Servants and Stewards (1 Corinthians 4:1-5) | Going Deeper (Part 5) | Pastor John Fabarez

digging into the book of first corinthians tonight um what we're gonna look at tonight reminds me of uh something that has come up on my youtube i've been watching you a lot of youtube we don't even watch very much tv at home anymore alexander and i just kind of have the apple tv and we watch a bunch of youtube and there was a there's a genre of videos that we started to kind of get into watching it's a little embarrassing a little weird i don't know how we found the first one but we started watching these old american idol videos remember american idol auditions yeah oh then we watch some modern stuff the modern one's terrible it's horrible it's so lame like it's all fake it was probably all fake before but when you were a kid watching it it felt so real right these crazy people felt like they were really thought they could sing right so we watched these things and one of the most uh like the worst examples of a bad singing person uh it was actually i think america's got talent or x factor it was one of those where they auditioned in front of the whole crowd we were watching it and this person you know very self-assured very confident gets up there sings and is terrible right and you've pictured this before right and the person gets so angry at the judges this guy looks at some you why who are you to judge me and then um he had a good comeback i'm the judge i'm sitting behind the desk you're sick and they were judging other teachers and saying my teacher's the best your teacher is the worst and there is this division in the church because of that and paul's been addressing that he's been saying hey we got to be humble when it comes to our leadership we got to be humble when we think about other people's preaching and stuff we can't break up into groups in this church based on you know who our favorite teacher is he's been addressing this the whole time and then at the end of the last chapter he makes some big claims he says hey if you're a christian every teacher that belongs to the church actually belongs to you you get to benefit from all the teachers from paul apollo cephas all of that and the end of the chapter three he says all are yours and you are christ and christ is god so he's just made this huge statement about what christians have the resources that god has given us then chapter four he says i want you to think rightly about the ministers i want you to think rightly about the pastors the preachers even the the apostles like paul so check this out in first corinthians chapter four verse one says this is how one should regard us who's us right well paul apollo cephas i think he's talking about the preachers and the teachers he said here's how you should think of us we are servants of christ that's very important for you to recognize that every person that you respect who's ever taught you the word any pastor you've ever had here's what they are they are a servant of christ the word servant and we talked about this earlier first corinthians 3 5 mentions this word servant servant was not a high position servant was like what you could imagine a bus boy at a restaurant or a waiter right someone who brings the food they're not deserving of much praise right unless they're really good waiter i guess um but they're they're bringing them the real thing they're the ones delivering okay that's what we should think of the preacher or the minister or even paul as he's the person who's bringing what god has prepared so he says think of us like servants and stewards what is a steward well that's a different word the word steward means someone who's been entrusted with something valuable and now they have a responsibility to use whatever they're entrusted with for the person who gave it to them for example we see this a lot of times in the gospels jesus tells a story it's in matthew it's in mark and it's in luke the parable of the talents you might remember that right the parable of talent it's that that story where jesus says that a master gave to different servants different amounts of money and they were supposed to take that money invest it you know throw it in the stock market so to speak build something with it and then give the prophets to the master afterwards so what he's saying here is we the the preachers the apostles they are stewards so they've been given something what have they been given verse one the the mysteries of god even that word mysteries we kind of think wrongly about that remember we looked at in chapter two what the word mystery meant the mystery was something that was hidden before that god has now revealed so god has revealed truth what's the truth what's the big mystery that paul has been talking about it's chapter 1 and chapter 2 that jesus is crucified that is the means of our salvation so basically what he's saying is god has entrusted his apostles his preachers his ministers with something that's so amazing it's the mysteries of god the once hidden now revealed truth that jesus died for sinners okay huge concept it says think of preachers like that now verse two moreover it's required of stewards that they may be found faithful now that's where i want you to kind of switch the mentality here just like paul does he's going beyond just the stewards of paul apollo cephas i want you not just to think about the pastors who have been given the word who i need to teach it now think any steward has to be found faithful that includes you if you're a christian you have been given a stewardship god has given you things that you're supposed to use so it's not just them it's me it's not just them it's you right that's what he's trying to get them to see here moreover steward's supposed to be found faithful faithful that's a important quality if you gave your money which i know maybe some of you have done this invested in the stock market done crazy things last year with um what's that called um dogecoin yeah maybe no i was thinking like robin hood you know uh you know robin hood the investing right um i know you're like the one who's doing the investing but like if you give your money to me and i can tell you hey i'll invest it for you guess what's really important if i'm faithful if i know what i'm doing if i invest it well right if you give me a million dollars let's just say um don't give me a million dollars because i don't know how to invest million dollars but if you gave me a million dollars and you said hey i hope that you'll invest this well i'll be like yeah well i'll do my best we might lose half