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Memorize Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Once completed and said to another person sign: ________________________________________

Copyright 1/2008 For God’s Glory Ministries Big Spring, Texas 79720

Dr. D. L. Bemis, Senior Chaplain

Faithful in Much 1

Faithful in Little

Faithful in Much

The Gospel of Luke 16:1The Gospel of Luke 16:1The Gospel of Luke 16:1The Gospel of Luke 16:1----13131313 By Dr. Duane Bemis, Chaplain

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Memorize Psalm 40:2 “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” Once completed and said to another person sign: ________________________________________ Memorize Psalm 17:3 “You have tested my heart; you have visited me in the night; you have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” Once completed and said to another person sign: ________________________________________

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Faithful in LittleFaithful in LittleFaithful in LittleFaithful in Little----Faithful in MuchFaithful in MuchFaithful in MuchFaithful in Much

Are you a true disciple of Christ Jesus? If you are this article is important for you to wrap your brain and life around. You will find this teaching of Jesus as He teaches His disciples a very simple Biblical truth. This truth will change your Christian walk and give you great understanding of what is important. Are you geared up and ready to go deeper? Are you prepared to move your life beyond the point of Salvation?

Let us start this Biblical journey with inviting the Holy Spirit through prayer to touch our hearts through the words penned by Dr. Luke. “Father God Almighty we are in need of Your wisdom. We are in need of Your understanding. And I know that this is only because I do not want to hear man but I need to hear a word from You. I am tired of mans ways and mans ideas may You open my heart to receive directly from You. Help me to let go of all the problems of today and to lay them down at the foot of the cross so that I can pay close attention to Your instructions recorded by Luke. Yes Lord, yes, open the eyes of my heart that I might gain knowledge straight from the throne of God. My ears are open to what the Spirit has to say today to me. I desire Your truth. Lord Jesus, teach me Your ways. Amen and amen”.

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Let us open our text to the Gospel of Luke in the Sixteenth Chapter starting at verse one; and we read:

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain

rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ (Luke 16:1-2) NKJV1

Notice that Jesus turned to His followers, His disciples and basically is going to tell them a little story. In this story one finds God’s truth. This is the very reason the Lord wants to give them this illustration is to communicate God’s heart and how to live a God pleasing life. In this illustration God is the Master and we are the stewards. We are God’s servants, His children, and His stewards. And in the story Jesus was sharing with His disciples the steward or the warden of the Mater’s goods was wasting what belongs to the Master. I wonder how many of us today are wasting what God has given us.

� We waste our talents, which were given to us by the Master Creator.

� We waste our money, which belongs to God � We waste our time by sleeping more and

more.

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What are you going to do with the understanding that was brought your way?

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_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What did the Spirit of God reveal to you about

your own heart? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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� We waste our relationships � We waste our minds � We waste even more time camped out in front

of the Television or playing games instead of working and being a good steward of what belongs to the Master.

The time has come to stop and consider our

wasteful ways and know that the Master is watching. The time has come that we stop and meditate on this for a moment. The Spirit of God is revealing to our hearts the problem with most of God’s stewards; they waste what the King of Kings has placed in their personal care.

In our noted text we find that at this point it is only an accusation towards the steward. But the steward knows that the Master knows all and sees all. The steward, the servant should repent but let us pay close attention to what the steward is about to do. For his actions speak his true heartfelt desires. His actions prove his guilt. Listen with me as we hear what Jesus is going to say next in this parable of truth.

“Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

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“So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ (Luke 16:3-6)

The steward just played his devilish hand. He has no desire to confess, he has no desire to repent and his desire is to please the people of the world. This steward has fallen into the trap of the world. The world is out trying to please man. But I can tell you that pleasing man never works. If we want to be good stewards of what God has given to us then we must live to please God and God alone. The world teaches the exact opposite. The world teaches us to try to compete with man and please man but we know this never works. The world teaches us to climb the corporate ladder by walking over our co-workers. We know that as we try to please one man others will be offended.

O stewards of the Master, live to please Him alone who is worth of all our praise. Be a good servant and steward of the Master and of the Masters goods. The Master holds your promotion in His hand. The Master carries your personal miracle around; no other man has your needed miracle. The Master holds your personal reward. It is the Master that can give you peace that surpasses anything the world has to offer.

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thinking, actions, and words. Help me to change and become more like You.”

2. “Father, try my heart and test my heart using Your highest standard. I give you permission to point out everything that You want out of my heart. I pray this from my prayer closet because I know You hear from this secret place. I want You to purify my heart in order that I be found pure by Your standards.”

