Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Sabbath School Study Hour right here taking place at the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church in the greater area of Sacramento, California. It's always good to have everyone join us together, both, those who are with us live here in the Granite Bay church, of course, that join us each and every Sabbath. Always good to have everybody that's joining us live stream and the various Facebook pages that are taking place right now as well as those who are watching this program in the future on various television networks. It's always good to have each and every one of you. It's always good to have our online members, those who are guests and visitors, and perhaps you are watching this program for the very first time, and we want to give a special welcome to you, and pray and trust that this program will be a blessing for you as we continue to study a very important subject and that is the topic of stewardship.
Now, as we look at this particular topic, today is no small lesson study because basically we are looking at the conclusion of this particular topic stewardship. And so we are going to be looking at lesson number 13, and that is entitled the results of stewardship. What are the results of stewardship? And, so I look forward to continuing to study this important topic and as we come to its conclusion. Now, before we invite our singers out, we always like to share with you a special free gift that we can give out and today is a very practical one as well as spiritual it's entitled from stress to joy. Just simply dial 1-866-788-3966.
Again that's 1-866-788-3966 and ask for offer number 705. We will be happy to send that out to you. We're just so blessed to be able to have our singers here today as they bless us in song and help us to be able to praise the Lord in that way, and so we're going to invite them out even right now as we continue on. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold I'd rather be his than have riches untold I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hand Than to be the King of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame I'd rather be true to his holy name Than to be the King of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom he's sweeter than honey from out the comb he's all that my hungering spirit needs I'd rather have Jesus and let him lead Than to be the King of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today Thank you so much for singing along with us, and at this time Pastor Shawn will have our opening prayer. Father in Heaven, we are thankful to be able to come together and to be able to ask for your Holy Spirit to be with us that your will be done today as we continue to study Your Word and you write Your Word upon our heart.
We thank you for pastor marshall as he is going to be teaching us our lesson study here today. We want to pray that you will be with him in a special way, anoint him with your spirit. Be with each and every person that is here in Granite Bay church as well as those who are watching on this program even right now, God, that your Holy Spirit will help them and teach them, and help them to be able to see the light and the love of Jesus in everything that we study here today. In Jesus' Name, we pray for these things, God. Amen.
Thank you, Pastor Shawn. God morning and Happy Sabbath. You know, we are so blessed to study these lessons. Each topic that we covered, it's like a marathon. You know, at each stage there's just so much that you're covering and there is so much that you are taking in.
And it's no different than when we finish the lesson. So I am hoping to kind of bring things together as we look at this lesson study as we close this topic on stewardship. We are looking at the results of stewardship. All the things that we've been studying, now we're gonna look at the results of what life is like as a steward for Jesus Christ, and so we're gonna look at the results. Now, we all love results, right? In anything that we do there is always results.
You know, if you are, if you are someone who enjoy sports, you always like to look at the standings of your favorite teams, wins versus the loses, because you want to know how they stack up in relationship to the other team. So we are looking at the results. You know, it's very interesting this last week, you know, I peruse the news once in a while to look at different articles or what's happening and what's going on. And in doing so I noticed, it said, this headline was kind of like for this little video clip, it said, "70 foot shot wins state championship game." And I thought, "oh, I got to see the results." And all it was just like a 30 second clip of the end of the game and that was amazing to see this amazing man actually take a pass from the other side of the court and throw it 70 feet with a second left and actually make it. And I had to watch that several time just the results of that game.
You know, just a few weeks ago we had what? We had the winter olympics, remember that? You know, people that are really into the olympics, they love to see the results, the final results, which country had the most medals in the olympic games. And I too, I didn't really watch much of the olympics but I caught some of the results of some of the events that I enjoyed looking at also. And then finally, you know, medical, you know, when we go to the doctors and we go with loved ones, or we go ourselves, you know, they do a lot of different tests to figure out what's going on and what are we doing? We are really waiting for what? What's on our minds? It's the results. What's going to come in? What's it going to say so that we know how to pray and we understand certain things that may change our lives, you know, results are important. And here in this lesson, we're gonna look at some key results of the life of the steward.