of it but no that's cool that's cool okay no no the point of investing is that it will grow and will multiply right so here's what this is saying okay paul apolo cephas preachers pastors and even every christian has been given stewardship from god there's things that god has given to you that he wants you to use invest verse 3. he says but with me it's a very small thing that i should be judged by you or by any human court so it seems like we're kind of reading between the lines here but i think it's pretty clear in first corinthians and ii corinthians that these corinthians were judging paul and they were judging him wrongly they were saying yeah you're not a real apostle second corinthians gets into that more but there's some kind of judgment that paul has felt from these corinthians he says it's not a big deal to me that you guys judge me or by any human court right if it was anybody else it's not that it's you corinthians it's not like i don't value your opinion i'm just saying any human judgment i don't i don't care that much about why says i don't even judge myself interesting what does that mean verse 4 for i am not aware of anything against myself i think he's talking about he doesn't have any bad motives but i am not thereby acquitted right think about that word acquitted that's a judicial language right you think of the law you think of you know jury duty you know get yourself in the santa ana courthouse how many of you been to the santa ana courthouse anybody yeah terrible place don't like it um annoying just it's i just don't like being there i got called in for jury duty last year and i had to go like three times um i think i got put on a case but then they settled anyway i just have bad memories with the courthouse i don't like it um but the point is paul says i don't care if anybody judges me i don't even judge myself and guess what even though i judge myself sometimes and look at my conscience and say you know what no i'm doing i'm doing well i'm i'm being a good apostle i'm being a good preacher he says just because i judge myself and i give myself thumbs up that doesn't mean i actually have a thumbs up he says just because i have a clear conscience doesn't mean that i'm not in sin that's what he's saying said i'm not acquitted and you're not acquitted and and you know i'm not acquitted because i just think oh i'm doing a good job that's basically what he's saying as a steward it's not about whether or not you think you're investing the money well just think about that illustration go back to that i have your million dollars okay if i say you know what i think i'm doing pretty good i've only lost like a hundred a hundred grand i'm doing pretty well i mean it could have been 500 grand that i lost but i've only lost 100 grand right you'd say well i it doesn't really matter how you think you're doing it matters what i think i'm doing because it's my money right that's what you would tell me same thing with god he says it's not so much that i want to be judged by them or even myself that's not the judgment that matters the judgment that matters is what christ thinks of my work that's what matters most that's what he gets into he says it's the lord who judges me therefore verse 5. now he's going to tell them to do something well he's going to tell him not to do something because therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart i think we see there kind of what these corinthians were judging paul on they were assigning bad motives to him they were saying yeah he's a preacher here in corinth but i mean he was super he must have been proud i mean he must have been arrogant he must have they're assigning bad motives to his good work they're looking at his good work and saying well it must have been fake right it's what happens today right when you look at someone who maybe is very nice and very kind and you look at them and you try to judge their heart and you say oh they're just doing that because they're fake right so we do it too today and what he's saying is don't pronounce that judgment because you don't know their hearts he's not saying never pronounce any judgment because actually if you look to the next chapter look at first corinthians chapter five if you're in first corinthians four look at chapter five look at verse three this is one chapter later okay this is uh for though i'm abstinent body i'm present in spirit and as if present i have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing okay so here's the here's the pitfall we don't want to fall into he's not saying you're never making judgments even about people and if you know what first corinthians 5 is about it says that there's some bad sexual sin in this church and he says you know what i've judged them and you know what you should do corinthians put them out of the church just send them out i've pronounced judgment on him you say wait a minute don't pronounce judgment before the time i pronounce jud like what that's is that a contradiction it's not a contradiction because remember what we're talking about in first corinthians 4 what is god going to disclose look at what it says the purposes of the heart okay they're making judgments about motives here not just judgments based on actual things that have happened like what happens in first corinthians 5. so we don't want to fall into that pitfall that's just a warning for us but then he says last sentence here then each one of us will receive his commendation from god that means his praise from god think that through paul's making a big claim there he says when we're evaluated by god in the end every real christian you know what they're going to receive from god depending on how they do and how faithful of a steward they are praise god praises them okay maybe you have a high view of god that's great well you might have a high view of god and what that might do for you is think well god he says he shares glue with no other that means he can never praise anything i do no this says he will praise people for their actions praise you for what you've done in this life think about that that's a huge claim and if that's true if god will praise us for things that we've done with again the right motivations because that's what he's talking about here that ought to motivate us big time so all this section here is talking about our future judgment that our life is going to come under the microscope so to speak of christ and he's going to look at it and he's going to evaluate how we did we need to get comfortable with that and in some ways we need to get excited about that because we're