1 Corinthians 4:7

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It's reasoned relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now, the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. George Washington, the first president of the United States, the leader of the Continental Army. General Washington said, quote, it is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible. Hi, welcome to Truth for a New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. I want to talk about some verses from the Bible from 1 Corinthians. And we're going to talk about three realities of the things with which you have been entrusted. Because life, your abilities, what you do, your skills, what you have, even really the food on your table and the shirt on your back, these are all things given to you by God, matters of stewardship. And we're going to talk about three facts regarding the things with which you have been entrusted. But I say that in the context of where our nation is right now, in terms of where we're going with this election, the battle raging over the justices on the Supreme Court, and the future. And I welcome you to turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter four, and we're going to talk about stewardship, the things over which we are stewards. And even if you're a person and you don't think of yourself as especially spiritual or religious, maybe you don't even profess to be a Christian.

Nevertheless, before God, we are all accountable with the blessings that we've been entrusted with. And I want to tell you about my first trip to Africa. Twenty years ago now, my wife and I made our first of several trips to Africa, and she's actually been more times than me because she's gone on medical missions, and I've been several times on preaching missions. But I thought I was prepared for the culture shock of going to a place where there would be a lot of poverty. But when I found myself in the interior of Zambia, and we were going village to village, and we were just ministering to incredibly grateful people, just beautiful, really lovely, beautiful people, but people living in abject poverty, squalor.

It really was shocking. But you know what, besides all of the poverty and really the lack of hygiene and the lack of clean water, and so many things that we take for granted are just absent there. But yet the eyes of the people, I mean when they would look at you with those beautiful eyes and they would smile with just heartwarming smiles, you realize that we're all human beings, and even though we might be from radically different cultures, radically different states of living and standards of existence, we are united in our humanity. If they're a believer, we're united in our Christianity. But as we were preparing to leave Africa the first time, we had some people that were in some of the tribes, they called them headmen, and I'll never forget the ways that the Zambian people would pronounce headmen, but they were the tribal leaders, and they offered us money if we would bring their children to the USA and raise their kids over here.

And I had men almost plead with me to bring their kids, which of course we couldn't do, I mean legally we couldn't do that, and you wouldn't take bribery or money for helping out a fellow human being. But yet on the flight home from my first trip to Africa, I was just really stunned at how much I have as a middle class American that the people over there in parts of the developing world and in third world countries, I mean people would just think it was royalty and riches. And so folks, in terms of our standard of living and in terms of the state of our freedom, we live better than 96% of the humans that have ever lived here in America. And I say that because here in this election cycle, there are people in the news and there are aspiring candidates that bash America, and business is bad and capitalism is evil, and America is bad bad bad, and we've got to tear it down, destroy America, deconstruct, and rebuild something new and something different. And let me just say folks, as one who has, you know, done my share of traveling around the world, we're blessed.

I have often said this, and I really do believe it, that the two greatest nations in world history are Israel under King Solomon and the United States of America. At least the United States of America, when she was, as Washington said, living and governing with God and the Bible. Now in recent decades, God has been invited to leave and, you know, get out of our midst. It does remind me of Romans chapter one where it says that people did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Many in our culture, because God morals the church, the cross, the presence of the Ten Commandments. Christianity is convicting. If you're pro-abortion, if you're pro-gay marriage, if you don't believe in any moral boundaries, if you're pro-premarital sex, pro-pornography, pro-transgenderism, if as liberal progressives are standing for the things that world history, moral precepts, legal precedents, human biology, medical professionals, mental health professionals, and just plain common sense stands against, if you're for all of the things that reality itself says are false and wrong, then you're not going to like the idea of God and scripture and a holy, righteous Lord. Because those things like God and Christianity and the Bible remind you that your worldview and maybe behaviors are wrong.

Now why am I saying that? I'm saying that because we are embroiled in a fierce battle for the DNA of the country and ultimately the souls of people. And I say that reading 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7 because folks, if you're a citizen, if you're an adult American, you have a lot of things that you'll give an account to God for.

