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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible. Turn to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. There’s some things here that I want to share with you and move over there to the book of Luke. And I think it’ll be a blessing to you. But here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 3, there’s an interesting verse that I really love. They’re in verse 8. Now he that planted and he that waterth are one. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Salvation we know is free because Christ did the work for that. He went to the cross paid for our sins so that we could go to heaven when we die. All right, once we trust him as our Savior, we have eternal life. We’re going to heaven, but we’re not there yet. So he says every man will have his own reward according to his own labor. So if you work your labor, you’re gonna get rewarded for it. So at the judgment of the Christ, it’s gonna be looked at as what sort of work did we perform?

And it’s broken down in the several gold silver prices don’t or would-had stubble. And so we kind of find out that some of the things that we thought were really really good we’re gonna find out it’s probably just hey wouldn’t stubble. We might get up there and find out we got a big old bonfire but God says that day is coming and he’s gonna reward us but he wants us to know something. You see there in verse 9, for we are labors together with God.

When he says, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you and I send you into all the world. Did you know that we’re labors together with God? And what I can’t do, he will. And what he won’t do, I’m supposed to. So between the two of us, we’re supposed to work together and we have us a ministry. You and God have a ministry. You don’t have a ministry without God. Without Him, you don’t have a ministry. You see, it’s you and Him.

Christ says without me, you can do how much? So you don’t work by yourself. You can’t work by yourself. His work is His work. And we get to ride along with Him. And so He says, we’re working together. We’re labors together. You are God’s husbandry, you are God’s building. You see, after we trust Christ as our Savior, we’re on this foundation, and no other foundation can any man lay to that, which is language is Christ. So on this foundation, God, who will never leave me and never forsake me, he says, you’re God’s building.

God is building you, and he builds you by walking with you and working with you, spending time together. So God says in the last part of verse 10, but let every man take heed how he build a Therapon. So we’re working together with God and we’re building a ministry. It’s our ministry. You see, you can’t always go to like, this is my ministry. Now we know what we mean by that. We say we know it’s my ministry. It’s what I do, but you should have in the back of your mind.

But without him, I don’t have one. But with the Lord, I can do all things. All I have to know is what does God want me to do and just do that? So He talks to us about being a faithful steward. So God is gonna tell us what to do and He’s kinda give us some guidelines in His word and told us to obey Him and to believe Him. Kinda look at it this way, take the whole earth. Thus whole earth is a big old plot aground and you could say it’s a foundation cuz we got our feet on it.

in the heavens, well, there’s our roof over our house. And we’re living in this big old house. And the stars out there, those are the lights inside of your house. And God has ownership of everything. And He put people inside of this great big old house. And He says, the earth, but I see that’s His footstool. And so here we are as stewards in this world. And therefore we have been given a responsibility, a coinamous. It means it be a servant of the Lord as a steward.

It means that we are householders, we’re the ones that are in charge of his property. And we’re stewards, but the day will come when he’s gonna hold us accountable for our stewardship. And so the Bible says, what kind of a steward should you be? Look there in chapter four and verse one. let a man sow account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. God has entrusted you and I, according to the Thessalonians, with the gospel.

So we are stewards of this message. Now, it belongs to the Lord, but we belong to the Lord, so God is given to us a responsibility and so we’re supposed to be found a good stewards of whatever God’s given us. So God’s given us a body and we’re supposed to take care of the body, not as though it’s ours. Our body belongs to the Lord, He bought and paid for that. So we have a physical body where to be stewards of this body.

So we’re supposed to take care of the body because you know without the body you can’t stay here. Without taking care of the body, you might have to leave this whole world. So I would take care of the body, even if you want to stick around for a while. So we are to be stewards of the body. We are to be stewards of the mysteries of God, these truths that God has given to us that many people wanted to hear and understand for so long and we get the privilege of knowing what they are.