going to see god actually praises his people for the good work they do well there's two pictures i want you to see back in verse one servant and steward we talked a little bit about that but i want you to write this down for point number one if you're a christian remember you are an accountable servant of god remember that you are an accountable servant to god what does that mean accountable means you will have to give an account your life if you belong to christ you are a servant of christ you're a slave of christ and you will be held accountable reason we need to remember this is because it's easy to forget this isn't it i mean with all the good news of the gospel sometimes we think well we're just free to do whatever we want what does romans 6 say are we to keep on sinning that grace may abound you know what it says next by no means absolutely not right he says in that chapter you were released from the slavery of sin and you know why swo so that you could be a slave of god okay that could have waited like another two seconds that really really would have emphasized the point there right he was emphasizing yeah anyway but think about that you are accountable to god that god that god that thunder is just a tiny little blip on his radar you're accountable to him i'm accountable to him think that through that's big that's huge it's a responsibility that's a stewardship that's a big deal problem is once we start thinking no i am a servant of no one freedom i don't need to be held accountable to anybody we're thinking unbiblically at that point we're a servant of christ i said earlier that um we already talked about this in first corinthians three that a servant this word means a server like um a waitress a waiter right a busboy uh maybe a hostess who's bringing someone to the table right you're picturing a restaurant right now right that's what a servant is okay that's what paul is peter and for them right if you think of peter he's just a servant of christ in your mind that might bring him down right well he's just a servant well i'm just a servant he's just a waiter for god is he not like the head chef or something no he's not right he's not he's just a servant right what about you when you think of yourself as a servant right equal status with peter right you see what that does to you maybe i might whoa that's a big deal right maybe we view things wrongly when we think a servant of christ is uh not a glorified title i know it's not super glorified but think about it you are a servant of the king of kings the lord of lords the crucified christ like that's what you are as a christian definitionally ontologically like that's what you have become that's your identity now it's a big deal and if you think about the people in the restaurant the busboy the hostess the wait the waitress waiter right um they're all judged differently on their different roles right they're all going to be judged but they're judged differently okay so let's just say you have a bad experience walking in a restaurant right the waiter is just rude kind of seems arrogant doesn't really care right he'll be judged based on how he acted right you won't get mad at him that the hostess took 10 minutes to seat you right you're not going to be mad at the waiter right because he shouldn't be held responsible for that but the hostess should be held responsible for whatever the hostess does wrong right they're held responsible for their own things that's what i'm getting at god has gifted you you're going to be held responsible just like i'm going to be held responsible but we will be held responsible for different things based on our different tasks right that's what i'm getting at here so don't say that just because you're not paul or apollos or cephas well then great i'm not like an apostle so i won't be held accountable right the bible says that if you're a christian yes you will be held accountable romans 14 12. so then each of us each of us not me and some other no each of us will give an account of himself to god that's romans 14 12. it says the same thing in second corinthians 5 10 ii corinthians 5 10 paul says for we all must appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body whether good or evil now this might be uncomfortable but i want you to think this through in christ will you be judged right in one sense yes we've just been talking about that in another sense no okay so i want to draw out what those differences are right what's the difference because it doesn't romans chapter 8 verse 1 say there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus never condemned to hell because of your sin because of what jesus did for you is that true absolutely can you maybe be in that relationship and move your way out of that relationship by sitting too much absolutely not that's not what we're talking about we're talking about is two different types of judgment right if you think back to that simon cowell idea he's a judge right right yeah he's a judge is he have the same power is he doing the same thing as the the judge in the courthouse who can send someone to jail no it's different right he's doing a different thing they're both judging they're both evaluating but they're doing it for different things okay so when god judges christians yes he will evaluate you but more like simon cowell if i can say that i don't mean to be blasphemous but like that's what i mean like he's going to judge in that sense right and he'll reward where the county courthouse judge is going to sentence people to different types of punishment based on what they've done right god will do that to the non-christians there is judgment for them that's eternal right this judgment is a judgment that we can consider evaluation but it is a judgment the difference is between retribution and evaluation okay that's the big difference so god judges i want you to think that through retribution that means to repay right that's what that's what hell is it's a repayment of god it's god seeing his justice completely met out why does it take so long because that's how good god is that's how offensive sin is to him right that's retribution okay this is different judgment for the christian this is evaluation how did you do how did you do with that stewardship that i gave you how did you do with that gospel that you knew how did you do it sharing that how did you do it serving one another with the gifts that i've given you how did you do with that that's what we're considering here we saw earlier in first corinthians 3 that it's possible to be saved and suffer loss that's verse 15 