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Move beyond passive belief to active faithfulness. Learn to steward God's gifts through immediate obedience, responsible risk-taking, and consistent service as we prepare to hear 'well done, good and faithful servant.' Scriptures: Matthew 25:15, James 2:17, Luke 16:10, Romans 14:12, Galatians 5:22
We are a local Church in Orange County California who are passionate to witness lives being renewed in Christ, strengthened through discipleship, and to thrive in the fullness of living for Christ.
Get connected to us by visiting www.c3oc.com or emailing us at hello@c3oc.com
Hi, thanks for tuning in to this Week's message at C3OC. We hope that it blesses you, equips you, and fills you with faith. Let's dive in. So over the last four weeks, we talked on the theme of vessels and being a vessel that God can use. And he does that by forming us, he does that by shaping us. He does that by us being surrendered. To live a clean life, to have him cleanse our life, that we would be filled and that we would be poured out. Amen. How many people want to be used by God? Amen. How many people want to be used for the occasions that he has for us? Right. His plans and his promises unfolding? And so we finished that off last week. And I do encourage you go back and listen to last week's message. I'm going to hit on a few of those things here today. But something really leaped out to me as one of the essentials that we need to carry forward, not just in being a vessel, being a disciple of Christ, being strengthened by His Word, and being able to continue on faithfully in this life with what he has given us. Sometimes I think that in today's culture, faithfulness is often overlooked. It's something that is almost taken for granted. And even in some cases, it's kind of glorified to not be a faithful person these days, to really be involved with all of my comforts and being faithful to myself and faithful to what the world might present me with. How many people know? It's California, right? So when you send an invite out to a party, people won't RSVP right up until the last point, you. Because they're wondering, do I have a better option? That's about to come up, right? And so we want to be a faithful people, not just a people of faith. Because it's one thing for us to have faith, which is to believe, that is to actually know within us, but it's another thing to be a faithful people. It is the fullness of faith that we would not just hear the word of God and not do the word of God. Right? Faithfulness takes, okay, I believe in the power of Christ. I believe in the identity he has given me. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, but I do nothing with it. There is a call for us to be obedient and take steps of faith, not just have the knowledge in our minds. And so last week I mentioned the story of the talents. And this is an incredible picture for us to grasp this revelation of not just being a people that have faith, but being people who actually work the faith that is being given to us. Amen. Faith believes, but faithfulness obeys. Faith says God can, but faithfulness says this. God said, so I will. So I will start to walk on faith. I would say this faith believes that I could win the battle. Faithfulness burns the ships. And what I mean by that is there was. I believe it was Cortez who came upon the shores, and he was set to go ahead. And it was going to be a very tough war. And his army had gotten off the boat and landed on the land. And there was no nervousness within the troops. For they knew this. They knew this, that if the battle went bad, we can jump back on the ships. Okay? We can get back on the ships and we have our escape route. So what he did is he burnt the ships. And I think that there is. What? Yeah. What a jerk. No, but he burnt the ships, right? Because then there was a point that the soldiers had to actually take ownership. Like, this is going to be our way forward. And for us, there's got to be some complementary facts within our life that we are saying, this old life is done, and I'm going to cut it off, sever my ties, and I'm stepping into a life of faithfulness. Amen. The problem that we face today is that there is a culture that celebrates belief, but not faithfulness. That when things get hard, I believe that, you know, I can do the job. But when things get hard, we kind of quit early on, that it's kind of okay these days to break a promise that we begin to make. There is a sense that we can break, believe that the best is going to happen. But I don't need to step toward that. Companies reward quick results not long obedience. These days, relationships are abandoned when they start to become inconvenient or there is a challenge to overcome. The commitments in our life are kind of treated like suggestions. You know, here's a commitment in my life, but it's kind of like a suggestion. I can, you know, take it or leave it. You can leave your job at any moment because it becomes uncomfortable. The list goes on and on. And the message of our age is that freedom equals or seems to equal that. You don't have to stay faithful to anything because being committed is a tying me down. Being too committed in an area is too much of a challenge. I want freedom in this life, right? But true freedom. And I can tell you this from my experience where I sold myself the lie that true Freedom is I can make any choice I want, anytime I want, and do anything that I want at any given time, because it's my life, it's my time, right? But I can tell you this, that it binds you up so tightly that there is no life left. When I submitted my life to say, my freedom is found in being faithful to the word that God has provided me, man, I found true freedom at that point. And that's available for us not only in our beginning stages of belief, not only in our beginning