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There's a lot in this chapter, but let's start in verse 14. I just want to preach on a couple of things out of this chapter, then we're going to go somewhere else. But in verse 14, the Bible reads, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. So God is relating the kingdom of heaven basically unto a man who is entrusting his servants or his employees with responsibility, with his goods, with what belongs to him, and with a job to do while he's gone. The same parable is told in the book of Luke, and he says, Occupy till I come. Like the word we get, occupation. He's giving them a job to do. If you jump down to verse 21, we see that when he gets back, some people have done what they were supposed to do. And in verse 21, as the Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou in to the joy of thy Lord. Look at verse 23, as the Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou in to the joy of thy Lord. What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of faithfulness. Being faithful. Now first of all, let me just explain to you what the word faithful means, because it has a couple of different meanings, and it's used both ways in the Bible. First of all, faithful can mean that you're a person who is full of faith. You have faith. If you are one of the faithful, it means that you're a believer, because faith and believe are the same word. And so a faithful person could just mean a person who has a lot of faith in God, or they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But the word faithful also means in the Bible, not only someone who is filled with faith, or someone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, or has their trust in God's word, it also means a person who other people can put their faith in, and who people can trust, and who people can rely on. So for example, if I say that brother Dave is faithful, I might mean he is a man of faith. He believes the Bible. He has great faith in what God has promised us. But I can also mean when I say brother Dave is faithful, that he's reliable, that I can trust him. That if I give him a job to do, I know it's going to get done. And that's the part that I want to focus on more this morning, is the subject of being faithful, reliable, trustworthy. These are synonyms of faithfulness in the Bible. Now we see here in verse number 14, that this man had entrusted his servants with great responsibility. He had delivered unto them his goods. There's a certain degree of trust there. He's expecting them to do what he would do if he were there. He's not going to be there to supervise. He's not going to be there to watch. But he's putting trust in them that they will do what they're supposed to do, even when he, the boss, is not around. Now Scott works for me every once in a while from time to time when I get really busy. Scott helps me out and does work for me. And there's a certain degree of trust that I have to have for Scott when he works for me. Because I'm not always with him standing over his shoulder, telling him exactly what to do, supervising exactly what he does. Now if I were to do that, I almost might as well do it myself, right? I want to have someone that I can trust, where I can send him somewhere. I don't even have to be there. He can take a load off my shoulders by doing the work on his own without somebody looking over his shoulder. And there's a certain degree of trust that I have to have. For example, I have to give him the company credit card because he's going to have to put fuel in the vehicle. He's going to have to buy parts at the hardware store. He might have to go to the wholesale house and buy materials. So there's a certain degree of trust of handing somebody your credit card, right? And just, you know, hopefully he's not just going to go on some kind of a binge and party and whatever with him, you know? And yeah, I've been happy. I better take that statement. But anyway, now give him the card. Now he's got to be responsible. He's got to think, wait a minute, this card is being given to me for legitimate purposes. It's not for me to go party and blow money with. And he's got to use a degree of responsibility. Now you're not going to give a teenager a credit card and just trust him with it for weeks on end. But when somebody's an adult, when somebody has proven themself, you're going to trust them with that credit card. You're going to trust him with the keys to the vehicle. You're going to trust him with your goods. I mean, putting them behind the wheel of your car, sending them places. And you're trusting him with the customer that he's not going to ruin the account and poison the well and ruin the job. You see, your boss puts trust in you as an employee. Now some employees can't be trusted. They don't get paid as much because they have to be constantly supervised. Somebody has to constantly stand over them, tell them what to do. There has to be a camera on them that camera system costs money. And the people who can be trusted the most are going to be rewarded the most. And the people who cannot be trusted and must constantly be supervised, they're going to be rewarded less. And it's the same way here, God is saying, that is what the kingdom of heaven is like in a sense. I want to be able to rely on you, God is saying. I want to be able to trust you to do what you're supposed to do. Look, Jesus Christ is not on this earth today. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. And the Bible says that when Jesus was on the earth, he said, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. But then he said to his disciples, when he was surely about to depart and when he was surely about to be deceased and to die on the cross and to be buried and to rise again, he said unto them, as my Father hath sent me, so said I you. And he said, ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be headed. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You see, he was the light of the world while he was on this earth. But then he says unto us, you're the light of the world. And the Bible says that we are ambassadors for Christ and that he has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Now when you commit something unto someone, you're giving it to them for safe keeping. You're trusting them. You're giving them something to take care of, to do. And God has given us a job to do and he is relying on us to do it. He has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. We beseech the lost in Christ's day that they will be reconciled unto God. And if you're going to send an ambassador to represent you, you better send somebody that you trust because you don't want to send somebody who's going to make a fool out of you. Can you imagine if the United States sent an ambassador to a foreign country and he was sloppy, he was late, he was sloppily, he did not deliver the message properly, he was impolite, he was rude, and it would be a disgrace unto a whole nation. That's why somebody who's sent as an ambassador, they better be somebody that is faithful. They better be somebody that can be trusted, that can be relied upon. Go to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter number 16. And we'll see some similar statements from God about being faithful, being trustworthy, being reliable. And before we jump into Luke chapter 16, this is great advice for your job. Now we're applying this in a spiritual way this morning. And we're looking at the Bible this morning and we're going to think about how this applies spiritually and to serving God and to the kingdom of heaven. But honestly, this is something that you need to apply to your job and every area of your life. Be a reliable person. Be a reliable person. Be a person who can be trusted. Be a person where if you say you're going to be somewhere, you're going to be there. You say you're going to do something, you're going to do it. You're reliable, you're punctual, you show up on time, you show up, and people can trust you and rely on you. You know, for example, let's say you're going to be a pastor someday. And, you know, there are probably a lot of young men in the room that, as the Bible says, they desire the office of a bishop. And the Bible says he that desireth the office of a bishop desireth a good thing, and he lists the qualifications for a bishop. And a bishop is another word for a pastor. And when we think about this, you don't just become faithful and reliable and trustworthy the day that you become a pastor. Okay? Timothy was told by Paul, the things which thou hast learned of me among many witness, the same commit thou unto faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. He said, Timothy, you need to commit and trust and entrust the ministry and the knowledge and the preaching that you've been given. You need to be able to train other reliable people that they may be able to teach others also. That is one of the qualifications given unto Timothy for people that he's going to train to preach and to teach and to lead God's people. He said they need to be faithful men. When God was choosing leaders in the Old Testament, he said, look you out among you faithful men, people that can be relied upon. Now, before you're going to be a pastor of a church someday, you better get faithful as a church member. You better be somebody that can be trusted and relied upon as a church member. You know, long before you're ever going to pastor a church, you need to be able to make it here consistently and reliably to church. Because if you think about it, when you're the pastor of the church, everybody expects you to be there, reliable, punctual, on time, in your place every time. Now, there are some pastors who are not very reliable. They're constantly gone. They're constantly nodding their pulpit. But you know what? That's a shame. And the reality is that most people aren't going to accept that from a pastor. You know, they expect... Now, they might be very unreliable and come whenever they feel like it. However, they expect the pastor to be there every single time that they show up. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. They expect me to be here. They expect me... I'm sure you expect me to be here on time to have a good attitude, right? Not to just show up and have a bad attitude. Yeah, I guess we'll sing a couple songs. Whatever. I don't even care what we sing. I'm having kind of a messed up day today or whatever. Yeah, you don't expect me to come and be in a bad mood and come and I'm not prepared to preach. I don't have a sermon and I'm late and my shirt's half untucked and, you know, I'm not ready to go. Yeah, you expect me to be here reliably. Now, just like you, I have things that come up in my life that are unexpected. Right? That could seek to get me to not be on time to church or to not show up, okay? For example, you know, it's a great illustration because just last night, you know, I had a horrible day yesterday. Everything went wrong yesterday and I was working outside and it was pouring rain and I was trying to get this work done. Well, anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up getting way behind on schedule because I was working and working and working and working. Well, pretty soon it got to be evening time. The sun was going down. I was in Northern California. Well, that's far from Phoenix, okay? So I had about a 10-hour drive ahead of me and the sun was already going down and I had to drive all night to get back there. Now, I could have just said... I could have just called Brother Dave and said, Brother Dave, can you just cover for me? Can you just take care of it for me? And thank God Brother Dave is a faithful, reliable person that if I did make that call, I can trust him. Hey, he's ready to go. He's ready to preach. He knows how to handle things. He's not going to make an idiot out of