Being Faithful in That Which is Least

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. We greet you also this morning again in the name of Jesus. We rejoice in being together with the brethren and we want to turn to the book of Luke this morning in chapter 16 and read the first 13 verses. [00:00:30] As we consider the subject of being faithful in that which is least. It seems like we don't mind being faithful or being involved in doing the great things. But in this scripture he points out to us the importance of being faithful in the least. Verse 1, And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward. [00:01:02] The same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer a steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig. To beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, that they may receive me into their houses. [00:01:34] So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my Lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? and he said a hundred measures of wheat and he said unto him take thy bill and write four score and the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely [00:02:06] for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light and I say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? [00:02:38] And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Jesus made some pretty conclusive and decisive statements in this passage. Now it may surprise you a little bit the direction that we're going to go with this message this morning. [00:03:10] But I'll leave you with that for a few moments. Being faithful, what he talks about here is, being faithful means that we carry out the wishes and the designs of the owner, the master. That's one thing we can learn from this parable. Another thing we can learn from this parable is that material things are called the least. That's what he's referring to in this passage. [00:03:41] Material things are the least. Being faithful in the least. So we'll be talking about some pretty material, I was going to say materialistic, but I think better said material things this morning. Going to be just very material in one sense of the word. Another thing we can learn from this passage is that stewardship is the point of beginning. He says, being faithful in that which is least. [00:04:15] And if we're not faithful in that first, who's going to commit to us something greater than this least thing? And that stewardship or the material things that are at our hands are to be used more for a preparation for the future than they are for the enjoyment of the present. We can find that principle taught in this passage of scripture as well. As well, we find here that material things have the potential of being a master or a servant. [00:04:52] He said, you can't serve two masters. Either you will serve God or you will serve mammon. Mammon being here, these natural things of life. Another comment that we'd like to make is that the amount of possessions that a man has are not necessarily a statement of a person's spiritual life. It seems rather common today to look at material things from this perspective [00:05:24] that we should dispose of material things, get rid of them. But the Bible says, the wise man said, Lord, don't give me too much and don't give me too little. If I have too much, I'll probably trust in my riches, and if I have too little, I'll be tempted to steal. Save me from both. The amount of possessions a person has does not necessarily indicate his spiritual level of life. In other words, if a man is poor, it does not mean that he's lacking the blessing of God. [00:06:00] Or if a man is rich, it neither means that he is losing or missing the blessing of God. There are people that emphasize the value, and I can't think of the term, but it's this thing of not enforced, but poverty that we choose to embrace, just not have anything. Voluntary poverty, I would think of that term, but that may be the one, I don't know. But the idea is there. Where we just simply choose to be poor. [00:06:34] But there are a lot of poor people that are not spiritual. Having riches does not necessarily mean that we are spiritual either. Now I've noticed that there have been people that have really been critical of having possessions, and having much possession, but they have been rather willing recipients of the donations of those that had them. Somehow, something doesn't quite stack up. How should we then be looking at this least thing that God entrusts to us to take care of it? [00:07:13] Would it not be good rather than to think of how much and how little as to how we take care of it, how we relate to it? Maybe that is the bigger issue that Jesus was talking about here. I cannot really, word for word, go through this parable that Jesus gave and make clear sense out of it all. How do you make friends, as it says in King James, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Other translations say with the mammon of unrighteousness. [00:07:46] Take something unrighteous, make friends with it, so that you can be received into their everlasting habitation. You're going to have to work with that one. Because I'm not going to go there this morning at this point. But rather than decrying the possessions or lack of them that a person has, could we not better look into the scripture and see how God wants us to be stewards? [00:08:18] That's what we'd like to emphasize here in this passage of scripture. One of the reasons that we're looking at this is of the present situation. You know, we are living in a moment of time of history when there is an extra amount of focus and discussion about material things. We are not in what we call normal circumstances. But I'd like to remind us this morning or to call to our attention [00:08:52] that