Can God Trust Me?

Read at beginning of message:

2 Timothy 2:14-19 (NIV)

14 Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

INTRODUCTION:

Last week I asked the question, “Can you and I trust God?” As I’m continuing the series of trusting God , “Stewardship ? It Begins with Trust,” today I want to ask another question.

I think last week we realized that God’s gifts are generous, and God’s care is constant. And, yes, He is trustworthy. The question I want to deal with this morning is, Can God trust you?” Can God trust me? Let’s think about a parent and children. One of the biggest issues parents deal with their children as they grow older is the issue of trust.

Example #1: Trust Babys?

Obviously when a child is a baby there is little that you can trust that baby boy or girl with. You can?t trust them in the bathtub alone for instance. You can?t trust them with sharp utensils. (Tell about experience with trusting baby?s with pictures.) But as our children grow older we begin to trust them with little things (Share example of Zachary with juice). Then when they get to be teenagers?

Trust is a big issue between parents and children. As they get older we ask them, “Can I trust you? Can I trust you to go where you?re saying you?re going? And can I trust you to get back on time?” And every time they do it right, they get a little bit more trust; and every time they do it wrong, we have to pull back a little bit.

It’s the same way with God. The question that God has for every one of us today is: Can I trust you? Luke 16:1-15 contains one of the most difficult parable, I believe, to understand in all the Bible. Now Luke 16 is connected with Luke 15, which is the best loved and the best known parable. It’s the story of the prodigal son. And in Luke 15, our Lord deals with wrong attitudes about people. In Luke 16, our Lord deals with wrong attitudes about wealth. It talks about our possessions — what we have and how are we going to deal with what He has given to us.

Read Luke 16:1-15

Story of the foolish steward:

Chapter 15: Wrong attitudes about people.

Chapter 16: Wrong attitudes about wealth.

The Bible and Money…

Jesus talked about money in 16 out of 38 of His parables; and 1 out of 10 verses in the Gospels. The Bible devotes 500 verses to prayer, less than 500 verses to faith; but over 2,000 verses to money and possessions.

Some observations of this parable?

1. The Accountability of the Foolish Steward (vv. 1,2)

When the owner came back, this unwise manager of possessions was brought into accountability. Are you ready? Note this parable was to His disciples, wasn’t to the scribes, wasn’t to the Pharisees. It was His own inner core. “A rich man once had a manager to take care of his business, but he was told that his manager was wasting money. So the rich man called him in, and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Tell me what have you done. You are no longer going to work for me.’” Now, there are two reasons why this manager was accountable to the owner. There are two reasons why I’m accountable to God.

Reasons why I’m accountable to God:

A. He is the owner; I am the manager.

The first reason that I’m accountable to God is because what I have today are gifts of God; I own none of it. I’m accountable to the owner.

James 1:17 (NIV)

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Amen? He’s the owner. He gives me everything. The gifts I have, He gave them to me. Every possession I have, it is a gift of the Lord. He’s the owner.

Now, this is the No. 1 issue. Until we can settle this issue, we’re always going to have a problem in this area of management and stewardship. You see, if I believe that Darren Ethier is the owner, then I’m going to constantly be in conflict with God over what I do with the stuff I have. But the moment I understand that God is the owner and I am the manager, then all of the sudden the conflict disappears, because I realize everything I have right now: my health, my life, my possessions, my family, everything I have is not mine.

Now, let’s just do a little quiz here to make sure we understand this. If you made $400 last week, and you came to church on Sunday, how much of that $400 belongs to God? You’re so smart. It must be the great preaching you get that makes you that way. You better believe it. All of it. $400 is God’s, not $40. Somebody says, “Well, let me see, 10% of $40…” No, no, no. $40 is not God’s and $360, yours. All $400 is God’s. It all belongs to Him, and until we understand this issue of lordship, we’re going to be in trouble.

B. The owner has expectations of the manager.

When the master comes, the owner comes back, He wants to know what has been done with the possessions that He’s given us. And there are several areas of expectation, and I just want to give you a few Biblical areas today.

