Well, good evening.
I would like to ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to our two theme verses. I think by now you know these theme verses. We read them once again. This is from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.
It says this:
Let a man so account of us, as servants of Christ,
and stewards of the mysteries of God.Here, further, it is sought in stewards,
that a man be found faithful.
And I would like to read that second verse from the Authorized Version, from the King James Version. It says, “Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
Notice the slight difference: “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.”
Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we come to You. We have read Your Word, and as always, we tell You, Lord Jesus, we are utterly dependent upon You.
So often it is on my heart what Peter said that day when many were offended and turned back, and You turned to him and said, “Will you go also?” And Peter uttered those words:
To whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Lord, this is our declaration: You alone have the words of eternal life. Your words are spirit and life.
We call upon You, Lord, to speak to us tonight. We do not want to hear man. We are not interested in man’s words, but we are interested in hearing the voice of the Lord by the Holy Spirit.
We pray in the name of Jesus for a real quickening to speak. We pray in the name of Jesus for real quickening by the Holy Spirit, to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We pray that You will release Your Word.
We thank You for being with us thus far, and we look to You to be with us tonight. In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, I think everyone knows from these verses our theme: stewards of the mysteries of God. We are so privileged to be able to gather again like this. Think of it. We are so thankful to be able to gather like this.
In this present evil age that we live in, we may not always be able to gather like this. It may be sooner than you think.
But we have been privileged to gather these forty years, and this is now the forty-first year of this Christian Family Conference, and to hear about the eternal purpose of God.
I guarantee you, brothers and sisters, if you were to go out on the street or go to any assembly of God’s people and ask them, “Do you know what the eternal purpose of God is?” I guarantee you, they would look at you with a blank face and wonder, “What on earth are you talking about?”
But think of it. Think of the privilege we have had these forty years. We are so thankful for this privilege.
Our brother Stephen has been sharing with us about the mysteries of God. You know, that great book of Ephesians unfolds the very heart of the mysteries of God.
We think of Ephesians 1:9-10, and I would like you to turn to it again. Let’s look at those verses. I think you know these verses, but listen to this, because the God of glory reveals to us His deepest secrets and reveals to us His highest mysteries.
Isn’t that good news? He is not a God who hides Himself. He is not a God who keeps Himself away. He is a God who reveals Himself to us.
I discovered years ago, reading this little book of Ephesians, this letter of the Apostle Paul, that the phrase “made known” came alive to me. I thought, “This God—He has opened His heart to us. He has unfolded the deepest and highest things to us.” How gracious that is.
Look at these verses. Verse 9:
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
unto an administration of the fullness of the times,
to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth;
in Him.
Just so we will not miss what the point is: in Him. What a privilege we have had to hear these things these years.
I think of Ephesians 3:9-11. This is the mysteries of God:
And to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery
hidden throughout the ages in God, Who created all things;
in order that now, to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies,
might be made known through the church
the all-various wisdom of God,
according to the purpose of the ages.
I have often said that in Ephesians 1:9-10 it says, “having made known,” because it is through the Lord Jesus. But when we come into this second part of the mystery, we discover another phrase: “might be made known,” because it is talking about the church.
The Lord never fails. The church often fails. To me, these are the great mysteries that we have had such a privilege to begin to hear—this morning, this week, and for these forty years.
Then the Apostle Paul concludes this book with that great chapter on spiritual warfare, Ephesians 6:10-18. Following that great explanation, he asks for prayer.
He says in Ephesians 6:18-20:
Praying at all seasons in the Spirit,
with all prayer and supplication,
and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints;
and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me
in opening my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
Brothers and sisters, that is our burden: that God would open our mouths; that God would open Stephen’s mouth, that God would open Dana’s mouth, that God would open Jerry’s mouth—my mouth, Mac’s mouth—to make known the mystery of God with all boldness.
What a privilege we have had. I talk to brothers and sisters all the time, and they say these things have turned their lives upside down and inside out. Before they heard these things, they lived for themselves.
Dana gives the example over and over of this brother who was in “cemetery,” as he likes to say. Then he came to this little conference in Richmond, Virginia, and he heard Lance Lambert and Stephen Kaung speak. His whole life was turned upside down and inside out after he heard about the mysteries of God.
Don’t you think we are privileged? Aren’t you thankful? That is the sense I come to this word with.
We are also sad. Our brother Lance is not with us. Now listen to me: there is no one more disappointed about this than Mac and me. No one.
Our brother was used for years to speak to us about the mysteries of God. Actually, he missed one of those forty years. I think it was in 1983. He could not get out of Jerusalem because of the war with Lebanon.