what we think of as normal circumstances were actually abnormal circumstances. That was not normal. If you consider the world's population and situation, what we were used to was not anywhere near normal. We cry about a 15% unemployment situation in our community. Do you know that in large parts of the world, the unemployment rate is 50%? [00:09:25] And of those people that do have jobs, many of them are only part-time jobs, which is normal. And another thing that we'd like to just say at this point is, it may never come back to being what we think of as normal. The possibility is very good that things are not going to become normal, in quotes again. Not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. [00:09:58] And we're not looking at this subject this morning from an economical viewpoint. We're not looking at this subject neither from a political viewpoint. But we'd like to look at it from a biblical perspective. Now there are many things in scripture. that do give us warning about material things. The Bible says, if I take you into Egypt or to Israel, the promised land, there you're going to inherit all the riches. [00:10:29] A couple chapters later, God said to Moses, beware lest you forget God. That's a warning that was related to material things. and he says as well in the scripture in the book of Proverbs labor not to be rich don't make riches a goal he says as well in Matthew the 13th chapter that riches can choke out the word those are all serious issues are they not [00:11:00] choking out the word of God material things can do that to us the Bible says again that how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. In other words, it tells us that what we have been considering as normal can make the road to heaven more difficult. And again, one more, that is that riches, they that will be rich [00:11:31] fall into temptations and many foolish and hurtful lusts. But along with having said all of that, well, let's leave that for a minute. I'd like to think now in a different vein. Do you know that riches come from God? Have we ever stopped to consider, even though all these things can accompany possession, material things, riches come from God. The Bible says, silver and the gold is mine. [00:12:04] God said that in the book of Haggai I believe and was it in the Proverbs where God says for all the beasts of the forest are mine and all the cattle on a thousand hills and somebody added and all the beefsteaks in them you know everything belongs to God Deuteronomy 8 chapter 8 verse 18 says that God makes these riches available to us. [00:12:40] Remember, maybe I should read that one. Deuteronomy 8, verse 18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. Remember the Lord thy God, It is he that gives thee power to get wealth. Now, I know that's in the Old Testament. Is the Old Testament the inspired word of God? [00:13:13] In 1 Samuel he says, The Lord maketh poor and the Lord maketh rich. We read about Abraham, the father of faith, and it says he was very rich. And his servant gave testimony of him and said, The Lord blessed him so that he had great possessions. The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, the Bible says, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Now if our possessions carry with them sorrow, we may well ask the question, [00:13:47] did that possession come to me from the Lord or some other source? If it is true that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, it is also true that he adds no sorrow with it. But we are all aware that there is a lot of sorrow today related to possessions. Sometimes it is because you have them and sometimes because you wish you had them. But there is nevertheless sorrow with riches. [00:14:19] But amongst the people of God that are faithful in the least I believe we can claim that promise that there's no sorrow with it It's a blessing rather It was the blessing of the Lord that Abraham was made rich The Bible tells us that we need to be good stewards of these things That he entrusts us because he says in Proverbs the 27th chapter In verse 23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds. [00:14:52] In other words, it's going to take some attention to material things if we're going to be faithful in them. And he said, look, check your cattle, check what you're doing, take good care of them so that they can turn out to be a blessing and not a sorrow. Now, today we're talking much. There's lots of discussion amongst the world, amongst the Protestants, amongst the Anabaptists, and probably all other people. [00:15:27] And not only in these United States, not only in Indiana, but across our nation and the world. There is much discussion why we are where we're at. You know whose fault it is? It's the bankers and it's the politicians. Why are we where we're at? Before we look at how we should proceed from here, I'd like to consider a little bit why I believe we are where we're at. This is a spiritual problem that we're facing today. [00:16:01] It is a very spiritual problem related to a very material issue. The biggest question that I keep hearing today is what can we do to restore that normal situation? It's the wrong question. Or at least we're looking at the wrong solutions. If this is a spiritual problem, the thing that we need to fix is the spiritual problem. Not the banking issue. Not the political extravagance. [00:16:33] And all the things that have been done wrong But we are faced today with a spiritual calamity When it comes to the material side of life It's interesting to me to notice What the Bible really says when it comes to riches There are a couple terms associated with the word riches, possessions and so on That we often may tend to overlook So, we talk about riches being a problem. But the