1st corinthians 3. if anyone's work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved but only if through fire the idea is you can spend your life doing good things quote unquote in church and still be saved yet the good work that you did that you thought was good work will be burned up so to speak it won't stand the test of time because bad motivations bad heart false doctrine whatever it is that takes down the the purity of that thing that you're doing it can be lost but you can be saved that's not where you should be though right i don't want anyone to be satisfied with okay i've got my ticket i'm good i'm done i'm not going to work hard right because that's not what god calls us to he calls us to more than that specifically he says you're a steward and every steward should be found faithful faithful it's an important word what does that mean trustworthy reliable dependable hard working keeping your word right that is what god asks of us as his stewards point number two love you to write this down strive to be a more faithful steward of god strive to be a more faithful steward of god that word steward literally comes from the idea of a house okay the root word is the same word as house so when you make this into the type of word it is you turn it from house to a household manager someone who's running the house i think of uh those pictures of the english butlers you know what i'm talking about i've never actually met an english butler i've only seen about 10 million of them in movies and tv shows right do you know an english butler rachel knows the english butler that's not fair you live there um maybe that is fair anyway uh the english butler right the household manager what's what's the butler supposed to do they're supposed to oversee things that happen in the house right does the you know do the sheets get cleaned and changed do the towels get put out like they've got responsibilities and things to do and if they're not faithful to get those things done guess who's responsible they are because of the stewardship that they have from the the owner the master whatever you want to call it okay that is the picture that you need to see yourself at that's a dignified position that you're a steward that god has entrusted things to you think that through god has entrusted things to you to do responsibilities giftings specifically i think the biggest thing that we need to get in our minds about the entrusting the the stewardship that god has given us comes from second corinthians chapter five second corinthians 5 18 to 20 says that we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation the message of reconciliation we've talked about this in alliance before but we need to remember often and remember think this through often that if you are a christian you have been entrusted with the gospel that saves the eternal gospel the powerful gospel the message of god's total sovereignty the message of our sinfulness the message of jesus salvation that he accomplishes that he enacts that god planned that jesus worked out that the spirit empowers for us like think that through that is huge that message was shared with you at some point and if you're a real christian you responded to that in repentance and faith and that message changed your life okay now god's given that to you you have that ministry you have that gospel what do we do with it how do we act with it what do we use it for that was good emphasis i think that was the right time that was good um so you've been entrusted with the gospel uh that's one thing that you're steward over right let me ask you that question how are you using that what are you using that for the gospel you you talking to people about it are you pressing the issue with people even sometimes the people don't want to hear it are you saying no no this is the message this is the only message that saves this is the gospel this will save you from eternal separation from god this is it right i want you to seriously consider that how am i sharing the gospel god's given me the gospel and trusting me with the gospel further another verse for you to write down first peter chapter 4 verse 10. first peter 4 10. it's the same language of entrusting it says as each one has received a gift let him use it to serve one another god has given you gifts he's given you time energy money some of you he's given special gifting to work with maybe some of the kids at our church others of you maybe he's given physical strength to some of us some of you sorry i want to distance myself there um we're just talking with roy about how um the the progression of age hits you and uh you stand up and you look and you you see a number on the scale that's bigger than you've ever seen before this happened to me i'm like i'm getting fat like it's it's it's approaching old age is drawing near um it's the dad bod tim called it the father figure okay it's not a dad bod it's a father figure i like that how i don't know what i was saying there um just talking about gifting right god has gifted you in various ways how are you using it using your strength using your mind using your your care and love your maybe your experience dealing with kids at our church what about your time right first corinthians 7 says that if you're single you don't have certain cares of this life cares of the world right that people like nick and rachel and roy and kristen they are get addressed this rightly they have a burden to bear in this life right you might not think of it as a burden but they have a time burden that's called their spouse okay they love their time burden but paul calls it a care of this world okay it's a good thing it's a gift right just like kids that's called a time burden right but it's a gift it's a gift we can hold those two things together they can both be true okay but here's the reality first corinthians 7 says that if you are a single christian you have an extra stewardship it says that your singleness is a gift just like a kid is a gift to a to a young couple right your singleness is a gift so that you can serve one another you have more time you might not feel like you have more time right but you do you have you can be different places and you could serve in different ways you can serve on thursday night or maybe that the cup the other person can't you can serve early in the morning maybe when some people can't you've got things that you can do as a single person i just got to remember that that is a gift it's a stewardship that you have right now in the season of life i want you to turn to that passage i referenced earlier