Good afternoon, my dear, dear brothers and sisters. It is a joy and a privilege to be here, having fellowship in the Lord’s presence with my precious brothers and sisters.
As you already know from reading the brochure, the focus for our fellowship during these days is spiritual stewardship. Our brother Dana shared last night on being stewards of the manifold grace of God, and our brother Stephen began this morning to share about the stewardship of the mysteries. It has fallen to me to focus our hearts on the character of God’s steward.
I tried to go many different directions with this issue of the character of God’s steward. If you stop and think about it, there are many different ways we could approach this matter. But I finally settled in my heart on allowing the life of the Apostle Paul to give us illustrations of what spiritual character is.
Then, the Lord helping us and the Lord willing, tomorrow evening we will focus on how spiritual character—the character of a steward—was developed in Paul’s life. This is a big topic, and I am always faced with the task of seemingly having too much material to squeeze into a short period of time. Many of you have been gracious to me over the years and put up with my long-winded sharings. I do not want to take advantage of you, but when we have a matter in our hearts of this magnitude, it is not easy to know where to stop.
Before we begin sharing this afternoon, I want to remind us of the spiritual reality of what is happening as we are gathered here in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reality is that the only Sovereign Lord, the One seated at the Father’s right hand, Who has been given the name above every other name, wants to speak to each one of us. He has gathered us here for that purpose.
For this to happen, my understanding is that the Holy Spirit needs to communicate from the heart of our Lord to our own hearts. Our Lord is always seeking to speak to us heart to heart, and He has something in His heart that is very important to us. We have already heard Him speak on two previous occasions regarding stewardship, and He wants to speak to us once again this afternoon.
The way He has chosen to do it is by the Holy Spirit, through a human vessel speaking human words, yet speaking His own word to our hearts. Dear brothers and sisters, that requires a miracle—especially when you consider who the speaker is this afternoon. But miracles are not a problem for our Lord. Therefore, we need to expect that He will speak to us.
I appreciate our dear brother Ed Miller because he reminds us every time we come to fellowship in the Word of God how absolutely dependent we are on the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, this must become real in our hearts: you are not looking for information, human information, or some way of tickling your ears. You are expecting our risen Lord, our exalted Lord, to speak to us. That must be done by the Holy Spirit using a human vessel.
But there is one other thing that is very important: we need to have a listening heart. I know there are many things happening that can be a great distraction to any of us. But as we come here to sit at the feet of our exalted Lord, we need to receive the grace of God and hear what He has to say, with the understanding that we will obey what He speaks to our hearts.
It will be of no value to Him, and very little value to us, if we hear and do not become doers of what He says. So, brothers and sisters, in a sober and solemn way, let us put ourselves before our Lord, expecting Him to speak and having the desire and intention to put into practice what He speaks to us. Amen?
Lord, we do acknowledge that our heavenly Father has placed You in the highest position in the universe. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to You. You are the only Sovereign Lord, and we are so overwhelmed this afternoon to realize that in our own hearts we can call You our Lord.
We want You to be the Lord of this gathering this afternoon. By Your Holy Spirit, take control of what is happening. Lord, enable, by the anointing of Your Holy Spirit, a human vessel to be the vessel through which You speak to our hearts.
Oh, blessed Lord, please touch our hearts so that we do not miss what You are saying. Grant to every one of us that measure of grace which will enable us to seek to put into practice what You speak to us.
Lord Jesus, we are so privileged to be here this afternoon, seated in Your presence. As we have often heard others pray, and have prayed ourselves: Lord, speak, because Your servants are listening. We ask it in Your name. Amen.
The character of a steward. Our brothers have already shared with us concerning what a steward is. I would like us to look at some verses in 2 Timothy which, I trust, will help us become clearer about this matter of being a steward. I do not think it is complicated; I am simply not sure that we have spent the time to become clear about it.
In 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 1, we read:
You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
In writing to Timothy, Paul encouraged him to take the truths that had been made real to him and entrust them to faithful men. I think we have here a simple explanation of what it means to be a steward: something has been entrusted to us, and we need to be faithful with it.