us, you know? He's going to know how to behave himself in the house of God. He's going to preach a Spirit-filled sermon. But here's the thing, though. That's a blessing to have people like that because when I first started the church, I didn't have anybody like that. You know, you don't have people you can rely on. Hey, it's a blessing to have as many people as possible that you can rely on to cover you when you do fall, to take your place when you do have a problem. But you know what? That doesn't mean that I'm just going to be unreliable because I got somebody reliable to rely on. No, I made it a point to slap myself in the face and do push-ups by the side of the road and just whatever it was to wake me up and to get myself down here to be here because it's important for me to be here. And people are constantly saying to me, people in my life are constantly saying to me, why don't you just have somebody fill in for you? Why don't you just have somebody do it for you? You know, you can take a vacation. You can be gone. People like to hear a guest preacher. They're sick of listening to you three times a week anyway. Brother Dave will be refreshing or another guest preacher will be refreshing. You know, have somebody else do it. And I always tell people the same thing. I say, you know what? You're right. People do like to hear a different preacher. People do like a change. People do like a guest. And that's why sometimes I'll have a guest, but I still am here. And let me explain to you why I do that because I'm trying to teach people to be reliable, that's why. I'm just trying to set the example. And, yeah, I could have Brother Dave cover me and so forth. And, look, sometimes I do have someone cover me. Like, for example, if I'm really, really sick, you know, that's an act of God. That's nothing I can control if I'm extremely sick. Or, for example, when my wife was giving birth. You know, I felt like that was a legitimate reason not to be here. But here's the thing. Did you notice that it's few and far between? Because I'm trying to get you to understand how important church is. So if I'm taking it seriously and if I think it's important, I'm hoping that you'll say, well, hey, if Pastor Anderson thinks it's really important, maybe I should take it seriously. Maybe I should get here reliably. Now, let me ask you something. If you're a young man and you want to pastor a church someday and you come to church 5, 10 minutes late every service, how's that going to work when you're pastoring? That's what I'd like to know. You know, are you just going to show up later? That's why you need to be faithful now, okay? It's required in stewards, the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 4.2. You don't have to turn there. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Not make you faithful. You better be found faithful. You've got to be faithful going into it. If you're going to be a deacon, the Bible says, you know, let these also first be proved or tested, he says. Then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. He said they need to be found faithful. You need to be a reliable, trustworthy person in order to be trusted with the reins of a local church, to be trusted with the reins of the pulpit here, even to preach one sermon in church is a privilege and an honor, and you've got to be a trustworthy person if I were to put you behind the pulpit and say, preach to the people. Or if I were to say, lead the singing. You know, these are things that are, I'm trusting you, okay? These are things, you're trusting me. And faithfulness is an important characteristic to have in every area of life. Whether it's your job, whether it's your church, whether it's your service to the God, you need to be a faithful, reliable, trustworthy person where people can trust you. Your boss ought to just know, hey, he's going to be here. He's going to be on time. He's going to be ready to go. And you know, it ought to be that when you're not there and when you're not on time, people think something's wrong. He's dead? No, I'm just kidding. He's in a horrible accident. You know, something's going wrong. Just because you're a reliable person, because you're just consistently, you're showing up, you're there, you're at church, you know, consistently, and you know what? I just want to say thank you right now to everybody who comes to church consistently. I mean, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have no idea what it means to me that people be here consistently at church. Now, there are times when you need to... And you know, if you're sick, and if your kids are sick especially, you know, don't bring your kids when they're filled with sickness and disease because then it spreads like wildfire to the whole church. And so that is a legitimate reason to stay home when you have communicable illness. But honestly, it means so much to me as a pastor when you are here reliably, faithfully, and I can just count on you to be here. You say, Wyatt, what am I doing? What do I matter? Everybody matters. And everybody in this church that is a part of this body matters, and it's important. And people notice when you're not here. My kids notice, and other people's kids notice, and they see who is consistently here and who is not. What if you're their hero, and they see you not being faithful, not being trusted and worthy of being relied upon to be here all the time, and they see you just kind of coming to church when you feel like it, you know, when you can kind of squeeze it in. But you know what? There are some people that can just be relied upon to be here, to be singing out in their hymnal. You know, that's a blessing when people are singing out, and everybody's here singing, and when people are here to greet visitors, and there's a lot you do just by showing up, just by smiling and greeting and being friendly and singing the songs. And then maybe we'll have a bunch of visitors, and somebody