3. “Father, As You reveal things to me through this purifying process I know I will need Your tender mercy to endure. You should take Your Holy Spirit from me but I ask for Your mercies to forgive me for the mud which has entered my heart. Wash me clean!

4. “Father I ask that You fill my heart with Your presence. As I release these images, memories, and flashbacks to You fill my heart more and more with Your power, love, and joy. Fill my heart as we pray with Your peace to know I am on the right path. Amen and amen”

Your turn to pray: _______________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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2. Allow God to test and trytest and trytest and trytest and try our hearts until He finds nothing in them. 3. As He cleans our hearts “Cry for His mercy!”“Cry for His mercy!”“Cry for His mercy!”“Cry for His mercy!”

Pray with me through theses three points of our text.

1. “Father, pull me all the way out of the pit I have dug for myself. Pull me all the way out of the pit that others have dug to trap me. I hunger and thirst to rid my heart of all pig

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Next I want you to see that what the steward did by cutting the man’s bill in half that the steward had no authority to play with the Masters numbers. The Masters materials did not belong to him. The steward only though of himself and how to please man. The steward did not think about the Master’s good wishes. The steward did not think about doing what was right all he cared about was how to please his own selfish desires. The steward also showed favoritism to those that came forward. To the man in verse six he reduced his debt 50% because he thought that this man could benefit him greatly when he was out of his job.

I wonder how many go to church and sit by those that they think can benefit them personally the most. But listen to what he did with the next man that came forward.

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. (Luke 16:7 and 8)

Now we find the steward thinking that this

man will not profit him much so he made him repay 80% of his bill only cutting off 20% of his owed bill.

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This is what the world teaches. The world teaches to show favoritism to those who can benefit you. As a good steward of the Masters things we cannot do as the world does. We must administer God’s Kingdom business with great integrity because it all belongs to God. Oh that we would all work with a Spirit of excellence in all that we do. We need to be women and men of integrity always known for doing the right thing.

In our selected text we see the heart of God and how He calls us ‘sons of light’ but that the ‘sons of the world’ will be very shrewd only thinking of themselves. We are to be children of light and should walk as children of light. There should be no darkness in our hearts. Our motives should be clean of all malice. In other words let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no’ anything else is of the devil. We are to walk and talk as the ones which house God’s truth inside our every day life. God’s Spirit of Truth should dwell inside of us guiding us in His truth. Don’t let your hearts be troubled what a person sows they will reap. The ‘sons of the world’ will reap destruction while the ‘sons of light’ will inherit God’s blessings, His miracles, and His favor. But let us continue and pay attention to what Jesus is about to say and pay attention to what He doesn’t say. Paul tells us that there is no other foundation which one can lay accept that which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). So don’t listen to the teachings of the world run

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forgiveness. It means you know God should remove His presence from your heart but you are asking for His gracious acts of forgiveness just for you. It means that we know we are guilty but we ask God to show us His clemency.

I had wasted ten years in the pages of pornography. One day after years of being clean, an old recollection raced across my mind. These old sin images lived within my temple and they were horrific. The flashback was of a movie I saw years before. The ‘X’ rated movie was called Sodom and Gomorrah. I quickly cried out because of the lewdness I had exposed my eyes to. I cried out for His mercy to wash my mind clean. I asked Him to forgive me for watching such a corrupt movie. I cried for His tender mercies because I needed it. Oh, if God was my judge right at that moment He would have taken His Holy Spirit from me. At that moment I was caught in the middle of my iniquities and looked like vomit to God. (Revelation 3:16) I needed God to have pity of me. I needed His blood, which would destroy these images of darkness. It is in the blood of Jesus that we call upon to cleanse our minds, bodies, and souls. His blood will clean those dead acts that hinder our service to a living God.

In conclusion, we have learned from His word the three steps, which bring from a pig to a saint. 1. Allow God to pull you all the way outpull you all the way outpull you all the way outpull you all the way out of the horrible pit.

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and his first-born son from Bathsheba died because of the seeds of destruction that he sowed. God will not be mocked we will reap what we sow. The seeds of righteousness will grow to a harvest of righteousness while seeds of destruction will yield crops of destruction. David was in dire need of God’s tender mercy for his bad behavior.

Let us look deep into God’s Holy Bible to find our answers. Let us look deeply into the Holy Bible and see how David handled his guilt.

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:1-2)

David started his road back into God’s graces

by asking the Lord to have pity upon his weary soul. David’s heart carried the guilt, shame, and lies and they were mud from the pig’s wallow.