This matter of being trustworthy, of having things entrusted to us, is not for only a few people. It applies to everyone who has come to have an experience with our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
We remember, for instance, that in Romans 12 Paul says that each one has received a measure of faith. In 1 Corinthians 12:7, he says that each of us has received a manifestation of the Spirit. In Ephesians 4:7, he says that each of us has received a measure of grace. Then, as brother Dana called our attention to last night, 1 Peter 4:10 says that we have all received a special gift as stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Please see that our God has been faithful to supply every one of us with what we need in order to fulfill our responsibilities. Do not somehow check out and say, “Well, this sharing on stewardship somehow leaves me out of the picture.” It is not true. You are very much in the center of the picture.
Whether or not you are willing to face it and do something about it does not change the fact that one day, all by yourself, you will have to stand before your Lord and give an account of what you have done with what you have been given. There are no exceptions. An appointment has been made, and you cannot cancel this appointment, brothers and sisters.
You have been given a measure of faith, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, a measure of grace, and a special gift—each one. Therefore, every one of us needs to be interested in knowing the importance of being a good steward of what God has graciously given to us.
Let us look again in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
Here Paul is saying, in my understanding, the same thing in a slightly different way. We are to be workmen who do not need to be ashamed. If God, in His great love and mercy, has placed a responsibility in our hands, then we need to find a way to discharge that responsibility.
Paul refers to these people as workmen. Sisters, please do not excuse yourselves because it does not say “workwomen.” It means the same thing: you have a work to do. A job has been given to us. A responsibility has been placed in our lives, and we are to be the kind of workmen who are not ashamed.
When we stand before our Lord, we should not need to bow our heads in shame. If we learn how to be good stewards, we may stand there with confidence and hear those blessed words:
Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou hast been faithful over a little;
I will set thee over much.
This is where we need to learn, my brothers and sisters, because sometimes we think the little things are not important. But if we are irresponsible in little things, there is a good chance that we will also be irresponsible in greater things. The Lord puts these little things in our lives as a training time.
He does not entrust us at the beginning with things that could bring devastation. He entrusts us with the ability we have, and He expects us to be faithful and to discharge this responsibility without being ashamed. It is important that we see ourselves as stewards, as workmen—men, women, and young brothers and sisters who have work to do and a job that needs to be done.
Almost all of you here have a job you go to, or at least, if you are still in school, you have a responsibility. If you do not do a good job in the world, chances are you will not have your job very long. Our God is much more merciful than that, but that does not mean we can overlook the appointment we have with Him.
Let us look at 2 Timothy 2:21:
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Here Paul is referring to these same people, these stewards, as vessels for honor. When we stop and seriously consider what God is doing and whom He is using to do it, it is an amazing thing.
There is not one person in this meeting, nor one person who has ever lived, who was qualified to be a steward of the living God, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins Ephesians 2 with those who were dead in trespasses and sins. But then he comes to Ephesians 2:10:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.
There is something in this verse that has become precious in my heart during the last few years. The word workmanship in the original is poema, from which we get the word poem. Some translations say, “We are His masterpiece.”
Think about it. As the church, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were in violation of what God wanted for our lives. Yet He laid hold of us by His love, and now we become His masterpiece. A great poet, artist, or architect may accomplish some great work—a poem, a piece of art, or a building—and be proud of it because it is his masterpiece.
Brothers and sisters, we are God’s masterpiece. Think of what He started with. I do not know about you, but speaking for myself, the Lord had to come to the city dump to find this one. Yet, regardless of where He found me and what I was when He found me, the Word of God tells me that He is conforming me to the image of His Son. Hallelujah, brothers and sisters.
This is good news. Not just for Ernie Heile, but for every one of us here. God’s objective is to take you and conform you to the image of His Son, so that when He has finished His work in your life, you will stand before Him and He will say the same thing He said to His own Son:
This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
He will be able to say, “This is My beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” How can He say that? Because the very character of His Son has been reproduced in our lives.
We have been predestined, brothers and sisters. This is not some dream God has. Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. That is a strong word, especially when you realize Who is doing the predestining: God, the sovereign God.
Nothing will prevent the final product. We can make it difficult, and we can postpone the process, but nobody will prevent it from happening. There ought to be a hallelujah in every one of our hearts this afternoon.
Everything happening in your life has one objective in terms of you personally: that you will be conformed to the image of His Son. He will be able to look at you and see His Son formed in you.
But that is not the full masterpiece. It would be a masterpiece in itself, but the Word of God says, “We are His masterpiece.” Who is the “we”? The church—the body of Christ.
Have you read to the end of the Book recently? At the end, a marriage takes place. Our Lord Jesus, the Bridegroom, will be married to the church as His bride. This wedding will be for eternity. It has to be perfect.