Now, I have some volunteers that are going to read some passages of Scripture this morning and as we look at this topic of stewardship, but results are important. In every stage of life, results are important. Matter of fact, I want to look at the Scripture reading for this morning that's kind of starts this issue of the results of stewardship, it says, "having your conduct honorable…" this is 1 Peter 2:12, this kind of starts the lesson, it says, "having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good words which they observe, glorify" whom? "Glorify God in the day of visitation." We're looking at the works, the results of the life of the Christian. Everybody is going to observe these things in the last days of earth's history, and they are going to give glory to God and, you know, when we live the life of a steward, it's not always easy, but we want others to observe Christ. We want others to observe these results so that God truly may be glorified.
You know, I'm gonna jump right to Sunday and I want to look at a passage, I have someone reading 1 Titus 1:1, as Paul begins to share or Titus shares with us. First, it's Titus 1:1. "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after Godliness." Okay, interesting what Paul has to say. The first result that we're going to look at in relationship to stewardship. Living the life of a steward is the result of Godliness, okay.
This Godliness comes from Christ as we're going to find out as Paul shares with us right here in Titus 1:1 and it is aligned, we'll understand that it is aligned with faith and truth. Paul starts out by saying, he is a what? He is a bondservant. What's a bondservant? An essence of bondservant is a steward, one who belongs to God, one who has placed his life willingly under the authority of Christ. So Paul starts his passage and he says, listen, Paul or Titus talking about it, it says, "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to" what? "According to faith of God's elect and acknowledgement of the truth which accords with Godliness." Two areas here in the result of Godliness for the life of a steward, faith and truth, Paul being a steward. That word accord is very interesting to me in this passage because the word accords just means in accordance with or in relationship to.
So you are looking at faith and truth. These two things blended together give us this picture of Godliness or this result of Godliness for the life of a steward. TRuth and faith coming together in the life of a steward of Christ produces what? Godliness. Friends, one who is Godly is one that lives after God's own heart. Not his heart, not her heart, but God's own heart.
And Paul writing to Timothy brings this out also. Notice with me, you have your Bibles, I would like you to open also to 2 Timothy. Because we are told in the last days of earth's history, there is going to be those walking about that have a form of Godliness, but that says they deny its power. So here are the result of stewardship is true Godliness based upon two elements, faith and truth. But then Paul identifies to Timothy that in the last days there is going to be those that walk about with a form of Godliness but they deny its power.
Notice with me, 2 Timothy 3:4, 5, and 7. I'll read verse 1 to kind of give us the context of, what, you know, Paul here is sharing with Timothy, he says, "but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come." And then he goes on to describe what these perilous times include, you know, "for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers" and he goes on. And notice verse 4, he says, "traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than" what? "Lovers of God." Okay? Then he goes on, he says, "having the form of Godliness but denying its power and from such people," he says to Timothy, what? "Turn away." It's really, you want to be careful to make sure that the Godliness that you see is true Godliness versus this kind of false Godliness that Paul says it's going to be out there in front in the last days of earth's history. And he breaks this down but I want you to notice verse 7, he describes, okay, this false Godliness which denies its power. He says, "always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the" what? "The truth.
" Now this is interesting to me, when I looked at these passages in relationship to Godliness, I wanted to look at a few different words. One of those back, if you go to verse 5, he says, "denying, okay, its power." I have to look up that word 'its' and I found that actually in the Greek it's in the nominative form and so the word 'its' actually is describing a definite person. So it's not really its power, it's his power. And you think about it, who is the "his" that we are talking about. If you go back to verse 4, it says, "traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of" who? "Of God.