We must go to God and ask for his mercy every time an old memory floats to the surface. You might be minding your own business when all of a sudden an old memory or flashback from a party flies across your mind. You remember the person you slept with and for the first time you see it from God’s point of view and it is ugly. That is when you want to cry out for God’s lovingkindness found in His mercy. Simply put mercy means: pity, clemency, and

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everything through the filter of God’s Bible. Listen again to Jesus for He is not done teaching us.

“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. (Luke 16:9)

This is not a good word. What Jesus is

expressing to the reader is if you make friends with the world you will receive the same eternal life that they do which are the fires of hell. No, I want to be a ‘son of light’ knowing that my eternal home will be in Heaven with Jesus Christ. Oh dear reader, do you hear what the Spirit is saying to your own heart? Stop for a moment and think about if you are making friends with the world or are you developing a relationship with Jesus. With a relationship with the world comes death, stealing, and destruction but with a relationship with Jesus comes life and life abundant (John 10:10). As for me I chose this day life and life abundant. I will no longer settle for just life in Jesus I am running toward life abundant in Jesus.

“Lord Jesus, help me to be a good steward of what You have given unto me! Help me be faithful in little so that I can know how to be faithful in much.” Amen and amen.

I so enjoy sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing Him teach me great spiritual truths. Come and sit with me as we can approach the throne of Heaven

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with boldness and listen with me the great teachings of such a great Master. Are you ready to listen to more from the heart of Jesus? I am ready to go deeper in His truth are you?

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:10-12)

Here is the key teaching or fundamental truth

according to Jesus. This is what Jesus wanted His disciples to understand. Jesus is simply teaching us Jesus is simply teaching us Jesus is simply teaching us Jesus is simply teaching us that those who are faithful in little, will be faithful in that those who are faithful in little, will be faithful in that those who are faithful in little, will be faithful in that those who are faithful in little, will be faithful in much.much.much.much. I believe it is that simple. We parents do this

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3.

search us and try us and if there be any wicked thing inside bring it to the surface so that it can be taken out of our hearts. (Psalm 139:23) Let Him search us until He places His stamp of approve upon our clean heart. For Jesus promised us that if our heart would be pure we would see God.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall

see God.” (Matthew 5:8) “Father, open our understanding to Your

higher ways. I hunger for You to test my heart and find nothing. Keep testing and trying my heart in the night hours until You find nothing hiding deep inside. Amen and amen.”

It is after this Godly process that one can then say: …I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” (Psalm 17:3) Because God finds nothing then we can control our tongue. We can control our tongue because He controls our tongue. We can control our tongue because the only thing found in his mouth is the word of God. Here lies true freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Step three: CrCrCrCry for His mercy!y for His mercy!y for His mercy!y for His mercy! Let us look into Psalm 51 and King David’s cry for God’s tender mercymercymercymercy. The Lord’s messenger caught him. The Lord knew

the mud King David was in and his bad behavior with Bathsheba. King David was a murderer, adulterer,

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The Lord wants us to know and understand that the unclean thing needs to be taken out of our temples. We must hunger for this change in out life. We will hunger for His change especially if we want to be all the way out of the horrible pit. And when we hunger and thirst to be transformed then the Lord can bring us from a pig to saint. The Lord can bring us from a mud dweller to a Castle dweller. The Lord can bring us from a sinner to a Saint. Do you want to be totally transformed? Then if you do we must get all the old ways out and His new ways in.

Let the Lord your Creator visit you in the night hours. Let Him search your heart from the top to the bottom and side to side. Give Him permission to search the recesses of your heart. Let Him test you and try you in those late night hours until He finds nothing hidden inside. The key to step two is that He tests our hearts until He finds nothing. Once He finds nothing then He can fill our hearts to the brim and our mouth will speak from the overflow of God’s goodness. Did you hear what was just said? Think about this idea for a moment; if you do not let God search your heart then whatever He pours in will be tainted with our old mud.

Oh, Dear reader let the Lord test your heart until He finds nothing. He holds our hearts in His nail pierced hands of love and He wants us free. True freedom lies upon this path of holiness. Come with me and let us cry out to our King. Let us lift up or hearts upon our beds at night and let us ask God to

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with our own children. If they are faithful in little we will give them more and more. If our child is not faithful in little then we will not in trust them with much.

I was a volunteer Chaplain over a prison in California with a population of 288 inmates. For many years I was faithful in little and today I am a Chaplain over 3,000 plus inmates. Jesus is correct when He says faithful in little are those who will be faithful in much. God is never the problem! So Jesus is speaking to our hearts about being authentic in little so that later on he can give us much more.

