And so God is going to be there for us, but here's the thing, our walk with God's a two-way
street.
It's not a one-way valve.
It's a two-way street.
He said, draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you.
And if we're faithful to him, then he's going to be there for us when we need him.
Are you there for him when he needs you?
He needs you to be faithful to the house of God.
He needs you to be faithful soul winning.
He needs you to be faithful serving him.
He's committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.
You know, of course, the Calvinist would hear that and say like, well, you know, I
mean, he doesn't need us for anything, you know, why don't we all just dive in?
We're all dirt.
Okay.
Thank you, Calvinist.
None of us matters.
We're all expendable.
We're all dirt.
We do.
We, we, we, why are we even here?
You know, that's not what the Bible, you know, the Bible teaches me that if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost and he's committed to us, the ministry of
reconciliation and that he wants us to be faithful.
Let me ask you, why would God want us to be faithful if he's not even relying on us
anyway?
It's like, Hey, you know, Raymond, brother Segura, you know, Corbin, man, I need you guys
to be faithful.
I need you.
Why, why do I need you guys to be faithful?
Corbin, why do I need you to be faithful?
Because I'm relying on you, right?
Think about it.
It, what if, what if, what if I didn't need these guys for anything?
What if I just did everything myself, took care of everything myself and, and, and
they were, everything they were doing was extra.
Everything they're doing is bonus because I got it all figured out all by myself.
Would it make sense for me to be like, man, I need you guys to be reliable?
No, because whether they show up or not, it's going to get done anyway, right?
No, no, I need them to be reliable because I'm relying on them.
I mean, think about it.
Moses went up in the mount, he's relying on Aaron, am I right?
And Aaron let him down, but he's relying on Aaron.
Aaron needed to be faithful.
See, when you have employees, you rely on those employees, so you need them to be reliable.
And God says, I'm committing to you the ministry of reconciliation.
I'm trusting you to preach the gospel.
I'm trusting you to be a witness for Christ.
I'm trusting if, look, if your gospel is hid, it's hidden to them that are lost.
I'm trusting you, I'm relying on you.
That's why he says it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
What is a steward?
Now that's a word that we probably don't use very much in 2021, but a steward is
someone who you trust with everything.
For example, in the Bible, you have the story about Joseph, where Potiphar just relies on
him to take care of everything.
Potiphar doesn't know how much money is in his bank account.
All he knew was the food on his plate, and he just left everything for Joseph to
handle.
He trusted Joseph, he relied on Joseph.
Joseph was Potiphar's steward.
Does everybody understand what that word means?
Joseph was the steward of Potiphar's household.
So it'd be like if I had a guy that worked in my home, and he runs my checking account,
and he deposits my paycheck, and he pays all the bills, and he basically, you know,
makes sure that everything's accounted for, and he does my taxes.
Now look, wouldn't you want that to be someone that you could trust?
You know, if you're going to bring somebody in and kind of have them handle everything,
you know, if I'm going to sign over power of attorney to this guy and give him the
keys to the kingdom, I'm trusting him.
That's what a steward is, okay?
So a steward is someone who you're trusting with valuable items.
Remember Luke chapter 16, the unjust steward?
He'd been wasting his master's substance.
He'd been squandering the finances, and when the boss finds out, he says, you can't
be a steward anymore, because you were unfaithful.
You were unreliable.
So the Bible says, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
We are stewards, Paul said.
We are stewards of the mysteries of God.
We're stewards of the gospel.
We've been entrusted with this valuable treasure, as the Bible calls it.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
We are stewards of the mysteries of God, and it's required in stewards that a man be
found faithful.
So we've got to be reliable, right?
So God is relying on us.
He says, you're the light of the world.
If your gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
I don't care what the Calvinists say, and they've got all their logical arguments and
rationale.
But you know what the Bible actually says, though?
Is that the ministry of reconciliation has been committed to us, and if our gospel's
hid, it's hid to them that are lost, and that we are commanded to go out and save
them with fear, pulling them out of the fire.
So God's relying on you, and imagine if your job is relying on you to show up on
Monday morning, and you don't show up on Monday.
You don't show up on Tuesday.
You don't show up on Wednesday.
You don't show up on Thursday.
But then you show up on Friday, and you're like, where's my paycheck?
And this is what a lot of Christians are doing.
They're unfaithful.
They're unreliable.
They're not doing the work, but then all of a sudden, they want to show up and make
a withdrawal.