But he was with us for forty-one years, because in 1974 we were at a conference—the first time our brother Lance was there, the first time we met him—and our brother Stephen spoke about spiritual responsibility.
Brothers and sisters, I am telling you, the Lord turned our lives upside down in Richmond. We heard His heart, and we responded in some small measure to His heart.
Our brother Lance spoke about the house of God, and we had never heard things like that before. It captured our hearts. We are so thankful, and we are sad that he is not here.
But we are thankful that we can meet again this forty-first year and speak of the mysteries of God.
Some have even said, “Don’t you have a different theme?” I suppose we could, but it has never been in our hearts.
This has been the only purpose for which we have gathered these years: to express the deep mystery that is in the heart of God, that we are privileged to hear about and even more privileged to be involved with. That is the reason we are together.
Well, I had better get on, or we will never finish, and Mac will have to do all of Lance’s messages.
I will be sharing on stewards of the mysteries this evening one time. Mac will be sharing in the morning on stewards of the mysteries. I will try to share on the vertical relationship, and Mac will share on the horizontal relationship.
But may we see the Lord in a living way. There are three things I want to share. I hope they are meaningful.
First is the servant’s appointment. You need to see that. If you are going to be a steward—a faithful steward—you must understand the divine principle of the servant’s appointment.
Secondly, you must have the steward’s attitude. It is no good to understand your appointment if you have a wrong attitude as a steward. So it is absolutely critical that we have the right attitude as a steward.
Finally, what is the aim of a steward? I think that is very important. If we do not understand the aim, if we do not understand the end of a steward, then we do not understand what a steward is all about.
So, in those three simple things, I hope it is helpful to you, and I hope we can have a better understanding of our great calling in these mysteries of God.
Let us begin by looking at the servant’s appointment.
The first phrase the Apostle Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 is, “Let a man so account of us as servants of Christ.” That was the first point he made.
Now, this is a very important principle when it comes to the message on our hearts: every child of God is a servant of God. That is what it means. We have to understand that principle.
I think so often in the Christian world we still have a wrong idea of who is a servant and who is not a servant. It is easy for us to look at Brother Stephen and say, “There is a servant of God.” It is easy for us to look at Lance and say, “There is a steward, a servant of God.” It is easy to look at Dana and say, “There is a servant of God.”
But what if you look at me?
Brothers and sisters, we need to understand this first thing about servants: every born-again Christian is a servant of God. Absolutely, we need to understand that. All of us are in God’s service.
It is kind of confusing when you read this text, because you begin to wonder, “Is the Apostle Paul talking about himself?” Well, that could not be, because it says, “Let a man so account of us.” Even an engineer who does not understand English knows that is not just Paul. It is plural.
So perhaps you would argue that the Apostle Paul is talking about the apostles. After all, he ends chapter 3 talking about Cephas, Apollos, and himself. So maybe that is who servants are: the apostles.
You have an even greater part of your argument when you go on in chapter 4 and see him again talking about the apostles. It may seem apparent to you that the servants of Christ are the apostles, but you would be wrong.
I think this is a very important matter. Now, I may be blowing up the whole theme here. If you think it is only the apostles, then why are you here? If you think it is only the apostles, why is this our text verse? Would all the apostles line up against the wall on the side so we would know?
But, brothers and sisters, this is the first and vital principle: every child of God is a servant of Christ. You have to know that. You have to know that.
Otherwise, you go down this road and think there is a spiritual group, and there is this lay group, and you are part of the lay ministers, while Dana is a real minister of Christ.
This is vital: “Let a man so account of us as servants of Christ.” I think this first point is absolutely a vital starting point.
When you look at the context in the New Testament, there is absolutely no question about it. Every child of God is a servant of Christ.
As a matter of fact, let me put it more emphatically. Before we come to know the Lord, all of us are sinners. I know you know that. We are all sinners. Do not think for a moment there was something good in you. Do not think for a moment there was something in you. There was not.
We were all sinners, but after we become believers, we are all saints. Paul said in his very letter, 1 Corinthians 1:2, “called saints.”
I know it drives the Catholics crazy—if there are any Catholics in this room—but you did not have to do two miracles and somehow be beatified. You were a saint when you came to know the Lord Jesus. Every sinner, a saint.
And not only that: every saint is a servant. Praise the Lord. That is what you have been called to.
And every servant is a steward. Some great responsibility has been given to you by God Almighty. That is the whole of it.
What an important first point we hear from the Apostle Paul.
