but I'm gonna be, you know, I might be a nut, but I'm screwing on to the right bolt, and that's Jesus Christ. And so I'm gonna go and have a good time, but Jesus is gonna be number one in my good time. You got me? So he should be he faithfulness is recovered. We don't check our faithfulness at the church door and say, Whew, I'm glad I survived that today, and now I can go out and you know, live my life the way I want, and and I'll put my faithfulness cap back on when I come to church next week. No, we walk out of the doors and we're like, God, I'm your servant and I have a relationship with you. How can I be used of you? I don't know if this is an age thing. It's gotta be. It's gotta be an age and wisdom thing as you grow and as you get older. I don't know. When I was a younger man, um, you know, man, I was doing everything I could just to hang on. When I say hang on, as a father and as a husband, and you know, you had so much going on in life, you're just trying, you're just man, I tell you, there are times I was just trying not to get fired. And then there are other times, you know, you just and and and excuse me, and you don't, you don't sometimes maybe when you're younger, you you don't get to look at the um crepe myrtles as much when you're younger. I don't know about y'all, but during VBS I go outside every every night and look at the beautiful colors of the crepe myrtles on the side of the church and just look at them and go, wow, those things are beautiful. And I'm gonna look at them for a little while because you know what? It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and it's gonna knock a lot of that off, and so I'm enjoying it while I got it. And so the older I get, the more now I slow down and observe and appreciate and cherish. And so you say, how does that work in your relationship with God? I slow down even in my relationship with the Lord. And it's more about being than doing. It's being content in Him, walking in Him each and every day. It's being sensitive to what's going on around you without just blowing through life. It's not just about going through the drive-through and McDonald's and getting you something to eat because you're hungry and you want to eat. But it's about the people who are working there and talking with them. I make them talk to me. And most of them are more than happy to talk. But every now and then I'll get one and they'll just look at me again, like my favorite saying, like a calf looking at a new gate when I was saying, How are you today? Are you having a great day? And they're like, Who is this guy? A little guy with a white beard, right? Ball cap on. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Have people been nice to you? And they'll kind of look at me. It haven't been too bad. I said, Well, I just want you to know I want to be nice to you today. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for working hard. Thank you for taking my order and getting it right. Thank you so much. God bless you. And they look at me, and as I drive off to go to the next window, they're like, Check this guy out. Where is he from? You know? And I'm just saying, I'm trying to do that in my life. This happened, literally happened to me this week. This kind of stuff only happens to me. It didn't happen to other people, but it happens to me. I know it happens to me. I'm in the line at tractor supply. Okay? The person in front of me is done. There's this plexiglass. There's about a 17-year-old young lady getting ready to ring up my items. And I got my head down and I'm I'm looking at the little screen, getting ready to put, and I could I could feel that a man had come up next to me, and I hear this voice. So how's your love life? And I went. I mean, I turned like buddy. I'm you know, I I'll ask for forgiveness later, but I'm getting ready to lay you out. And he and I said, You talking to me? And this is about a 65-year-old man. He goes, No, I'm talking to her. Then I really wanted to kill him. And she was looking and she go, she didn't know what to say. And I said, Let me tell you something, sir. I said, my love life is great. I know you didn't ask me, but I'm telling you. I've been married 37 years, happily married. He goes, Well, I'm, let's say, how do you say that? He said, I am um, I am joyfully single. I said, Well, good for you. And I said, young lady, let me tell you something, young lady. You find you a man that loves Jesus and serves him and takes you to church and you marry him and you have a life, and you'll be able to say the same thing I'm saying right now. Thank you very much. And I left. I took the opportunity to share my relationship with God, with them. And then I waited because I wanted to see that pervert come out of the place, but I'm telling you, um, it was just weird. I I don't know if this illustration applies, but it just just in our situations, our relationship with God matters, and we need to slow down in this world that we live in. Number two, four areas of faithfulness is in our walk. In our walk, how we live. Man, you know, I'll tell you, this is one of the things that's really bothersome to me today. Is that so many people claim to be Christians and they just don't live like it. And you can say all day long, you can go stand in your garage and say that you're a four-wheel drive pickup truck, but you're not. It doesn't matter what you say. What you do reveals whether or not what you say is authentic. Proverbs 14 2 says this whoever fears the Lord walks uprightly. But those who despise him are devious in their ways. And then Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path a path straight. Four areas of faithfulness in our walk, how we live. Folks, if I can make it as easy as I can, listen, one of the frustrations is for for pastors all across the world are those who claim to be Christians with their mouth, but they live differently. Your walk, for the most part, has to match up with your talk. In other words, when Jesus saves you, he changes you, and you live differently, and you grow. And as you grow, and as you if you've been a Christian a long time, and if you're not growing in some way, somehow, something's wrong. And Jesus requires faithfulness no matter what the world is doing, no matter what everybody else is doing. No matter how the world changes, biblical truth and spiritual truth will never change. You be faithful in your walk and how you live. God knows the owner's watching. Number three, prayer is of faithfulness required. Number three, in our personal commitments. In our personal commitments. Now, there are so many passages of scripture on commitment. You know, in Ecclesiastes it it says this, and I and I've been um sinful in this area by saying something and not doing what I said. You know, some of that was immaturity, overcommitting. And just plain out sin. And the Bible says in um Song of Solomon, uh no, not Song of Solomon, in um Ecclesiastes. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that uh be careful what you commit to God and what you vow. Because if you make a vow and you don't keep it, it would have been better for you not to make the vow at all than to make it and not keep it. Personal commitments matter. They matter. I know we live in a world that divorce is easy, is easy, and I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad, um, but it's easy. And it's a cry and shame that some people stand up in a church of all places with a pastor and they make commitments before God and man and then they have no problem breaking those commitments. Now I understand, listen. I understand. I've always said it. I believe it takes two to make a marriage, it only takes one to break it. You can be as faithful as you want to be. And if your spouse doesn't want you, well, the Bible makes provisions for that. And it talks about that. If you have an unbelieving spouse, you're not under bondage in such cases. But especially for Christians, when we make commitments like that, those commitments are important. We make commitments to children. They're important. When you make the commitment to be used of God to make a baby, you should have that same commitment to raise the baby. And to raise the baby in the training and admonition of the Lord. That's a lifetime commitment. And I'll tell you, I was so inspired this week to see the commitments. People who have children committing to other children and teaching them about Jesus. People who could have just said, I ain't doing that this week. I'm bringing and dropping my kids off, but they came. Young couples who don't have any children yet. One, you know, one young couple who's eight months, nine months, almost nine months, well, nine months pregnant. On and on and on. Just saw the commitment. Grandparents serving and working. People have no kids here. But yet, they made commitments and they lived up to it. One last area. A fourth area required of a steward in the area of faithfulness. We're to be faithful in our family. In our faith family, I should say. And I've talked a lot about this recently, but I just want to mention it. In our faith family. It's important. I know what I'm about to say might be, might touch home with some people, and I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but I'm just telling you. This is how it works sometimes. People sometimes get upset and angry. And just like they do with their own family, and they walk out of their own family's life, they walk out of their church family's life, their faith family, and they disappear. And sometimes the faith family, and sometimes a pastor doesn't do a very good job of reaching out to those folks, and there are reasons why, good and bad, right and wrong, whatever, and sometimes that doesn't happen. But all that does, Satan just uses that to exasperate the situation. And you know, well, nobody ever called me, and nobody, well, it's funny, you left and you you never said bye to anybody. But here's the thing. But you find yourself finding your way back to your faith family. And in so doing, you find forgiveness, you find love, you find acceptance, you find, hey man, we're so glad you're back. Let's get back on it together. See that, see, a faith family will always receive you back when you come with the right spirit. And it's important that we have a level of faithfulness. Adrian Rogers said this. He used to be the pastor of Bellevue Baptist and was a great pastor statesman that a lot of us have looked up to. He retired, and just a few years after his retirement, he passed away with cancer. But he was asked by a group of pastors one time at a pastor's conference, what is what is the most difficult thing in ministry you've ever had to deal with? What is it? He goes, Oh, that's an easy one. So I can answer that real quick. He said, It's people that have come into your life, you came into theirs, they came into yours. Yep, maybe you led them to Christ, or they came to Christ as a result of coming to your church. They were discipled in your church. They went through horrific tragedy, you were there with them. You may have gone through some difficult times, they were there with you. You were there together, and you thought that those cords that were being woven were going to be unbreakable. And then at some point, for one reason or another, something you don't fully understand, they get angry with you or with somebody in the church, and not only do they leave, but on the way out, they try to trash the place, and they trash you and your church family on the outside for years to come. He goes, that is the thing that's the hardest for me as a pastor. But listen to me when I say it. You know why it's hard for a true pastor? Because that pastor loves those people, even those people who trashed them on the way out. Now, I say that to say this. That's not the way we should do each other as family. Right? So on the other end, what's my response? What shouldn't be my response to a negative, to someone who leaves the family in a negative way? Well, I should do what I can to be restored with that person. And I should always have an open heart to receive them with open arms back into the family or encourage them to get plugged in to a family where they can fulfill their Christian commitment and dedication. But we, listen, are going to be held account to account and to give an account for what we did and how we treated the bride of Christ, the house of God, the family of God. Right? Scriptures teach that to us. How we love other people and brothers and sisters. Now, I'm not saying everybody who leaves is it's something like that, and it's an affront and live in a mobile society, and people move on, and chapters in people's lives change, and they find other places to serve, and that's okay. But you should always be part of a faith family. Because you were designed by God and gifted by God to serve in that area. And your family needs you. Your church family needs your service in vacation Bible school, need your service on a team of some kind, need your service to grieving