PART 8
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
July 8, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
Stewardship: A way of handling or being trusted to handle the goods of someone else.
Revelation 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
(6) And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
We are looking at the importance of stewardship within the Body of Christ. Each member, the kings and the priests, are responsible for their part of God’s plan for this earth. We have to diligently do our part. God has set us into the Body of Christ where we need to be. It may not be where we want to be, but it is where we will function best. In that place we are able to know just what God wants us to do. We may not know exactly how he plans to accomplish that in its entirety, but He will reveal to us what we are to do when w need to know. Scripture tells us that we are able to increase in knowledge AND in good works: Colossians 1:9 “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
(10) That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
This concept has been true since early Old Testament time: Psalm 92:13 “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
(14) They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;”. When God plants you in a church, you need to stay there until He moves you. If you’re there for a short period of time and the pastor preaches something that you don’t like and you move yourself to another church, you won’t be where God wants you to be, hearing what God NEEDS you to hear so that you will be able to grow. When you church hop, you can’t set down any roots. If you don’t have any roots, there will be no fruit!! If there is no fruit, then the Body of Christ can not move forward as it is supposed to. It is very important for each one of us to be faithful. Faithful means to be trustworthy, be relied upon to accomplish any given task. This is where the Body of Christ has faltered. Too many want to do things their way instead of God’s way. If you don’t practice faithfulness in all that you do, you will become unreliable, deceitful, a cheat and grossly unfaithful.
Now if you are in charge of someone else’s property and you are unreliable and deceitful, you are not a good steward of that persons goods. You will end up doing things that benefit YOU instead of benefiting the person who’s goods you are in charge of. 1 Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
(2) Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” It can not be taken lightly the importance of faithfulness in the kingdom of God. You remember in the book of Matthew chapter 25 (14) where Jesus is telling the parable of the talents. There were three men given three different amounts of money to be stewards of. Two doubled what was given to them and one hide the money. Jesus refers to the men that doubled their funds good and faithful, but the one that didn’t do anything at all He called wicked and lazy. There are three typs of people in the world, risk takers, caretakers and undertakers. Risk takers are willing to put something on the line to move ahead. Caretakers just want to stay where they’re at and not take any chances. The church is NOT supposed to be caretakers! Jesus is looking for people who want to increase. He’ll give you what you need to do that, you just have to follow His lead.
One example of a man that was faithful was Daniel. The king found in him an excellent spirit.
God needs to find an excellent spirit in us. The church has sat back and let the world take one thing after another from us. We’ve let them take the Bible out of schools, we’ve allowed filth to be put on TV at any hour of the day. The music industry is full of so-called artists that sing songs that glorify sex and drugs. The movie industry puts out one movie after another that is full of violence, sex of all kinds and usually displays Christians as buffoons or worse. That is not being good stewards. Daniel 6:1 “It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;
(2) And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage.
(3) Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” Who was promoting Daniel? It looks like the king was. Psalm 75:6 “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
(7) But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”
God was the one that caused Daniel to have favor with the king and that was because Daniel was faithful. Daniel stayed faithful in his worship to God, even in his captivity. This made the others, who were natives to the land, jealous. You will find that they tricked the king into signing a law that made worship of anybody but the king illegal. Kind of what one of our political parties is trying to do. Daniel 6:4 “Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
(5) Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
(6) Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.
(7) All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
(8) Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
(9) Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
(10) Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” Today most pastors will say that if it is against the law, we should not participate. Or if it is legal, we should not say anything against it because we have to obey the law. Scripture tells us so. Well, that is only half right. If the law of man goes against the law of God, the Christian MUST go with the law of God. Peter even said so when he was told to teach no more in the name of Jesus: Acts 4:18 “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
ACT 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
ACT 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Part of our faithfulness is being faithful to what He has declared as His law. Just because an atheist is offended in prayer doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pray, EVEN IF THEY HAVE MADE IT AGAINST THE LAW!!! Very few pastors today have that type of conviction. Most pastors won’t do anything that even hints of politics, even speaking about social issues. They have become afraid of the laws of man and in doing so, ignore the laws of God. This is gross unfaithfulness. Psalm 31:23 “O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.” If you are being faithful to God’s Word and what he has called you to do, He will protect and preserve you as well as greatly reward your faithfulness.. The literal translation of ‘plentifully’ says abundantly. It is the Hebrew word yathar and means to exceed, make abundant, too much, make plenteous. If God says that He will do that for those who are faithful, it would do us all good to be faithful and care less about what man has to say. Psalm 31:24 “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”
No one can hurt you when you depend on God. All the forces of hell can come against you, but you will be unscathed. Daniel 6:19 “Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions.
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(20) And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
(21) Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever.
(22) My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.
(23) Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.
(24) And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.
(25) Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.
(26) I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
(27) He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
(28) So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” Daniel stayed faithful and God caused him to have favor with the heathen kings and he prospered. If we are faithful, God will be faithful.
Proverbs 28:20 “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”
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Lamentations 3:22 “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” God is looking for people who will be faithful. All through scripture God rewards those that are faithful. This promise flies in the face of most of the teachings of the church, but God has ALWAYS blessed His faithful with material blessings. ALWAYS!!! Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” The church has always taught that riches will bring you sorrow and that most of the references to ‘riches’ in scripture refers to spiritual blessings. Most references to riches in scripture refers to material wealth. In this verse it means to wax great in wealth, to make rich, be rich, all referring to money and material wealth. This verse also destroys the belief that riches bring sorrow. If it comes from God, no sorrow.
Faithfulness is what God wants and He rewards the faithful.
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
� 2012 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
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Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