Bible talks about the desire to be rich to be the problem. They that will be rich fall into temptations and many foolish and hurtful lusts. [00:17:17] He says further things, 1 Timothy 6 chapter verse 10, verse 9 that was, 1 Timothy 6 verse 10 says, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Is it money? It's the love of money. And there are other scriptures that would confirm that further. Mark the 10th chapter, in verse 24 he says, They that trust in riches It is trust in riches [00:17:49] It is the love of riches It is the seeking after riches Luke the 12th chapter verse 21 He tells us that the problem is selfishness It speaks there about those That lay up treasures for themselves And not for the kingdom of heaven It is the selfishness. Why do people covet riches today? Why do we want to be rich? Is it not to serve ourselves? That was in the background of our situation today. [00:18:25] There was greed as well. Riches were being served as a master instead of a servant. And riches are a hard taskmaster. But they can be a wonderful servant. Today the gospel needs to go out. People have needs. Brothers have needs. We get sick. We have losses. We have fires. We have all kinds of situations. We have unemployment. [00:19:01] It's a blessing when we can minister to each other. That's what these things are for. To meet the needs of mankind. And there would be many scriptures that we could look at that talk about those things. So it was covetousness. It was greed. It was wastefulness. It was the love of ease and pleasure. Bontrager, it was the lack of self-discipline, it was the lack of contentment, and it's that independent spirit. [00:19:32] That's what has brought us here, if I read the situation correctly. Was it the politicians? Was it the bankers? In the sense that they were one of us and had these same attitudes. But it goes much further than that. How should we respond in today's situation is the question I'd like to just touch the high points of. Just a few things. One of the ways that I believe we do well to respond to our present circumstances [00:20:10] is to develop again a renewed vision of interdependence. Been going too long. Interdependence. A renewed vision of interdependence. See, so many of us haven't had the experience of going through a restricted lifestyle. Some to more and some to a lesser degree, yes. I know our circumstances vary and some of the things that we may say this morning may feel very hard depending on where we're at [00:20:48] because we are under restraints, restrictions, under burdens. But I'd like to suggest this morning that the blessing of the Lord in relation to material things bring no sorrow with them. We can claim that. Is the Bible true? If the Bible's true, that's true. There's no sorrow with it. We can be a free people under an oppressed circumstance. And that's a blessing to know this morning that God never abandons his people. [00:21:20] Was it David that said, I was young and I'm old and I've never seen the people of God abandoned. But some of these things that have caused where we are at have some longer lasting, longer standing consequences. That is also true and we have to face those and work with them. Matthew the 6th chapter, verse 33, is a good point of departure for where we are at today. [00:21:53] but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and what? all these things shall be added unto you what's he talking about? food and raiment the necessities of life that's what he's talking about now he didn't say all these other desires will be added to you the selfish ambitions he didn't promise that but he said seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. [00:22:24] The one thing, you know, we talk sometimes, people ask us, well, how are things going in business? And up until now I can say, so far we've been very busy. But we don't have a big backlog. And somehow it would feel much better if you knew what you were going to do six months down the road yet. But that's not really what God is promising. He is saying, I think he's been teaching me to pray what he taught we should pray when he said, give us this day our daily bread. [00:22:56] For some time, maybe several years, we've been praying that prayer nearly daily. Give us this day our daily bread. When I began to pray that prayer, I would think about, you know, the food in the freezer, the cans on the shelves, The things in the pantry seems kind of unnecessary to pray Give us this day our daily bread when we've got it for the next month or two or a year But it does something to a person when you start praying [00:23:30] Give us this day our daily bread Lord, I don't need to know about tomorrow I don't need to have everything guaranteed Just help me to trust you for today And it gives a new awareness and a new realization that whether much or little, it all comes from God. It's His. And what I'm called to do is to use it the way that He designed it for. [00:24:01] And it just brings about a new interdependence between us and God first. And along with that, if we go back to Acts, the second chapter, we find there how those people in the early church, when they became converted, had a new outlook in life. We heard this morning, read several times in different scriptures, the thought comes out that some of those people that had all the answers, you know, they missed the real blessing of life. But when these people that had answers, these people that had needs as well, when they got a new heart, something happened in their relationship with each other. [00:24:44] They had transformed relationships. It says in chapter 2 there in Acts that they had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. Now, I'm not ready to join the Hutterites, but there is a principle here that I think we