stages of salvation, but in our continued sanctification, which just means that we are growing to be more like Christ day by day. And so in the kingdom, faithfulness is true strength. That is, it goes beyond just, oh, this is what I believe. And I think that some of us have been through those stages in life where Christianity was just a title on our birth card. You know, where I was born a Christian because my family was Christian. But then there is a moment where faith becomes your own right? And you begin to have this experience with God and challenge. Because now this faith is calling me to actually take steps of faith and take steps of obedience. And this parable really outlines for us. And the reason I really want to hit on it is because this parable outlines one of the most famous sayings that we have as believers that at the end of it all, as we come before our Lord, our Savior, as we come before God, he would say, well done, good and faithful servant. Those are the words we want to hear, right? That when we stand before God, he is looking down and he says, man, well done, good and faithful servant. And Cecily, she stole half of my message because here's the thing. She should have just preached the whole thing. Here's the thing is that our resource, we don't, we don't want to boil this down. This, this, this parable to just talents, which is either we think, oh, that's that the giftings in my life, that is just the money in my life, because the talent was to do with money. It's time that has been given to you. It's every resource in your life that there is no waste, but there is faithfulness to steward it responsibly. And that's what this whole parable is about. It could be called the parable responsibility. He doesn't say, well done, good and impressive, influential, well done, good and believing servant. No, he says, well done, good and faithful servant. And this is the vision that we want to see. And so this parable, it outlines, and if you've never Read this. You'll find it in Matthew 25. And we're not going to read through the whole thing. It's quite a long parable, but let me explain it to you. Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven. He's talking about the kingdom of God. And he says it will be like a master who is leaving for a long time. So he calls his servants to him, and to each he gives a different amount of talents. And talents was money. One talent was equal to 20 years of wages. So the guy with the one talent wasn't given nothing. Just FYI, he was given a lot. 20. Think of it, 20 years of your wages in one setting where the master says, here is your allotted time. I think this speaks to us, and I look at it like this, that if it's 20 years worth of wages, what he is saying is you have a lifetime of stewardship ahead of you. That the amount of time that has been set before you. I'm telling you that a lot of you have more talents than I do. If we're looking at it in time. I threw away 10 or 12 years to drugs, to alcohol, to living my own way. And I'm grateful that my pathway led me back to God, for it's provided a testimony and honestly, an unshakeable faith. You can't sell me. Nothing is better than God because I've already tried everything, okay? And so there ain't no curiosity left in this cat. I found what I was looking for. I found what I was looking for, okay? And so. And so you. You have been given time in your life. The Bible says the. The life that we have is but a vapor, and then it's over. And so God is giving us this period of grace where he has said before I return to judge what has been going on on the earth, I am giving you time, time to steward the gift that I have given you. I don't have anything to. You have salvation, my friend. If you have said, jesus, come into my heart, and if you haven't, at the end of this service, you're going to have the opportunity to do so. You have the riches beyond riches, living within your life, at work, within your heart. You have a lot to invest and steward in this life. And he gives these talents. He gives them different talents. And this is one thing I really want to hit on before I go through. I'm going to give you five attributes of being faithful with what God has given you, okay? Five things that we can do to be a faithful people. In Matthew 25:15 it says this. He gave them a different amount of talents. He says to one he gave five to another, two to another, one to each. Get this to each according to his ability. Okay, okay. This was not random assignment. This was wise giving of responsibility by the Master. You know, so Jesus is saying, I'm giving you the riches of a new life. I'm giving you the riches of a new reality. I'm giving you the power of my spirit, the truth of my word, the grace of my blood, the opportunity to establish God's kingdom on earth. What are you going to do with it? And I love this because it says, I'm giving it according to ability. The original word there is dynamis. Okay? And if you've ever done a study on the scriptures and you've looked at the Greek and you've gotten your concordances out, which I encourage each and every one to do, you'll understand that that is also attributed with power, power of the spirit, whenever that is mentioned. So this is really encouraging for each and every one of us because this is not like a monarch setup where it's like, I'm selecting this person or this person because of their heritage or because I like them a little better. No, it's because they have positioned their lives to carry a responsible weight or to carry the weight responsibly in their life. One of my favorite scriptures is for many are called, but few are chosen. And it gets confused very often. It actually should be better translated. For many are called, but few are choosable. You have the choice in your life. And that's what the whole vessel's collection of messages was