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2 Corinthians 8:16,24 -Stewardship- Paster Rick Beaudry 2025-04-27
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Second Corinthians chapter eight beginning with verse 16. But thanks be to God which puts the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed, he accepted the exhortation, but being more forward of his own accord, he went unto you. And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches, and not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with his grace which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord and declaration of your ready mind. Avoiding this that no man should blame us in the abundance which is administered by us, providing for honest thing that not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And have we as and we have sent with them our brother whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent upon the great confidence which I have in you. Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowshipper concerning you, or our brethren be inquired of. They are the messengers of the churches and of the glory of Christ. Wherefore, show ye to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on on your behalf. Father, we thank you for your holy word. And Lord, we desire to learn this morning. We desire to be your disciples, and we ask that you would be our teacher, and that you'd give us ears to hear and hearts to receive and to apply these truths to our lives. Lord, we desire that our lives would be fruitful, that our lives would bear much fruit for your kingdom and glory. We desire, Lord, that we not quench or have a rested state of development, Lord, because we we quit learning, we quit hearing, we quit applying that which you're wanting to teach us, Lord. But, Lord, as you reveal unto us, Lord, we pray that we would receive and respond, and and, Lord, you'd give us even more, more and more revelation of who you are. Lord, we want to know you. Reveal yourself. Reveal yourself unto us, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alrighty. Stewardship. Who are you gonna entrust with the true riches of God with the gospel, with the good news of Jesus Christ? You can't serve God and mammon. You can't serve God and money. So we've been talking about giving financially, and now in this case, the apostle Paul is sending Titus and possibly Luke and one other messenger, one other steward. Steward is a manager, a house manager, somebody that's been entrusted with something and then managed these things, and they're under the rule of a of a lord, a lord that's taking stock in them and saying, hey. I can entrust to you the true riches of God, and I know that you're gonna reinvest these riches and and deliver them and do what I've, you know, of why I've given them to you. And for me, the stewardship has to do with the gospel. It has to do as we look at Luke 16 and we look at Luke 12, and we see the example of the just steward and the unjust steward and and money's mixed in there and that sort of thing. And I look at money as simply a way for the Lord to measure your heart, my heart. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And so we're to be wise with money. We're to be wise with the unrighteous mammon. That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God. And churches have become huge businesses. Everything's based upon money, and the true riches of God, the word of God, doesn't get out. It's not taught. It's a business. 2% of the churches teach prophecy. 65% of the churches think that Israel's irrelevant. Replacement theology. It's a clown show. It's a sandbox, and the people love it so, and they support it financially. And the church in Jerusalem is broke. They're under persecution. And the churches that are springing forth in the Gentile regions of Macedonia and, and other places like Corinth and Roman all, they're wanting to help. They're wanting to alleviate some of the suffering. The great dearth in chapter 11, there's a prophet named Agabus that says there's gonna be a famine around the whole area. But when we see Stephen in chapter six and seven arguing, debating, relating with the religious leaders, and, and he becomes the first martyr, we see that the persecution coming against, the church in Jerusalem, which is by and large, dominant Jewish. And, and this Jewish church is under under attack. They're losing their jobs. There is a shortage of food. There's an economic crisis, so to speak. And, and so the, persecution spreads over to the area of Samaria, and we see Philip in chapter eight in Samaria, which are half Jews, and he's sharing the gospel, and the gospel is going forth, leaning toward the Gentiles now. We see the apostle Paul in chapter nine that, he's all the way to Damascus and Syria trying to attack Christians, people that are coming to Christ. We see in chapter 10, at the house of Cornelius, the Gentiles are on board. The holy spirit's being poured out upon them. The gospel's going forth. That which was entrusted to the early church, the true riches of God is getting out there. In chapter four, we see that Peter and John, as they're or chapter three, as they're going to the temple at the hour of prayer, there's a poor guy there that had been poor from his mother's womb over forty years as we read in chapter four toward the end of chapter four. And Peter and John say, silver and gold have we none. No money. But in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. And the guy stood up and walked. 5,000 people came to Christ as the gospel has prevented the true riches. Jesus could heal 10 lepers and only one would come back to receive the true riches. Only one went away whole. Whole lot of people come for the loaves and the fishes, and they approach Christianity as what's in it for me? And yet Christianity is a death to self. It's taking your cross up daily to follow Jesus. Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. And so you you you take the true riches of God, and you receive the true riches, which is the gospel. Your life's transformed and changed, and you realize you're a steward. You've been entrusted with the true riches. Because what's a profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? And Jesus teaches in Luke 16 of a man that said, oh, I'm really rich, and you know, and I'm gonna tear down my barns and build bigger barns because I I got more boats coming, more cars coming, more everything coming. And Jesus says, thou fool. This night, your soul's required of you. And all that you have is gonna be given to somebody else. You're you're rich in the things of the world, the mammon of the world, but you're a pauper toward the things of God. You didn't prepare. You weren't a wise steward with that which was given you. What was given you? The gospel, the glorious gospel. You see the example of the rich man and Lazarus. He's in hell. The rich man's in hell. And Lazarus, who's eating the the food at the at the trash of the rich man, and and dogs coming and licking the sores and such, he's in Abraham's bosom. He's gonna be in heaven soon. He's in paradise. And there's a great gulf between the two. The rich man's in grievous torment. Why? Because he neglected the true riches. And Lazarus, which didn't have 2 nickels to rub together, he embraced the true riches. He prepared. He was wise with what God invested in his life. The gospel is God's investment in your life and in my life. And as we're looking at the example here of bringing this gift to Jerusalem and the integrity and the character of Titus and possibly Luke and one other, person that's delivering these monies and all. We recognize the the physical