Did you realize that not everybody knows the gospel? Not everybody understands the truth of the gospel. We have been so blessed. But with that blessing comes great responsibility. And so the Lord says here in verse two, moreover it is required, required in steward that a man be found rich. Popular. What? Faithful. You know, it’s something we can do. We can do this. You see, It’s not impossible because God says that we’re working together, we’re co-labors together with the Lord, and therefore we should do it.

Now look there in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, and look at verse 1. In verse 1, we then as workers together, Yod on the line those two little words, workers, together with Him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. Paul says that God’s grace was not bestowed upon me in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. In other words, this period of time that God gave him to live was an in vain.

He used it to serve God. If God gives you so much time to live and you don’t use it for the Lord, then you have lived in vain, wasted your life, and God’s grace upon you, the privilege to live in this whole world, for the honor of serving God to please him and then get rewarded when you get that heaven on top of it and you blew it. Life is a grace. In the words you don’t deserve to live because we’ve all sinned we deserve to die.

So being able to live our lives for the Lord that’s grace. And God says don’t betray this trust. So He makes this statement down through here and I want you to see this looking verse three giving no offense in anything That the ministry be not blamed because if the many industry gets blamed and it’s you and God that are working together in a ministry Then God gets blamed. You mess up on your testimony. You walk ungodly. Does that reflect upon our father?

Does that reflect upon Christianity? Yes it does. Do you think people could reject our message, our exhortation, our challenges? Everything. Whether it’s the lost man or the saved man, our ministry. history takes a hit. And there’s people who don’t care. So look what he says. He says in verse 4, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patient, in affliction, in necessities, in distress, in stripes, imprisonment, in tumult, in labors, in watches and fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love and fame, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil reports and good reports, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,

as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. You’ve got quite a ministry. But God doesn’t want all these things that seem to go against you. What people say, what people do, they defraud you, wrong you. Don’t let that hurt your testimony or your ministry, because you see, God is tied with you. We are labors together with Him. We’re building a ministry together. Me and God, we’re walking together. It’s not me doing it without God, and it’s not God doing it without me.

God uses people. And He says that His eyes are like radar screens, searching to and froth throughout the whole earth, looking for a man that He can do some mighty, wonderful things and make you look good. You see, the reason we serve God is because we want to make God look good. And God wants to use us because He wants to make us look good. See there’s a day coming called payday someday, when we’ll stand before the Lord. stewards of God, we’re going to have to give a count.

Now, go back there to 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 and look at this verse one more time. In verse 2, moreover it is required in a steward that a man be found faithful. Now steward is somebody who doesn’t own anything but he is to administer that which belongs to another. So our very life belongs to the Lord. My body belongs to the Lord. Whatever I have belongs to the Lord. The message that He’s committed to me belongs to the Lord.

But He wants us to administer these things for Him. So we’re here on His behalf. We are ambassadors for Christ. I’m taking Corinthians chapter 5. We are His ambassador. We represent a king from another country. We are in this is a a foreign country. We’re strangers and pilgrims. Doesn’t mean you ought to be strange or a pill, but this means you’re strangers, you’re away from home, but pilgrim means you’re going home. At one of these days, we will be home.

But that verse required to be found faithful. And this is why he says, don’t judge until the time. See there in verse 5, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God if it’s coming. So every man will be rewarded according to his own work. And that reward may be that God will give you praise, honor and glory at the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Until then God wants us to give Him praise, honor, glory. Have you ever heard of a verse that says you reap what you sow? You sow, praise, honor, and glory to Him now. And then when you get to heaven you’re going to receive praise, honor, and glory. You’ll get it all back. But He’s going to say this and do this in front of everybody else. All the believers will see God honor you. You say, well, I don’t need all the new, but God does.

It pleases the Father. It pleases Him. And that’s worth it all. We should do it because it pleases the Lord. Now, take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Luke in chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. You see, you have a choice to be either and obedient. Faithful, steward, or you can be an unjust steward. There’s a little scripture that God gives here that kind of gives us an idea of what it means to be an unjust steward and a lesson for us to apply at the end of it.