I remember the first time I read a similar word in Revelation 1. Turn to it. I think you know it, but I will read it—the latter part of Revelation 1:5-6:
Unto Him that loveth us,
and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom,
to be priests unto His God and Father;
to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, not only are we servants, not only are we stewards, but we are priests. Did you know you were a priest? You did not have to wear one of those funny little white collars. When you were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, you became a priest.
That has always been the heart of God, and that is the mystery of God: all are priests.
Or I think of 1 Peter 2:9, how it came alive to me years ago:
But ye are an elect race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession,
that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him
Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
That is what we are: a holy priesthood. Praise the Lord.
I think this is a very important point that we cannot go far without noticing: “Let a man account of us as servants of Christ.”
There is a special phrase in the Bible: “servant of God.” It only occurs seven times. Oddly enough, four times in the Old Testament it is about Moses. Once in the New Testament, in Hebrews, it is about Moses. Then Paul said he was a servant of God, and James said in James 1:1 that he was a servant of God.
But do you know this? I know you think I am belaboring it too much, but if we are going to serve the mysteries of God, we have to lay hold of this first and primary principle: you are a servant of God.
That verse could be said not just of Moses, servant of God, but it could and should be said, “Jerry, servant of God.” It should be said, “Hosea, servant of God.” It should be said, “Amanda, servant of God.” Every one of us is a servant of the Most High. Isn’t that good news?
Thank the Lord. That gives real meaning to life.
Another thing about these servants is the word that is used. The word used is appointed servant. There are a number of Greek words translated “servant.”
There is one, probably the most common, doulos, a slave. Now, if you are Greek, do not get offended at my pronunciation. Some people get offended at me about my English pronunciation, so you Greek folks here, bear with me. It is not a lesson in Greek; it is a lesson in stewardship.
There is another word, diakonos. It means a bondman. Then there is the word that is here—not in so many places in the Bible. I am not even sure how to say it, but it is huperetes, and it is always used in the New Testament to mean an official servant.
Do you understand? Brothers and sisters, we are official servants. God has chosen us to be His official servants.
Think of the mystery Stephen has been sharing with us: that God has chosen man, who failed, who is a little lower than the angels. He has chosen us as men to be His official servants. It is almost too much to take in, but that is the truth of the Word of God.
Not only does it mean official servant, but it means appointed servant. God has appointed you as His servants to do His official business. Can you believe that?
Well, I think He could have made a better choice. I hope that does not offend you too much. But yet, in the mystery of God, He has chosen us to be the appointed servants to do His official business.
You may have thought your life had no meaning, but think of it. How much meaning that brings to life. You are not just here as a person trying to make a living, find a mate, get by, maybe have children—or, if you are like me, have grandchildren—be a little happy, maybe have a little money, and get by.
You are here as an official, appointed servant of the King. Can you believe that? That is why you are here. That is the reason you have been saved. That is the reason you were called. That is the reason you were set free from your sins: not to have a happy life, but to be an official, appointed servant of the King, doing His official business.
Now, I am a businessman. Some people might argue I am not a very good businessman, but I am a businessman. I have an engineering business. As a matter of fact, Jerry and I work together in this engineering business, so he has to put up with me not only in the church, but he has to put up with me at business. What a dilemma.
But long ago, our beloved brother Stephen said something to me, and it has stuck with me. He said, “Your job is not your real business.” My partners might not like that.
He said, “Your job is your avocation.” Some of us did not even know what avocation means. It means a hobby. It means a minor occupation.
Brothers and sisters, our real business is the business of the King. It is not what you do every day.
You may be the President of the United States—I am sorry, that is taken. You may be a doctor. You may be a janitor. You may be a bus driver. You may be a homemaker. You may be a student. But that is not your real occupation.
If you think it is your real occupation, you do not understand the mysteries of God. Your real occupation is to be an appointed servant of the King, to do His official business.
May the Lord help us. May the Lord help us.
This is exactly what the Apostle Paul said when he was talking to Agrippa in Acts 26. He was explaining his salvation to King Agrippa. In Acts 26:16, he said how the Lord said to him:
To appoint thee a servant and a witness
both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me,
and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee.
Notice, it is a double word. You could read it, “to appoint thee an appointed servant.” That was his explanation to King Agrippa. “That is who I am.”
Brothers and sisters, I hope I have made the point: that is who you are. That is your occupation. That is your calling. That is your life. If your life is anything else, you are not serving the purpose of God in your generation.