She must be without spot, blemish, or any such thing. He must be able to look at her and see Himself fully formed in her. The wedding will not take place until this is a reality.
This work Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2 is greater than the work of creation. Creation is magnificent. Recently, I read an article—I think it was in Time magazine—about a new telescope. They say it can see six hundred trillion trillion miles, and they still have not seen the end.
Whether creation is infinite or not is not the issue. The issue is that God’s masterpiece is greater than His work of creation. Listen carefully, because I am going to say something that may be difficult for some to receive: this work of God’s masterpiece is greater than His salvation.
Why? Because individually we come into an experience of salvation, but we still do not have the masterpiece. God must not only conform every one of us to the image of His Son; He must also build us together into a corporate bride whom our Lord Jesus can look upon and see Himself.
This is the work our God is doing. The amazing thing is the material He is using and who His co-workers are. Brother Stephen helped us see this morning that, although God could have spoken it into being, He has not chosen to do it that way. I rest in God’s decision. I am not going to argue with Him or try to convince Him that He should have done it differently.
What has He done? He has taken flesh-and-blood human beings like us—ruined, without hope, enemies of His, sinners—and He has saved us. He has put the life of His Son in us, is conforming us to the image of His Son, and is building us together into this marvelous masterpiece.
That is not the end. We are also to be His co-workers. This is a sovereign decision He has made. He did not call you merely to be forgiven of your sins. The very moment you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit baptized you into the body of Christ.
Hallelujah! You did not need the vote of some committee. You did not have to go before a membership committee and give your doctrinal statement, present your history, and bring a letter from another church saying, “He is okay,” or “She is okay.” God made a sovereign decision to take you, as a believer in His Son, and place you in His body.
With that experience, He gave you a measure of faith, a measure of grace, a gift, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and a special gift. In using that gift, we are accomplishing the good works Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2.
When we think of who we are and who we were, it is amazing that God chose us as the raw material. He had to eliminate what we were and reconstitute something that He could fully receive. Being stewards of our God—taking what has been entrusted to us and, by His grace, learning how to be faithful—is our calling, brothers and sisters.
This is what God was after when He interrupted your life, invaded your life, manifested His great love to you, and revealed His Son to you. I have my own testimony. Fifty years ago this year, I had my initial experience. I hope you will celebrate, not me, but His wonderful mercy. The only reason I am standing here is by the absolute, pure mercy of God.
Our God had something magnificent in His heart and mind when He pursued you by His love and you let Him catch you. He began this wonderful process that the Scriptures call saving us—not merely forgiving us of our sin, but much, much, much more. Romans 5 speaks of the “much more” of God by His grace.
The most important thing I want to share is this: I do not want any one of us to leave this meeting, or leave this time together, thinking that only a few people are called to be stewards. I want it written on your heart and mine that you are a steward, and you will be held accountable. You have to stand before Him.
Our Lord told us in Matthew 25 that He gave to three men according to their individual ability. He takes into consideration who you are, and He gives you responsibility that, by His grace, you can fulfill.
Sometimes He does things beyond anything we could dream about. Please forgive me for making reference to myself, but when I was a high-school student a couple of years ago, I took a failing grade in English because I refused to stand before the class. I was so afraid of speaking to a group of people.
After I was saved, I went back to Pennsylvania for a short time before going to college. I was invited to speak at an Odd Fellows home, a home for retired Odd Fellows. It is something like the Masons, though not like the Masons—a men’s and women’s family organization.
They invited me to speak, and it was only my second time ever speaking. As I struggled through my sharing, there was a man in the back with a hearing horn in his ear. He called out, “Hey, young man, will you speak louder, please?” You can imagine how I felt. I wanted to crawl under the carpet.
Later, after I went to college, I was invited to share in the assembly where we were meeting. As I was sharing, I fainted. Some of you are already getting a good idea, huh? But I fainted because so many of my fellow students were there, and I was afraid.
What I am saying to you, dear brothers and sisters, is this: do not be put off. Do not disqualify yourself because you have some areas in your life that the Lord must deal with. He is able.
I want to share lessons about being stewards from the life of the Apostle Paul, both today and tomorrow. Today I want to mention five characteristics of Paul’s life that enabled him, by the grace of God, to be a faithful steward.