aspect, the the emotional aspects, the the way that we support missions, the way that we support those who are in need. We don't love just in word, we love in deed and in truth, but unless we miss the point, the true riches is the gospel. It's the word of God. None of it's worth a thing if you're building a country club in Jerusalem. It means absolutely nothing. It's just people going through the motions. They've taken the true gospel and they've hidden it. They've incorporated psychology and self help and all of the isms and all the junk, and and the world doesn't even see that that the world presently is being prepared for the false church, the false religious system that's based not upon the gospel, based not upon the teaching of the word, but based upon doing good deeds. Yeah. These false churches want your money, and they're gonna get your money. But they're not gonna require a thing from you except your money. It's all they want. And they want you to embrace the gospel of good deeds. They want your social credit score to be a good social credit score, that you're doing everything the governmental church is telling you to do. It's about doing. Rick Warren's been teaching you that. It's not about learning. It's not about getting the true gospel out. It's about embracing government with religion and with an economic system that binds it all together. A globalist system, and in that system presently as it's morphing, as it's emerging, young people from Protestant churches are leaving the Protestant churches in embracing Catholicism. Because in the Protestant churches over the last twenty five years, in this Rick Warren system, the pastors are getting drunk. The pastors have made it a clown show, a light show, a concert each Sunday morning. And the way they appease the guilt of people is that you can give and feed the homeless. You can remove the graffiti on the walls and stuff, but we're not gonna teach the true riches. We're gonna incorporate psychology when the church is shut down. When they come back to church and they can't even cope, we're gonna hire counselors that go after the the symptoms, but not the root cause. They don't know God. They don't know the transforming power of the gospel. In Titus one verse seven, it says, a bishop, that word bishop, he's an overseer of maybe several little churches in an area. He's a an overseer in the sense of a spiritual oversight. You can use a word, another word you can use is an elder. An elder is not a businessman. It's not a corporate church inc, and let's make money, nickels and noses. Although we may wanna incorporate and have a godly spirit filled businessman on the board or in the on the staff to help with administration. We don't go after the wealthiest people in the church so that we can get more money out of them. You'll never see a guy on the board, well, I better not go there. I'll start crying, start blubbering, but another word is elder, spiritual oversight. Another word in the Latin is pastor, meeting the spiritual needs of the people. So when we talk about, hey, where's his elders? Yeah. If the church grows, I want some pastors to help me. I want some elders, some spirit filled men to help me. But to form a board of businessmen in the area or businessmen in the church to have control of the church and to tell me what I can teach and what I can't teach. And to say, hey, you're teaching for an hour, it that we want nickels and noses. We need to draw this down to twenty minutes. And you're you're too you're too you're too offensive the way you talk to people. We need to water it down, man. We need to we need to get more music and more upbeat, and we need to do more marketing, get more people in here because it's nickels and noses, man. That'll never happen, will it? So a bishop must be blameless as to the steward of God. Not self willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, not a striker, and not given to filthy lucre, which is money. You don't want any Judas' around pilfering and stealing, and and the pastors in these large churches are some of the most wicked, unscrupulous people you've ever seen. Their jets aren't big enough. They gotta have a bigger jet. They gotta have more and more and more and more. It's always about them. It's always their celebrity. Why would you entrust them with more money? You don't see that celebrity in the early church. If somebody's well known in the early church as a leader, they're martyred. They're not made a Christian celebrity. People trying to live through a man. Don't live through any man. Go directly to Jesus. Come boldly before his throne of grace. Be a man. Be a woman. Be a husband. Be a wife. Be a be a steward of what God's invested in your life. There's nobody out there more important than you. God's no respecter of persons. You don't need to go through any man. There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus is your example. Jesus is my example. Paul gives a description here of these three stewards who are commissioned to deliver the offering to Jerusalem. Four characteristics of a steward. Number one, commitment. The steward's committed. Are you committed to the gospel? Are you committed to making sure it's the true gospel? Because Paul warned that there'd be a false gospel out there, that there'd be false Christ, false messiahs, a false spirit. And we're gonna get to that as we move on into chapter eleven and twelve. If somebody tried to seduce you and take away take you away for the simplicity that's in the gospel and present a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit, don't put up with it. I need you to back me. When the Lord wants me to discipline, when the Lord wants me to attack heresy, and I mean attack, I need you to have my back. I need you to say, yeah, that's wrong. I don't need you to say, he's unloving. And we need to love the heretics. That leaven leavens the whole lump. You can love them with truth. You can love them and say prove it from the bible. But we're not gonna condone or give in or be sappy and all that in regard to heresy. Heresy is serious. And we're not gonna be the pot smoking, getting drunk, worldly people in the community. We're gonna confront sin, and we're gonna allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, not condemnation. We're here to seek and to save the lost. We're here to be a hospital to those that are hurting. We don't want people to live here year by year by year according to and we're afraid to tell them the truth because they might take their check away. It'd be less revenue, less people, less money. That's not proper stewardship. I'm here to be a steward of the true riches, which is the word of God. I'm not to water the word of God down so that I we can get more people giving here. Commitment. But thanks be to gods which put the same earnest care in the heart of Titus for you. Verse 17, for indeed he accepted the exhortation, but being more forward of his own accord, he went on to you. So Tidod was a committed man. What was he committed to? What are you committed to? Are you committed to your wife? Isn't that an amazing thing to be committed in a marriage? Wow. That should be a no brainer. Are you committed to your husband? Are you committed to your family? You committed to your job? All good things to be committed unto. But Titus was committed unto you, church of Corinth. Unto God's people, the Lord put the same earnest care, that commitment into the heart of Titus for you. Somebody cares about you. Somebody cares about your eternal destiny. Somebody cares enough to invest in your life, commit themselves to preaching and teaching the truth, to model the Christian life, to make sure you don't fall through the cracks, to make sure that you're confronted with the truth, that you never hear the Lord say away from me, I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. Let a man examine himself and see whether he's in the faith or not, Paul's gonna say as we move on through. Church of Corinth has got some problems. We have some problems. Somebody cares about you. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The kiss of an enemy are deceitful. Titus responded. He accepted the exhortation and became even more forward, more committed. That word earnest care, that word earnest means Greek word spude, which means diligent. We see it two times in verse 22. It speaks of a business like diligence and commitment. Get her done. You're there to get her done. You're gonna get the job done. You're you're not gonna lay it aside for someone else to do it. From start to finish, you're gonna be faithful in the things of the Lord. If you can't be faithful in the things of the Lord, then step aside and let somebody else. Don't get your feelings hurt if I have to discipline you. It's not a clown show. Everything's to be done decently in order. We're not we don't we we care about you, but your feelings aren't uppermost in what goes on here. What's uppermost is God's glory and God's people and getting his word out and doing everything diligently and decently in an order. You treat it like a clown show, you disrespect me, you disrespect Jesus. There's certain things in my life I take serious. There's other things, they really don't matter, do they? But when it comes to serving the Lord, you better give it your whole heart or get out of the way. Whatsoever a man do, let him do it heartily as unto the Lord, not unto men. What would your customer say? What would your boss say? What would they say if you did that which you are required to do half heartedly? Well, with Doge coming in, they might find you out. There's a new sheriff in town. Might have to produce. Right? Some of you, no matter what, you do as as under the Lord. You're working with nukes, you're working with defense department stuff, you're gonna do it regardless with your whole heart. There's others that and they do this in the churches too. They put forth the least amount of effort in hopes of the greatest reward, the greatest return with the least amount of effort. That only works in a government place. That doesn't work in church and life. Whatsoever man sows, that shall he also reap. You sow sparingly, you reap sparingly in the church. You wanna get to know Jesus, you wanna get to know all all that you can, then you pour your whole heart into him, getting to know him. Attend church, read your bible, pray, exercise the spiritual disciplines of of any relationship. He doesn't just want your check, your money. He wants you. That's what he's want. That's what he's after. It's a love relationship. Be committed to him. And let your service be the expression of your love for him, your thankfulness, and that he saved you. Why is this so important? Of what importance is commitment in a steward? Turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 verse 42. Now as homework, I'd like for you to read all of Luke chapter 12, And I'd like for you to read all of Luke chapter 16 as homework. I'll do the best I can. Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? What we do now is gonna carry over into the sphere of responsibility that we have in the lord's kingdom. Your faithfulness, your commitment now to the things that God's entrusted to you will carry over into you here in one day, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you rule over much. Enter into the joy of the Lord. May take a while in due season. Blessed, oh, how happy is the servant whom is Lord when he cometh, when the Lord comes. Are you a student of prophecy? Are you looking up knowing your redemption draws nigh? Are you ready? Are you living a a life of purity and of holiness and and looking up, aware of the time we're living in? When he comes, is he gonna find you doing? Of a truth, I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. A faithful servant, one that when I turn my back, when I leave the room, he's not gossiping, slandering about me. He continues to work. Because you and I, we know that Jesus never takes his eyes off of us. Our boss may leave the room, but Jesus sees everything. And we're doing it as under the Lord, whether the the the supervisor's there or not. Of a truth, I say unto you that he will make him ruler of all that he has. But if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delays his coming. Oh, the Lord's not coming back. I got plenty of time. Plenty of time because, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna reject the mark of the beast anyway, even if I wind up in the tribulation period. I'm not gonna take the mark of the beast. I'm not that stupid. But I want all that the world has right now. But if that servant say in his heart, my lord delays his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and the maidservants and eat and drink and to be drunken, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and an hour when he is not aware and will cut him asunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, so knowledge brings responsibility. You know the Lord's will. You know that he's made you a disciple. You know that he's he's entrusted to you the true riches, the glorious gospel. And you know in Matthew 25, when he comes on the day of reckoning, if you've buried that investment, the gospel, you've said, no, I'm not gonna receive the gospel now. I'm not gonna receive Christ now. I'm gonna wait. I wanna live for the world. I love the world. I wanna live on the fence. That if you bury that, there's a day of reckoning coming. And he's gonna say, away from me. For those that he invested five talents or 10 talents and you went and reinvested and expanded the gospel, it began to spread because it's prolific. There's prolific seed in the word of God. And as we spread the word of God and the Lord waters it, the Lord brings the increase, lives are transformed and changed. That's his methodology. He's entrusted the gospel to you and I. In the tribulation period, a 144,000 Jews are gonna be entrusted with the gospel. An angel flying overhead is gonna be entrusted with the gospel, but presently, the gospel's entrusted to you and to me. And that's why the enemy hates you so much. That's why the enemy hates the bible so much. They don't want the bible in the schools. They don't want the gospel in the schools because the gospel's powerful to transform and change lives. The simple gospel message. Jesus Christ and him crucified for the remission of sins. Crucified, buried, raised from the dead, ascended the right hand of the father, and he's coming again. That servant who knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. So you see a graduated punishment in hell. Some beaten with many stripes, some with few stripes. But he that knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given of him, much shall be required, and to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the more. Are you committed? Now Jesus is gonna come when he finds that bride of his, that church that's ready, that's been committed, that's lived two thousand years of tribulation. The tribulation period is a epoch, a period of time of intense wrath that God pours out on a Christ rejecting world and upon the nation of Israel that he's purifying through the time of Jacob's trouble. But make no mistake about it, we're not escape artists. There is no escape from tribulation over the last two thousand years of the church age. Christians are being