Another similar word is “ambassadors of Christ.” I think it is another word similar to appointed servants. Do you know the definition of an ambassador? It is an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country. That is what an ambassador is.
As a matter of fact, that is what Paul said he was. Look at the end of Ephesians again, that prayer we read. In Ephesians 6:20:
For which I am an ambassador in chains;
that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Speaking of the mysteries of God, that is what he was. He was an ambassador bound with a chain. His whole life was to make known these mysteries of God.
And that is what we are. If you read 2 Corinthians 5:20, we understand Paul alone was not an ambassador:
We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, not only are you an appointed servant to do the official business of the King, you are an ambassador appointed by the King—an ambassador of Christ.
All of your business in this country, which is a foreign country to you once you become a Christian, is doing His business.
You know, ambassadors are funny things. In the United States, we have ambassadors, but it is a squirrelly business. Presidents—not just the current one, in case you think I am bashing him; presidents, plural—have often taken the least qualified people and made them ambassadors because they gave huge sums of money to them during the campaign.
So I can tell you a little secret: if you want a new occupation, if you have one hundred thousand or five hundred thousand dollars, give it to the next one running for president in 2016, make sure he or she knows that you gave it, and then request the country you want to be an ambassador to. That is the way the business works.
As a matter of fact, I was watching CNN, and they said the funniest thing. They were talking about Obama’s appointments. They said he appointed a soap opera director to become the ambassador to Hungary.
Our Constitution requires the Senate to review these appointments as ambassadors. The senator sat there and did not know what to say. They asked, “What strategic interest do we have in Hungary?” That poor woman could not answer a single thing. It was embarrassing.
Then he appointed an ambassador to Argentina, and the senator said, “Sir, have you ever been to Argentina?” And he said, “No.” The ambassador to Argentina.
You may think those are funny things, but do you know the Lord Jesus has taken the least qualified—even us—and made us His eternal ambassadors? Isn’t that glorious?
There could not be one more unqualified than me to be an ambassador, yet I am an ambassador. You are an ambassador. You are an ambassador. We are ambassadors of Christ, representing His interests in this foreign land in which we live.
Our home is not here. Our home is with Him. While we are here, we are on official business—appointed not by the President of the United States, but appointed by the highest King, even God, as His official ambassadors.
That is what it means to be a servant: “Let a man so account of us as servants of Christ.”
I was struck by how unqualified we are, yet the Lord in His mercy has made us His ambassadors. I think the best example is the Lord Jesus Himself.
Do you remember that story in Luke 2:49? When He was twelve years old, He went to the temple. There the elders were asking questions, and He was answering questions. It was during the holidays, and His parents did not realize He was in the temple. They went away a few days’ journey, then came back and found the Lord Jesus in the temple of God.
This was His explanation:
Knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?
Is that you? Is that your burden? Is that your life? Do you say, “I have to be about my Father’s business”?
There is a true ambassador. There is a true servant of God. There is a steward, a faithful steward. May the Lord help us to see that.
There is another thing I want us to look at: the second thing, the steward’s attitude. I think this is really important. Brothers and sisters, I think this is really important.
We need to have the attitude of a steward. That second point in our text says, “and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
Not only are we appointed servants for the official business, not only are we ambassadors in this foreign land—ambassadors of the King—but we are stewards of the mysteries of God.
That is what Stephen has been talking about. These great mysteries, the highest secrets of eternity, have been given to us, and we are to be the ones in responsible charge for these great divine mysteries. That is what you are called to.
I think we have lost the sense of what it means to be a steward. We might think, “Yes, I understand being a servant. I serve the Lord in this way. I serve the Lord in that way.” But do we really have a deep sense of what a steward is? Do we have the attitude of a steward?
This is a very important thing. This is not a word, after all, that we use very frequently. You do not run around your house and say, “I am a steward.” Most people would not know what you were talking about. It is sort of an old-fashioned word when you think of it.
But that is precisely what we are. It expresses the very nature of the Christian life: stewards.
Stewards are managers of a household or of household affairs. Stewards actually means under-rowers.
I know that may sound puzzling to you, but in the old days, when Paul wrote, boats did not have huge jet engines and propellers. Some of you young people may not know that.
They had a group of folks, as we like to say, and they were all down in the bottom of the boat. They had all these oars sticking out of the boat, and they were all rowing. They were under-rowers because they were under the master. They were taking directions, and they were doing whatever he said.
So, as a steward, we are never the one on top. We are always the under-rower. Do you get the point? He is the One in charge. We are the under-rower.