First, we need to be devoted—completely devoted to our Lord and to His work. Second, we need to be motivated. Third, we need to be illuminated. Fourth, we need to be educated. Finally, we need to be related.
Let me say them again: devoted, motivated, illuminated, educated, and related. I am sharing something that I believe every one of us, without exception, can begin to have developed in our lives. I am not speaking of people with different kinds of functions in the body of Christ. This is for every one of us.
When I was a very young man, there was a popular song. I do not remember whether it was country music or a popular song, but one phrase in it was that this man was “hopelessly devoted” to her.
Brothers and sisters, this is where we need to begin. You and I need to be hopelessly devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. No one can prevent you from doing this—well, I am sorry, there is one person who can prevent you: you.
You are the only person who can prevent this from happening. You may have interference from different places, but when it comes down to it, you are the only one who can make this decision. If you want to learn how to be a good steward and become a good steward, this is a necessary step.
We will speak more tomorrow about the process, but this is a necessary ingredient, a necessary characteristic, in the life of those who would be faithful stewards. You need to be devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we look at the life of the Apostle Paul, we see that many times, when he wrote letters to brothers and sisters in different places, he identified himself as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is a bondservant? Do not read those words quickly without stopping to discover what they mean.
In Exodus 21:5-6, the Lord gave laws concerning someone who was a slave in a household. After six years, the law required that the slave be set free. He could come to his master and receive his freedom, or he could make another choice.
Basically, Exodus 21 says, “Because I love my master, I want to become his bondservant.” This was not something required by the master. It was a freewill offering.
It is not necessary for you to have this experience in order to go to heaven. But it is my understanding that if you are going to be a faithful steward, this is a necessary step in your life. Because you love Him, you become fully devoted to Him. You come and become a bondservant.
In Old Testament days, when the servant’s time came to be set free, he could leave and take his freedom. But if he came to his master and said, “Because I love you and your household, I do not want to go free. I want to become your bondslave, your bondservant,” the master would take him to the elders of the city, and they would witness it.
Then the master would take him home and take a sharp instrument called an awl and put it through the lobe of his ear into the doorpost. Perhaps they put a ring in the ear so it would not grow closed. This symbolized that, for the rest of his life, because he loved his master, he had chosen to give up all rights to himself.
Before this, there were laws regulating masters and servants. But for this man, there were none. He was a love slave to his master. My dear brother and sister, you are the only person who can prevent yourself from making that decision.
If you expect to stand before your Lord and give an account of your stewardship, then I think this is a very necessary step. It means that you understand what is involved. You are not simply getting some emotional high. You understand that this is a decision to take your life and devote it one hundred percent to your Master.
Back in the 1970s, people put bumper stickers on their cars. I remember what I thought was probably the best one I ever saw. It said, “Sell out to Jesus. It is the best bargain you will ever make.”
Think about it. Suppose you decide to be your own master, make the decisions about your life, and determine what you will do with it. What do you think will be the outcome?
But there is Someone Who loves you and wants nothing but the absolute, one hundred percent best for you. He wants you to be conformed to the image of His Son. He wants you to discover the real purpose of life. He has a place of responsibility for you in His work.
What is wrong with coming and becoming a devoted bondservant, a love slave, to Him? Consider it. The Sovereign Lord of the universe wants us to come and give our lives fully to Him in full surrender, then work that out in a day-by-day experience.
Perhaps from time to time, we need to come back. Maybe some of us here this afternoon need to do this very thing. We need to renew the decision we made. Some of us made it many years ago, but we allowed other things to come into our lives and capture our hearts, and we have not been faithful as love slaves.
He is so full of mercy, brothers and sisters. We can come back, renew that commitment, and get started all over again. The wonderful thing is that He will take those wasted years and somehow turn them for good, according to Romans 8:28:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
Who else but our blessed Lord could take the stupidities of our lives and our stupid decisions and turn them for good? Having made yourself a love slave and then walking away from it is a foolish decision. Sometimes we do it because something blinds us to what we are doing, or because we make some other foolish move.
Yet He is willing for us to come back and renew this commitment, to get back on the right level again, and to give our hearts one hundred percent to Him. Again, we are the only ones who can prevent this. We may allow pride, ego, or so-called dreams to stand in the way—or we may renew our devotion as His love slaves, hopelessly devoted.
Let us look in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again.