So you see there in Luke chapter 16 makes a statement. And he said also unto his disciples. Now how many disciples were not sure whether he’s talking about the 12 or a multitude of others? Because when you follow it from chapter 15, there’s some Pharisees and Sadducees that were asking some questions. And their question was in chapter 15 is, this man receiveth sinners and he eats with them. Therefore he can’t be as holy as he thinks he is. He can’t be the Son of God.

Look who he’s sitting and feasting with. These old tax collectors, I mean the worst in the world. And he let them even, he let them touch him. Well as you go through all these scriptures and you find that there’s some things here about these old publicans, old tax collectors. You see, they were Jewish people that worked for the Roman government collecting the taxes and everybody hates tax collectors. But they also were guilty many times of extortion. Do you think the IRS tries to get more than what’s really due to them?

Most tax collectors do. They want kickbacks and they would threaten and so many people were defrauded. And they took property, people’s cash, they took something from people that really they mismanaged. So they had a responsibility. So following chapter 15, you come to chapter 16 and he gives a great lesson on an unjust steward. Look what he says. He says in verse 1 of chapter 16, there was a certain rich man which had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his good.

So somebody, somebody had accused him and accused him to the false man. And when it uses the word lord here, it’s not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ or God, it’s talking about the one that was over him, his master. So he says that this man was a steward, but he wasted his good. So he was a dishonest man. He was not a good steward of a man who was rich and he was wasting his stuff. So in verse 2, and he called him and said unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee?

In other words, I’ve heard something. What’s going on? And he says, give an account of thy stewardship. Now, just understand Jesus is telling this, but there’s some main points that we’re supposed to get from it. God has entrusted you and I with this ministry have been astured. And the Bible also says Romans 14 that every man shall give an account of himself to God. If you’re going to be given an account to God, it means God counted on you for something.

Response, ability. Two main words, response, ability. So you’re supposed to respond according to your ability. Some little children we don’t expect as much from them because of their lack of ability, whether in knowledge or talents or whatever it might be. But what is the response according to your ability? Does God know every individual’s ability? Then God knows how every individual is to respond. So when he gives us a stewardship, he’s going to hold us accountable, that accountability, one day is going to happen.

We’re going to stand at the judgments of the Christ and give an account of our stewardship. So he also makes a statement here. He says, give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayest be no longer steward. In other words, you’ve got to have a good reason, a good excuse, or you’re not going to be steward anymore. So this man had a problem. You see, evidently he had risen to the level of doing quite well. And whatever this job was he was overseeing, he didn’t want to dig.

That means to do hard manual labor. He didn’t want to work because he just, you know, an overseer, you know, like a boss man. And so he says, I don’t want to work and I don’t want to beg. You know, begging in those days was justified if you were poor, you’re a blind, a cripple. People sit and they were arms for the poor, arms for the poor and beg. He said, I’m too ashamed. I can’t do that. It’s either I got to work or I got to beg.

And I don’t want to do either one of those. I don’t want to be ashamed. I mean, look who I am. So he’s got to figure out what can I do. Now God wants us to understand that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. You see when Christ came into the world he says, I’m the light of the world. But those who believe in the light become the children of light. So he says the children of this world are wiser than the children of light.

Because in this world they figure out how to do things, how to work a thing. In other words, if this was the only life there is, they figure out how to make and do and accomplish more than it seems like God’s own people can. We also live here, but we have a stewardship that’s a little bit different than the people of the world. But he says, there’s something that’s in here that he wanted his people to see. And there was a point to all of this.

But he’s talking about being a faithful steward versus an unfaithful steward. So he makes the statement up here in verse 3, then the steward said within himself, hmm, what am I going to do? What shall I do? For my Lord take the way from me the stewardship I cannot dig to beg I’m ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. See, what did that mean?