The word occurs ten times in the New Testament. You know, the One who uses this word “steward” more than anybody else is the Lord Jesus Himself. That ought to give us some sense of its importance.
If the Lord Jesus used this word more than anybody else, that tells us how important this issue of stewardship is. It is because this is God’s purpose.
There are two examples that give a great contrast in the Bible. I just want to make a few points about these two examples.
There are only two kinds of stewards according to the Bible. There is a wise steward, and there is a wasteful steward. There is nobody in between.
We like to be sort of in that gray area—partly faithful, faithful sixty-two percent of the time. That is exaggerating, and Stephen said, “Don’t exaggerate, because the Holy Spirit will come in and convict you.”
There is no gray area. According to the Lord’s own explanation, there is no gray area. Look with me at Luke 12.
Luke 12:42-44. This is when the Lord is talking about His coming:
And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward,
whom his lord shall set over his household,
to give them their portion of food in due season?Blessed is that servant,
whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.Of a truth I say unto you,
that he will set him over all that he hath.
Think of that. He will set him over all that He has. If He can find a wise and faithful servant, the Lord Himself says He will set him over all that He has. What a great encouragement that is.
Then there is the other example of the wasteful steward in Luke 16.
I think you know this:
There was a certain rich man, who had a steward;
and the same was accused unto him that this man was wasting his goods.And he called him, and said unto him,
What is this that I hear of thee?
Give an account of thy stewardship.
Brothers and sisters, this is a sobering word. At the end, the King will have a question for us. He will say to each of us, “Give a reckoning of your stewardship.”
It was reported that this one was wasteful. I think this is very sobering.
But let me tell you this: some of you may be below your chair by this point, holding on for dear life, looking like Kilroy looking over the front of the chair, thinking, “Oh my, I will never be a faithful steward.”
But the encouragement is this: this is not about salvation. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are saved, and you are saved forever. You cannot take back the gift of salvation.
This has to do with reward and the kingdom for a thousand years. Many Christians blur the lines. They think there is no difference: you are saved, you are in the kingdom.
But if you read the Word very carefully, and these severe exhortations about faithful stewards and the consequences for those who are not, it is not about salvation. It is about kingdom. It is about reward.
J. G. Bellett, one of the Brethren writers, in his notes on the Gospel of Luke said this of Luke 16: “If there is a serious chapter in the Gospel, it is this one.”
If we do not carry ourselves as stewards of God, we are wasters. Brothers and sisters, you have heard the phrase, “That is a wasted life.” But to a Christian, if we are not a steward—a faithful steward, a wise steward—the Lord says it is a wasteful life.
Do you understand? May the Lord help us. This is a very serious matter, and we need to really pay attention to it, lest we fool ourselves that, as believers, we can live for ourselves and live however we want because there is always grace. Of course there is.
This is the matter that is put before us during this conference. Not only are we stewards; we are stewards of the mysteries of God. This is very important, because the focus in the Bible is not upon the steward, but the focus in the Bible is upon the stewardship.
The focus is always upon the stewardship. It is not upon the steward. That is the lesson, I think, we can learn from the Bible.
Brothers and sisters, this stewardship of the mysteries of God is the greatest stewardship. These are heaven’s highest secrets that have been given to us. God has chosen us, called us, and given to us this eternal responsibility. That is the seriousness of this subject.
I remember reading from Brother T. Austin-Sparks. Some newcomers may not have ever heard of him, but those of us who have been here for years are indebted to that dear brother. What deep understanding he had of the mysteries of God. What deep revelation he had of God’s mysteries.
How we have been helped, perhaps more than by any other brother, by our brother T. Austin-Sparks.
He explained in The Stewardship of the Mystery, Volume 2, what this stewardship is about—these mysteries. He said, “Let us be quite categorical in stating that we can never see the church until we have seen the Son of God.”
That is true. But then he went on to say, “And we cannot truly see the Son of God without seeing the church.” That is what our brother Stephen has been talking about. That is what we are stewards of: stewards of the mysteries of God.
It is Christ and the church. Those are the deep mysteries. It is two mysteries in one.
He went on to say, “This is not just one of the teachings of the Bible.” He said, “This is the teaching of the Bible.” I think that is a profound statement worthy to be noticed.
The Bible is about Christ, and the Bible is also about God looking for a people to express Christ, to have fellowship with Christ through the ages. That is the mysteries of God: two in one.
He went on to say that “mystery” occurs twenty-two times in the Bible, “mysteries” in the plural occurs five times, and there are sixteen mysteries. It would be easy to say, “Well, there are all kinds of mysteries.”
