Entrusted

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program will tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's devotional, Moments in the Word. But first, here's the message.

Come and see. Take your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians Chapter 4, 1 Corinthians Chapter 4, verse 1. This is how one should regard us. So if someone is looking at your life, this is about you, this is how you should be regarded. As a servant of Christ, that's one, and stewards of the mysteries of God. So a servant, a steward. And a steward of the mysteries of God, which is the Word of God, the revealed Word of God.

And then look at verse 2. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. Interesting phrase, found faithful. It means to pass the test and to be found faithful. To be discovered, uncovered, as faithful.

Found, faithful. Entrusted. In fact, one of the translations of these verses says that a servant and a steward should be found entrusted. And so we are entrusted. A steward is one who is entrusted with the possessions and the properties of another.

It is a word which is akin to the idea of being a manager. In other words, as a steward, we don't own the property, own the possessions, we are doing it for another. And as a steward, we have, you have one job, and that is to be found. And we have, you have one job, and that is to be trustworthy.

To be faithful to God. If you are writing words that mean the same, words like dependable. Dependability, someone said, is the greatest ability. Dependability. But not only dependability, but responsibility.

Responsibility, and yes, accountability. It means to have integrity, to have character. Faithfulness. It's a part of that rich cluster of the fruit of the Spirit.

Love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and meekness and faithfulness. This is produced by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Christ in us. God in us. And we know that God is a faithful God.

God is a trustworthy God. For example, when we are tempted, and we're all tempted, it's common to all of us. There's a verse of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13, mark it, memorize it. This is a go-to passage in your Bible. No temptation has overtaken you, but that it is common to man.

God is what? Faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Thank God for the times in my life when I was tempted and God gave me a way of escape because God was faithful. God was there in that moment. But there have also been times when I yielded a temptation and so have you.

So what happens then? 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, what? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He never fails to forgive. You've never sinned as a believer, your life covered by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. You've never sinned, listen to me, as a believer and had to say, well, I sinned that time and that's unforgivable. God can't forgive that. Or God wouldn't forgive that. God won't forgive that. No, God is faithful.

God is faithful to forgive us our sins when we agree with Him that our sin is wrong and confess it and ask Him to change our hearts and change our lives. He's faithful every day. We get up in the morning, the dawn greets us, the sun comes up.

There's never been a sunset in our lives but that there has been a sunrise in all the tests and trials of life. We meet His mercies according to Lamentations chapter 3. We meet His mercies every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

So God is always faithful. Considering our salvation, I love 2 Timothy 2 and verse 12 and it even includes our word of the day which is in trust. But I'm not ashamed for I know whom I believe. I know Jesus. And I am convinced that He is able to guard that day which has been entrusted against that day which has been entrusted to me. In other words, in view of eternity, the day we stand before Christ, I know, I know, I know because I know Jesus that He is able to hold me, to keep me. I am not saved by my faithfulness but by His faithfulness.

Now because of the faithfulness of God, we are motivated to live faithful lives, to live trustworthy lives, to live entrusted each day. And today I've picked three of them. And today I've picked three categories.

I could talk about a lot of areas, arenas in our lives where we are to exhibit this kind of trustworthiness. But I've chosen three. One, trustworthy in our walk. Two, trustworthy in our worship.

And three, trustworthy in our will. First, our walk. Our walk. I'm talking about our Christian walk.

Because you are a follower, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are walking with Him. And as we walk with Him, we are called to His character, to be dependable, to be trustworthy, to have integrity and honesty in our daily walk. You know, integrity is what you say to yourself and about yourself. Honesty is what you say to others. Honesty is what we are on the outside. Integrity is what we are on the inside. Character within. And just as Paul is saying here, let it be said of you, or when people review your lives, let them say, there is a faithful follower.

There is a faithful servant and steward of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because integrity, really character, has been described as what you are in the dark. What you are when no one is looking. That's trustworthiness. Who you are, what you are, when nobody but God sees.

And that's one side of it. But it's also your walk, your character, when everybody is watching. And believe me, people are watching. You're a professed Christian, people are watching you. Your children are watching you. Your grandchildren. Your husband, your wife, your family, your friends, your co-workers.

Everybody's watching. Do they find us faithful? If I were to ask your wife, is your husband a faithful man? If I were to ask your husband, is your wife a faithful woman, a faithful wife and mother? Children, are you faithful children? I could go on and on.

This is the kind of thing we're talking about. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to have an eye along with members of our family to go up to Yellowstone National Park. I had never been there and I always wanted to meet Yogi Bear. So I, we scheduled a trip up there, but know what I really wanted to see was Old Faithful. Because Old Faithful is a geyser. It's not the biggest of the geysers, but it is the most faithful one because every 65 minutes, boom, boom, boom, bam.

We waited about an hour. They told us on the clock when it was going to happen and sure enough, right on schedule, that geyser came out of the ground boiling hot water. It was beautiful.