Areas of expectation:

1. Ourselves. Romans 12:1

The first thing the owner expects is for us to consecrate, dedicate, and give ourselves to Him. That’s why Paul said in Romans,

Romans 12:1 (NIV)1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

That’s the most sensible way to serve God. All Paul is saying is that the most sensible way to serve God is settle immediately in your Christian walk that He’s the owner; you’re the manager. And so you give yourself to Him. You voluntary surrender everything to Jesus Christ.

2. Possessions. Luke 14:33

He has an exhortation for what I’m going to do with the things that He has given me in my life. That’s why Jesus said, in Luke 14:33

Luke 14:33 (NIV)33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

3. Time. Ephesians 5:15-17

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:15-17,

Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)

15 Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

4. Our Gifts. I Peter 4:10

The owner has an expectation that we’re going to do something with the gifts He’s given. That’s why Peter says,

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

5. The Gospel. I Thessalonians 2:4

The good news. The story of redemption. The story of Jesus dying on the cross. I Thessalonians 2:4,

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NIV)

4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.

I came across this in preparation for this message and this just really fits right where I’m preaching, and it really fits what I want to get across. It says: “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I’m so far behind that I will never die.” How many of you felt like that before? The manager is accountable to the owner, I am accountable to God and there are certain expectations He has of me?

Next observation:

2. The Assessment of the Foolish Steward (v. 3)

The moment this unwise manager realized that he was going to lose his job, look what he said in verse 3.

Luke 16:3 (NIV)

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg–

“He made an assessment of where he was. The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now that my master is going to fire me? I can’t dig ditches and I’m ashamed to beg.’” Now, this fellow realizes all of the sudden he’s in trouble. The owner comes home, doesn’t like how he’s handling the possessions and fires him. He says, “Now what am I going to do?”

There are different times when people will change in our lives. And one of those times is when they hurt enough that they have to. In other words, this guy was in that position. He said, “I’ve got to make a change. I’ve got to do something differently. I’m in trouble. I’m losing my job. What am I going to do?” He made a quick assessment and found out that he wasn’t doing what the master required.

So what does he do? Next observation?

3. The Action of the Foolish Steward (vv. 4-7)

This unwise manager began to act on what he had just discovered. And let’s look at the action of the foolish steward.

Luke 16:4-7 (NIV)

4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

Now, I want you to notice that when the owner came home he said, “You’re going to lose your job.” But interestingly enough, he gave this man a little bit of time to settle some accounts. And in the settling of accounts, you notice, the one who owed 800 was reduced down to 400, the one who owed 1,000 down to 800.” And perhaps this man is knocking off the interest that was owed, and just saying, “Let’s go to the principle.” Perhaps, because he was foolish steward, he was overcharging them in the first place, and all of the sudden when the owner came home, he realized what happened. So he cut it back down to the right price. Whatever the reason -there are four lessons that I believe you can learn from this story.

Lessons learned from the story:

1. Use your opportunities wisely. (vv. 8,9)

Jesus commended the man for his wise use of opportunity.

Now, let’s look at how this happened in the story. In verse 8, we see that the master praised his dishonest manager. Now, just stop for a moment. Why would he praise a dishonest manager? Because he did a bad job? Why would he praise him for that? Well, it’s very simple. He didn’t praise him for the bad job he did. Let me go on with the story and explain.

Luke 16:8 (NIV)

8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

In other words, the children of God.

Luke 16:9 (NIV)

9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Now, why was this foolish steward commended? It’s very simple. He wasn’t commended for being dishonest, he wasn’t commended for wasting maybe months and years of the master’s money. He was commended for the fact that when he realized there was a problem, he immediately took action to fix it!

Now, this is very important. Because some of you today are saying, “I’m sure God’s given me gifts that I don’t use for His glory. I’m sure that I’m not really using my time like I need to for the Lord. I’m positive that I haven’t really settled this issue of who owns what concerning my possessions, my money, et cetera. ” And many of you today, perhaps you’re struggling, and saying, “Wow, maybe I’m a foolish steward.”

Here’s the good news: God gives us a chance, just as the owner gave this man a chance, to settle the issues and get the accounts and the books right. There?s a little poem that captures this thought well, “Though I cannot go back and make a brand new start, my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.”