I do. I'm accountable to God. We're all accountable to God because we are stewards. We're not owners. Believe it or not, you don't own anything.

You really don't. Things are entrusted to us. And 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7, it asks the question, what do you have that you did not receive?

If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Now we're going to unpack that in a moment. Stay tuned because when we come back on Truth For A New Generation, we're going to continue looking at what we received and how we're answerable to God for it.

Don't go away. Truth For A New Generation with Alex McFarland is back after this. Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion, and war. Too often we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ. How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions? In 10 Issues That Divide Christians, Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues, such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography, and environmentalism as he echoes the biblical invitation, Come, Let Us Reason Together. Only by engaging the Scriptures deeply, thinking clearly, and speaking truthfully can we and God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose. 10 Issues That Divide Christians.

Find this book and many others at AlexMcFarland.com. America today is like a patient struggling to live, yet is being forcibly euthanized by her, quote, doctors. The life force within the patient fighting for survival is the honest citizens like yourself.

The team of, quote, caregivers are the local and national leaders actually contributing to the demise of the patient. The economy is crashing. Crime is exploding. The Constitution is being abolished. The assault on America. How to defend our nation before it's too late by Alex McFarland has one single purpose to get you prepared. Learn the real source of America's current problems that no one else is talking about and what you can do now to face tomorrow, regardless of what tomorrow brings. The assault on America.

How to defend our nation before it's too late. Available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and local Christian bookstores. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit AlexMcFarland.com. Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation. We're talking about 1 Corinthians 4.7, and I want to return to that in just a moment, but I want to say thank you because the spirit of this message is about gratitude, really, and stewardship, and I want to say thank you to all of the people that have bought and are reading my new book, The Assault on America, How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late.

It's getting really good reviews. I give God the glory, and it's a book that I would really urge you to read before the election. I really do talk about what's at stake in terms of our Constitution, our civil liberties, our freedoms, religious freedom. Maybe you've been following in the news how John MacArthur out in California is being persecuted and threatened with jail time for preaching the gospel and having church services. Christians in California are told they can't sing hymns in church.

They can't have pew Bibles or hymnals, and really persecution is present in our nation, and I talk about all of these things in my book, The Assault on America. It was published by Harrison House. It's available everywhere. Any Barnes and Noble can get it or should have it, and I would encourage you, when you buy the book on Amazon or in a store like Barnes and Noble, those are what they call New York Times reporting stores. Retailers like Amazon, Christian Book Online, or Barnes and Noble, they report to the New York Times. Now I don't make any money off of this book, and that's really by design.

I don't want any money. I literally wrote this book for God and country, and the message is urgent that we must have a spiritual awakening, and I give the steps to this. What does an authentic move of God look like, and why do we need one, and how can we, by God's grace, experience one in our nation? So I'm urging people to read the book, and for those that may be on the fence, maybe you think, well, it doesn't really matter. This world is passing away. Why get too invested in the state of America? I think this book will persuade you. I really do. So pray, please consider reading the book, The Assault on America, and please consider a donation to our ministry.

You can give online at AlexMcFarland.com, or you can mail in a donation, and we'll give you that contact info later on in the show. But I want to get back to 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7, and Paul asks this rhetorical question, �What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?� In the context of stewardship and gratitude for the United States of America, gratitude for who we are as a nation and for what we've got. Mark Twain, who was no friend of Christianity, but Mark Twain, one time somebody asked him about the difference between a man and an animal, because Twain was very active in the 19th century, and Darwinian evolution had spread around the world. And the difference between man and an animal, Mark Twain said this, �Well, if you pick up a starving dog and feed him and make him prosperous, he will not bite you.� That's the difference between a dog and a man. You give a man something, make a man prosperous, and eventually if he doesn't have a God-ordained sense of gratitude, he'll turn around and bite the very hand that fed him.

He'll denigrate and criticize and cut himself loose from the very thing that put food on his table and made him prosperous. And I think that's how it is with the United States of America. We're so blessed. We're so fortunate. And the standard of living we have and the freedoms we have are better than 96 percent of the humans that have ever lived. My friend, historian and author Bill Federer documents this.