about. You have a choice. We have that pesky thing called free will, right? You know, where we get to make a choice and we keep making bad choices. And we're like, oh, come on, just make me a lemming. Just, you know, I want to make the right choice. And this is the battle that we are in in this life. And when we begin to surrender our lives and live as a living sacrifice, we. We make ourselves a choosable person to carry his will. And so he's saying that in the preparation, in the making of yourself, in the surrendering of your life towards God, you are increasing dynamis in your life. Dynamis is power. It is a deed of power. It's the ability to. To perform responsibly what God has given you. And this is, there is no depth to that which you can receive. There is no depth from which you will hit the bottom of it. So for us it's this inescapable drive that has to be within us to fill ourselves with the power that gives us the ability to carry forward his plans. Amen. The master is not playing favorites. He's entrusting his resources wisely. And the capacity to carry larger gifts includes several things for us. It's like competency, it's reliability, it's maturity, it's trustworthiness. It's being a responsible steward of what God gives us. Frank dimasio would describe it as this capacity for stewardship within our lives. Capacity for stewardship. So when something is given to you, is it something that's just kind of like. Just kind of put it off to the side and. Or is it something that you would steward and take a hold of with both hands, understanding that with the power of God's spirit, I can carry this weight and I can multiply this weight? Or would we be like the single servant who is mentioned? Two servants go out and they invest it. They do not know when the. When the master is returning, they go out and they invest it and they put it to work. And the one servant, he gets his talent and he goes, what am I going to do with this? And he runs over and he buries it in the ground. He leaves it within the ground. And so the question is, with what opportunity that God is presenting you with, with what God has planted in your life. Are you first seeing it as such and are you burying it in your life? I like to get around people who are shovels. I like people who are tools. I like to say to myself, you're a tool, Joe. Because I want to be someone who's able to dig out talents in my own life that might be buried because of self preservation, buried because of fear, buried because of fear of man or fear of failure or fear of anything or doubt or cynicism that it would be dug up in my life and actually put to use for God's kingdom. And that's the big difference, is that faithfulness stewards well. James 2:17 says, Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead, is dead. Faith is the doorway. Faithfulness is the life you live after walking through it. That we would say, okay, I believe God has given me this. I believe that I have this gift of prophecy, but I'm never going to put it to use because I just have this fear of man. So we bury the talent. And likewise, this servant who buried his talent, he said this. He said, the reason I did that, because the master returned. He said, come on, return it to me reason I buried it is because I know that you are a hard taskmaster. I know that you are a hard master. And so if I failed, then you would have come down on me tenfold on top. And so because I had this fearful vision of who God was, I bury my talents and I begin to step away from what God has called me to steward. Investing your talents does not mean developing natural skills, but seizing every opportunity to do the good works we are called to carry out for the sake of the master. The first two servants did exactly that. It says that when they were given their talents, they went at once. They went immediately. They did not wait. There was no delayed obedience. When they received it, they ran. And I love this because the servants didn't ask to be given the talents. And some of us might be thinking, well, I don't want any talents. I just want no responsibility in this life. Here's the good news and here's the hard news for you. I actually think there's no such thing as bad news. Always call it's good news or grow news. All right. Okay. So here's the good news and here's the grow news, is that you have been given talents to steward in this life. There is. There is no one who is exempt that. That God has withheld everything from. You have been given a responsible. A responsibility to carry forward where you cannot just say, I believe God can, and. And start saying, I believe God can. So I will begin to steward this responsibly. I will begin to use my time wisely. I will begin to invest my time within the kingdom of God. Amen. Amen. We don't want to live under the tragedy of that buried potential. Do want to say that as that servant said, I knew you to be a terrifying master. I knew you to be a hard taskmaster. I want to put a warning sign in front of you that a false image of God will paralyze your obedience, and it will freeze your calling and purpose in life. You have to have a correct image of who God is. He is master. He is Lord, he is savior. But he is also father. And I think there is a fatherless generation who has been running around and has been looking towards God as a hard taskmaster. It's too much to do all of that. It's, oh, my gosh, the level is too high. But he is father to you son and daughter. He is a father that wants to see your full potential met, which is why he gives you responsibility. And he doesn't just leave. He gives you The Holy Spirit, that which we were talking about, your helper to counsel you, fear, left unchecked, disfigures all of our passion into passivity, into just laying back and sitting back. Man, I tell you, when you put one talent just, you might think just this