needs to hear the gospel. Somebody needs to get the plan of salvation. I thank God. There are people I can rely on where I know I don't have to worry about it. When I finish preaching the sermon and there are all kinds of visitors here, I just know they're going to get the gospel. I know that people are going to go and make a beeline and greet them and open their Bible and give them the gospel if they need it and talk to them about salvation. I know that because I can rely on people to do that because I can trust them to do that because they're faithful people. Amen. They will do that. You know, from time to time, we have big groups of visitors that come from the community college, from the religion class that are brought over here. You know, it's sort of like, you know, some people go to the zoo, you know, and they look at the different species. Well, they bring the religion class here sometimes, you know, to kind of look at us because we're like an endangered species right now. So they've got to take a look at us before we're totally extinct. You know, someday they'll just have to read about us in books apparently. So, you know, they want to see a real, live, fundamental Baptist, you know, so they bring them over here and so forth. But you know what? I thank God that I can rely on the fact and trust the fact and have faith in the fact that if 20 people show up, they'll all get the gospel given to them one on one. There will be plenty of people that I can rely on to do that. And not only can I rely on them to talk to the visitors and give them the gospel, I can rely on them to do it right and to be thorough and to do a good job, not a quick, blow-through, half-hearted, but a real, bona fide gospel presentation from somebody who cares, from somebody who's willing to take the time to be thorough, to do a good job, to do it right. Hey, it's a blessing when people are faithful and can be relied upon and trusted to do what they're supposed to do. You know, and I'm not perfect. I'm not just the perfect, shining example of somebody who's always faithful, always right on, always, but that's what I'm striving to do. That's what I strive to do by being here Sunday morning, Sunday night Wednesday, and I've gone years without even missing a service for any reason, years on end. And, you know, I'm not perfect, like I said, and I'm sure you can see me after service telling, what about the time that you, you know, let us down in this area or whatever. But the bottom line is, nobody's perfect, but we need to strive toward faithfulness in our lives. God's gonna reward faithfulness. He said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man. It's like a boss who leaves his employees. He leaves them in charge of the vehicles. He leaves them in charge of the equipment. He leaves them in charge of the money. He leaves them in charge of the tools, and he says, work while I'm gone. Occupy till I come. And he said many cases that when he left, they're drinking, they're partying, they're wasting time, and, you know, there are people at your job, perhaps, that when the boss isn't around, they fool around and don't do their job. Isn't that the truth? There are people, I mean, I've seen it. You ought not be a part of it, and I don't care if everybody else is doing it. If you're getting paid for eight hours, you need to put in an eight-hour day. You need to give an honest day's work for an honest day's paycheck and not fool around. I mean, if there are breaks that you're supposed to be taking and so forth, but when everybody's just fooling around, when people are sleeping on the job when they're not supposed to be, when people are just wasting time hanging out because they know they can get away with it, because they know they can get by with it, that is not right. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, that's just my job, though. I mean, what does God care about my job? It's not like I'm a pastor. Your job is a spiritual job. And obviously, I have a secular job as well. But look at Luke 16. Look what the Bible says about that. In Luke 16, 10, the Bible reads, he that is faithful in that which is least, get this now, he that's reliable or faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If, therefore, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust of true riches? God's saying, I can look down at how you are with just the mammon of this world, with just the little things that don't matter, quote, unquote, and I can see how you're faithful on your job, and that tells me I can't trust you in other areas of life. You get that? He said if you can't be trusted in that which is least, I can't trust you with that which is much. If you can't even be faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust of true riches? Because there are things in life that are more important than money. Money is not the most important thing to God. It's very low on the list. That's why the streets in heaven are paved with gold. It's just asphalt to him. It's just the bottom. It's what he steps on. It means nothing to him. I'll show you how little it means to him. He had 12 disciples. Guess which one he put in charge of the money? Judas. He knew it was a traitor. He knew from the beginning who it was that would betray him. That's who he put in charge of the money. And you know what God's showing us? The money's not the most important thing. Because if it were the most important thing, he would have had John handle it. If it were the most important thing, he might have had Peter handle it. But no. He said, let Judas Iscariot handle it. Oh, but he's stealing money. So what? Who cares? He can't steal my joy. He can't steal the souls that we've won to Christ. He can't steal the truth. He can't steal my rewards in heaven. He can steal nothing from me that matters. Because God, the Father, would provide the needs of Jesus Christ while he was on this earth. And provide the needs of those disciples. They