" So Paul is actually saying to Timothy, having a form of Godliness but they deny God's power. They deny his power. And then he gets into that even further in verse 7 when he says, "this is what it looks like." He says, "they are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." I had to look at that phrase "to come to a knowledge of the truth" and actually it literally means to come into the knowledge of the truth. So you have a group of people that have the form of Godliness, but they are really denying God's power, still learning but they never really come into a knowledge of the truth, that settling into the truth and that's what stewardship, this whole lesson on stewardship was really about. It's about being a steward for Christ.
It's about coming into a knowledge of God and God's power, and how is that applicable practically in my life? And so Paul says, "listen, be careful" and his idea of coming into the truth. You know, it's really, it is to come to an understanding of meaning of something with special emphasis upon the process. Okay, in other words, this coming into the knowledge of the truth is really a process of learning, and applying, and growing so that the power of God may change me. How many of us want to be changed? It's a process, isn't it? You know, I was in a big… well, let me put it this way, math wasn't my greatest subject because in math there is always a what? There is a process to arrive at the answer, okay? The result being the answer, but there is this process that you have to go through. And I didn't get it, you know.
Matter of fact, when you work with young people sometimes on math, they always want to get to the answer. As like here, let me throw out an answer, and when you ask them, well, what does your work look like? Show me how? Okay? You've arrived at this answer, they struggle. Okay. Because we are not used to going through that process to actually arrive at the result which in this case is the process of understanding and learning truth, so that the result as a steward will be, what? Godliness, Godliness. And so, in high school, I remember there was a teacher though.
It was a first time a teacher ever told me to go to the back of the book and look at the answer first. I thought, I get to start with the right answer and it opened up a whole new world, I was like, "oh, I can start with the answer. Now, let me learn how to arrive at that answer." And oftentimes God does that in Scripture. He gives us the answer and he says, "now, I want you to study further so that you can" what? "Come into the knowledge of the truth and arrive at that answer in your personal life." This is the result of stewardship, stewardship. Paul brings this out, matter of fact, notice, this is not the first time he talks about this coming into a knowledge of the truth.
If you go to 1 Timothy 2:1-10. Notice with me, 1 Timothy in his first epistle to Timothy. He writes here, 1 Timothy 2, okay, verses 1 through 10. It says, "therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. For Kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in our" what? "Godliness.
" I love this. When you put faith and truth together, the result is Godliness. Stewardship is really putting faith and truth into practice, so that you arrive at the result of Godliness. And he says another result here just on the side is quietness and peace. Think about that, a person who is living that Godly life through faith and coming into the truth, they experience a quietness and a peace.
A peace is we always think about, right? That passes all understanding. Paul goes on, he says and reverence, "for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth." Here we see it again, what's God's greatest desire? God's greatest desire for us is that he wants us to be saved, bottom line. And to do so, he says, "I want you to come into a knowledge of the truth. I want you to go through the process so that this may be a result in your life," this result being Godliness. And now, Paul is gonna talk about it in practical terms.
As they go through the process, we see change. Notice verse 7, I'm gonna jump to verse 7, it says, "for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the gentiles in" what? "Faith and truth." We see these things brought together just like in Titus 1:1. And then he goes on and he says, "I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting, in like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing, but which is proper for a women professing" what? "Godliness." One who exhibits faith and truth "which with" what? "Good works." So here we see it practically applied to the life. There are certain things that happen in the life, not only internally but what? Externally, okay. This is true Godliness.
This is Godliness that does not deny his power. So result number one of stewardship is Godliness. The second result, we are going to come to in just a minute, I have someone read Proverbs 3:5, but before so I want to go back to our Scripture reading, you know, stewardship is an expression of a Godly life in good times and in hard times, it's consistent. Okay, consistent. And this is kind of what the Scripture reading as we read just a little bit earlier starts to kind of bring out and encapsulate, and I'll read it again so that we kind of get it, kind of in our minds, it says, "having your conduct honorable among the gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers.