A bondservant is someone who no longer lives for himself but for Him Who died for him. This seems to be the only legitimate, reasonable response to such great love. It is our reasonable spiritual service.
If He so loved us, then His love constrains us to make this kind of decision. It does not matter how old or how young you are. If you have not made this decision, I want to make a strong appeal to you: do not let an hour go by until, in your heart, you make the decision to become a love slave to our Lord Jesus Christ.
This also includes becoming bondservants to one another. Look at 2 Corinthians 4:5:
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Let us be honest this afternoon. Is this how you see yourself in relationship to your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you see yourself as their bondservant, giving up your own rights to serve them? Probably not. But this is included in the decision to become a bondservant.
We are not only bondservants to our Lord Jesus Christ but bondservants to every one of our brothers and sisters. You know what that means? We have many masters, but we have no servants. You have no servants, but you have many masters. Every brother and sister is to be your master, and you are to be their bondservant.
Brother Dana shared last night about John 21, where the Lord Jesus questioned Peter: “Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?” Peter answered, “Lord, Thou knowest that I have affection for Thee.” But that was not the word the Lord used. He spoke of agape love—sacrificial love, laying down your life, becoming a bondservant in love.
What did the Lord say to Peter?
Feed My lambs.
Tend My sheep.
If we want to manifest in practical ways our love for the Lord Jesus, we do it by serving our brothers and sisters. Can you imagine what a difference it would make in our assemblies, and in the church in the United States of America, if some of us made this decision and then put it into practice?
What motivated Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle? Let us look in Philippians 3. It is one of the most amazing testimonies we can read anywhere. We cannot go through it all this afternoon, but I hope that by reading it we may understand what was in the heart of this man—what motivated him and what made him tick.
Philippians 3:7-8 says:
Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ.
What motivated this man? One thing: he wanted to know his Lord. He did not want merely mental knowledge. He wanted to know Christ in a real, experiential way. He speaks of gaining Christ.
He knew there was an experience of Christ being more fully formed in us. Is this not what he said in Galatians 4:19?
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
Regardless of how long we have lived, and regardless of our experiences, as wonderful as they may be, there is still much more for us to experience. There is much more of our Lord Jesus Christ for us to gain.
In Ephesians 3, Paul says that he was commissioned by God to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Think about that language: unfathomable, inexhaustible, unsearchable. How long does it take to discover the unsearchable?
What do you think we will be doing in eternity? We will be discovering more and more of the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is our responsibility now. If our hearts are motivated to become faithful stewards, then Christ must be more fully formed in us, and we must gain more of His character.
He is the perfect steward, as brother Stephen mentioned. The way you and I will become more fully what God wants us to be is for Christ to be more fully formed in us. Is this what you desire? Is this what motivates you? This is what motivated Paul the apostle.
Paul was also awaiting a crown of righteousness. In 2 Timothy 4, he says:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.
The crown is not merely a literal crown placed on the head; it represents the righteousness of God. Paul was motivated by the heavenly vision. In Acts 26:19, he said:
Wherefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
What was that vision? What apprehended and captured him? He saw Who our Lord Jesus Christ is: the only Sovereign in the universe. We need to let the Holy Spirit examine our motives. Why are we doing what we are doing?
Thirdly, we need to be illuminated. I have already mentioned the vision Paul had in Acts 9 and Acts 26. In Galatians 1, Paul says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him.
Brothers and sisters, we need to let the Holy Spirit work in us. We need, by the grace of God, to pay whatever price must be paid so that the eyes of our hearts may be opened to see Who our Lord Jesus Christ is.
If we see Him, wonderful things will happen inside of us—or at least the possibilities will be there. This beginning revelation was only a beginning, but it had progression to it.
Paul did not have a full understanding of the unsearchable riches of Christ in Acts 9. But the more obedient he was to what he had already seen, the more the eyes of his heart were opened for him to see more and more of Who our Lord Jesus Christ is.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, he was caught up into the third heaven and saw things unlawful for a man to utter. Because of the greatness of those revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to him.
Brothers and sisters, this thorn was not a little splinter in his finger. It was like a sharpened fence post stuck into his side. Paul was convinced that unless God removed it, he could not continue his ministry or be faithful.
He implored the Lord. He begged the Lord to remove it. Did the Lord remove it? No. Did God answer his prayer? Yes, but not in the way Paul expected. What did the Lord Jesus say?
My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.