murdered presently in Africa and Syria and all over The Middle East and have been throughout history, and yet they're faithful, aren't they? We as Christians have been faithful to not recant, to not blaspheme, to not say no. So persecution is nothing new to the church. It may be to The US church, the American church, but nothing new to the church during the church age. And so we we see that Jesus took the wrath of his father upon the cross of Calvary. There's no fearful looking to of judgment for us or God's wrath being poured about out upon us, but we are promised pressure. We are promised tribulation. And we see the faithfulness of the church for two thousand years in that no matter how much pressure the enemy can, push against it, Jesus said, don't fear him who can kill your body, but fear him, meaning God, and can cast your soul into hell. That's who we fear. We fear God more than we do men. And if you seek to save your life, you're gonna lose it. But if you lose your life for Christ's sake, you're gonna find it. Eternal life. And whosoever confesses me before men, I'm gonna confess before my father and the angels of heaven. And whosoever tries to save his life by denying me before men, or even live a better life now, your best life now, by denying the Lord the truth before men, then I'm gonna deny you before my father and the angels of heaven. Are you committed? To what degree? To what measure? How do we know? The stewards committed. Secondly, the steward is credible. Verse 18. And we have sent with him the brother whose praises the gospel throughout all the churches, and not and not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with his grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord and declaration of your ready mind. And so, the giving this gift is the grace, this unmerited favor that the people have towards those who are hurting. There's administration here, and this other person, number two, is credible. He's known by the church, and he's he's he's a gracious person. He's the second steward of verse eighteen, one sent, notice. And also in verse 19, he's chosen of the churches. And so his credibility is that of a worthy steward characterized as one praised by the churches for his work in the gospel. And many feel commentators that this is Luke, a Gentile, the author of the gospel of Luke and the author of the book of Acts, the one who traveled with the apostle Paul on, part of his missionary journeys When the pronoun becomes we, about chapter 16 of the book of acts, you see that Luke picked up with Paul and Silas and began to travel with them, with getting the gospel out. Proverbs fourteen five says, a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. Proverbs fourteen twenty five says, a true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies. We don't wanna take the true true witness and water it down or half truth it or even adulterate it. We don't we don't wanna use the gospel as a means of adultery to make ourselves rich, do we? We don't wanna twist Jesus and use Jesus and water down, the need of repentance. If you use the word of repentance in these feel good churches, oh, we might offend somebody. And we better not talk about sin. We might offend somebody. We better not talk about the cross. We might offend somebody. Remember, it's all about feelings. It's about emotions. It's about giving them warm fuzzies and hide their head in the sandbox and make it a clown show. We can't speak the truth to them. They can't handle it. And yet you're sending them to hell. You're lying to them. You're a liar. You're standing up in front of them lying to them, giving them a false sense of security. The steward had praised of the churches for his faithfulness with the gospel. Why is this a mark of credibility being faithful with the gospel? The unjust steward in Luke chapter 16, he used his position wisely. What's your position with the gospel? If we were to compare you, the riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ that God's given you. If I were to compare you to the devil's missionaries, the George Soros', the Bill Gates', these unjust stewards of the devil. Are they not wiser than us with utilizing and leveraging and using their position greater than we in the church? Don't they buy judges? Don't they buy votes? Don't they buy the schools? Don't they Every time Bill Gates does something wrong and somebody catches him, he pays the propaganda specialist to try and smooze his his, you know, he's a savior. He's a murderer. He's a butcher. Billy Crone just did a thing on him. And he and he says the two main characteristics of him is he loves money and he loves to murder. And every time he's found out and anybody does an article on him, he pays the the media to paint him as saving lives all over Africa. And then if you pay a clip of him, he talks about, we just jabbed them, you know, and his face is torrid of, you know, and then you do research on him. We did this research before Billy's book came out, but, you know, eugenics. He's a eugenicist. His father was, you know, a leader of Planned Parenthood. And his mother and father both were eugenicists, Malthusian eugenicism, which which is depopulation. So your food supply, the farmland he's buying, the everything to the point of depopulation. Now if he's working for the devil, he's a wise steward. He's doing a good job with his with his gospel, trying to convince people that if this this is what's best for the planet. And George Soros, he's running around trying to overcome governments and and, steal voting and and change the judges and get Obama judges everywhere and destroy this country as much as he can. And how are they doing? They're using the unrighteous mammon. They're using their influence with propaganda and lies. And they might know that one day, they're gonna be judged. They might know that, but they don't care. George Soros, when he was in Hungary and the communist came in, he feigned, he faked that he was a Christian. And then he began to work for the Nazis, although he was a Jew, to turn in Jews. And he made a fortune, he amassed a fortune later with currencies and such. And the treasury secretary that we have worked for George Soros, hedge fund manager for Soros, infiltrated our government all through our government, these guys. And their genius, they're being smarter than us, is their level of deception. Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves, Jesus said. Serpents are wise, but we're so Pollyanna. We're so wanting to trust in one man to make America great, instead of each of us being wise enough to know that the real issue is the gospel, Getting the gospel out and living the gospel. But if the salt has lost its savor, if we only take the gospel and adulterate it, just put it out there but don't live it, we're not credible. We don't have the character anymore. Our marriages are falling apart, we're not committed in marriage, we're not committed in anything. Then we've lost the power to live out the gospel. He says in Luke sixteen eight, and the Lord commanded the unjust steward because he had done wisely for the children of this world, or in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, make yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitation. So what did they do? They this guy was caught misusing his master's money, misusing the influence that the master had entrusted to him. So the master was gonna fire him when you read Lou's 16, gonna get rid of him. And when he knew that time of doge was coming, that he was gonna lose his job, he says, well, I've got some governmental secrets, you know. No, he didn't do that. He said, you know what? I'm gonna go to my