matthew chapter 25 matthew 25 and then look back at chapter i meant to say matthew 24 matthew 24 verse 42. matthew 24 42 in the gospels we see this idea that jesus is often calling his people servants and thinking of god as the master and thinking about a stewardship that they have over certain responsibilities verse 42 of matthew 24 says therefore stay awake he's talking about the end times here just for you do not know on what day the lord is coming it's the imminent return of christ can happen at any time is what he's saying verse 43 but know this that if the master of the house had not known what part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into therefore you must be ready for the son of man is coming in an hour that you don't expect then he shifts from the idea of someone owning the house to someone entrusting someone else with ownership of the house look at verse 45. who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household okay it's the picture of a steward a household manager the butler so to speak who's the faithful and wise one to give their food at the proper time blessed is that servant whom the master will find so doing when he comes the idea is that this person is working this person is doing the things that a steward should do verse 47 truly i say to you he'll set him over all of his possessions that might not sound like a big deal to you but think that through okay a faithful and wise steward god is going to give you more you might think well i don't like responsibility well start liking it a little bit more than you do okay because responsibility is a good thing if you don't like responsibility right that's something you got to work on but think about it you're faithful in what you're doing right now in this judgment after this evaluation who is god gonna give responsibility to in this next life who's he gonna give charge and responsibility and ownership and leadership who is he going to give that to the ones who are faithful and little he'll give charge over much the things that are little and insignificant here that he calls you to do he calls you to be a faithful friend it causes you to faithfully encourage one another right he calls you to be loving even to the people in the church that you don't know very well maybe some of the older people maybe some of the younger kids who aren't going to give anything back to you right cause you'd be loving to them he who's faithful and little he's gonna give charge over much here problem is and i think this is the corinthian problem we can look at our work and think yep i'm doing a good job but that person over there i don't know about them right start judging other people's work that's what paul gets into in these next verses back in first corinthians chapter four he gets into that he says i'm not that concerned i don't care that much about how i'm judged by you or even by myself and we want to be careful about this um but i think the idea is he's saying these people are judging his work and his labor because they're looking at him saying yeah you must have bad motives for what you're doing in ministry people might say that to you right and i hope they don't but that's possible people might come up to you and say well you're just too nice you you're a fake aren't you are you fake right that happens sometimes some people can look at you and maybe you're a confident leader right and they'll say you're arrogant right okay they can say that but here's the thing the answer here is do do you know what god knows verse five the things hidden in darkness do you know those things do you oh you don't know those things you don't know the things hidden in darkness will you at some point yes you will god will reveal it not just to me but to you too our motives will be revealed on that day of judgment so look christ is going to judge you christ is going to evaluate you and me but the reality is the emphasis here is don't pronounce the judgment before the time on yourself or on others what are we talking about he's saying i don't even care how i judge myself if i say yeah two thumbs up paul's doing a great job paul's the best preacher there is right if he said that about himself he says i don't even want to put any stock in that because here's the thing the lord is the one who judges me just because you have a clear conscience about how you're living and even this sermon right when i'm thinking about stewardship you might think oh yeah i know i'm doing good i i share the gospel sometimes and you know i do some stuff at the church right that that could be great and maybe you are being faithful but you also need to open yourself up to the possibility that even though you judge yourself pure that doesn't acquit you okay we always want to humbly go back to god and say am i am i doing what you want me to do am i serving the way you want me to serve right and if it's something different i'm willing to change i'm willing to do something different for you ultimately i want to be judged of motives of other people that's point number three don't try to be the judge of motives don't try to be the judge of motives what i'm not saying is don't be thinking how can i live more righteously okay that's not what i'm saying you've got to think that way but there also is a danger for you being so tied up in how am i doing how am i doing how am i doing that you could become self-consumed and then you're self-focused then you're just a selfish person that's falling apart right spiraling don't try to be a judge of motives if you are concerned about something you're doing go to god how does that look well it looks like going to his word looks like seeking counsel from godly people who are using god's word not just their opinions paul says in galatians chapter 1 says am i seeking the approval of man does you really think that i'm doing all this stuff for the church just because i want praise i'm not doing that if i was trying to please man i wouldn't be a servant of christ right what that looks like is sometimes you recognizing that you will not always get the praise that you think you deserve from the christians that you're serving in your life you might not always get it it's true for paul also second corinthians chapter 10 verse 18 second corinthians 10 18 says for it is not the one who commends himself who's approved commends means pat on the back same more as commendation it's not the one who praises himself that's approved but the one who the lord commends right who deserves praise the one who praises himself or the one the lord praises that's when the who the lord