But he made this singular and profound point that I think we should notice. He said:
It looks as though there are many mysteries. But if we look again, we shall find that, at least in the majority of the cases, the mystery is related in some way to Christ and the church. There are very few exceptions to this. And when we come to Paul’s particular conception, it is not in the plural; it is in the singular: mystery.
That is the mysteries of God: two mysteries in one, Christ and the church.
I remember a story that has so blessed me over the years about Brother Watchman Nee. When he went to England in 1933, he met with George Cutting.
George Cutting was a brother and writer, and he wrote the little booklet Safety, Security, and Enjoyment. When Brother Nee met with Brother Cutting, Brother Cutting said, “I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me.”
Think of that. I used to always say, “Maybe Brother Cutting got it wrong.” I understand, “I cannot live without Him.” I get that. I am not that dull. But I do not understand, “He cannot live without me.”
That is the deep mystery of God.
Brother Nee, when he reported on that, said, “This brother had the deepest fellowship with the Lord. He knew something of the mystery few believers know.”
But when Brother Nee returned to China, he had further revelation. He said, “I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me.” Then he said, “I cannot live without my brothers and sisters, and they cannot live without me.”
That is the church.
I think most of us would want to live without our brothers and sisters. I have been in church life so long. When I was saved, six months after I was saved, Jerry and I came to meet with the brothers and sisters in Richmond.
Jerry loves to embellish the story. I cannot wait until the Holy Spirit convicts him. He says I had hair down to the middle of my back. It is not true. It was only to my shoulders.
As a young man, the Lord began to open to me something of the beauty of the church. The Lord began to open to me something of the beauty of Christ. I will tell you, from that day in 1972, I was never the same.
Though we have been through tremendous conflicts in our years in the assembly in Richmond, sometimes wondering if we would even make it, the Lord has always kept us with this sense: we cannot live without Him, and somehow He cannot live without us.
Even more, we cannot live without our brothers and sisters, and they cannot live without us.
Do you have an understanding of that mystery of God? Is that in your heart? That is what we are called as stewards to: two mysteries in one.
The first mention of stewards—I wonder if you know where it is in the Bible. The first mention of “steward” is Genesis 15:2, with Abraham.
Turn to Genesis 15:2. I think this is very important:
And Abram said, O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless,
and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
This is the first mention of a steward: Eliezer. Do you know that he is never mentioned again by name? I think that is the strangest thing. The first steward, never mentioned again by name.
But when we go to Genesis 24, we see the steward. There we see the steward doing the greatest stewardship.
He is not mentioned by name. He is just called the servant. Most Bible scholars think it is Eliezer in Genesis 24, and he was on a mission from God to find a bride for Abraham’s only son, Isaac. You know the story of Isaac and Rebekah.
Brothers and sisters, this is a revelation of the deepest mysteries of God. It is an Old Testament illustration of the deepest mysteries of God.
Here is Father Abraham, who represents God. Here he finally has his only son, Isaac. You know, it is his only son. Here at the end of his life, in Genesis 24, he wants to give to his son everything—all that he has.
Here he calls once again upon his faithful steward, Eliezer. Eliezer has one mission. Abraham says, “Go to my people and find a bride for my son.”
Do you see what it is talking about? The first time stewardship is mentioned in the Bible, do you see what it is talking about?
It is foreshadowing God the Father—God and His only Son, and the love He has for His only Son, that everything would be summed up in Christ. Not only that, what He wants, last of all, for His only Son is to find a bride—an eternal companion for His only Son.
Isn’t that glorious? That is what the mystery of God is. That is what this story is about. That is what this steward, Eliezer, is an illustration of: the eternal purpose of God.
There are a couple of things that struck me about Eliezer. First of all, he seems selfless, and I think this is what we need in stewards.
He is not even named. At least they could have said, “Here is good old El. Give him a shout.” But he is unmentioned. He is called “his servant.” He is called “Abraham’s servant.” He is called “the servant.” He is called “the man.”
Brothers and sisters, I think there is a lesson here. What we are to see in stewardship—faithful stewardship—is that we must be selfless.
You know, it is not about me. It is not about me.
I believe most Christianity has come to be about me: “What is in it for me?”
If I tell this illustration one more time, Linda will attack the stage. But I will tell it.
I will never forget riding down Huguenot Road from the meeting and seeing a bumper sticker on a young lady’s car that said, “I am the center of the universe.”
I could not believe it. I may have thought it, but I would never say it. I would certainly not put it on my car for the world to read.
