Now look at Luke 16 verse 10.
It says, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."
So that tells me that God is going to test us by seeing if we're faithful in the little
things and if we're faithful in the little things, then He'll know, okay, I can trust
you with the big things.
Look at verse 11, "If therefore you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,"
referring to money, He says, "Who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you've not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that
which is your own?"
So right there the Bible's teaching that if God's going to entrust us with great responsibility
and with great things of our own to take care of and to handle, we have to be faithful in
the little things and in the things that belong to someone else.
For example, you want to preach some day, well when you come to the preaching class
are you well prepared?
Are you doing your best?
Are you filled with the Spirit?
Are you taking it seriously?
Because you know when God looks down from heaven and sees you not taking the preaching
class seriously, not being well prepared, not having a sermon, you know not making it
a priority, then he's going to think to himself, "Well, this guy's not serious about preaching.
This guy can't even do a good job with a 10-minute sermon.
How is he going to do with the full-length sermon?
You know, how is he going to do preaching in a church three times a week?
If he can't preach a sermon and prepare a sermon, you know, for 10 minutes every two
weeks, is he really serious about ever, you know, doing it three times a week for an hour?
And so the Bible is teaching us that we need to start being faithful now if we want to
be responsible.
If you want to be responsible one day for having a wife and children, you know, show
God that you're a responsible kind of a guy, because the Bible says a prudent wife is from
the Lord.
The Bible says children are in heritage from the Lord.
You know, be faithful with the areas of responsibility you have right now, and then God will give
you greater responsibility.
Okay, I mean, there are probably a lot of young men who preach who would like to someday
pastor a church.
I'm sure there are a lot of single young men that would like to be married.
There are married couples who would like to have children.
There are couples with children that would like to have more children.
There are employees who would like to own their own business someday, right?
And I mean, you know, there are people who pastor a small church that might like to pastor
a larger church.
They want the church to grow.
Okay, all of these areas of responsibility and growth and increased load upon us require
us to first be faithful with what we have.
And sometimes we can look at what we have and say, it's so small, it doesn't matter.
But if you're not faithful in the small, you're not going to be faithful in what's big.
And so you need to be serious about what you do.
You know, you might have a job right now that you don't take seriously.
You know, this isn't a real job.
You know, I'm just doing this temporarily.
I'm just filling time.
This ain't a real job.
I'm not going to give it my best.
But you know what?
If you're not going to be faithful on that job that's a throwaway job or a temporary
job or a filler job, if you're not going to be faithful on that job, then God may not
bless you with an important job because He wants to see you be faithful with that beginner
job and do your best and give it everything you've got and do your service as unto the
Lord and not an amen.
And when He sees that faithfulness, then He'll bless you with more.
And He's going to look at how you handle your money now and say, "Okay, can this guy handle
being married?
Can this guy handle a family, because how is he handling his money right now?"
And God says, "Look, you need to be faithful with the unrighteous mammon.
You know, if you can't be trusted with it, you know, and if you're going to basically
be a tightwad, you're going to be stingy with it, and you're not going to give the tithe
unto the Lord, and you're basically just going to say, "You know what?
This is my money and I'm going to do what I want with it," or you're just going to mess
it up so bad that, you know, I've heard people say like, "Well, I can't afford a tithe, you
You know, because my finances are so messed up.
But again, God wouldn't be asking you to do something that you're unable to do.
And here's the thing, people have said they didn't have the money to tithe, but it's impossible
not to have the money to tithe if it's the first 10%, and then you see what's left.
I mean, that's what the Bible teaches.
The firstlings and the firstfruits go unto the Lord, okay?
And if you can't be faithful with that, if you can't be faithful to read your Bible,
if you can't be faithful to pray, if you can't be faithful with your job, you can't be faithful
to take care of yourself and take care of your wife and take care of your kids, then
how can you take care of the house of God?
Because if a man do not have to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God?
So do you see how the things that we go through in life are preparation for other things down
the road where God is constantly testing us and seeing how we're doing?