We've worked together extensively. And yet there are many people now and they say, �Well, you know, I'm just not going to vote. I'm tired of the whole business.

I don't trust any of them. I'm not going to vote.� Then others that will say, �Well, you know, yeah, I'm going to vote, but, you know, socialism, entitlement programs, big government, confiscatory taxation, the redistribution of wealth, you know, let's have universal health care. Let's have free college tuition.

Let's just have free, free, free.� And friends, I'm telling you, the socialism that many people are enamored with right now and the idea of a, you know, big government, a police state and really statism, and I'm just going to say it, it's Marxism. Friend, that is not what made America great. Secularism and political correctness, that is not what made us the greatest nation in the world. And so we have to understand what gave America the prosperity that we enjoy is not what many leaders are peddling right now.

And you have an obligation, my friend, as a citizen to vote, to pray for America, to be a citizen. And these things that we've received, to understand that they're not things we own or possess, but they are things before which we're accountable to God. So let me unpack this and let's talk about this for the rest of the show. Paul asks the question, �What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, then why do you boast as if it's yours?� Okay, three points. Number one, you have some things. Number two, you received those things. And number three, you are accountable for those things.

Okay, point one, you have some things. Now if you're hearing this broadcast, you're alive, you're a human being, you were born. So that's a gift God gave you is life. And you were born presumably in America. That too is a gift. I assure you, having traveled to so much of the world, being born in America is a gift.

Being literate, are you able to read? That's a gift. You have some type of device, either a computer, mobile device or radio through which you're hearing this program.

That's a gift. You have ears. You can audibly hear things. You can think.

You can process. Maybe you're on your way to church right now, as so many are who hear this. Well, you've got a car. You've got clothes. You're ambulatory. You've got mobility.

You hopefully had some food today. And so we have many things. We have things. Well, according to 1 Corinthians 4.7, we didn't create those things for ourselves.

They were given to us. Now, when we come back, I'm going to talk about cause and effect and what accountability is before a loving, not only a loving God, a merciful God, an abundant God who enjoys blessing us with things. God is good. God is bountiful to us.

But with gifts and the receiving of those gifts comes accountability. And I'll talk more about that when we come back. Stay tuned. As we take a break, let me tell you about three tens, three books that will answer questions that come your way from others or even yourself about the Christian faith. Book number one, 10 answers for skeptics. Today, skeptics are looking for authenticity, integrity, and straightforward faith. And in this book, you'll learn how to answer intimidating questions, identify the root issue behind those questions and dismantle the spiritual bombshells dropped by non-believers.

Those usually end up just being a puff of smoke. Number two, 10 answers for atheists, where Alex looks at the philosophical assumptions at the root of atheism and agnosticism. Exposing logical, historical, and conceptual fallacies. Alex shares clear explanations of beliefs and biblical answers to those questions that often leave you stumped, but no more. And number three, the 10 most common objections to Christianity and how to answer them. You know, many Christians hear these objections and have a crisis of faith, but Alex visited many places and talked with many people through the years and can offer straight answers that will give you confidence and understanding about your beliefs. So the three 10s once again, 10 answers for skeptics, 10 answers for atheists, and the 10 most common objections to Christianity and how to answer them.

Find them wherever Christian books are sold or at alexmcfarland.com. We care about justice and aren't afraid to ask hard questions. In fact, we care about a lot of things. We have passion for truth. We are engagemagazine.net, an online group of millennials brought together by a common goal to share truth, apply scripture, and to get involved in our lost and hurting world. Engagemagazine.net, host discussions that help you apply a biblical worldview to your daily life. Engagemagazine.net. Welcome back to Truth For A New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. We're unpacking 1 Corinthians 4, 7 that says, What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Okay, the point is that life is a matter of stewardship. Paul says that we're not our own. And point number one, we have some things. We have life. We have freedom. We have all the blessings of being in America in the 20th century.