master's creditors. There's a guy that owes my master some money, from the oil that we've that my master has given to him. He owes him a 100. I'll I'll just I'll just change the accounting to 50. Then there's another guy that owes my master some money for the wheat, and, I'm gonna take that bill. I'm gonna mark it to four score, to 80. And so he's preparing ahead of time favors so that when you leave office, you go to work for the pharmaceutical company. Now all these pharmaceutical companies give you criminal politicians and people, they give you jobs, and now you get to go on a speaking tour and make millions of dollars speaking about whatever you want, maybe global warming or whatever. So these corporations that you've been given favor to while you've been, you know, in legislator, as a legislator, now you've got golden parachutes all around you. You took care of them, they're gonna take care of you. You prepared wisely with the influence that you wielded as an unjust steward of the people. They were public servants. They were supposed to serve you. They served the globalists. And this is one of the things that really bothers me is how stupid the church is today. When I have a chance to talk with a Christian who has a brain and has a working knowledge of the scriptures, and we can talk about the world in which we're living in a rational, real way, That's so rare. It's so rare today. It used to be commonplace. It used to be that these governments couldn't get away with the idea of a league of nations. There were too many Christians awake. They were awake to the fact of a one world government someday. But later with the United Nations after World War two and the Rockefellers building it right in New York City, yeah, we've been we've been salt and light. We've been resisting a lot of it, but more and more we're watching our influence wane. Because the church is so incredibly lukewarm in love with the world, we're insipid. I've heard some of my friends say that when they come out with the mark of the beast, I would think in terms of the mark of the beast. Did you hear about that? That should be just huge. Right? Nobody would take that, would they? Nobody would take the job, would they? Nobody would do that. That's just crazy. But when you have a famine beforehand, when you ruin all the food supply, and in two weeks, there's nothing on the shelves of Walmart because of tariffs and stuff. And oh, god. I better get out there and get more toilet paper. Today, I better go get more toilet paper because in two weeks, there's not gonna be any toilet paper. You know? Crisis reaction solution. So they're gonna create enough crisis of famine and inflation and the the demise of the dollar to bring in the new system, and people, you can't fly next week without the, you know, digital ID on your license. Everyone's gonna need a digital ID. And that digital ID tied to you, you're not gonna get into your bank account here pretty soon. There isn't gonna be any cash. There's no way around it. So who's gonna say no to it? Who's gonna say no? And I I was listening to a guy and he was saying, people are gonna line up for the mark of the beast because the mark of the beast, they promise you food. They promise you housing, free housing. They'll promise you free medical to expire you, but free medical. And they're gonna sign up because people can't handle walking by faith and trusting God. So they're gonna trust in a false god, a false system, a false everything. And we as Christians, we have the true riches of God to invest in the lives of people. And this unjust steward, he's showing you that that demonic deception that's at work to deceive people and get people to trust in their own ingenuity and their own means and their own everything. And so he says, if therefore, 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 that which is another man's, who will give to you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The credible, the credible steward was faithful with the gospel. The true riches, the mammon was no problem because it was never about the money. He had no intention of stealing the money. No intention of not getting it to where it needs to go because what's the objective when it gets there? The objective is to continue to get the gospel out in Jerusalem. And and physical, yeah, there's physical needs. We need to eat. We need shelter. We need to take care of our families. But that's not the primary. That's not the utmost or the top. The the very most important thing is getting the gospel out. And who's committed? Who's credible? Who's faithful? And again, as I said concerning the rich man of Lazarus, though those that are poor are rich in faith. The poor man is the one that was true or was faithful with the true riches. It was Lazarus. The rich man, he was not faithful with the true riches. He had so much to use. How much has God given you to use? Everything we have comes from the Lord. Right? Everything. How are we using it for his kingdom? How are we getting the gospel out? Money is not the problem. It's the heart. The steward, he's committed, he's credible, he's also cautious. Avoiding this that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us. So Paul was cautious. He was cautious in that he doesn't want public, you know, scrutiny to the point of, defaming the name of Jesus. Do you think the way that the churches beg and market and ask for money in our culture leaves a stench? It stinks? Do you think it represents Christ properly? Is God broke? Can God get the gospel out? Can can he inspire and save people that regardless, they're not for sale? They're not for sale. They can be the poorest people on the planet, eating a rich man's food. Dogs licking their sores, and as people walk by, Lazarus is gonna tell people about Jesus. He's just gonna keep telling people about Jesus no matter what. It's nothing in return for telling people about Jesus, not tell he's with Jesus. It's not a business for him or her. He's just committed to getting the gospel out. Just committed to tell people about I was once blind, now I see. Tell him his testimony what Jesus has done for him. Paul was cautious. He surrounded himself with a credible man to protect himself and the ministry from unjust criticism. He saw himself and the other stewards as administrators of God's money and reputation. It all belongs to Jesus. It's his money. Verse 21, providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. He took every precaution to be transparent before God and men in preserving integrity. First Peter two twelve, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as the evildoers, they may by your good works, which they have beheld, glorify God in the day of visitation. First Timothy five fourteen, give non occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. So King David, do you remember Nathan the prophet when he challenged him about taking Bathsheba and killing Uriah? He said, you've given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name. And a whole lot of people are kept from churches and kept from the gospel because they know it's just about money. The churches have so overemphasized money and marketing on the television ad nauseam that people are inoculated of the gospel. They don't wanna hear about Jesus or the gospel because they see through the marketing scams, and they want a real Jesus. And the young people who are in the churches today see the scam of the clown churches. They're not getting the real Jesus, they're thirsty for the real Jesus. So now they want and and the reason is is one of them, one of the pastors I listened to this past week described the New York Post article of the protestants