Through that experience, Paul came to see something of our Lord Jesus Christ that had not been real to him to that point. It did not matter if he endured all the things he catalogued in 2 Corinthians 11. One of those experiences would have caused most of us to give up and forget about being stewards.
In 2 Corinthians 11:22-28, Paul says:
Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they seed of Abraham? so am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as one beside himself, I more; in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.
After all this, Paul still needed further experience to discover the greatness of the grace of God. The Lord had to say to him, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” What did he learn? He learned that when he was weak, that was when he was strong.
Have you learned that lesson? It is not our weaknesses that create a problem for the Lord. It is our strengths—the things we can do in ourselves—that are the real obstacle. The Lord had full permission in Paul’s life to do what needed to be done, so that the job would be finished and Paul would be qualified to fulfill the responsibility the Lord had planned for him in the age to come.
What was this thorn in the flesh? A messenger from Satan. You mean to say that our Lord would allow Satan to attack one of His precious stewards? Yes. If we take Job’s life as an example, sometimes Satan ends up doing God’s work without even realizing he is doing it.
If Paul came into one of our meetings with this thorn in the flesh, we might have an all-night prayer meeting, casting out demons and doing all kinds of things. But brothers and sisters, please, please, please: there are no coincidences in your life.
You did not marry the wrong person. I know some of you have had experiences, and many of us who are married have had times in our marriages when we were convinced, “I have made a great big mistake.” No, my brothers and sisters.
If you stay in that humble place, the Lord will take whatever we do, even whatever foolish decisions we might make, and He will turn them for good.
We need very much to let the Holy Spirit, Who has been sent here on a mission, give us the revelation and spiritual understanding necessary for us to be faithful stewards. But then we must determine, by the grace of God, that we will be obedient to that vision.
Whatever vision He gives you, you need to be willing to work it out in practical ways in your life. It is not enough to come into a meeting and share some vision the Lord has given you. That is good, but do not stop there. It needs to be worked out in your everyday living.
Fourthly, we need to be educated. This is another thing that must happen if we are to become good stewards. Spiritually speaking, we are still in kindergarten—or perhaps even before kindergarten.
The Lord sends the Holy Spirit to be our own personal Tutor, to educate us and teach us how to be faithful and fulfill our responsibilities. Paul speaks in Ephesians 4 of learning Christ—not merely learning about Him, but learning Christ.
In the verses we read earlier, Paul wanted to know his Lord. He was willing to sacrifice and count all things as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. This is part of the education.
Young brother and sister, please do not disqualify yourself. Put yourself in the place where, as a bondservant, you allow the Holy Spirit to arrange your educational opportunities, where you come to know Him, gain Christ, and learn Christ.
Paul says in Philippians 4, “I have learned.” This is precious to me, because sometimes we think that those who have certain responsibilities in the body of Christ do not have to learn anything; they know it all. But, brothers and sisters, no matter how old or advanced we may be, there is still much learning to be done.
If you think you have arrived and have nothing more to learn, you are in a very dangerous place. Read the examples in Scripture. Some people, at the end of their lives, thought they had learned it all, jumped off a cliff, and made a big mess of things.
Paul concludes in Philippians 4 that he had learned how to enjoy God’s provision and how to do without any provision. How did he learn? He did not go to a class called “How to Be Without Anything 101.” No, brothers and sisters. Go back to the list in 2 Corinthians 11: hunger, sleepless nights, and hardship.
The school in which we are being educated is not a classroom. The blessed Holy Spirit takes your situation at home, the people you must live with day in and day out, your circumstances, and everything that happens in your life. He wants to use it all as a way of educating you so that you may come to know your beloved Lord in a fuller way.
This does not mean simply a mental accumulation of information. This comes through a real spiritual knowing of your Lord. No one needs to disqualify himself. The Holy Spirit is prepared to take us right where we are, with the people we are now living with—these impossible people whom God has put in our lives.
How do you think you will learn to love as the Lord Jesus loves? Is this not His commandment in John 13?
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
How will you learn that lesson? By reading about it in a book? By reading John 13 a few times? No, my brothers and sisters. God will bring people into your life whom, in your estimation, are unlovable.
You may say, “Lord, sorry, too hard. You sent the wrong one.” No. If you do not learn to love that one, guess what? The next one may be even more difficult.
If you have made that initial decision to be His love slave and to love your brothers and sisters, then you need to see—and I need to see and be reminded every day—that the people who come into our lives give us an opportunity to be stewards of His love.