didn't have to worry about it. And obviously, I'm all for lock the door, load the shotgun, and all that. Protect your stuff. But I think Jesus was sending us a powerful message, though, by making Judas the treasurer. Saying, look, it's not all church. It's not all about money. Now, some churches have been doing what's all about money. But you know what? Money is not the emphasis. Money is not the most important thing. But at the same time, though, even though the unrighteous mammon. And what's the unrighteous mammon? That's those bunch of Federal Reserve notes that are in your wallet right now. That bunch of monopoly money that you have that's not even worth the paper that it's written on. It's a piece of paper. It's worthless. It's meaningless. I remember my niece did a job for me. And she did a task that I tasked her with. And I said, hey, in reward for your service to me, I'm going to mail you a picture of Benjamin Franklin. And she was like, huh? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? OK. And then she got it. She understood it as a $100 bill. Because it's got Ben Franklin on it. But that's really all it is. It's a picture of Ben Franklin. It's pretty much the biggest value that that thing has. It's a piece of paper. It only has value because people think it has value. That unrighteous mammon, that thing that we covet after. And oh, we've got to get more of it. Oh, it has so much value to us. But God looks down at it. And it's got to be a joke to him when he sees you clamoring. When he hears you talking about your Benjamins. And you're, oh, your money. Oh, look at all this money I've got. And he sees people at the casino pulling the lever. And ding, ding, ding. Whoo! Whoo! It's meaningless. It has no value. And God looks down. He thinks it's a joke. But he says, you know what it is worth, though? He says, I can see if you're faithful with it. And that just tells me what kind of person you are. Because if you're faithful in the least, you'll be faithful in those things which are greatest as well. And he says in verse 12, and if you've not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? You know, if you can't be faithful with what somebody loans you or lets you use, you know, who's going to give you your own things to care for and take care of. It doesn't make any sense. If I gave you something that is of little value and you don't take care of it, am I going to give you something of great value? No, because you probably won't take care of it either. And so what I'm trying to say is that every area of your life is an area where you need to strive toward being faithful. And if you could get in the habit of being faithful at your job, reliably doing what you're supposed to do on time, in your place, serving faithfully at your job, you say, well, you know, I'm doing landscaping. I'm doing plumbing. I'm doing electrical work. But if you can get faithful at that, you'll be more faithful in other areas of life because you need to just become a faithful person all the way around. And your word is your bond at church, and your word is your bond on the job because you're just a reliable, faithful, trustworthy person. Go to Proverbs. The book of Proverbs talks a lot about being faithful and being reliable and being trustworthy. Go to the book of Proverbs and look at chapter 25. Let's start there. Chapter 25. You know, David, while you're turning to Proverbs 25, you know, David had some guys that he could really rely on. Remember David's mighty men? Yep. They weren't really the stars, as it were. They're not really people that we talk a lot about. They aren't really people that we think about. You know, David was the main guy. In fact, but honestly, God took a lot of time to give us each of their names and give us some of their exploits, give us some of their attributes, and these were guys who David could count on and rely on. They were faithful to him. Now, faithful can also have the idea of being loyal, okay, because of the fact that if you can trust somebody, you can trust them not to stab you in the back, not to turn on you, which is what loyalty is, okay? And so they were loyal to him. They were faithful to him. He could rely on them. Go to Proverbs 25. Think about this when I was speaking about an employer. It says in verse 19 of chapter 25, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble. He's saying when you rely on somebody who's not faithful, when you put your confidence and say, oh, I know that so-and-so's going to handle everything for me while I'm gone. Oh, I know he'll do a great job. He can take care of this for me. No sweat. No sweat. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. Now, those are two things that are very debilitating, because when you have a broken tooth, you're in so much pain, you can't even function. I mean, it's just this tiny little part of your body. But, yeah, who knows what I'm talking about? I mean, if you've got a broken tooth, if you've got something going on with your teeth that's bad, I've been to the point where I was just debilitated and it couldn't even work, couldn't even function. You're just in excruciating pain in your mouth. And what about a foot out of joint? That doesn't sound fun. I mean, that sounds very painful. A foot would be out of joint. You're not going to get much done like that. He's saying, look, if you put confidence in an unfaithful person, it's extremely painful, and it'll be totally debilitating to you. OK, that's what he's trying to say. Chapter 26, verse 6. Next chapter, Proverbs 26, 6. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool... OK, so this is basically somebody who's relying on somebody to be their ambassador, right? To bring the message. And this person is not a wise person. This person is not a faithful person. He says, he that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage. Now, that's pretty graphic terminology to say, you know, this is the last position you want to be in, relying on somebody who's not reliable. And there are many, many places. You don't have to turn there, but Proverbs 13, 17. It says, a wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador is held. So there's the wicked messenger, and there's the faithful ambassador. Now, I didn't have time to go through it, but in Matthew 25, if we would have gone through that parable in detail, you remember there was the good and faithful servant, right? Who was the other servant? What was he called? Wicked and slothful. So the opposite of being good and faithful is being wicked and slothful or lazy. A slugger, slothful, lazy. You're not reliable. You're not trustworthy. The boss has to stand over you and crack the whip all day, or you're going to get nothing done because he has to constantly be on you and telling you. And then when it comes to church, you won't be faithful to church unless somebody's just always on you all the time, saying, are you going to be there? Are you coming? Are you coming this time? Now, faithfulness is a great task. You may not be a very talented person. You may not have the greatest singing voice in the world. You may not be the greatest public speaker. You may not have a ton of knowledge. But let me tell you something. You can be faithful and reliable. Anybody can. And you'd almost rather have somebody who has a little less talent, but you can rely on them. They're faithful. Than a superstar who sometimes doesn't show up. Sometimes isn't there when you need them. You know, even... Think about this. The piano player. What if the piano player just doesn't show up to church? What if the piano player's late to church? Doesn't that kind of put us in a position where we're kind of in a lurch here? Kind of like a broken tooth? A little bit... But that's why it's good to also have other... Because obviously things are going to come up from time to time, okay? Things are going to come up from time to time, and that's why it's good to have a backup piano player that you can rely on, or a backup song leader and other people that can fill the void and fill in the gap when people are sick or not here. But what if Brother Matt was just late to church about, let's say, half the time? Do you think he'd still be the piano player? If he were late half the time? No, because I don't want to sit here wondering, so is he going to show up today? So is he going to grace us with his presence today? Or is he going to miss church again if he's just constantly missing church? And I never know when he's going to be here, when he's not going to be here, if he's going to be on time, if he's going to be late, guess what? I'm going to find another piano player. He said, but Brother Matt plays so much better. But no, I need somebody that I can rely on. I need somebody that I can count on to be here. You know, that's how God is too. He wants people that he can rely on, that he can count on, that he just knows they're going to be here. You may not be good looking. You may not be talented. But you can be reliable. You can do what you say you're going to do. When you say you're going to do something, you can do it. You can be on time. You can be in your place. You can be trustworthy. And that is worth gold, my friend. That is a great, great value. Where did I return? Still in Proverbs? Is that where we are? Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 7. And so faithfulness is very important. Being faithful at your job. Being faithful at church. Being faithful to soul winning. Being somebody that can be reliable. Look, God's committed us to the ministry of reconciliation. He's made us ambassadors. He expects us to go out and give people the gospel. He expects us to be preaching the gospel to every preacher. He's not going to do it for us. He's relying on us to do it. Are we doing it? He's relying on us to be faithful to church. He's looking for... You say, well, I never... But I'm never going to be a pastor. You know what, though? Maybe you think you're never going to be, but maybe you will be someday. Or you say, well, I know for sure I'm never going to be. Okay. But still, there are functions that you have. There's a role that you play in this church just by being here. Just by fellowshipping. Just by singing the song. Just by being a soul winner before and after the service. There's a reason for you to be here. You need to be here faithfully and consistently. There's a lot to be said for that, honestly. But in Deuteronomy, I just want to close with this thought, is that God is faithful. This is an attribute of God that's listed over and over and over again in the Bible. It says in verse 9 of chapter 7, Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, and look at this, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him, and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. So notice, He's the faithful God. And what does that mean? He keeps His covenant. He's not going to break His promise. He will keep His word. Now, a faithful person, right? When they tell you something, you can rely on it. If they say, I'm going to be there, you know they'll be there. If they say, hey, I'm going to hang on to this money and I'm going to spend it on what you're telling me to spend it on and so forth, I'm good for it. Okay, that's a faithful person. That's somebody you can trust. Well, God's saying, I'm the faithful God. He says it over and over again. In Lamentations chapter 3, of course, the famous phrase where it says that thy mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Over and over again. Second Thessalonians chapter 3, But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you. And keep your faith. Over and over again, the Bible tells us God's faith. And for the sake of time, we have pages of it. God's faithful. The Lord is faithful. God is faithful. He's reliable. Hey, we can trust Him. Amen. We know that if He says something, if He says, my