leaving the protestant churches and going back to the mother church, you know, to Catholicism. These guys are standing for hours and and, fasting for days, and and, Martin Luther was going up the Sistine Chapel on his on his knees, and, you know, maybe flagellations are gonna come again and all this sort of thing. But but basically, because there's no substance, no spiritual substance in these clown churches, they see through it. They see the pastors. This one pastor told me that he's in a he's in a credible group of pastors that he that he fellowships with, an email list and and regular fellowship. And they got together to go have some dinner together, kind of a little conference, a little getaway. And he said that he and his wife and one other friend were the only ones the only ones of pastors and pastors' wives there that weren't inebriated. They these are Calvary Chapel pastors. That blows my mind. So the kids see this, they see the hypocrisy. And remember, when you're reading Luke twelve and sixteen, pay close attention to how Jesus addresses the hypocrites. They have stewardship. They have responsibility. So as the kids, the young people see this and they're not getting the real Jesus, they're going over to the Catholic church for ritual. They want structure. Now they're attracted to liturgy. They're attracted to contemplative prayer and prayer stations. And when I was a little guy in the red coat, you know, when you approach the pew, you gotta do a curtsy. You gotta do the knee thing, you know. And I had a cross in that picture I just posted, you know, and my sister had a thing over her head. And I never knew I had that picture, but I saw it this week and, man, look at that. And we went there, and we went through the liturgy. We went through the ritual. It may been the beginnings of my my journey to get to know God, but I wasn't born again. I didn't get to know him. And pretty soon, my family, my grandparents, my whole family fizzled out with Catholicism. There was no substance. So then we got saved, born againers in 1980, and we were taught the word of God, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a real relationship with Jesus, and lives transformed and changed all around us, wasn't fake. Internal changes, drug addicts getting sober, womanizing crazy people getting married, having kids and families, and working jobs, and taking care of business, you know, is real. And many of you are here today to testify of what Jesus did in your life. It's not fake. It's not rituals, it's not liturgy, but the young people, they're tired of the clown churches. They're tired of the phoniness of it all. They're looking for something that they can do, that they can feel something. It's based upon the sensual, the feelings, not the spiritual. They're on a journey. They're not there yet, but they think the Catholic church has it because the Protestant churches are not given the true riches to these kids. I mean, really, if you've got the true riches, if you've got Jesus in your life, why do you need to be a pastor and get drunk? Come on. That's hypocrisy. Repent. Come back to your first love. But hey, we're rich and increased with goods in need of nothing, man. We got so much money. We could retire right now and put somebody else in charge and and have a sabbatical and just live the rest of our life traveling Europe and all over. We got millions and millions of dollars, man. God must be for us because where God guides, he provides what we were taught. And boy, he's provided. Paul wants to be cautious. He wants to make sure that he has the privilege of presenting the true riches to somebody before they're tripped up with the stench and the smell of filthy lucre. The filthiness of the love of money. Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And we have sent with them our brother, verse 22, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent upon the great confidence which I have in you. So to be extra cautious, we not only have Titus and possibly Luke, number two, we've sent a third person. A third steward, another diligent steward we've sent. So the steward must be committed, credible, cautious, and fourthly, cooperative. Verse 23. Whether any do inquire of Titus, so if you've got problems about Titus, he is my partner. There was a time where I was on an Israel bus trip, my first time just before I became a pastor, just right after school and ministry, I went to Israel, and pastor Chuck had seven or eight buses loaded with people. Over forty, fifty people each bus. That's a lot of people. And I was bus pastor of number seven, And I my responsibility was to serve the people on that bus, and Kathy was with me, and we too were there to see Israel, we got to. But part of what we did was we we had a guide there, and the guide would tell you about the geography and the place there and all. And we were there for the spiritual edifying, because you're in these buses traveling quite long period of time. So you might introduce some songs to sing, you might teach the bible, you might let them know that, hey, we're we're headed toward Mount Carmel, and this is where Elijah fought the 450 prophets of Baal, and you might do a little a little sermonette, little tiny little sermon to to prepare them biblically. You might read Psalm 23, prepare them, or David slew Goliath and all. And pastor Chuck got out there with a he illustrated by getting out there with a slingshot to illustrate how, you know, David did it and all that. Very exciting, a lot of fun. Well, what happened was is when these women, and I say women, but there was a real wussy wussy assistant pastor that was a part of these women. What a wussmeister, I'll tell you. And and this I I won't even say what I think her name is, but you get the idea. There's one big woman, and then there's the daughter, and then like some grandkids. And they're coming on the bus, and I'm standing there trying to serve them, move their gear and everything. And, oh, you know, where are you pastor at? And here's my first mistake. I'm not a pastor yet. I'm a wannabe. Uh-oh. People like that, they take control. They think they're in charge. So I was being nice and honest, and they got on the bus, and pretty soon the bus is divided. I got half the people, you know, liking me, and I got this other half, Cora, Dathan, and Byram that are now you guys know that happens to me every week here. It's it's a story of my life. And it's the way I started. And of all the buses he had, my bus, only one that there was trouble on. Why? Why, God? Why is it always me? And so this guy named Rami, it was the first time that Greg Manderson and and Janette, pastor Chuck's son-in-law and daughter, they're the ones that coordinate all this. And they gave me Rami. Rami was a new untested guide. And pastor Chuck goes to the site, and he's and he's preaching and teaching that Jesus is God, and, the deity of Christ and all. And this guy gets on there and says, your pastor's mistaken. Jesus is not God, he's the son of God. So now my bus is divided. I got half the bus that knows the earth is round. I got half that thinks it's flat. And what am I gonna do with that? Do I dress it or not? And so I go through the scriptures to prove the deity of Christ, and it's put this guy in his place. And it's establishing that Jesus is God. And this woman gets up out of her seat, and I've got the microphone, me and Rami. And she sticks her head in there, and she says, you're offending me. You're offending me. Stop it right now. Stop it right now. And so I what just happened? Where am I? Bremerton? No. I mean, that would be later. A lifetime of that kind of stuff. And so I fought with beasts at Bremerton, Paul