praises so he's saying be careful about patting yourself on the back careful about that right if you know your bible you know first corinthians 10 verse 12 says if you think you stand take heed lest you fall if you think yeah i've got past that thing i'm good well be careful you might fall romans 14 4 paul says who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another be careful about that be careful who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another it is before his own master that he stands or falls and that he will be upheld for the lord is able to make him stand what i'm not saying i mentioned this passage earlier i'm not saying is that is never your place to hold others accountable for sin i'm not saying that because sometimes it is your responsibility faithful are the wounds of a friend but profuse are the kisses of an enemy okay so i'm not saying that it's never your responsibility i mean paul does it in the next chapter i think it's just so interesting that he says do not pronounce judgment before the time and then he says i pronounce judgment on the one who did such a thing okay see that's so interesting that it's just one chapter later okay so that's why when you look at oh i like chapter four not so much chapter five though right because i was cool with the whole no one gets to judge me god's my only judge and then i see paul pronouncing judgment on somebody oh i don't like that right because what's the difference what we're talking about chapter five this person married their father's wife okay that's not cool um paul says non-christians don't even do that that's gross don't do that he says if they're if they're unwilling to repent then kick them out put them out of the church man get like again that's strong right you even many of you probably think wow the idea of kicking someone out of a church no good church should do that no they should because paul says if they persist in that sin and think about how public that was right someone if someone walks in married to their hopefully not their mom um this was probably their father's wife maybe divorced or maybe dead or stepmom or something it's just bad right someone married their stepmom you'd be like dude that's gross right that's you shouldn't do that um paul's like the non-christians look at that and say it's gross that's bad and they walk into church together holding hands and they walk out right you see someone's got to do something about that that's wrong okay so what's the difference between that and what paul's saying in chapter four okay that is a clear breaking of scripture done in the presence of other people right very clear very out in the open brings reproach on christ all that stuff right what is paul talking about in chapter four well the lord's gonna reveal the secrets of man's hearts so here's what you can do okay very carefully but you can do this people are in sin clearly breaking god's rules it's not wrong for you to say to that person hey look what god's word says right here you're you're breaking god's rules here you're in sin this is clear here's what you can't do hey um seems like you have a bad motive for that good thing you're doing you have a bad motive don't you you have a bad motive don't you you're proud you're fake you're like you can't that's what you're not allowed to do you cannot do that okay you can warn say hey we want to make sure we all have good motives right how are your motives like i i'm working on mine i hope you're working like you can do that here's what you cannot do pronounce judgment on other people's motives for doing the right thing okay because no one's gonna look at paul's life and say oh paul's a bad preacher paul's not faithful to christ he would be what was the what was the charge bad motives must be proud always wants everybody you cannot judge other people's motives that's what he's getting out here passage i'd love for you to write down matthew chapter 7 verses 1 to 5. it's a famous chapter talks about judgment hypocritical judgment here's what he says judge not that you not be judged it's the non-christian's favorite verse the whole bible right you ever heard that i'm not a christian hey judge not jesus said it right let you not be judged okay verse two for with the judgment that you pronounce you will be judged basically saying if you're gonna hold someone accountable to a standard just know god's gonna hold you to that right and with the measure that you use it will be measured to you verse 3. why do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye but don't even notice the log that is in your own eye you're seeing something so small in that person's life while you're missing that you've got a two by four sticking out and every time you turn you're smacking someone within eight feet of you right that's the picture right he's like saying how can you okay i i get that you wanna help the person with the spec but do you not see you have a two by four hanging out of your eyeball can we address that first okay well just take you want to tell your brother take the speck out of your eye well you hypocrite that's what jesus says that's an insult right you're a hypocrite but first take the log out of your own eye what does that mean repent of sin confess sin move on express your repentance over time okay and then what does he say then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye is that unexpected did you think like we're looking at this oh well jesus is gonna say don't touch the speck that's in your brother's eye no he says deal with your sin first confess it repent of it move on and then you know one of the reasons we confess sin one of the reasons we want to live with a pure heart before god one of them not the only one but one of them is so that you can help your brother your sister who has a speck in their eye who has a sin maybe it's a little sin but one of the reasons you should be confessing sin and repenting of it regularly is so that you are able to help them okay if we're a church that is not confessing our sin to one another we'll be smacking each other with the logs that are sticking out of our eyes okay no room will be big enough for all of us hyperbolically right you know you know what i'm talking about right we all got the log in all right we need to take the log out of our eye right that's what he's saying so be careful don't judge other people people's motives be careful with your judgment nothing it should never happen he's just saying needs to happen rightly carefully ultimately we're looking to god to judge us because his judgment is ultimately the