Can God Trust Me? Series

Can God Trust Me?

Pastor Glenn Newton July 23, 2000

Text: Luke 16:1-13

(First, Tell the church How Proud You are of them, for their coming together to meet the need)

For the last couple of weeks we have been talking about Trust, we have asked questions that dealt with, “Can I trust God?” We have looked to Scripture, we have looked at our own experience, and we have drawn from those that have went before us and said EMPHATICALLY, “YES, I CAN TRUST GOD, I CAN TRUST GOD WITH MY WHOLE LIFE, HE IS TRUSTWORTHY.”

This morning as I look at you, I believe that you do believe you can trust Him. This morning we are going to turn the tables around, and the Question for today is, Can God Trust Me? Can God Trust You?”

As my children get older we are already dealing with this issue of trust. One of the most important issues in any relationship is Trust. When I ask my girls to get something done, or be home by a certain time, or whatever it might be, we are working on trust. If they do what there supposed to, they follow through with what they have promised, then they are rewarded with a little more trust, if they fail to do what was promised, we as the parents pull back a little bit. Of coarse as the teen years approach, this issue becomes more and more important, but we can start working on it now.

It’s the same way with God, the Question that God has for everyone of us today is “Can I Trust You?”

Luke chapter 16 is a interesting parable that Jesus gives to us, it’s one of the most difficult parables to understand in all the Bible. Now Luke 16 is connected to Luke 15, Luke 15 is of coarse the best known and the most loved chapter, the parable of the Prodigal Son, and in Luke 15 as Jesus tells this parable he is teaching about wrong attitudes about PEOPLE.

In Chapter 16 Jesus teaches about wrong attitudes about WEALTH. And he talks to us about our Possessions, what we have, and how are we going to deal with what He has given to us.

It’s very interesting, in your sermon notes I have a paragraph that talks about the Bible and Money. It says, “Jesus talked about Money 16 out of 38 parables; 1 out of 10 verses in the Gospels. The Bible devotes 500 verses on prayer; less than 500 verses on faith; but over 2,000 verses on money and possessions.

Let’s look at what Jesus teaches us in this parable, this story about the Foolish Manager, or Steward.

There are 3 Things that I want to Note from this story, so let’s get going.

1, First, I note the Accountability of the Foolish Steward (v.1,2)

The fact that when the owner came back this unwise manager of the master’s possessions was brought into position of accountability. Read V. 1-2 (Note that this parable was to his disciples)

Now there are two reasons that this manager was accountable to the owner and there are two reasons we are accountable to God, there are two reasons you are accountable to God. Let’s look at them this morning:

1. God is the Owner, I am the Manager - He is the owner, I am the manager.

The first reason that I am accountable to God is because everything that I have today are gifts of God of which I own none. I am accountable to the owner. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, right? He’s the owner, He blesses me with everything, Your very breath is a gift from God, Your ability to walk and work is a gift from God. Every Gift you have, He gave them to you, Every possession you have, He gave them to you. He’s the owner.

Now friends, this is the number 1 issue, until we can settle this issue were always going to have a problem in this area of management and stewardship. You see, If I believe that Glenn Newton is the owner, then I’m going to be constantly be dealing in conflict with God over what I going to do with the stuff that I have. But the more that I understand that God is the owner, and I’m the manager then all the sudden the conflict begins to disappear because I realize everything that I have, everything, my health, my life, my possessions, my family, everything I have, it’s not mine, God owns it, I manage it.

OK, Let’s see if we understand this in real life terms, a little quiz if you will. “If you made $400 last week and you came to church today, How much of that $400 belongs to God?” (ALL OF IT) HE IS THE OWNER. It’s not $40 is God’s and $360 is mine, all $400 is God’s and it all belongs to Him, now He only asks us to tithe 10%, but it is all His to begin with. If we don’t understand this issue of Lordship we will be in trouble, He is Lord of all we are and have.