But I believe that is what has happened in Christianity. We have lost a sense of stewardship. It is all about me. It is all about, “What has God done for me?”
I believe Eliezer is the unnamed, faithful steward. I believe this is very important.
He had one anxiety. We have lots of anxieties. We are an anxious people. I think with all the counseling, all the psychology, and all the things we have done to so-called understand the soul, people are more confused today than ever before. You may not agree with me.
The Lord said, “Be not anxious about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor what you shall put on.”
Here, this steward had one anxiety. He told Abraham, “What if she does not go?” That was his only concern.
Do we have that kind of anxiety? What if the mission fails? That was his only anxiety. Instead, brothers and sisters, we are anxious about all the cares of this life. But here is the faithful steward.
Well, I think you know what I am talking about. Eliezer—and my time is almost up, and I will be in deep trouble if I go past my time—is really only representative of the ultimate faithful steward.
Eliezer is an Old Testament prefigure, if you will—a type figure, if you will—of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s mission is to do all the will of God. The Lord says, when I send Him to you, “He will not speak of Himself.” Think of the selfless Holy Spirit. “He will speak of the things that I say. He will make known to you the things I have said.”
What a selfless, selfless steward the Holy Spirit is. Brothers and sisters, that seems to me to be the ultimate faithful steward.
Do you know, this ought to encourage you? When it comes to being a faithful steward, God put that ultimate faithful steward inside of you. Did you know that?
How wonderful that is. How encouraging that is: that the ultimate steward is within us.
Well, I have to get to my last point. Let me move on to the last point. The last point is the steward’s aim.
What is the steward’s aim? The steward’s aim, in the end, is faithfulness. That is all.
I will read you again that portion of the verse from the Authorized Version:
Moreover, it is required in stewards,
that a man be found faithful.
That is the steward’s aim. This is the last point. Notice it says, “It is required.” It is not optional.
I think sometimes, as believers, we think, “Well, it is optional. I just need to believe in the Lord Jesus. That is enough.” That is true for salvation, but that is not good enough for stewardship. It is required.
The other day, we put out an application for a new engineer, and we said, “It is required.” Simple words. You would not believe the résumé we got back. I thought, “Good grief. Did this person even read it?”
It is required for a steward to be faithful. Think about the importance of that.
The Lord could have said through Paul anything, but He said this one thing. That shows us the importance of faithfulness. This is the end. It is an extraordinary statement without any option.
Faithfulness, in the end, will be the test of the steward.
Let me tell you this: it is not about being successful. It is about being faithful. There is a difference.
I love what Oswald Chambers said about this: “Whether our work is a success or a failure has nothing to do with us.”
He said, “Our call is not to be successful in service, but to be faithful.” That is it.
It is required of a steward that he be found faithful.
Now, I know that might start to overwhelm some of you in this room. If you have not buried yourself in the cushion, fallen on the floor, and given up, you may start to say, “How can we ever be those faithful stewards?”
You might be like me and say, “It seems impossible.” For you and for me, it is impossible.
But let me tell you: when it comes to stewardship, we never begin with our faithfulness. When it comes to stewardship, we always must have the starting point be His faithfulness. Do you understand?
That is absolutely important. It never begins with our faithfulness. It always begins with His faithfulness.
When the Apostle Paul was writing this letter to 1 Corinthians, in which our text is found, he made that bedrock principle absolutely clear in the very opening of the letter. He said in 1 Corinthians 1:9:
God is faithful,
through Whom ye were called
into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Brothers and sisters, that is the encouragement. When we think of faithful stewards, the beginning point, the starting point, the bedrock principle in Scripture is not that we are faithful. The bedrock principle in the Scriptures is that God is faithful.
When you look at the beginning of the Word of God, it is: God is faithful. When you look at the end of the Word of God, it is: God is faithful. When you look all the way in between in the Word of God, it is: God is faithful.
As a matter of fact, when you look at the Word of God, you see two contrasts: God, who is faithful, and man, who is unfaithful. Think about the Garden of Eden. Think about the children of Israel. Think about the church.
This is the bedrock secret and mystery: God is faithful. It is absolutely the most important principle we can see.
I like what Campbell Morgan said. He called this the fundamental affirmation. He said it is “the essential, fundamental affirmation of the whole letter.”
He said that all Paul wrote afterward, both in correction in the first eleven chapters and in construction in the last chapters, gathers its force from this stupendous fact and this single saying: God is faithful.
Isn’t that encouraging? I think that is so encouraging. All through the Word of God, that is the bedrock principle.