He has poured His love into our hearts, and now we have a responsibility to distribute that love to everyone who comes into our lives.
In Brazil, many houses have what we call a water box. It is a large tank on top of the house. Water comes from a well or from the city supply, fills the water box, and then is used for the needs of the house.
I encourage the brothers and sisters in Brazil to see their hearts as a water box. There is a regulator on it, and when the level gets too low, it is resupplied and filled again.
I suggest that they carry a ladle on the side of their belts day after day. When someone comes into their lives needing God’s love—not merely a little bit of it—they take the ladle, put it in the water box, and pour it out upon them.
Is it clear to us that the love of God spoken of in Scripture is infinite, unchanging, and eternal? You can have as much of it as you can contain. The Holy Spirit is educating us so that when people come into our lives, we may take that measure of love and pour it out upon them.
This brings me to my final point: related. Brothers and sisters, I cannot tell you how much of a burden this is in my heart. As good stewards of God, we need to learn how to have healthy relationships with one another.
I think we have done some foolish things and allowed ourselves to think in ways that have hindered the work the Lord wants to do. For instance, most of us think about the church either in terms of a meeting or a building.
We do not think about the fact that I am a member of the body of Christ when I am not in a meeting. Somehow, we think we can discharge our responsibility by going to a meeting, looking at the back of someone’s head for an hour and a half, going home, and considering our responsibility fulfilled.
Brothers and sisters, we must let the Holy Spirit illuminate our minds concerning being members of the body of Christ and learning how to be related to one another.
If you have read Romans 16, you have discovered that Paul mentions thirty-five names there. He either sends greetings to them in Rome or asks that greetings be given to people there. The point is that there are thirty-five names in Romans 16 alone.
I went through Paul’s other letters and discovered seventy names—people with whom Paul had living relationships. Some of them he called his beloved.
We do not become beloved brothers and sisters by coming to a meeting and looking at the back of someone’s head for an hour and a half. Some of us need to become clear that we must learn how to build relationships with one another outside of meetings.
We need to learn how to love one another in this context: laying-down-your-life relationships. First John 3:16 says:
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us:
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I may be one thousand percent wrong—I have been that way many times—but I believe that this matter of loving in this way is especially necessary in the times in which we live. As brother Dana was speaking about last night, when we see all these things happening, it ought to be a time to regroup.
If we have never learned these things, we need to begin to learn them. If we have begun to learn them, we need to grow in learning how to love and how to have relationships with one another—laying-down-your-life relationships.
Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle, gives us a good example of what it means to become a faithful steward, being faithful with what was entrusted to him. In this way, he becomes an encouragement to us.
Remember where this man started. Probably none of us started where he did—kicking against the goads, trying to destroy the very work our Lord Jesus was doing, an enemy of the cross and an enemy of the work of Christ.
Yet he was captured by what he saw. He was captured by the love he experienced. In Philippians 3, he says that he presses on in order to lay hold of that for which he was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us become devoted people with the same motivation. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and help us see that every situation, without exception, is an opportunity to know our Lord more fully.
If things continue in the United States as they are happening now, we will have wonderful opportunities to learn how great our God is. You will have to learn to trust Him in a way you have never had to trust Him before.
You will have to discover for yourself what Paul says in Philippians 4:19:
And my God shall supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Very few of us know that by experience, but we will have opportunity. If things become more difficult, please do not forget that it is an opportunity for us to learn, to be educated, to learn how to be related to one another, and to encourage one another.
There are many “one another” commands in the New Testament, and we will not go into them today because time is already gone. But may I encourage us to ask the Lord to give us six people with whom we may begin building good, strong, solid, laying-down-your-life relationships.
It will make a difference. Give one another freedom to speak into each other’s lives. If you see something in me—if I say or do anything dishonoring to my Lord—you owe it to me. You are responsible to come and speak to me about it.
We need these kinds of relationships. They are the Lord’s provision to keep the enemy from coming in on a blind side. We need relationships with people we trust, people we know love us, and who, because they love us, are willing to address any issue in our lives.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, what a difference it would make. This is the way the world will know that we are His disciples: if we have this kind of laying-down-your-life love.
God help us. God be merciful to us. I know it is in His heart for us all to become this kind of steward, faithful with what God has placed in our hands. May God be merciful to us.
Let us close this time with a few prayers from brothers and sisters.