" And believe me, we are living in a day where good is evil and evil is good, and people really don't know and we say all things about different kinds of people and especially those that live for God. But they are told, they are going to be spoken against as evildoers, that they may by your good works which they, what? Observe. Glorify, who? God, in the day of visitation. It's truly awe for the glory of God. True Godliness is about glorifying God in whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we say, it's consistent, and God is gaining the honor and the glory.
Now, I'm gonna actually move to Tuesday's lesson and I have someone reading here Proverbs 3:5 and then we're gonna actually come back to Monday's lesson on contentment. But we're gonna first talk about trust, Proverbs 3:5. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." Trust in the Lord with what? All your heart. As we live the life of a stewardship, result number two is trust. A steward develops a complete trust in God.
In hard times, as we're talking and in challenging times, Jesus told us some of the signs before he comes again. We are told there is going to be wars and rumors of wars in Matthew 24. He also said, "listen, nation will rise against nation. There will be famines, there will be pestilences, there is going to be earthquakes in various places." Are we not seeing these things? And we're seeing these things increase exponentially as we're approaching the second coming of Christ. Definitely, enough things to worry about, not including all the small things we face from day to day, enough things to worry about.
There is enough things in our world to be depressed about, yet in the middle of all of this. I want you to turn with me to Matthew 24, in the middle of what Jesus has to say. He also says something very interesting, Matthew, 24, Matthew 24:6. Love to hear those pages turning, Matthew 24:6, Jesus says in the middle of all of these things that we can be worried about, that we can be depressed about, that we can be anxious about as they exponentially grow, Jesus says something very interesting, "and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars." He says what? See that you are not troubled. Now in the midst of all this chaos, Jesus says, "no, but you shouldn't be" what, "troubled.
" In other words, you should be trusting. Remember the disciples on the boat in the midst of a storm, right? And were they not troubled? And yet Jesus is in the back of that boat sleeping away, not troubled at all. Why was he not troubled? Because he trusted. The life of a steward, one of those other results is this complete trust in God no matter what the situation. So Jesus says, "when you see all these things.
.." He says, "listen, please do not be troubled." And that word troubled means to be in a state of fear associated with surprise. Have you ever been surprised so much so that you were little taken back? Okay, maybe even fearful because something just happened out of the blue that you weren't expecting. And it takes you back kind of on your heels but Jesus says, we shouldn't be this way, because we should have trust. You know, God doesn't leave us hanging. He is going to tell us what's going to come.
He is going to tell us what's going to happen. He is telling us what's taking place, and if we live the life of stewards, we will develop this continual and complete trust, no mater what the situation is, no matter what the situation is. The steward of Christ trusts in Christ, therefore, he or she is not troubled. Now I've got another verse, it's going to be read in just a second in relationship to this in Isaiah 26:3 and 4. And I love the words here of the prophet Isaiah as he is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
the Spirit of God is leading him and guiding him and he writes about God, The Father and Jesus Christ. And he writes about this trust that all stewards should have. And I want you to notice this passage, Isaiah 26:3 and 4. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord jehovah is everlasting strength.
" Says trust in the Lord, right? Those who keep their minds stayed on the, right? They trust in you. And he ultimately says, as a result of this trust, there is another thing that's connected to this trust, that is perfect peace and everlasting strength. You know, I don' think we really comprehend and I speak for myself. Comprehend is, you know, perfect peace to wrap our minds around perfect peace, or everlasting strength. You know, there is times in our lives when we just feel at a point where we're just totally weak.
Lord, what do I do? And yet, the Lord says, "listen, if you keep your mind stayed on me, you will understand what everlasting strength is like." You will understand what perfect peace is like. You know, I shared some time ago about india and I had the opportunity to go to india. And this is not about me but there is a friend of mine who actually stayed a lot longer. Matter of fact, he was originally there and he was there for a period of ten years, he and his family, and their girls kind of grew up there in northern india. And he shared with me one experience after I had come back some years later, he was, I wanted to know, you know, how did things go after I left? I was only there for a short time, a year.
