Sermon Tone Analysis

From the outset we are introduced to someone: A steward.

This is someone who has been given something that belongs to someone else to look after.

For example, a steward can be a Pastor; He has been given a flock to look after.

The flock’s not his, it is God’s.

In this case Paul is a steward of the church at Corinth; but more than that he has been given the Gospel and the mysteries of God to look after.

What is required of a steward?

That he looks after what he has been given to look after; that he is faithful.

What does being faithful mean?

It means that one is to be loyal, devoted, trustworthy, reliable, dedicated, committed, and true.

As ministers of God those of us who are responsible in Church leadership have to show that we are all of these things to the flock.

Who is to judge whether a steward has been faithful?

Only God knows the intent of our heart – no one can judge except God – we make value judgements that are tainted with our own sin, with preconceptions of what someone is like but God judges impartially and ministers themselves will receive a harsher judgment.

So that is us as ministers of God in a congregation.

It obviously does not impact you, does it?

Are only those called to the ministry stewards?

Are we not all called to be faithful, to be loyal, devoted, trustworthy, reliable, dedicated, committed, and true?

We can be very spiritual and say that we are faithful to God.

What do we mean?

It sounds very abstract, not concrete.

What does loyalty to God mean?

We all have been given something to look after.

To start with we have been created, and not only that but our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We have been given our own bodies to look after - we are created by God in His image and likeness.

On top of this we have all been given responsibilities by God, whether as a father, mother, son, daughter, spouse, church member and so on.

We all have also been given gifts to look after and to fan them into flames for God.

We are responsible before God about whether we have been loyal, devoted, trustworthy, reliable, dedicated, committed, and true.

Where will it take us if we as Christians start taking our responsibility seriously before God?

There was such a woman: (In 1925,) Betty Stam said: "Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes, and ambitions, and accept Thy will for my life.

I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee, to be Thine forever.

I hand over to Thy keeping all of my friendships; all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart.

Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit.

Work out Thy whole will in my life, at any cost, now and forever.

To me to live is Christ.

Amen."

Nine years later on (December 8, 1934), Betty and her husband, John, calmly and bravely laid down their lives for Christ when they were martyred by Chinese Communists.

To take our responsibility seriously before God means putting aside our own desires, our own wishes and living totally dedicated to God and His people.

What does this mean for you, for me?

What are the gifts that God has given us?

All of us have gifts that are for the building up of the Church.

What is the Church?

God’s people.

So, then, we all have gifts that are for building one another up in faith; gifts such as the gift of encouragement, gifts of mercy, gifts of hospitality, and gifts of prophecy.

Perhaps it would be easier to speak of gifts as our talents.

It doesn’t matter if you are not the best of the best.

What has God given to you?

I know that some of our talents are not demonstrable but pretend then that you are on your own, no audience…what is your talent?

Is it prayer?

Is it serving?

Is it being practical?

Is it visiting or calling the sick?

Are you being faithful?

Are you committed?

Are you reliable?

Are you putting all your effort into it?

So then you have discovered what God has given you.

Maybe you have discovered that you have gifting in 10 areas, others in 5, others in 1 – it doesn’t matter – the only question is are we being good stewards?

Are we looking after the gifting and aiming for excellence?

Excellence is simply another way of saying we are aiming to be the best that we can be, looking to improve our gifting, and most times the way we improve is with practice.

I do want to be be clear on another matter because this passage speaks to it - success.

Who is to judge whether we are a success?

The Corinthians thought that they were successful, after all Paul is sarcastically saying this in verse 8:

The world is in a cycle that says to progress, go upwards, succeed, demonstrate it, and progress, go upwards, succeed, and so on.

And who is to judge whether we are a success or not?

Verse 3 speaks to this about being judged by individuals or by human courts - but how do they evaluate?

are they in full cognisance of the facts?

Do they know your heart?

And do we judge others?

It is one thing to see things going on on the outside but we do not know someone else’s heart…we barely know our own as we are told by:

God will, in His own time, judge rightly the actions and inactions of people not just on what they did but why.

And this goes not just for the negative but the positive.

We can be so much in favour of one against another but again we are not the judge of these things.

Who know the heart?

Did we not see in Acts, where they were deciding between two people who should be the apostle to replace Judas:

God knows the hearts.

Both were qualified in the eyes of the Church but God decided which one was one suited the role.

All that we have as people is what God has given us and we are certainly not to be proud of that fact for they are gifts we receive and God knows why some receive more than others, and it may have nothing to do with their character or to do with holiness or their supposed spirituality.

These things are not revealed to us.

And what is the success that we are called to?

We are not.

We are not called to be successful.

We may be utter failures.

Take Noah.

He preached for 120 years without a single convert other than his own family.

120 years of telling people the good news that there was a way of escape and nobody took it.

I know that some missionaries’ receipt of giving is dependent upon their success in the field and whether they can continue their work.

This is appalling.

How is their success measured?

By the number of saved?

By the numbers coming increasing?

Is this how God measures success?

Was Noah a failure?

The best of God’s people, it seems, suffer more than most and we only need to look at the apostles to see the truth of that.

Paul says that they are weak, they are held in disrepute, they are reviled, they are persecuted, they are slandered, they are scum, they are refuse.

Was Paul a failure?

Jesus lived out a life on earth, preached, healed the sick, did good, and the result?

He was put to death and everyone deserted Him.

Was Jesus a failure?

Now, let me give you the crunch line of this whole passage, and it is one that a pastor, who is now in glory, by the name of Malcolm White, used to say often:

We are not called to success, we are called to faithfulness.

Faithfulness is the measure by which God calls something a success or not.