said. So I so I flipped it off and I sat back and I was just like, what the heck? And I get off the bus and I let Greg, you know, you might wanna put somebody else in. I mean, I got this woman, this is what she did and all. Her assistant pastor was sitting with him and didn't even help me. Such a wussy. I get off the bus, and a little bit later, pastor Chuck comes up on the bus. And he grabs the microphone and he says, on every bus, I've got a bus pastor. And on this bus, Rick's my man. If you have any trouble, come see me. I never had another another problem. My authority was established by pastor Chuck, and that's what Paul's doing here with Timothy. Hey, if you guys got any trouble, come talk to me. Timothy is my partner in the ministry. Timothy is credible. Timothy cooperates with the holy spirit, yields to the holy spirit. He's never been a he's never been a, you know, a problem. So whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ. So Paul concludes by summarizing in verse 23 and asking the Christians to be cooperative in chapter 24. Be cooperative. Be nice. Be compassionate to these guys. Don't get up and, you're offending me. You're offending me. You know? And then later on, we heard from the senior pastor of that little group, and I won't mention where it was from. But the senior pastor, which is important to understand, the senior pastor commented that if Rick, meaning me, if I did not step up and fix and put that guy in his place and establish the deity of Christ with the word of God? Because see, I'm in training. He said, he wouldn't have been a pastor. Do you see what it means? A pastor has to confront wolves. It was a test for me. Do I wanna be liked by all these people? Or do I wanna be liked by Jesus? I choose Jesus. So be cooperative. Verse 24, stewards cooperatively endorsed by the church and the for the glory of Christ. Is our stewardship for the glory of Christ? Are we for real or is it every man for himself, iniquity abounding in the love of many a growing coal? We were driving home the other day to see Beck, and I was with Britney, and we were in her big van, just glorious, all my grandkids in there and everything. And we just finished a baseball game, and and we're going up Anderson Hill, and it's dark. And, she makes me nervous. She drives. And, she's a good driver though, really, really good driver. And, you know, I I went last summer, I went to California with a sciatic problem, driving with tense pain. And the only way it would have been more painful is if Kathy was driving, you know? But, anyway, alright. So we're driving along, going up Anderson Hill, and this guy in a white car cuts in front of us and tries to make a u-turn. And he gets his wheel stuck in the ditch, and then he's high centered. And so he's trying to back up those wheels, you know, we stopped and we're watching, grandkids are all there, and he's almost there, you know. And I thought I thought for a moment there that I might go over there and jump, sit on the on the trunk of the car in the back there and try and show my grandkids how he used to bust Broncos, you know, and and all that. And they'll believe anything, you know, if you tell them. But I thought, no, with my luck, you know, I'll probably fall off of there and he'll crush me and run me over or whatever. And, so we just rolled the window down and as we're driving, we just said, hey, be warmed and filled, be warmed and filled. And we just we just went on our way, you know. And that's how we roll. That's how we do it as Christians, you know. And so that's a true story, by the way. We knew there'd be somebody behind us, and we want somebody else to do it. Right? But the Lord's entrusted us with the glorious gospel, the good news. I mean, you guys might have stopped and led them to Christ, you know? I'm just not that spiritual, you know? So anyway, I talk a good talk, but I don't always walk it. But sometimes there's wisdom. Right? Sometimes there's wisdom with children and whole big thing and all that, and and I can rationalize it pretty good here this morning. So are we for real? Or is it every man for himself? Are we aware that everything we possess has been entrusted to us as stewards of of of God and of for his glory and for his kingdom? Everything. What do you have but that which has already been given to you of God, you know? And how are you gonna use it? There's a saying, everything you do for yourself is gonna pass, only what you do for Jesus Christ is going to last. And when you read, Luke 12 and Luke 16, you're gonna see some, you know, like I said, the I'm build my barns and tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and everything you work for, everything in a moment's gone. And you didn't prepare. You didn't prepare for eternity. You're an unwise steward. You had all of the riches, the true riches all around you in this Christian nation, the churches that teach the word and the radio and the whole thing. You've heard the gospel. Or you may be even attending church, and you claim to be a Christian, but you didn't handle the true riches. You were incredibly in love with the world, the things of the world. Your heart was stolen from the Lord. Your heart was stolen under the unfilthy lucre and the ungodly mammon, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination under God. You can't serve God and mammon. Mammon's just a tool. It's the true riches that God's invested in our lives that makes us truly rich. My my brother's cleaning out my dad's apartment. Everything's going away. It's all gone. They bought him new clothes. If if if he recovers, he's gonna be in a assisted living house with his own room, and and he's gonna share the gospel. He wants to start a bible study. He wants really bad to teach the word of God in that assisted living place. We're hoping and praying that God will overrule the doctors and overrule the disease of a bad appendix and colitis and diverticulitis and all this stuff that's trying to steal, you know, take his lie. He doesn't want the surgery. He went in for a he went in for a foot, an ankle that was in pain. He's been there two months. They couldn't figure out what's wrong. Sometimes you pick up things in the hospital. The food didn't agree with them. When my brother brings some food, he has better days. I met the people working there at the hospice and wonderful people. Wonderful. They backed off the morphine. They gave him some nauseous pills, and we're able to reminisce. We're able to talk about the true riches. Half of his life, he was a mess. The other half, in 1980, I got saved. He got saved. Kathy got saved. Our family got saved. When we go to heaven, if the Lord decides to take him home, one thing I said to him is, dad, when you see my mom, will you go up and tell her I love her? Will you embrace Bill and Marlene? Will you embrace those that have gone before us, dad, that are there waiting for you? Will you go up to them and just tell them we miss them and that we're gonna be there soon? And that concept, that idea, have you thought that through? I mean, they're really there, aren't they? And somebody like him is gonna go there. Right? And he's gonna be able to talk to them. He's gonna see them. What would you have them say? I just want them to tell them, hey, we're trying to be wise stewards, good stewards with what's been entrusted to us. And soon, very soon, the Lord's gonna be coming for us. And we want you to know we want you to know that we love you and we miss you so very, very, very much. Now those of you that aren't Christians, that are unwise stewards, and you've taken the unsearchable riches of Christ and just cast them aside as nothing, you're never gonna