And after I came back and then when finally they come back to the states and I was like, "how did things go?" Because they had, there was one point in time when they had to move from where they were up to the northern part of india because things were getting really challenging. And he had to send his family away first, I mean there were death threats, it gotten so bad to the point where he had death threats on his life and he had guards literally around the house. There was definitely a gate there but the gate or the wall was, you know, only so high so, you know, kids would sit on that, you know, wall all the time when we do something in the yard and we would have like 300 people there. And he was the only family, the only english family or, you know, white family that out of like five million people, ten million people and they all spoke hindi, he spoke hindi fluently. And yet he is getting these death threats and so they had to put guards around the house and he sent his family up north.
He said, "but marshall, that's not it though." You know, it was at that time that I had the greatest peace I have ever experienced. When he had all these death threats, he is experiencing what Isaiah talks about when he says what? If we keep our mind stayed on him, he will keep us in what? Perfect peace. He will keep us in perfect peace, no matter the situation. And I was amazed, you know, I thought about that day after day, Lord, to have that peace, perfect peace and to experience everlasting strength, the type of complete trust in God. This type of complete trust in God is associated very closely with contentment.
This is kind of why I wanted to talk about trust first before we talk about contentment. Because when we have complete trust in God, that's when ultimately we will be content no matter what the situation. And so, okay, the first result is Godliness of life of a steward. The second result is trust, a complete trust in God. And now the third thing we're going to talk about is this contentment.
You know, I really appreciate if you turn with me in your Bibles to psalm 23. You know, often times we hear this psalm, most of the time read when we experience a memorial of some kind. We always, you know, turn in those times to this passage in Psalms 23, because it's in those times that people are looking for, you know, contentment, comfort. And I look at psalm 23, it's kind of a psalm of contentment. So if you look at this with me carefully, it's very interesting what David has to say and David went through a lot of things.
And you read all over the Bible about the life of David. You know, Pastor Doug preached the whole series on the life of David in, and you realize all of these things that David experienced. He writes this psalm even in the midst of all, that he says, "the Lord is my shepherd." He says, "I shall not want?" Sounds like contentment to me. "I shall not lack" why? Because the Lord comes first. See, when I completely trust in God, he is first, then contentment follows.
He says, "the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
" Notice, in every case here, who comes first? God comes first and God supplying comes second, and David's response is contentment. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, beside the still waters and he goes on. Notice verse 4, "yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. In other words, he says, "I will not be troubled.
" Just like what Jesus said in the last days of earth's history, his stewards do not need to be troubled. He goes on, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me and the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over surely.
" And ultimately in the end he says, "surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." I long for that day when we can dwell in the house of the Lord for how long? Forever, but David's writing a psalm of contentment because God is with him every step of the way and he recognizes it, and he longs for it, and he desires God to be there every step of the way. Now, that doesn't mean that David didn't have his moments like we all have our moments where we slip and we fall. We have a, you know, a lapse in faith, a lapse in trust but we are talking about the general train of the life. And if you look at David's life generally speaking, he trusted in God and God gave him contentment with whatever the situation was, he was going to be content. Notice with me 1 Timothy 6:6 and 7.
1 Timothy 6:6 and 7. Back to Timothy again, back to Timothy. 1 Timothy 6:6 and 7, Paul again writing to Timothy, he says what? "Now Godliness with" what? "Contentment is great gain" not just gain, it's great gain. Notice the convergence of these two results of stewardship. The first result we talked about Godliness, the result we currently are speaking about is contentment and what Paul does is, he says, let me bring this thing together for you and help you to realize that as you experienced the results of these two things, you will experience great gain, "for a steward to be truly content with everything.