one that matters which is why whenever you judge so to speak anyone it better be it has to be with the backing of god's word if it is not if it is just i prefer this you prefer that then don't do that right but when it is clear biblical right you have the authority of god behind you obviously you want to speak the truth and love you got to do it rightly but still so god's a judge it's interesting that paul is so confident that god is going to commend him praise him that he says i'm looking forward to that judgment day i'm looking forward to the day when the secrets of the hearts are revealed i just think as you consider that verse is that challenging to you are you looking forward to the judgment day or the secrets of your heart for all the times you served all the times you you know led in something or helped with a small group are you excited for the day that god is going to open up your heart and show the world your motivations are you excited for that or is that just a dread to you i think paul is there because of the quality of his life the faithfulness the consistency of him as a steward he's looking forward to god's praise for him he says god's going to praise what i've done that's just a lot of confidence i don't think that's arrogance i think that's confidence that's well placed i believe paul when he says that i trust that he's not being arrogant there but one of the things i think it does and shows us is that god's praise should motivate you thinking about god's praise in the future should motivate you to make certain decisions this week that god's going to evaluate my life do i want him to praise me or to say that was wrong you shouldn't have done that do you want god to praise your words and the the particular words that you chose in that situation with that hard family member or do you want him to look at that and say you should have done better you knew the right thing to do when you didn't do it point number four let god's praise motivate you to better service let god's praise motivate you to better service you might notice that in that parable of the talents if you remember the famous line that the master delivers right jesus delivers it through the master after they invest make a lot of money bring it back to the master you know what the master says well done good and faithful servant well done good and faithful servant do you know what well done means you know what that is praise that's commendation for what good and faithful service think about that it's exactly what paul is talking about it's like the same words even good well done good and faithful servant we'll all receive our commendation from god because every steward is supposed to be found faithful it's the same ideas jesus says well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little but i'll set you over much enter into the joy of your master the greatest inheritance the greatest thing you're going to get when you're evaluated if you are evaluated positively and god can look at your life and say well done good and faithful servant the thing that you will get that you will enjoy the most in the next life is entering into the joy of god having the praise the approval of god i i hope you think that matters like i hope that you see that right if you're if you've been in christ for a long time i hope that you still see that matters if you're new in christ i hope that it's fresh in your mind i want god to be pleased i just want god to be pleased with how i lived how i acted with the choice of words that i used with my motivation my heart motivations too not just the externals also the interest i want god to be pleased with my every decision just like you want people in your life just like a lot of you you want your parents approval just like a lot of you want your boss's approval or your girlfriend or boyfriend's approval like you want their approval so bad i hope that you want god's approval even more the commendation comes from him evaluating our lives and sometimes we uh maybe we won't do the right thing because we think it's such a small thing that it won't make a difference certainly god wouldn't care about that god wouldn't care if i uh you know if i come to alliance and stay a little longer and talk to that person god wouldn't care about that it's just a small thing i wouldn't care if i you know help serve with the the kids or something or do something with awana or do something on the weekends he does it's just such a small thing god wouldn't care about that would he well right after the passage the good and faithful servant passage we just looked at matthew 25 like 10 verses later jesus describes the judgment at the end he says to one group of people he talks to them he says when i was hungry you gave me food when i was thirsty you gave me drink when i was a stranger you welcomed me when i was naked you clothed me when i was sick you visited me when i was in prison you came to me and the righteous say to jesus lord when did we do that we never did that for you when do we ever give you clothing or drink or food when do we ever welcome you in our house like what are you talking about when did we visit you in prison or when you were sick god we never we never did that to you jesus we never did that to you then here's what jesus says truly i say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers again remember where you are christ brothers sisters you did it to me jesus says even that cup of cold water right even that little tiny act of service that you did for one of god's people guess what jesus says it's like you did it to me small insignificant i'm never going to get paid back for it fine yeah you know what i am going to get paid back for is with god it reminds me that story jesus tells me he says don't invite the rich to your house to your party get their expensive nice gifts just because then they might pay you back it says but then when you give to the person who doesn't have it's like you're lending to the lord right that proverb in the old testament right he who let lends to the poor lends to the lord he who gives to the poor rather lends to the lord god is going to see every sacrifice every little thing so to speak that you do for him as a faithful steward hebrew 6 10 puts it like this for god is not unjust so as to overlook your work god's not going to see your work and be like ah that doesn't matter he's not unjust to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do i hope that you're involved in serving the saints in some way that's why we say hey we want you to serve it's not just because we need you know