It was magnificent. And so they call it Old Faithful. Wouldn't it God that every one of us could be called faithful?

Not the old part necessarily, but Old Faithful. All of us have gifts and talents and abilities that have been given to us by God. Certainly we've been given our salvation and with our salvation, spiritual gifts and talents, abilities that He provides. All the blessings, everything we have comes from God, including the breath in our bodies.

Everything we have, every good and perfect gift comes from Him. We are stewards. We're stewards of our body.

We are stewards of our possessions. We're stewards of our families and we are to be faithful, always trustworthy, not partly. Then how would it go if you told your wives you were 80% faithful? It's not going to go very well.

Let me just clue you in. And when it comes to our faithfulness to God, though we fail, our goal, our desire should be always to please Him in our faithfulness to Him. And I would say I want to especially talk just regarding our families and being faithful to our families. We know in the culture the family is breaking down.

No one has to give us more and more statistics on that. But let me just challenge you, men and women, to choose to be trustworthy. Would your family say that about you? Would your friends say that about you?

Would God say that about you? One job. Thank you. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Come and See. When you set aside daily time to connect with God, He'll give you the ability to live a godly life and fulfill His plans for you in the coming year. And we'd like to help you walk even more closely with the Lord in the year ahead by sending you Pastor Graham's 180-day devotional, Moments in the Word. It's our way to thank you for your gift today to help proclaim the Gospel to more people around the world through PowerPoint. This is the last day of this offer, so call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily e-mail devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org.

Now let's get back to today's message, Come and See. Second trustworthy in our worship. Are you faithful to worship with your church family? I'm talking about with the word worship. I'm talking about all things worship and that specifically means the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are living in a generation of churchless Christians.

That's an oxymoron. But we have Christians who are churchless. No accountability, no responsibility, no dependability, no discipleship, not living in community, in fellowship, witness is minimal, prayer life is indistinct.

You don't see them regularly. So, don't just watch church. Some people watch church the way they watch sports. And you know what?

The same result takes place. The people who watch sports, the people who watch church. We become fans. But Jesus never called us to be fans. He called us to be followers and He called us to be faithful. Faithful.

Look, I cannot imagine life without this. And I don't mean this meeting me up here preaching, talking to you. I mean this, this fellowship, this worship. Gathering together each week with God's people in Jesus' name in the power of the Spirit. Singing great songs of faith, worshiping from our hearts the Lord God and hearing God's Word taught and growing in our faith and being challenged and being encouraged. And being among other Christians and share the community of faith, the best friends on earth, often more closer than even family members. That's why we say that church is not an organization you join but it is a family you share. It is a life that we share together.

It is a body. We are one body but many members. And so we need the church.

Again, I can't imagine my life without this. I can't imagine not coming each week because that week just might be the week that the breakthrough in my life that I need takes place. And we come with faithful, not just when we feel like it, not just when we want to, not just when we don't have anything else to do, not to be entertained, but to worship God and to please God and to be faithful, trustworthy. We've been given this wonderful, wonderful thing called the church. It's the only thing on earth that Jesus started and it's the only thing that's going to last when everything else goes up in smoke because He said the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.

No wonder the writer of Hebrews as we've been studying said, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some. But encouraging one another and watch, read that last line, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. What day? The day of His return. These last days. I don't give you any hope to survive these last days unless you are a faithful part of God's church. You're just out there in the wind and you need Christ and His church.

You know what it's called? Entitlement. Too many people have an entitlement mentality towards life. They think somebody owes them something. They're always just spectators and passing judgments.

They're critics now. Now we've always had spectators in church, you know, people that just come and they feel like it as I've been describing, but now it is an accepted practice. An accepted practice to so many. And God is calling you up higher from being an attender, yes to being a member.

We today, so many people want anonymity without accountability. So are you faithful to your worship? Faithful to your church? What would your children say? What would your grandchildren say?

They're watching and their practices and response to church will be much like yours. One final word and that is trustworthy with our wealth. Now when most of people think about steward or stewardship, you think of what? Giving.

And yes, giving is a big part of being a faithful steward. It speaks of money and material possessions. But in this consumer culture in which we live, a culture in which the average household now has 10 credit cards, more and more you can just click and punch and in debt yourself rather than entrust yourself.

You can in debt yourself to many buyers, sellers rather, and we live in a world which is motivated by money more and more. Some people tell their children, make all the money you can make. That's terrible advice. It's terrible advice to tell anybody to make all the money you can, especially your children.

You know why? Because if you tell somebody make all the money you can, they end up chasing money rather than chasing God. Make money, fine. God's given you gifts and part of being a faithful steward would be being faithful at your work. That would be a whole other category.

First one there, last one to leave. Be faithful in that. But our goal in life is not just make all the money we can.

Our goal in life is to pursue Christ and His will. So we have a church filled with, or church is filled with religious consumers. So how do I know? Well just check on how much people are giving. The average American gives 3% of their income to all charities. 3%. Say, well that's low. Well, how about born again adult Christians?