meager little talent. Last week we talked about the meager little jar that was just stored in the back of the house of the widow. And when you begin to say, you know what? I will use what you've given to me and I will begin to pour it out, I will begin to invest this, you'll begin to see multiplication in your life. That's the promise of his word, is that when you begin to work what he has given you, it will multiply. The kingdom of God, the calling on your life will not advance through preservation. It will not advance through burying it. It will not advance by playing it safe. It advances through faithful engagement. Amen. This is how faithfulness is formed. It rarely appears in dramatic moments. It rarely appears just out of the blue. Faithfulness is a fruit of the spirit, meaning it is growing within your life so that it is established. It is formed in your daily decisions. If it is formed in the little things in life that begin to snowball into bigger things in your life. And that's what Jesus is giving us insight into with this parable. Number one, I'm going to give you five things that faithful people begin to action in their world. Are you ready? Are you ready to write this down? Ready to go? Ready to become faithful? Number one. Faithful people start with what they have. They start with what they have. Like I said last week, go listen to that message. The widow was given the directive with the small jar of oil. And she was given a second directive to be obedient towards that which she did. In this parable, one had five, one had two, and one had one. And the guy with the least went and buried his. But the one, the ones who had five and two immediately went and began to use what was in their hands. Man, ask God what he has put in your hands. Don't overlook your testimony. Some of you might think you're right. I'm too much at the starting line. I'm too close to this, to what just happened in my. I just gave my life to Christ. I don't know enough about it. I'm telling you that the disciples, the, the apostles that started the church, they did not go to Bible college. They hung around Jesus, right? And they were scared, filled with fear, hiding. And Jesus said, wait until you are filled with the Holy Spirit. When they were filled with the Spirit and Peter began to speak and prophesy the word of God, he began to speak the gospel, it says. All the trained rabbis looked on with amazement because of his bright boldness speaking about deep truths. Man, you need the spirit of God in your life that you would not despise the little that you have, wishing that you had more. I wish I had five talents. I wish I was like that guy over there. God is saying, man, be faithful with what is in your hands and watch what I can do with it. Don't complain cause you've only got a few loaves and a few pieces of fish. Bring it to Jesus and watch him feed the multitudes. Both of those two are called faithful. Comparison will be one of the fastest killers for your faithfulness. Don't ask yourself why don't I have their platform, their opportunities, their influence, their resources, their this. Ask God, what have you placed within my hand? Faithfulness begins the moment you stop asking those things why don't I have what they have and start asking what have you placed in my hands today, God? Faithfulness begins with what is already in your life. Look to your job, look to your relationships, look to this church, look to your surroundings, look to your resources, your opportunities to serve. Look around and say what is the resource that has been given to me? Will I bury it or am I going to start holding it in my hands and moving forward with it? Luke 16:10 says this one who is faithful in very little is also faithful with much. God will trust you with a little before he starts trusting you with much. I can't tell you like I've heard people say, this man, one day when I win the lotto, I'm gonna start tithing. I can't wait to bless the church at that point. That's not the point. That is not the point. Okay. Oh, I can't wait to to gift the church these large amounts of money and when I finally get there, that's what I'm going to. It's not the point. Jesus outlines this. I see these people, they're throwing big gifts and they're doing it with a prideful heart. But the widow who comes down with her two pennies and puts it in, she has given more for it is her whole heart. And this is what God is looking for, is being faithful in the little that I have today so that I have the ability he says I gave according to their ability to carry a bigger respons with bigger blessing for those around us. Your capacity grows through Faithfulness. You may not even realize what is in your hands. Don't despise the little that is in your hands. Don't look at it with a disdain. Don't bury it because you think it's small. It's not going to do anything. Nothing's going to matter. God has put that within your hands so that it would grow. Amen. If you don't have a job, stop living in anxiety for 24 hours of the day. You've been given the resource of time. Yes, be diligent, write your resumes, do all of that. But at the same time, you have time as your resource. Begin to put if you don't know what to do, call me. I'll put you to work in the field of God. We got plenty of stuff. We're moving forward. And give me a call. We'll start putting those talents to work. Amen. In a few weeks, we're going to kick off something called Start, which is going to be an entry point for beginning to serve in C3OC's vision for the 101st, for this church to begin expanding out, for the outpost to be set up before we're in the outpost. And if you don't know what all of that is, go back and listen to Vision Sunday. You'll understand it all. But God has given a talent to this church that we are going to steward responsibly. Amen. Let me go through these last four very