families by helping them on that day. Need your service in teaching, need your service in your talents and your abilities in media, music, whatever it might be. And so we need to be faithful in that. And now that doesn't mean you can't miss a Sunday. That doesn't mean you can't go on vacation for a little while, right? That doesn't mean that you can't find some time to rest and take a little break from it. Of course. We all need a break. But as a whole, the big picture, we stay faithful. So those are the four areas that God requires of servants. Faithfulness. So I guess for me, I want to live my life so that I'm faithful to these spiritual principles. I end with this. Penny and I were married three years. Her mother was 57 years old, and she was battling a disease called amyloidosis. And amyloidosis at the time they didn't know a whole lot about. They still don't know a whole lot about, but they know more than they did then, back in the late 80s. And basically, it's a disease found in diabetics, not all diabetics, but in mostly it's in diabetics, and it's rare, and it attacks the major organs, and there's no rhyme or reason to what it does, but it eventually will kill you. And Penny's mother was having treatment for kidney failure. The whole time we didn't realize that her liver was failing. And a series of events happened, and right around Christmas time, 1987, she passed away. Penny's dad was a tugboat captain in South Louisiana. They'd been married, Penny, what, 30, 35 years, something like that. 35 years. And as a tugboat captain, he would work these shifts. Basically, it's like this the way the oil field workers work, a lot of times it's seven and seven, meaning you work seven days, you come home for seven days, or 14 and 14. You work, so you're you're working half the time, you're gone, and you come back, and on 14 days you're off, you're off for 14 straight days. And so, you know, it's good on those days off. But you're gone about half the time. And periodically, because he was a tugboat captain that towed rigs, um, his company would contract with companies in the North Sea, in the Caribbean, and different places. So sometimes he had to be gone for a month, then he'd get a month off. And he was on one of those trips when Penny's mom fell sick, but he got there right before she passed away. The next day, it was Penny and I and her dad at the dining room table, sitting down, and Penny's aunt, Penny's dad's sister. And he had his head on the table, and he had his hands around his head cupped like this, and he was just, you know, he had just cried so much, and his heart was broken. And his sister, he said to his sister, and he said to us, he says, I just have not been here enough. I I was gone too much. I should have been here more. And his sister, whose husband had left her for a younger woman, said to him, she said, stop right there. Stop what you're saying. You stop it. Because there's something far greater that you're missing. You are a provider for your family. And his name, you know, his name was Sonny, Sonny Jr., and all his family called him Junior in the way in Cajun vernacular, Junya. She said, Junior. You were faithful to her. You were faithful to her. You were a faithful husband. You were a godly husband. You led her to Christ, and you led her to church, and you took your children to church, and you introduced them to Jesus, and you were out there not fooling around, you were out there working to provide a living for your family, and you were providing for them, and when you were home, you were hers, and you were with her, and you were always faithful to her. Some men can't say that. It's one of those moments in my life that my gosh, it was a God moment I will never forget. And in that way, I said, my father-in-law is a hero to me. I want to be like him in that. And I want it to be said of me. I if it so happens like this, if it so happens, and my dead body's laying in a casket, and my kids and grandkids and what have you are crying. I hope they miss me terribly. But anyway, I'm just kidding. They're crying, and they're upset that the matriarch of the family can look at them, my wife, and say, Let me tell you, kids, your daddy was not this. He didn't make a lot of money, or he didn't do this, or he didn't do that. And sometimes, boy, he could be a tough pill to swallow. And sometimes, you know, he was hard-headed about some things. Let me tell you something about your daddy. He was faithful to me from the beginning until the end. Be like your daddy. See, that's what I live for. Now, listen to me. But I live for it on a much higher level. I want to take that faithfulness to my spouse, and I want that to be toward my savior. And I don't know if it'll be said of me. I I don't I really don't know. I kind of think it probably won't, but I don't know. I live my life hoping that I hear my savior say what Penny's aunt said to Penny's dad. And he would say it to me. Yeah, you made mistakes, but Corey, you were always faithful to me. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Let's stand, everybody. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for the consistency of scripture. And thank you for your son and what he has done in our lives and how he has transformed us into self from selfish beings into servants. Now, God, I know that none of us have arrived yet. And while we might be able to say that we've been faithful thus for, until you take us home, we know that there are going to be temptations and trials that will come along the way. Help us, God, to stay close to you and faithful to the end. Now, however, God has spoken to you in this message, I don't know. I'm not the Holy Spirit, only God knows. But I encourage you today to faithfully respond to what God has spoken to you about. I'm gonna bow my knee at this altar here in just a moment and say, thank you, God. But God, I want to be faithful to the end. God, right now, I don't see it. I don't see the pitfalls ahead of me. I don't see the danger that's always ahead of me. But Father, in spite of me not seeing it, help me to find a way to be faithful to you when those dangers arise. If you've not fully been faithful to God, the Bible teaches us that if you come and confess to Him, He will forgive you and cleanse you of all of your sin and wash you and make you clean. It's a new day for you today. However, God is leading you, this is the invitation, as our worship team leads us and sings, for you to worship, to commit, and to sing to Him. We prayed in Jesus' name.