need to look at, and that is that what is mine is yours, and you can say the other part, the counterpart, sounds better if the other person says that, what is yours is mine. [00:25:23] But that's the relationship of believers. That we have the mind. And I've been blessed to see how people have rallied to each other's needs. How people have had a heart to go out to their brothers. If somebody had a need, in many different ways, sometimes we just get together and talk and then we pray. And we pray for our brother. I'm reminded of what happened back at Sunnyside a number of years back. [00:25:56] Some of you will remember how one time we didn't have very much work. And so we just got together as a church and we prayed for work. And we had so much work we didn't know what to do with it next. That was a blessing of brotherhood, having things in common. And I'm blessed when people do that for each other. Maybe we pray more for others that are in a deeper state than ourselves than we do for our own situation. That's one way to have things in common. [00:26:29] And when we have needs, we share with each other. Even to the point of selling something to give it away. Did you see that? That was brotherhood. Interdependence. We have a mind to seek the good and welfare of our brother. He says sometimes it will be one way and sometimes another. In 2 Corinthians, Paul was commending the Corinthians for their giving. He said, now it's your turn to give. You received and now you give. He says that there may be equality. That's interdependence. There are many ways to do those things that we can help each other. And I don't know, I think I dare say this morning, maybe some of the ways are so practical that I'm not sure if we want to really go this far or not. [00:27:30] But what about carpooling? What about a family coming to church in one vehicle instead of three or two or whatever? Now, we're not saying it's wrong to drive two vehicles to church. But if we really are in a situation of need, what we're saying, we don't know what need is yet. But if we really are serious about that, it could bring interdependence. [00:28:02] It could bring oneness. It means giving, interdependence means giving up some independence. Now, it's a lot easier to come to church or to go somewhere when I'm ready and when you're ready and whatever. Well, you can still come to church if you come in two vehicles. That's all right. But I'm just wanting to make a point here this morning. And not only coming to church, is it all right to talk about remembering some things in the past? [00:28:33] There were times when groups of young people would get together and go in one vehicle to a youth activity rather than each one going themselves. That means that you kind of had to wait for each other. But there was a blessing in it. How much fellowship do you have with other people when you're driving down the road by yourself? maybe you're praying to God [00:29:03] that's good but maybe you're not we lose this contact there is this neighborhood interdependence where we help each other to be faithful in that which is least means to work together now he's saying if we're not faithful in this area Who is going to give to us the greater responsibility? [00:29:34] If we don't handle it here, we won't be faithful in larger things. Seems like the Lord was saying to those people and to us that He is asking us to show our sincerity, our commitment in the very earthy things of life that it's our point of beginning It's our school to practice in, we might say. We can be interdependent in this that we try to provide employment for each other. [00:30:10] It's a blessing to me to just think that work can be a means to supply the needs of a family. Is work to gain riches or is work to provide for our families? It's work to have something to give to them that need. It's work to provide a means to get the gospel out. What about retirement and those kinds of things? [00:30:43] Well, let's keep on praying for each other in this interdependence thing. The spirit of sacrifice is a second thing that the Bible tells us that we can do to meet this situation head on. That's the spirit of sacrifice. Jesus gives this principle. He says, if anybody wants to come after me, let him deny himself. Is anything supposed to cost anything today? I notice there's a lot of advertisement out that right now in this situation in which we're at, there's a lot of free money out there available. Just inquire. Don't do it. It's not biblical. [00:31:24] The scriptural principle is if you want to follow Jesus, deny yourself. Sacrificial living. The question today is what can we do to get things back to where they were? Shouldn't a first question rather be what can we do to live with less? To live more simply. Simplicity is a biblical principle. Sacrificial living is a biblical principle. [00:31:58] There are lots of things we could do differently. People say they have cut the budget to the bone. But have we? Has a person cut the budget to the bone if he still sends 500 text messages in a month? Some bones must be big. Has the budget been cut to the bone if we still do all the traveling we like? [00:32:31] Just for the pleasure of traveling, for the interest. Now, physician, heal thyself. I know. But I trust there can be good reasons, legitimate reasons, and just plain pleasure reasons. Has the budget been cut? We don't know yet what it is to be hard up. Now we feel pressures of life. [00:33:03] Sometimes just because of what we have done in the past. When it comes to denying ourselves, many times we limit God by going into debt. Two ways. We limit God in this, that we are not available to do the things that he wants us to. Or we limit God in this, that we don't give him the opportunity to answer our prayers. [00:33:37] You