quickly. Faithful people respond quickly. Faithful people respond quickly. Matthew tells us the servant with five talents. He went at once. What do you know? You have that you're kind of sitting on, that you kind of reclined on right now. It might be because of fear. It might be because there is no courage to move forward. Start with what is in your hands and begin to move quickly. We delay our yes and obedience with phrases like someday I'll start serving. One day I'll deal with that attitude. Someday I'll lead my family spiritually. One day I'm really going to step up into that. But delayed obedience is a lot of the time just disguised disobedience. And it's time for us to actually we know the truth. We look in the mirror as the Word of God says, and when we walk away, we remember what we look like. It says that if we do not, we are like those who hear the Word but do nothing with it. Faithful people move when God speaks and when God gives. Amen. You and I have received these talents to steward and more will come. Don't bury your Talent for God's house. I'm telling you, don't bury that talent that God has given you. To invest within his house, to serve within his house, to see the kingdom start moving forward. Be one who invests faithfully. Amen. You respond quickly. Number three. Faithful people accept responsible risk. This is one of the great misunderstandings in the Christian life. Many people think faithfulness is playing it safe. But, man, when you meet God, you signed up for a life of kind of risky business, right? And when you start saying yes, it's going to be a yes that's bigger than your current state. It's going to be one that makes you step out. Many people think faithfulness is playing it safe. Protecting comfort, avoiding risk, never stepping out beyond what we can control. Right? I want to be able to control all of this. But the kingdom does not advance through safety. It advances through radical obedience, violence against my old self, and a holding on to what God is doing in our lives. Faithfulness means being willing to take the risk, sharing your faith when it's uncomfortable, stepping into a calling when you don't feel ready. Oh, my gosh. That's half of following Christ. I'm not ready for this, Moses. I don't speak well, and you're calling me to speak to a nation? You know I will speak for you. When Abraham is saying, you know, you want to give me a child, that's crazy. That's never going to happen. Do you know how old I am? Do you know how old my wife is? Ha. And they're laughing. He calls us to step beyond. And there is a responsible risk that we have to be willing to take. Serving when it costs you something. The first two servants went out. They risked losing that money. They risked when they began to invest that. Faithfulness is not passive preservation. It is active stewardship. The third servant, he played it safe. That's what he did. He played it safe. He was scared that he might lose it. But safety is not the kingdom standard. Fruitfulness is. And the kingdom grows through people willing to take the risky steps of obeying God's will. Amen. Number four. Faithful people live with accountability. Say it again. Say it again. Faithful people live with accountability. Every servant in the story knows the same thing, that the master is coming back. Romans 14:12 says this. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Faithfulness grows when you live with this quiet awareness, with this knowledge in your life, that one day we are all gonna stand before the Master, and in the meantime, having accountability here on earth. Hey, what are you doing with the talent that God has given you? Be open to be challenged. Be open to accountability. Be open to measuring your growth. Amen. And that reality will shape how you live today. And number five, we can all stand up here today. Faithful people value consistency. Faithful people value consistency. Jesus doesn't praise brilliance. He praises faithfulness. In this, faithfulness is rarely glamorous. Faithfulness looks like showing up, serving quietly, leading your family, honoring God in small decisions, and stewarding your life daily. A lot of consistency. And you've heard me say this before, but consistency is a thankless job. And consistency, when it becomes thankless, it's because people expect you, your character, to always show up. I think it's one of the high signs of a consistent character in your life of maturity when you stop being thanked for what other people call irregular. It's not that we go through life and we're not getting those thanks at those times. My wife occasionally says, thanks for doing the dishes still. But my, my, if I can say the glory, the pride for me in doing those small jobs is not the thanks. It's that I am reliable. That's a small thing, but there are other things in your life. You might be like, where's all my thanks and gratitude, man? Take it as a trophy. Being like, man, people know that I am reliable. And there is a character of consistency in my life. Galatians 5:22 that is the fruit of the Spirit. It is love. It is joy. It is peace. It is patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. Faithfulness is the supernatural work of the Spirit in a yielded life. Just as prophecy and healing are manifestations of the Spirit, so is faithfulness. Amen. Say this with raised hands here today, God, show me how to live a faithful life. I thank you, Jesus, that this is not on my own strength, but it is by the power of your Spirit. Fill me with your joy, fill me with your love, fill me with your spirit and grow faithfulness in my life. In the mighty name of Jesus, let's all shout an amen. Amen. Hey, thanks for tuning in. There's a bunch of different ways that we connect throughout the week, including Sunday mornings, and we would love to see you there. You can check out all the details@c3oc.com.