see your loved ones. You're never gonna be reunited with those that have gone before you, that have embraced, that were wise with what God presented. And we tried to give you the true riches. We tried to share the glorious good news of Jesus Christ and eternal life and your sins being forgiven, but you just cast it aside like it was nothing. And you embrace the things of the world, the unrighteous mammon, and you thought that made made you somebody. You thought it made you important. And in a moment, a flash of a quick light, you die just like the pope in torment. Torment, demonic torment. Because although you went to church, although you acted like one, you in fact were not one. You were an unwise steward with what the Lord has entrusted. And he's coming again in a day of reckoning. He's coming in again where he's gonna reckon with his stewards. And each man's gonna give an account. He's he's gonna say, what did you do with my son Jesus? What did you do with him? Did you receive him into your heart and life? Did you receive the unsearchable riches, the true riches into your heart and life? Or did you take the devil's bait? Did you take the devil's bait and live for this world? This life is but a vapor. It's gonna soon be over. The flowers fade, the grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord, it lasts forever. If you therefore be faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust? If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Wherefore, show ye to them and before the churches the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf. He says, in in conclusion, prove your love. As a good steward of God, cooperate with the effort to aid the Jerusalem church by giving, by contributing. The word contribute is the word fellowship. It's being a part as a body to meet the needs, to get the gospel out. So when we talk about fellowship, the same koinonia is used as contribution. When you contribute, you're contributing to the body of Christ. It's a part of our our fellowship with God. Paul lists them as stewards. Be a good steward of God. Be committed. Be credible. Be cautious. Be cooperative. Allow Jesus to commit to your life the true riches. And as we started out, as we were praying, that's what I was choked up about is that I want the Lord to reveal more of himself to me. The greatest the greatest riches I've ever experienced is God making himself known to me. The the greatest pleasure, the greatest joy I have is as a Christian, day by day, the Lord revealing himself to me. And this morning here, I have no program, I have no means of of anything except, Lord, we want to know you. That that's our desire. Lord, we want to know you. Lord, please, please, give us the spiritual faculties. Give us the ears. Give us the heart to hear. There there's no pitch for money coming. I got no program. I got no vision for you. I want you to see Jesus. And I'm so thankful that my pastor consistently taught God's word. And as he taught God's word, line upon line, precept upon precept, that I began to develop a a relationship with God. I would get to know the Lord through the study of his word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God revealing himself to me. I didn't get to know a lot of the peripheral things out there. We stayed centered. We went right down the middle, and we studied God's word from Genesis to Revelation. The full counsel of God, the true riches of God. Invested, poured into my life. And then what are we to do with that investment? Redistribute. Reinvest in the lives of others. Tell people about Jesus. Take that prophecy book that I gave you and share prophecies with them. Get them to where they're you're curious, and they're hungry, and they wanna know, well, what is the future? What's the bible say about the future? And show them. Show them prophetically what the word of God says. It's contemporary. It's happening right now in real time. There's a one world monetary system developing. There's a one world governmental system developing and a one world religious system developing right now in real time. And tell them ahead of time, plant the seed. Allow God to pray that God would water it, and God forth bring forth a increase. Now, there's that many young people thirsty for true spiritual things, they don't need to run over to the false Catholic church, do they? We can be available to God to give the true riches of God, to share the gospel. We might only get two or three or four, it doesn't matter. The numbers don't matter. God's equipping us. He's pouring into us the true riches, the true wealth, that we would invest that wealth, the unsearchable riches of Christ into the lives of others. Be a good steward of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you that we get to live in these last of the last days, Lord. So very, very exciting, the times we're living in. And Lord, I pray that that exhortation, as I'm listening to myself, as as I'm hearing what's what's happening today, Lord, that this would be a reality in each of our lives. That we'd sense the urgency that time is short, and Lord, not be overwhelmed with negativity of those doing it wrong. Contrary to your word, but Lord, excited at the opportunity to share the good news of your coming kingdom. Lord, you can reach the lost of the lost of the lost, Lord. But if you've created, if you're putting within the hearts of young people, middle aged, old people, a thirst, a hunger for something real, they're looking for you, Lord, that God shaped hole in their heart. You fashioned them with that void, that God shaped hole that nothing can fill except you. And Lord, if that's activated, if it's happening, as they're seeing through the world and the fallacy within the church, Lord, we pray that you'd give us an open door that no man can shut. That you'd give us opportunities this week to share the glorious good news of your coming kingdom with those that we run into. We pray that you would use Facebook and Telegram and and Rumble and YouTube and other means of communicating the good news, and that others would come to know you, Lord. Let your word spread, and let there be a great harvest of souls as the fields are wide unto harvest. Use us as laborers in your harvest, In Jesus' name. And as your heads are bowed, as you continue to pray, if there's anyone here this morning and you don't know, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, don't throw aside the the unsearchable riches of Christ. Don't be a pauper. God wants you to be blessed. God wants you to be filled to overflowing with his love. He wants to fill that void, that emptiness. That thirst you have this morning is for God, to know the true living God, the creator of the universe, the one that made you. If you're responding to his love, as he's showing you the cross of Calvary, that his son died in your place, that he was buried, that he raised himself from the dead, that he ascended to the right hand of his father, and that he's coming again. If you believe, if you have that faith this morning to act, to turn from your sins and cry out to God, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. Anybody on Facebook, anybody on media that hears this message, you too, you can let us know. You can email us, text us, whatever, and let us know. Contact us. We wanna pray with you. We wanna know that these unsearchable riches of Christ, the true riches are being invested into the lives of others as the gospel goes forth. It's encouraging to us to see God saved to the uttermost. Father, thank you. Bless our day, Lord. Pour out your holy spirit. Bless us as we partake of communion now. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