things to happen at this church it's also because we want you to obey what god has told you to do right as a steward if we if we provided no ways for you to serve i think we'd be doing you a disservice we tried to as much as we can at this church give you opportunities to serve even if it's small even if we could do it better ourselves with our staff people sometimes we just want to give you an opportunity so that you can be faithful to what god has called you to do you're serving the local body which again compass bible church is your home church right we want you to be serving our church somehow all right think of fall fest make a game i think of something that maybe if you're not serving i've seen a lot of you join compass connect and some of you are junior higher leaders and others of you are helping out with awana and kids ministry so good and it's really cool to see this group and how this group has developed over time and how a lot of you a year ago weren't doing the service that you're now doing that's encouraging to me it just really makes me happy to see you guys are doing a great job doing this and i just want you to encourage god's not going to overlook it god will never overlook anything that you do for him reminds me this morning um i went golfing by myself which is kind of a weird thing um that's how you know it's a problem right right it's a problem if i told you uh the story of uh boys don't grow up they just graduate from video games to golf you ever heard that um so i've graduated some of you need to graduate but um i'll help you graduate come on let's play golf then i won't go alone like a loser um so this morning i'm i i go down and play some golf um you know just it was cool right my airpods in and listen podcasts books listen to some music it was all good right uh the 12th hole rolls around um kind of backs up waiting for some people i was by myself right um the green clears it's a par 3 up the hill 200 yards um it's kind of cool whatever oh you don't care um um i'm waiting for the green to clear i do but i'm by myself right there's nobody around um except for there's this one guy who's working on on the grass like a greens keeper is one guy was there so i was waiting for him to call me up and he says yeah you can hit so i do and i almost hit him which was funny but i hit it and it hits the slope right in front of the green and it bounces up on the green right then i can't see it because the green was up high you know so i walk up there and the ball was in the hole i got a hole in one today um and no stop no stop stop and nobody saw it i was so mad and i'm like you know what nobody's gonna even believe me it's my second hole in one the first one was way cooler um because it was like i could see it i was with my family it was like really cool right it was right in my brother's face so i was like take that right um this one was the most unsatisfying hole in one that you could ever imagine i didn't see it go in the hole and like no i wasn't with it like what do you celebrate you feel like an idiot it's like yeah like i'm by myself so i find the greens keeper because like he was kind of in the air he kind of saw it he didn't see it go in but he was right there um so i go over to him and i'm like okay bro like i i need you i have to take a video with me okay um because you're my only witness here nobody's gonna believe me so then you know i meet uh his name's john my name's john right and i you know go take a video of him and we're talking right and he describes it as cool right um i find out um that he is um he's the uh he's the owner of the course he he uh is the owner of the course uh he's like a very famous person um we'll just leave it at that um and i have a video of him explaining my hole-in-one he's my only witness so i can't tell if it was like really cool what happened today or if it was the weirdest like least satisfying thing that's like you were so looking forward to just that was weird um the point was if there's nobody around and it goes unnoticed it's a little odd a little strange even if it's glorious and cool and big it's like yes just wasn't that cool because nobody really saw it but when it's noticed and especially by someone who's important that made it pretty cool you might think the little tiny things that you do for god or even the big things sometimes go unnoticed maybe if you don't get thank you cards for things that you do at church um maybe think well it's not and who really notices right god notices god cares god rewards it matters that he is pleased with stuff and if it doesn't matter that god is pleased with your life then we have too small of you of god i want to talk about this in small groups for a little bit and by a little bit i emphasized little that you know one of these days we're going to finish on time we got three questions we're going to go through them fast in our small groups but i want you to think about the future judgment god's going to evaluate me he's going to value me for my words my actions my thoughts my deeds how am i being faithful now how can i grow in faithfulness to god let's pray god help us with this we um we are so easily distracted we we have a problem being faithful even in our own work lives and our lives of discipline and i just pray that we would be more faithful people in general and that faithfulness would be transferred over specifically to the most important thing that we'd be faithful in your eyes that we would rightly view ourselves as servants and stewards not as the lord not as the boss not as a master but fully accountable to you and pray that that would encourage us more and more especially right now that we would be faithful to serve you and to honor you to give everything that we can to serve you because we know that you take note of all of it and you will reward i mean the most important reward is that you would commend us we want your praise more than anything else so we asked that we would have helped this week to live a more faithful life for you

Channel: Compass Bible Church

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Keywords: compass bible church, compass church, compass aliso viejo, aliso viejo church, compass bible church aliso, expository preaching, expository preaching church, biblical christianity, evangelical christianity, compass church hill country, compass church Tustin, compass church Huntington Beach, compass church treasure valley, Mike Fabarez, Mike Fabarez sermons, Pastor Mike Fabarez

Id: h8F4oDdHl3Y

Length: 51min 27sec (3087 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 04 2021