How many of you suppose of born again, say they're born again, adult Christians give their tithe to their church. 8%. 8%. So 92%? Ex nay.

Out. Say, well a tithe, what is a tithe? That's 10%, the first 10% of our income as a principle of stewardship in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. A tithe is giving at the basic level. You say a tithe, that's a lot of money.

A 10%, that's a lot of money. That's a lot. Really? A dime out of every dollar for a God, a savior who gave His life, who gave His all for you? Really?

That's too much? So we're really like the world when it comes to the way we're spending our money and giving our money. A selfish church cannot reach the world.

A selfish church cannot reach people. Our goal is to spread the gospel, to give away our lives, to share Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. And we don't need to be just giving a little bit, we need to start with 10%. And Deb and I, we talk about in our family a graduated tithe that's growing your giving. So you start at 10%, you start there and then you graduate your giving as God prospers you.

And you move to 11% and you move to 12% and 15% and 20% and on and on as God would lead you. Now, okay, I see some eyes rolling back in their heads right now and, you know, sometimes when you start talking about money, people, you know, their blood pressure goes up and they get all excited about that. I can't be ignorant about this. Jesus talked more about money than any other subject including heaven and hell put together. It's true. Look it up.

Google it. Parables, messages, ministries said so many things about money and so much of the Bible is about stewardship. Remember, a steward, we don't own it. We're operating it. We're managing it. We're overseeing it. We're like a house manager. We're taking care of the master's stuff. He owns it all. And He's never signed it over to any of us. He just gives it to us as stewards.

Are you faithful with your finances? That's the question. Here's what Jesus said in Luke 60. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

And watch this. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. People say, you know what, if I was just wealthy, really wealthy, if I had a lot of money, if I had millions, I could be a great giver. I'd be the top giver in the church. No, you wouldn't.

You'd do with a million the same thing you're doing with a hundred or the buck that's in your pocket. That's what Jesus said. He that is faithful in little will be faithful in that which is much. And then He closed verse 13, no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Jesus said, where your money is there, your heart will be. You put your money in the stock market and that's fine. Put your money in your stock market, what do you do? You check your stocks.

Why? Because your money is there. You invest in eternal things, you put your treasure in heaven, your heart will be there. And you care about eternal things.

So I close with two questions. Two questions that every one of us should ask ourselves and answer before God. Number one, can I trust God? Can I trust God with my money, with my possessions?

Can I trust Him? If I do what He commands me to do, if I'm faithful in my giving, with my money and all things, and by the way, not just 10%, again, not just 10% belongs to God, it all belongs to God. So the way we spend our money, the way we save our money, the way we give our money, the way we use our money, that's all God.

So can I trust God with my money? Would He be faithful to me? Has He ever failed you? Has He ever failed to provide for you?

He says He won. He doesn't break any promises. We have a Father in heaven who never breaks His promises.

One of the problems we've got in America is this broken down family, this fatherless America, and in so many dads in particular who have broken their promises to their kids. But God's never broken a promise. I've decided that I can trust God with everything I have.

So here's question number two. Question number one, can I trust God with my money? Question number two, can God trust you with His money?

Can God trust you? You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Come and See. Looking ahead to a new year can fill you with expectation, but it can also fill you with desperation. What if things get worse?

What if the world gets crazier? What if you don't have the strength to face what comes your way? It's through spending daily time in God's word that we find the strength, peace, and hope we need. And we want to help you do that by sending you Pastor Graham's 180-day devotional, Moments in the Word.

Moments in the Word is our special thanks for your gift this month. This is the last day of this offer, so call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit jackgram.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is jackgram.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? In Matthew 1820, Jesus promises to be with us when we gather as a family of believers.

For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them, he says. I would love for you to gather with us here at Prestonwood Baptist Church. When you walk through our doors, you become part of our family right away. Whether you've never been to a service at Prestonwood or life just got in the way of regular church attendance, I would love to welcome you into this family of believers. Visiting a new church can be intimidating, but we try our best to make your visit as easy as possible.

You can visit our website at Prestonwood.org to find the right campus and time for you and your family. You can also let us know you're coming on the website so we can be ready and waiting to welcome you. Our volunteers will make sure you never feel out of place.

They'll help guide you to the parking spots recently. They'll help guide you to the parking spots reserved for first-time visitors, get you settled into a service, and even help you navigate our kids and student ministries. And we would love to help you figure out how your family fits in best in the long term. We have so many opportunities to get involved, from small groups to volunteering opportunities and mission trips. At Prestonwood, we want to share the love of God with more and more people till the whole world hears. And we want you to be a part of that exciting mission. There's no substitute for the love and encouragement and guidance found in the family of God. So remember, you're always welcome at Prestonwood. There is a place for you here.

And I hope to see you soon. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's 180-day devotional, Moments in the Word, as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 31313. Text PowerPoint to 31313. Join Dr. Graham next time when he brings a message about how Jesus knows who you are and what you've done and offers forgiveness. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.