And that’s what we’re going for. And the Lord said that this man is to be commended because he began to use his opportunity wisely. In fact, what’s interesting is, He said, “The people of the world are often more time conscious than Christians.” And, he said, “I want you to realize that we are to use our opportunities as wisely as we possibly can.” Do you remember what Jesus said over in Matthew 6:19-21? He said,

Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You know the passage. I saw a paraphrase of that recently that I just loved, and the paraphrase was simple. “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead.” Now, what does that mean? Is there some kind of account up there? No, no. When you give money to missions, and somebody gets saved over there, you don’t have an idea that they even got saved. You don’t know, you just gave your money and asked God to bless it. You see, when you get to heaven, there will be somebody from that country waiting for you. Now, we all want to go to heaven, but nobody should want to go to heaven all alone.

Let me ask you a question. How many people are going to be waiting on you? And that person is going to say, “I just want you to know it was your gift, your talent, that ability that you had that influenced me to become a Christian. It was the time that you used wisely.” Are we investing in eternity? Are we laying treasures up in heaven? The treasures are always redeemed persons. You see, I believe that heaven is going to be one giant video screen. Sound’s going to be great. And I believe on that video, we’re going to see flash before us lives that we have positively affected for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we had absolutely no idea that we influenced. But because we were a good manager of what God gave us, or a good steward of what God gave us, all of the sudden we’re going to one day see the results. Just ask yourself the question, “Am I using the opportunities that I have right now wisely?”

Next lesson?

2. Trust must be earned. (vv. 10-12)

The big question: Why would the Master give me more if I misuse what I have?

The second lesson our Lord teaches is the trust must be earned. He teaches us that trust can never be granted without us earning it. Now, look at verses 10-12.

Luke 16:10-12 (NIV)

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

He talks here about the fact that we need to earn our trust.

He’s basically saying, “If you can’t be faithful in the few things, why am I going to give you more things?” It goes back to the illustration I gave you at the beginning of the message. Here?s a parent with a teenage son or daughter who just received their drivers license. And this parent has to trust them to come home on time. Now if their son/daughter doesn?t come home on time, then the parent will look at this situation and say, “You wanted to go out next week or tomorrow night. Well we?re going to curb this thing back a bit” Why? Because if you’re not faithful in little thing here, then I certainly cannot trust you tomorrow night. If I can’t trust you in everything, I can’t trust you anything. Trust has to be earned. It’s never just granted. No parent should just say, “Here, I just totally trust you. Go out, and if you don’t come back on time and you disobey me, I’m sure there’s a reason.” No, no. Trust has to be earned. And the more we earn trust, the more trust is given. The more we show that we don’t deserve trust, the more trust is pulled away.

Remember the story that Jesus told (Matthew 25:14-30), where he gave one man five talents; and one, two talents; and one, one talent. He went away and came back and the guy who had five talents had taken it from five to ten. The guy who had two went from two to four. But the guy who had one buried it. He was afraid. This story contains a great principles on stewardship. This week when I was finalizing this message, all of the sudden it hit me. Why did the Master give the one guy just one talent? Was it because He didn’t like him? Of course not. I believe it was because He knew before He ever left that the man was untrustworthy. I believe he had already had previous bad experiences with him. Remember when He came back, that guy who had one talent said, “Here, I dug a hole. Here’s what is yours. You can have it. I knew you were a hard man.” How did he know the Master was a hard man? Because he had some bad dealings with Him in the past. I can promise you the Master only gave him one talent because that’s all He could trust him with. And He had to take it from him.

Now, here’s a very simple question. How much can God trust you with? How many abilities and talents and opportunities can He give me because I’m trustworthy? Or how many has He not given me and withheld from me because I’m not trustworthy? Can God trust you with money? Could you lack financially because you’re not trustworthy? Does God have opportunities to give you, but withholds because you?re not using the opportunity you have right now?

Here?s another important question to ask, “What do you do with what you?ve got?” I run into people all the time who say “Well, you know, Pastor, if I ever get a million dollars, I’m going to give it all to the church.” No, you wouldn’t. Most of the people who tell me that don’t even tithe. If you can’t give 10 percent to God now, you’re not going to 100 percent next year. You see, the whole issue is: Am I trustworthy with what I have right now? I wonder how many blessings we miss because we’re sitting in our chairs waiting for some time, somewhere under the rainbow for that opportunity to hit us. Am I trustworthy right now? Here’s the big question. Why would the Master give me more if I?ve misused what I have?