" Means that they have to give up control of everything, trusting that God will see him or her through, everything. Contentment, I don't have to be in control, God's in control. I don't have to be worry about anything because God will take care of everything. Because he has promised and as I choose to live the life of a steward and giving over everything to God, God gives everything in return. Remember what Jesus said, "seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
" We can be content with whatever the situation, whatever the challenge, we can be content because we are stewards of Christ, and stewards of Christ will be content. So you got the first one, I am going back over these so we get done. The first one as we're concluding this lesson, the first result of stewardship is Godliness, true Godliness. The second result of stewardship is trust, complete trust in God. And the third is contentment, to be content in all things, to not feel like we have to be in control and believe me there are times when I feel I have to be in control, and the Lord reminds me, no, you don't.
You know, I had an accident about year and half ago and the vehicle I was in flipped three times. I've never been in a vehicle before that has lost control. And believe me when you are sitting in that seat, there is nothing you can do, you are just turning. But, you know, God was in control, literally a miracle. We passed this huge street sign, the back end of it flipped right past it, right over a tree, it didn't hit anything but you could see the Marks.
I mean a guy from the newspaper is like, "how did this happen?" I am like, I have no idea. And for me to get out of that car and the person sitting next to me was sleeping. To get out of that car and to walk away with no bruises, no scratches, nothing. Who was in control? God was completely in control. When we trust him completely, we can be content in every situation and this is what stewards live by.
These are the results of the life of a steward. And in the end, the fourth result, we're going to hear those words, I'm kind of jumping right to the end here. I want to bring this out a little stronger is the fourth result and that is to hear the words we want to hear. This is Thursday's lesson in this lesson of the results of stewardship. We hear the words we want to hear.
And in just a minute we're going to hear those words read to us, Matthew 25:21. The words of Jesus is what we're going to hear when he comes in the clouds of glory to take the redeemed of the earth home. These are the words and I hope we desire to hear these words, Matthew 25:21. "His Lord said to him, "well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over few things, I will make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord." This is the conclusion when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory. We're talking about the conclusion of the study of stewards but here in Matthew 25, we're talking about the conclusion of the whole matter when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory.
He's got a declaration to make, and believe it or not, he is going to make that declaration and that declaration is very special to his stewards. They have given up everything, they have walked away, they have given control over, they are living faithfully, they are growing into a knowledge of the truth, and they are going to hear these words, "well done, thou good and faithful servant." I long to hear those words from the mouth of Jesus, that I've been the steward that by his grace he is making me to be, that he is making us to be, "well done, thou good and faithful servant." Do you realize that Matthew 25 is a continuation of Matthew 24. You know, Matthew 24:45 and 46, Jesus poses a question and the question is this, he says, "who then is a faithful and wise servant? Whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season, blessed is that servant." Now, we're talking about servants, we're really talking about God's stewards. And he is saying, "who then is faithful and wise." And then he says, "blessed is that servant." And this is in the context of the second coming. Do you know where Jesus answers that question? He answers this very question in Matthew 25.
The first parable is about the wise and the unwise. The second parable is about the faithful and the unfaithful. And the third parable is about the blessed and the cursed. So really Matthew 25 is a continuation of Matthew 24, and it all revolves around the second coming of Christ. And the faithful steward is going to hear the words, so will the wise steward, so will the blessed steward.
They are all going to hear these words, "well done, thou good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things." And then what does he say at the end? "Enter into the joy of your Lord." What a day that's going to be like when those pearly gates swing open, and the dead in Christ have risen, and those that are alive that still remain are going to be risen up into the clouds and they are going to taken into heaven, and those pearly gates are going to swing open, and what is God's stewards going to do? They are going to enter. They are gonna enter the home they have longed for, the home that they have lived for, the home that they have hoped for, it's all going to be real. It all is real to a steward of Christ. Gonna hear those words.