God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus, we can rely on that. We can trust that. When He says, I've been young and now I'm old and I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed, baking bread, you can take that to the bank. I'd rather have that than a big stack of gold and silver and precious stones and Federal Reserve notes. I would rather just have the promise that God will provide all my needs. Amen. Amen. Because gold and silver can be stolen from you. It can rust and canker and sour. And look, it's not something you say, no, no, no, I've got it all buried and hidden. You know what? It can be stolen from you. Right. Amen. The Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust of corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for you. Treasure is, there will your heart be also. And God is faithful. God will never break His promise. He will not alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. He is sworn unto us. I'm quoting from the Psalms where he goes on and on about the eternal security of the believer back in the book of Psalms. Even if we sin, and I don't have it in front of me, but he talks about how even if we sin and do wrong, He'll visit us with the rod and stripes. He will chastise and chasten us like a father chastens his children, but he says he will not take his love and kindness and love from us. He will not take his mercy from us. The Bible even says if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. Even if you were to doubt your salvation, you know, even if you came to a place in your life where you started to doubt your salvation, you know, and even John the Baptist doubted whether Jesus was really the Christ. Even after he had seen the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and he pointed to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Later, when he's sitting in a jail cell, he had doubts and said, Lord, Master, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Do I look for somebody else? We can look for another. He said, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. You're the one who taught us that. But you see, he had doubts. It's human to have doubts. And the Bible even says if we believe not, if we begin to doubt, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. I mean, if my children were to doubt that they were my children, they're still my children. And if they started to doubt and say, Dad, I'm not sure you're really my dad, that would not change the fact that I'm their dad. And even if we doubt that we're God's children, he has promised us, and listen to this, the Bible says this is the promise that he had promised us, even eternal life. The Bible says in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. God promised us eternal life before the world began. You say, well, I wasn't even around by then. Yeah, but he promised whosoever believeth. And since you believed, you have that promise. If you put all of your faith and trust in Christ, you are saved and he will not break his promise. You say, well, what if I go out and commit a really bad sin? What if I commit adultery? What if I commit murder? He will abide faithful. He'll visit you with the rod. And if you commit a big sin, you're going to get a big punishment on this earth. David committed a big sin when he committed adultery and murder. He suffered severe, horrible consequences for the rest of his life. You'll be punished. A big spanking for a big offense and a little spanking for a little offense. But he abides faithful. He abides true to his word. We can trust him to put food on the table. We can trust him that if we work six days and we labor by the sweat of our brow, that he will give us our daily bread, that he will provide for our life, that he will provide for our children, that we will be able to survive and live and have food and clothing and be content. God will take care of us. He is faithful. He's reliable. We can count on him. We can set our watch by him and know he will never let us down. When it comes to salvation, he won't let us down. When it comes to our needs, he'll provide. Now think about marriage. Marriage is a great example of salvation in many ways. Have you ever heard this term, he or she was unfaithful? Right? When somebody's married, what does that mean? Unfaithfulness in a marriage. What is that talking about? It means adultery, right? If somebody would say, oh, she was unfaithful. He was unfaithful. That means that they broke trust by committing adultery because they swore an oath and a vow that says that I will keep me only unto her so long as people still live. And then they went out and they were with someone else. And that's adultery. That's a breach of trust. That is unfaithfulness. Being faithful is being trusted and reliable. Now, the thing about God is that he uses marriage as an illustration of salvation because marriage and salvation have a lot in common. For example, how long does it take to get married? Is it a process or is it a one-time thing that you get married? Is it ongoing? Well, so are you married? Well, I'm being married. You know, I started being married 11 and a half years ago, and I'm still kind of, you know, I'm working on it. I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, exactly. I know you ask people, no, are you saved? Do you know for sure you died? Do you go to heaven? I hope so. You know, so Pastor Harrison, you're married? Well, I hope so. I'm trying. Does that make any sense? No. I don't hope so or I'm trying. It's just I'm married. Okay. Why? Because marriage is a covenant, right? It's me basically making a promise to my wife and my wife makes a promise unto me. That's what marriage is. It's that oath, okay? It's that bond between two people. Now, if I break my promise, that's unfaithfulness. If I keep my promise, that's being faithful. Now, think about this. What if I don't ever talk to my wife for days on end? What if I do the so-called