Remember when the fellow with the one talent said, “I was afraid, and I dug a hole and I hid my talents.” It was fear that kept him from trusting his master. It was fear that became the wall between the owner and the steward.

I brought a parable with me today. I want to read it. It is the parable of the three little turtles. I hope you can intellectually handle this parable. I know you come to church to hear me preach, and I’m so deep that you just try to strive to stay with me intellectually. But hang with me?

Three turtles were going out one summer afternoon for a country picnic. One carried a basket with the food and the second, a jug with turtleaide; and the third, nothing. Just then they felt the first splat of rain drops on the their shells. “We can’t have a picnic without an umbrella,” said the first. “Who will go back for one?” They made the choice, and the empty-handed turtle was chosen.

“I won’t go,” he said. “As soon as I leave, you’ll eat all the food and drink all the turtleaide, and cut me out of everything. Right? ” “Wrong, they said, “we’ll wait for you, no matter how long.” “No matter how long?” Asked the third turtle. “No matter how long,” the other two replied. So he turned back, and they sat waiting an hour, two hours, four, a day, two days, a week. Two weeks went by when one turtle turned to the other and said, “Maybe we should go ahead and have the picnic.” Just then the voice of the third turtle came out from the bushes behind them, “If you do, I won’t go,” he said.

I love it. I wonder how many times God has entrusted something to us, and instead of going, giving or doing – we wait behind the bushes.

Next lesson?

3. Trust can be measured. (vv. 10-12)

Our Lord says, “I want to tell you how I measure trust.” Now carefully follow this. He said, “I measure trust by this very simple method. If you are trustworthy in a few things, I give you more. That’s how I measure trust. If I can’t trust you with a few things, you don’t get any more. You can either hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You’ve been ruler over a few things, and I’ll make you a ruler over many things.” Or you can hear, “You are an unlawful servant. Be cast into utter darkness.” Here’s how he measures trust: not by what you’re going to do; I measure trust by what you’re doing right now.”

Let’s say a daughter/son comes home 30 minutes late, and the parent says, “Hey you?re supposed to be home at 10:30; and it’s 11:00.” And they say, “Oh, dad, I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time.” Now the Dad has to say, “Listen you violated trust tonight. Now, I think your intentions were good, and I think your intentions are good for tomorrow. But that isn’t the issue. You see, the only way I can measure trust is not by what you say; the only way I can measure trust is the way God measures trust. Are you trustworthy now?” Am I trustworthy now?

I love the story of the pastor who preached in a farming community. And he was trying to teach this issue. And he went to one of his farmer laymen and said, “If you had a 100 cows and God asked you for 50, would you give them to Him?” He said, “Oh, yes, I sure would, Preacher.” He said, “If you had a 100 horses and God asked you for 50, would you give them to Him?” He said, “Well, sure I would, Preacher.” He said, “If you had two hogs and God asked you for one of them, would you give it to Him?” “Now, that’s not fair, Preacher, you know I have two hogs.”

I think some of us maybe this morning our trying to snow God. Have you ever tried to do that? Now, don’t feel bad. I?ve been guilty of doing this before. Let’s just take a quick poll. How many of you ever tried to slip one past Him? Sure you have. It doesn’t work because trust can be measured, and we can’t slip one past Him by what we say, or what we sing. No, no. He says, “If you aren’t faithful here, you’re going to have trouble down the road.”

Now one more thing about the story as I wrap it up this morning?

4. Be wholly devoted to God. (v. 13)

Luke 16:13 (NIV)13 “No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.”

Jesus says, in that last verse, “You cannot be a slave of two masters.” “You will like one more than the other, or you’ll be more loyal to one more than the other. You cannot serve God, and you cannot serve money.” I want to ask you this morning Who are you and I slaves to today? Can God trust you? You see devotion to God begins with trust. Yes, you can trust Him and you should trust Him but the next step is to ask yourself, Can God trust me?

Series Navigation

Previous in SeriesNext in Series