What a day when those pearly gates swing open and we enter into the joy of your Lord. And for Jesus to say that, for Jesus to sit there and say, "oh, you know, they are going to open them." And he is going to say that, "you guys can all enter." Oh, man! There are so many things I want to see in heaven. So many places I want to run to, but he is going to say enter into the joy of your Lord. At the end of the lesson, and I'm gonna actually read it right here, it's on page 105 of our lesson, this is in Thursday's lesson. There is a powerful statement from the book Desire of Ages and it's page 523, Desire of Ages, page 523, it says, "when Christ's followers give back to the Lord his own, they are accumulating treasure which will be given to them when they shall hear the words.
" So, right now what are we accumulating? In our stewardship, in our ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, what are we accumulating? We are accumulating treasure. You may not think you are rich now, you may not think you have all the things you need now, you may not think, you know, you can make it but the Lord says, "listen, if you are following me, believe it or not, you have all these things. They're just accumulating, you know, it's like interest. We love to see the accumulate if it's on our side. We don't like to see the accumulation of interest if it's the other way but we love to see the accumulation of interest on our side, don't we? Because we know what? We're accumulating a treasure that may help future generations, but more than that is the accumulation of this treasure.
She goes on to say, "they accumulate the treasure which will be given to them when they shall hear the words…" we're waiting for the day when he says here, listen, "here's the treasure you've been accumulating." And he says, "well, done now good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. In the end…" and I'm reading the last part of the lesson here on Thursday. "In the end stewardship is a life lived in which the two greatest commandments, love for God and love for our neighbors are the motivations and driving forces in all that one does." It's following after Jesus Christ. The life of the steward is all about following after Jesus Christ. So the results, looking at the results, the results are in, on the life of a steward, result number one, Godliness.
Result number two, complete trust in God. Result number three, contentment, being content in all things. And result number four, hearing the words we all want to hear. "Well done…" from the lips of Jesus, "well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." Now I want to share something with you, God does not lie, right? The Bible says God does not lie. God is looking for his stewards that he can make this declaration about because he's going to make the declaration.
Just like in creation when he said, listen, everything is very good, he's just waiting for his stewards to allow him to do all these things in their lives so that he again can make the declaration. "Well done thou good…" he's turned it all the way around, brought it full faith, full circle. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." May God bless us as we continue to be his stewards. May people observe these characteristics in our lives, Godliness, trust in God, contentment in all things, and that will hear those words, "well done, thou good and faithful servant." Let's have a word of prayer together. Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for this Sabbath day.
Lord, we thank you that you've given us in Your Word an understanding of true stewardship, each aspect of the life of what a steward looks like, and, Lord, may in the end these results be our results, in our lives for your honor and for your glory. We thank you so much for your many blessings and we thank you so much that we've had this time to study. Lord, help us to come into a knowledge of this truth more and more as we see the day approaching when you'll will come in the clouds of glory. We thank you and we praise you in the precious and holy name of Jesus, amen. I'd like to remind our viewers and those that are watching, we do have a free offer for today, it's from stress to joy.
It's offer number 705 and you can get that by just calling 1-866-788-3966. Again, that's offer number 705 and it can be mailed anywhere in North America. If you're outside North America, just go to amazingfacts.org and you can find this and download it and truly learn to live a stress free life in Jesus Christ. May God bless you. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Actually I know they can't hear me 'cause there's no cell phone reception here.
We're right now standing in what is known as a quiet zone and there's a very good reason for that. Hidden nestled among the jungle mountains of puerto rico is a giant sentinel, an aluminum ear 1,000 feet across located 10 mile south of the coastal city of arecibo, this enormous space age parabolic dish is aimed at the sky, listening. Build in 1963 by cornell university, the arecibo observatory dish is one of the largest curved focusing antennas on earth. The dish surface is made of nearly 40,000 perforated aluminum panels each measuring about three feet by six feet and supported by a mesh of steel cables. The vast antenna surface covers 18 acres or about the same size as 26 football fields.