silent treatment, you know, and I don't talk to my wife for days and she doesn't talk to me for days? Do we have a good marriage? Is that a good relationship? But let me ask them, are we still married? So, Pastor Harrison, are you married? I don't know because my wife hasn't talked to me in like three or four days. I don't know. I'm starting to wonder whether I'm even married. That would be silly, wouldn't it? It wouldn't make any sense because even if we have a bad... What if we fight every day? Are we still married? Yeah. What if I tell her to do stuff and she won't do anything I tell her to do? Are we still married? Yeah. Does everybody understand? Well, guess what? It's the same way with God. God, even if we fail Him and disobey and do wrong, hey, there are going to be consequences for that, but He's not going to break His promise to us. Amen. It's till death us do part. And guess what? He liveth forever and ever. Amen. So, you know, He's never going to die. He died once. He was dead for three days and three nights and up from the grave He arose. And so marriage is a great picture of salvation in that regard because just as a husband should be faithful unto his wife, and you say, well, Pastor Anderson, people get divorced, though. You know, people do commit adultery. People do break their promise. Okay, that's true. Human beings that are sinners get divorced and break their promise, but wait a minute. Is God a sinner? No. God is the ultimate husband that would never leave us nor forsake us. Amen. And no matter what we do, He will not break His promise to us because He will be faithful unto the end. But you know what? He expects faithfulness from us. Right. Now, look, I'm going to be faithful to my wife no matter what. I'll tell you right now. I'm married. I made that commitment. I made that vow 11 and a half years ago. I will be faithful unto my wife no matter what. Amen. Now, what if you say, what if she is unfaithful? Will you still be faithful? Yes, I will. Amen. But wait a minute. But don't you think that I expect and demand faithfulness from her as well? Now, I'm faithful. No matter what she does, it doesn't condone me breaking my promise or breaking my power being unfaithful. I'm going to be faithful no matter what. But guess what? I expect her to be faithful. I expect it to be a two-way street. I expect her to live by the same standard that I'm living by. Whether she does or not, I'm going to save you. Well, that's the same thing with God. God is faithful to us. He will never let us down. He will always be reliable. He will always be true to His Word. He will never break a promise to us. He will never cut off His love and kindness from us and send us to hell. We are saved and secure and it's settled. But wait a minute. He wants us to be faithful, and He expects us to be faithful too. Now, people will teach these false religions, Pentecostals and so forth will teach, Well, if you're not faithful to Him, He won't be faithful to you. No, that's not how He operates. He's faithful no matter what. He doesn't sink to our level. No matter what we do, He's faithful. But you know what? If we love Him, we'll keep His commandment. If we love Him, we need to be faithful to Him. He demands faithfulness. He expects us to be faithful unto Him because He's faithful to us. Just like me as a pastor. I try to be faithful. I strive to be faithful here. You expect to just show up to a Wednesday night once a year when you decide to come to a Wednesday night service, but you expect me to be here, right? Well, I didn't know you were coming, so I didn't show up either. No, you expect to be gone for months and weeks and just show up whenever. You expect me to be here. You expect me to be prepared, to be preaching, to be powerful. You expect me to be just right on with what I'm doing. Whenever you show up here at a Sunday morning at 10.30, you just expect the service to be going on here. But you know what? It is kind of a two-way street too. It would be nice if you would be faithful too. I'm faithful. It would be nice if you were faithful back. Same thing with a marriage. Same thing with God. Now look, am I perfect, faithful all the time? No, I'm going to make mistakes in my marriage. I'm going to make mistakes. Not, of course, adultery. Not that type of mistake, obviously. But you know, nobody's perfect. We all do wrong. As a pastor, I'm going to make mistakes. I'm going to do things that are wrong. I'm not talking about gross, huge sins, but what I am talking about is just you let people down. You make a mistake. But you know what? We ought to strive to be faithful to God and strive to be faithful to our friends and strive to be faithful to our wives and our husbands and our children and our parents. Let's strive to just be reliable, faithful people and then people will say, you know what? When everybody forsakes me, I know I can count on so-and-so. When I'm really in a mess, when I'm really down and out, when I don't know where to turn, I always know I got so-and-so. I always can just pick up the phone and I know I can trust him. I know he's going to be there for me. I know he's going to help me. I know he's going to love me. I know he's not going to turn his back on me. You know what? That is a great attribute to have. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your faithfulness, dear God. God will never be as faithful as you are, will never be as great of a friend or as great of a servant as you were. You came to serve the Lord of lords and King of kings and yet you came as a servant. You ministered unto us. You watched the saints' feet when you were on this earth. Help us to be faithful, reliable, trustworthy people. Help those who someday want a pastor to strive toward this attribute. Help those who never will pastor just to be faithful as a church member, as a soul winner, as a member of the body of Christ here at this local church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.