When you look in the Old Testament, let me just read a few verses. Deuteronomy 7:9—I believe this was our opening verse in morning prayer:
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God,
the faithful God,
Who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness
with them that love Him and keep His commandments
to a thousand generations.
This is the bedrock principle, brothers and sisters. This is our encouragement: that in the end, God is faithful. How we need to embrace that. That, to me, is absolutely encouraging.
When you look at the New Testament, in the end, Revelation 19:11:
And I saw the heaven opened;
and behold, a white horse,
and He that sat thereon called Faithful and True.
He is faithful in the darkest of times. We think of those great words in Lamentations: “Great is Thy faithfulness.”
How wonderfully those words have encouraged saints in the darkest of times. We think of that great hymn by Brother Chisholm, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” How many saints, in a moment of despair, lay hold of the truth embedded in the Word—that three-word bedrock truth: God is faithful.
Brothers and sisters, this to me is the number one encouragement. You might say, “How, then, is it possible for us to be faithful stewards?” There are two things. I will end with these two things.
Number one: there is another mystery in how we can be faithful stewards. Look at Colossians 1:26-27:
The mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations:
but now hath it been manifested to His saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Brothers and sisters, if you can imagine it, Christ is living inside of you. That is how we can become faithful stewards.
That is how, at the end, we can hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” It is all because Christ is living in us.
This is our secret. This is the mystery which makes everything happen. Because Christ has come in you and taken up His permanent abode by the Holy Spirit, you can be conformed to His image.
We can learn, as it says in Psalm 37:3, to cultivate faithfulness. It is a growing process. Christ is formed in us. As we are conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, that is the secret of the steward’s faithfulness. Without it, it is impossible.
That is why the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 4:19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail
until Christ be formed in you.
That is the secret. But there is another secret.
We mentioned the first mention of stewards in the Bible, with Eliezer in Genesis 15:2. The last mention of stewards in the Bible is 1 Peter 4:10:
According as each hath received a gift,
ministering it among yourselves,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
In the end, no steward will say, “It was because I was faithful.” I think in the end every steward will say, “It was because of the manifold grace of God that was poured out on me that made faithful stewardship possible.”
No steward will think he is the one. It is like that vision in Zechariah 4, when the capstone is put in place. There will be shouts of, “Grace, grace, unto it.”
In the end, in stewardship, it is all about grace.
I do not think anybody will have a bumper sticker that says, “Faithful steward.”
Last week, or the other week, I was at a lawyer’s office. I was not in trouble, by the way. I was at a lawyer’s office, and I walked out of the office and pointed out to Linda that someone had one of these round white oval things. Usually, you see “OBX” for Outer Banks. This one said, “Overcomer.”
I thought, “My, that person is confident.”
In the end, this will be your secret: you will say, “Christ lives in me.”
In the end, if you hear those words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” you will utter what Peter uttered. You will say, “It was the manifold grace of God poured down on me to turn this one into a faithful steward.”
This is the burden. This is the burden that is on my heart: stewards of the mysteries. May the Lord help us.
We said we wanted to bring a serious word. I hope you are not undone. I hope you are encouraged.
Nevertheless, I hope even you young people think about this seriously. You are just beginning your lives. My career is almost over.
I told Jerry the other day, “My career is almost over.” Not my occupation, by the way; let us be clear about that. But my career is almost over. Your life is just beginning.
What are you going to do with it? Is it about your life? Are you going to recognize this divine call for you to be a steward of the mystery of God?
Are you willing to say to Him tonight, “Lord, I do not want to be known as anything else but Your steward”?
Do you think it means you will not be able to get a job, or you will not marry, or you will not have children? No, that is asceticism. It means your priorities will be different.
Let a man so account of us
as servants of Christ,
and stewards of the mysteries of God.Moreover, it is required of stewards
that a man be found faithful.
Lord, we bring back to You these words. Lord, we ask Your forgiveness for words weakly spoken.
But we look unto You, that You would speak deeply to our hearts in these remaining days. Lord, lay hold of us. Capture us for Yourself.
We want to fulfill this calling You have called us to. We want to be those servants, those stewards, who serve the mysteries of God.
We want to be those stewards who are faithful in the end. We tell You, Lord, now it is impossible for us. We are so thankful it is possible with You.
We are so thankful for this great mystery of Christ in us, the hope of glory. We are so grateful that every provision has been made available to us in Christ Jesus.
The grace of God, the manifold grace of God, has been poured down on us, and we can, in the end, be faithful stewards.
Make it so, Lord, for Your sake. Amen.