When the huge telescope switches to radar mode, it beams out a powerful signal of one million watts towards the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. The faint echo of the signal bouncing off its astronomical targets is collected by the huge dish and then amplified allowing scientists to create scanner like images and maps of the object but another primary purpose for the arecibo observatory is seti. Seti set is an acronym for search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They're listening for messages from above. For over 50 years, radio astronomers have used the world's largest radio telescope to study the radio signals emanating from the cosmos.
While listening to the strange songs buried in the heart of distant stars and quasars, they're also listening and analyzing every signal for signs of intelligent life. It's really astonishing when you think about it that for more than 50 years now, the arecibo observatory has been scanning the heavens, spending millions of dollars wondering if there's intelligent life out there. Yet in more than half a century of listening seti has not identified a single radio signal that seems to come from extraterrestrial intelligence. Perhaps they're missing the forest because the trees are in the way. Some messages have actually already come from space.
You know, the Bible tells us in the book of Romans, "faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God." It seems often when God wants to talk to us, he has to take us where we can actually hear his voice. When God wanted to speak to Elijah, he ended up down in the deserts of Mount Sinai. There was a fire, an earthquake, and a wind but God was not in earthquake or the fire or the wind, but God spoke through a still small voice. Jesus wants to talk you, he has a plan for your life, but you need to have a quiet place where you can hear him. Oh, it's for you.
Amazing Facts changed lives. I'm tlingit indian from sitka, Alaska. My tlingit name is wahchdustid clou. It was a very depressing time for the people of Alaska, a lot of alcohol abuse was taking place, and unfortunately my mother got caught up in the alcohol. It made myself and my siblings grow up in a pretty horrible environment.
It was really hard to understand God. It was really hard to understand what love was. I ended up having a child in my 12th grade and leaving home when I was 15 years old. But somehow someway we made it and I became alone, I became a hermit, so I went up to the biggest marijuana county, to humboldt county and started my new career. Things weren't right though, no matter how nice I kept thinking life was, living up on top of the mountain, not having to worry about wearing clothing, just waking up and watching the plants grow, searching still for more and more.
I went to the post office and I was standing there by myself, I looked down and here was this what is called handbill, a postcard and the letters on it grabbed my attention and it said Revelations. I never heard Revelation taught before and I thought, "gosh, that would have been so good." I looked at the time and the date and I said, "wow, that's today." And for six weeks I sat there in the front seat of that building and could not believe the things that I heard, and I found this hunger that I had in my heart for decades being filled. I was actually like a starving child, you know, wanting to get into, learn more about Revelations and I chose to be baptized on April 3rd. Even though I chose to serve God, I kept falling. I was going to Bible studies all four times a week and just so hungry to learn as much as possible.
God just overnight had me studying the Word of God through afcoe and the miracles that happens through afcoe is so incredible. The only preacher I was listening to was Pastor Doug Batchelor who I didn't even call by his name, I called him the caveman and then here all of a sudden I'm sitting in front of him in his classroom learning from him. On October 11th, I sat there though in my room saying, "Lord, here I am studying Your Word but what am I doing here? What do I need to do? What is it you want me to do?" And that night about one in the morning God spoke to me and he said, "I want you to write a note to Pastor Doug and tell him what you do." I sat there and I said, "no, I'm not going to write and I'm not going to write a note." And I said, "okay." So I ripped up a piece of paper and I wrote on the note and I said, "I'm an experienced fashion designer, I can sew anything I could make, any patterns, if there's any way that I can be of any service to you. God told me to be bold and tell you." And I walked up and I handed him the note and he didn't know what it was but he said thank you. And four hours later I got a phone call from Amazing Facts.
Pastor Doug told me that I was an answer to their prayers. They had been looking for wardrobe stylist for their new film that they're producing. Action. Two, three. Amazing Facts has changed my life in the direction that God wants me to go.
And now out of all the knowledge that was taught to me, I'm able to go out into this world and share the Gospel and finish the work for Jesus Christ. Friends, it's because of God's blessing and your support that thousands of others like nida have found Jesus and everlasting life.