understand what I'm saying? We may have a need for something. And we start praying about it. But we'll run to the bank or somewhere and we'll borrow money and get it. Now we got it. But God had no opportunity to show himself strong in that situation. Because we took care of it. And then if the banks don't loan money, then we cry about our hardship. [00:34:12] We're crying about the blessing that we're limiting God in giving us. Or He may not even want us to have it to begin with. And He wants to teach us something. But if it's a need, we do well to come to God with it. Avoid making debts. The Bible says, owe no man anything except to love one another. The Bible says as well, he that borroweth is servant of the lender. [00:34:44] Now, some of these statements are very limited and not all inclusive, I recognize. We're not saying that we should never borrow money to buy a house. But we need to be very careful in all areas. One thing at least we should do in order to remedy this situation is work on paying debts down as fast as we can and limiting ourselves in other areas to do so [00:35:14] because otherwise we are a slave to the person we borrow from. That's what the Bible says. Avoid wastefulness is another way to deny ourselves. Any little thing we don't like, we toss Any little thing that has a little defect, we toss America is burying itself in its own garbage We cry about it The news talks about it [00:35:44] Why is it? Is it any wonder we are where we're at? Wastefulness Just a simple little thing With this goes the value of small things. Children, what do you do if you see a penny in the street, on the road, in the dirt? You pick it up. What can you buy with a penny? There's more involved than the penny. [00:36:19] It's the mentality that goes with it. You know what I do when I see a penny? I'll just make an honest confession. I pick it up. I can't buy much with it. But if I find two or three or have a handful of them you can do something. But more important it is the mentality that if it's little it's not worth much. It affects the rest of our life. If we have that mentality about material things, we are likely to have that mentality when it comes to spiritual things. [00:36:53] And we'll say little things don't matter. Little things do matter. Especially when it comes to the spiritual. The significance of small things. The spirit of sacrifice. Thirdly, let's plan ahead. Think ahead. What are we looking for? instant gratification, immediate pleasure or are we thinking in terms how will this what will be the effect down the road [00:37:24] we do well to not live from hand to mouth we do well to deny ourselves to have a little on hand for the future saving is not a bad principle the accumulation of wealth for personal satisfaction is not scriptural, but the accumulation of wealth so that you have it to give is a good principle. What would people do? What would the church do if we all were voluntary, what, servants, voluntary poverty, on poverty level? [00:38:07] It's a blessing. and I go to churches, there's a church that I go to every once in a while I'm amazed, a church about our size of the offering, they post their offerings, good or bad $7,000 for an offering it's a blessing that needs can be met because brethren have needs, they're holding their money but they're holding it loosely If it's needed, it's available for the kingdom of heaven's sake. [00:38:44] More than anything he's saying here, we should use material wealth to lay up spiritual treasures in the future. I'll let that for the end. One more thing we should do is trust God. Trust God in this situation. The promises of God are as true today as they were two years ago. And they're probably more meaningful to us as we exercise them. So, let us trust God. [00:39:17] This is where we can pray. Give us this day our daily bread. And along with that, in Proverbs he says, This is a practical way to trust God. God says, give me the first fruits of your income, your land, whatever. Give me the first fruits. Now talk about trusting God. That's a literal demonstration of trusting God. [00:39:50] We say, but I don't have it to give. We say, we need that to live. The biggest robbers amongst the people of God are the people that steal from themselves. In this way, in Malachi it says, give me the firstfruits and just see if I won't open the windows of heaven. So you retain those firstfruits, we shut the windows of heaven for our own blessing, to our own blessing. [00:40:28] So we can face this situation by stepping out by faith and trusting God and saying, God, I will not be anxious. The Bible says, take no thought what you shall eat or what you shall wear or what you shall drink. What does he mean? Does he mean that you shouldn't even think about it? That's not what it means. If you look it up in the original language and in other translations, it says, don't be anxious. Don't worry about it. step out in faith [00:40:59] do the will of God no matter what it costs and you can count on the blessing of God I know that feels different if you don't have a job I know that feels different if you have payments coming due is it still true? is it still true? If it's true, we can step out by faith and trust God. [00:41:31] And give Him not the leftovers, He says, but the firstfruits. That's a demonstration of trusting God. The Bible says, we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we shall carry nothing out. But the blessing to me this morning is, we can send it ahead. And it will be there with that to make friends, to make preparations, what we invest for God, be it time, talents, whatever, material things, what we invest for God will last forever. [00:42:13] What we use for ourselves and for our interests and way of thinking, we shall carry nothing out.