I would say not only where you were born, but when you were born is a matter of God's providence and something for which we need to express gratitude. I mean, just think, you're not born in an era where you have to go to a well and draw water with a bucket. You're not born in an era where you have to till the ground with the sweat of your brow. You probably go to the grocery store and buy food.

We were able to wash our clothes in a washing machine to microwave food and heat it up in a matter of seconds. We have so many amenities. We really do. And we have talents and abilities.

Maybe you're in the pursuit of a career right now or maybe you're retired and you're giving off money that you carefully saved up over the years. But we have a lot of things that God has given us. If you're a born-again believer, you have the comfort of God's promises in the Bible. You know you have a home in heaven through Jesus. You have the indwelling Holy Spirit to instruct you and guide you.

Maybe, and I hope this is the case, that you have family around you that love you and encourage you and affirm you. And you have friends that lift up your day. And you have so many things. I mean Bing Crosby was right, the old song where he would say, when I'm weary and I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep. Because we have so many blessings. We really really do. So we have some things.

Secondly, and this is so important, let's be honest, we received those things. Now what does it mean? Now in the Bible, the wording here, very interesting.

If you look at the original language, the word received there, well it's a word lombanio for those that are Greek people or you're into the Greek language. But it means to have something offered to you but you actively laid hold of it. Now maybe you've been in a situation like you bought something and maybe after you did it you read the contract and you said, wow I'm really committed. I wasn't just kicking tires.

I'm in a contract now. I want to say this. You are accountable to God because the blessings of life have been given to you and some were passive but most were active. Now none of us had any control over the fact that we were born. God in His sovereignty decreed that you and I would be conceived and born. Praise the Lord for that life as a gift. But all of these other things, to eat the food and enjoy the milk and honey of this land of democracy and capitalism.

Look the word received means something was offered and something was accepted. Therefore there is accountability. And let's be honest with ourselves. We didn't create the world. We didn't cause ourselves to be born.

The fact that we have health and life and ability and mobility and we were able to read and learn and we found some things that interested us. We got an education. We have received things, right?

You with me? Okay we've received things. Well we received them from God. God's been good to us. Let's be honest. God has given us things. Therefore we are accountable.

Paul asked the question, if you receive things then why do you boast as if you didn't? In other words, how can you say, I don't want to get involved. I'm not going to vote.

No you have to vote. It's a matter of stewardship. And just as the Bible says we will give an account for every idle word, and maybe like James says if we are really spirit led we have to let God tame our tongue. Listen, there might be words you wish you could take back and there might be things you said and done and thought and things you should have said but didn't say. And you need to repent and subject your vocabulary to God, right?

Do you know what? I honestly believe as much as we will give an account for every word and every action, I think we'll give an account for omissions. And there are a lot of people right now that are saying I just don't want to vote. You've got to.

It's a matter of stewardship. And if you're a Christian, my goodness, I think you have an obligation to vote a godly vote. And let me just say this folks, and this is not about people or personalities or preferences. This is about truth, morals, convictions, and our accountability to God. The most fundamental moral precept is the precept of life and abortion should instantly decide every vote you'll ever cast.

I mean really. Because look, all of the other moral precepts, lawfulness, the point of order in law and criminals being apprehended or whether it's law enforcement or immigration or the economy, there are many moral precepts. But all of the lower moral propositions really pale in comparison to the highest moral proposition, that of life. Do you know medical science says that a fetus, if the palm of an eight-week fetus is pricked with a needle, the hand will draw back and the mouth will move and the face will show expression indicating knowledge of pain.

An eight-week-old baby in the womb can feel pain. And I think about the ghastly barbaric practice of abortion. And so many in our country passionately argue for the right to abortion.

And so listen, that alone, to stand up for human life and to stand against the murder of the unborn, that should instantly decide any and every vote you would ever cast. So we're accountable for things. And Matthew 24 says there will be a day of reckoning when the landowner comes back. There will be a reckoning.

And I want to ask you, how will it be on the day that you have a reckoning before Almighty God? Pray about it, because look, we've received so many things. We're accountable for those things. We're accountable. So think about that and pray for our nation and pray about your own actions in life as we ponder our accountability for Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.