Well, I think it means that there were debtors. And see, in those days when they had a debt, you would have done. Don’t give a pen. The guy that says, I’m in debt to you, and he writes it out, says, I owe you $50, and they sign it, and then the steward would also sign it. So the steward has that debt that this man owes. So he’d write out the bill, sign it, and the steward would sign it. So they had a piece of paper that says, this is what you owe.

So what had happened was, when he realized that, He might lose his job. So he went and got his creditors and he got them together. How much do you owe? I owe $500. He said, look, right out on another one, you only owe 250. We’ll cut it in half. And you sign it. Then I’ll sign it. And we’ll tear up the other one. And this is when we got it. This is what you owe. to see the master of the house has got to have to look at all these receipts and he wants to see it.

So by the time he goes through all of these things and he shows, well, he was an unjust steward. What he was doing was crooked. It was wicked. It was wrong, but he was smart. You know, there’s a lot of smart people in this world that can figure out what to do. generally you get caught, don’t you? You know, there was one lady that was on Facebook and she was bragging about how she had ripped off the IRS. She was so glad and she dared them to come after her.

Well, they did and put her in jail. This was in news not long ago. There’s always somebody trying to rip off the Social Security, rip off Medicare and there’s doctors and all these things to rip them off And they’ll never catch me, and then some of them they get caught. Some of them they get away with it, and they say, Now don’t you do that again? Well, within six months they’re back in business again. But there’s a lot of wicked people in this world that know how to work a system.

And they can make money, and they’re smart. But that’s not how God expects His children to work. We’re supposed to do right. At all times we have to do right. And so we have to, whatever we get, whatever we keep, whatever we spent, we have to do everything right. That’s what Christians are supposed to do. Christians do right. So he says here in Luke chapter 16. So this is what he did in verse 5, he says, who’s going to receive me into their house?

In other words, if I treat them right and if I lose my job, they’ll take care of me. I can stay with him for a while. Well, if there’s a lot of them and he forgave, he forgave, he forgave, see, the boss man has to honor what the store does. So he’s opening up all these opportunities where they’ll like me. And I don’t have to go work and I won’t have to beg. Now isn’t that scheming? I think that sounds like pretty good.

I know a lot of people do this in a minute. So what he says is in verse 5, so he called every one of his Lord’s debtors unto him, said unto the first, how much O astow unto my Lord? He said, a hundred measures of oil. He said unto him, take thy bill, sit down quickly and write 50. Hey, that’s pretty good. the people that are doing it, well it’s wrong for them to do that too. But they don’t mind it because they are his friends now.

They are his friends. So then he says there in verse 6, and he said, 100 measures of oil, he said down right 50, verse 7, then said he to another and how much ohest thou? He said, 100 measures of wheat. He said unto him, take thy bill and right for score. And the Lord commended the unjust steward. That means his boss man finds out what he did and committed him for being so smart. But he was still an unjust steward with something that didn’t belong to him.

He was still wrong in what he did. He did it, wasn’t justified. You can be amazed at what some people can do, but it’s still wrong. Well, the only reason I robbed that bank and I stole all that money so I could feed the poor. Well, God bless you. That was really kind of you. You were so thoughtful. But you see, you robbed the money from the bank. It’s okay for you to do it with your own, but you don’t rob the bank and take the money because you have a good deed that you want to do with it.

You just don’t do that. So he says in verse 8, because he had done wisely for his sake, not for the boss man, but for his sake. But at the same time, what they owed, at least the boss man got something, he may not have gotten anything. I don’t know. He says, because he had done wisely for the children and you ought to underline this in your Bible, children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

The children of light is a reference to God’s people that know better. God’s people that are supposed to be faithful stewards, they know more. They’ve been entrusted with more. God has entrusted us with a ministry. Therefore, we’re supposed to be found faithful. Doing whatever it is God wants us to do. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tappa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.

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Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound and we will be changed caught up to meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up