Some one in the church commits to help setting up the folding chairs but after a few months or even a few times they are tired of this. They quit doing what they were asked and then they sit for the next ten years in church wondering why they are not trusted with more. It is simple; they were not faithful in little and God will not then trust them with more. What if God has called you to be a preacher and directed you to start writing your sermons but this little thing He has asked you, you will not do. Then why should God give you true riches of other souls when He cannot in trust you with little. You are proving to God that He cannot trust you with more. Remember that this is the key to what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples. If you want to be a good and trustworthy steward that you must learn to be faithful in little things first.

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I might call this, “Serve with a Spirit of Excellence.” Jesus is correct in His words of truth. If you want God to trust you with more than show yourself approved by being faithful in little.

But too many Christians want the ‘much’ that God has for them but they do not want to do the little first. Instead of studying and writing sermons and preparing ones heart they go ahead of God and start their own church or denomination hence they are not faithful in little.

Be faithful in loving your wife or husband is a starting place. Be faithful with the task of raising your children teaching them to love the Lord with all their heart. And then if Jesus knows you are faithful in these things he will give you grander things to do. But many Christians want to jump straight to the big things skipping the little. It is interesting that both my wife and I started out cleaning the bathrooms at our personal churches. And both of us did this task for many years with a Spirit of excellence and great joy.

When God called me to preach I set out by writing down all my sermons. For years I did this and for years I studied to show myself approved (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I saved every sermon some of which I still have not preached. But when I accepted my appointment as Senior Chaplain in Big Spring, Texas, I had enough sermons prepared to preach for two full years with out studying. Today I preach about 5 to 8 times each week from the overflow of what

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of worship you will see that the man’s heart still holds some mud from the pit. He must allow God to come in and clean His new house God’s temple. The Lord desires our temple our body to be holy as He is holy. Our writer of this Psalm is David and he pens that he allowed God admittance to his heart at night while he was in bed. He allowed God to search his heart in those late night hours until God found nothing deep inside. He wanted God to search for unresolved sin issues so he could give them to a merciful God. He wanted to be found clean by God’s holy standard.

We too must stop and give God access to all of our heart. The Lord wants to rid our heart of the miry clay, which troubles us so deeply. The left over mud is what keeps us from freedom and purity. We must hunger to be pure as He is pure. If the Jesus in us is pure then we must desire to be like Him.

The time has come for us to let God have all of the mud. We must continue to do this until God says He finds nothing deep inside. We must be concerned about God’s standard for cleanliness not someone else. We must hunger to be holy as the Lord is holy. Listen once again with your whole heart:

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; (Lev 10:10)

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2.

So dear reader, are you ready for God to pull you all the way out? We must hunger for His change for His changes are all good! If you are not ready then I will forewarn you that the same old thinking will achieve the same old results, which is why you are in the trouble you are in. So let us join hearts in our cry to be pulled all the way out of the horrible pit.

Step number two: We must allow God to test and trytest and trytest and trytest and try our hearts until He finds nothing in them. The man’s heart still

carries some of the old mud (sin) issues even though the Lord is pulling him out from that horrible pit. (See cover drawing) Listen to God’s word.

“You have tested my heart; you have visited me in the night; you have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” (Psalm 17:3)

The Lord must have total access to our muddy hearts. Once again, I call your attention to the cover design. In the divine vision that the Lord gave me in the middle

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God has deposited within my spirit. This is another example of being faithful in little and God will give you much. This does not take a rocket scientist to understand that what Jesus said is what Jesus meant.

Have you been faithful in little? If so then tell me what areas in Kingdom Business? ________________________________________________________________________________

List a few areas in your life where you think you have been faithful in little: What about tithing? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you now faithful with much? ________________________________________________________________________________

List a few areas that you can see that God is giving you more because you were first faithful in little: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you faithful in tithing? Just a simple yes or no will work! ___________________________

Are you faithful in church attendance? ________________________________________

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Are you faithful at your job? ________________________________________

Are you faithful in your marriage? ________________________________________

Are you faithful in your taxes? ________________________________________

Remember that God is never the problem!

Here is another example; are you faithful in your tithe? If you are not faithful in the tithing then how can you expect God to give you more? Oh, dear friend, but if you are faithful in ‘little’ Jesus promises you that He will give you more. I mention the tithe only because my desire is for you to be blessed. My only desire is that you would be faithful in little so that the Lord will give you more. And with that ‘more’ you can be a blessing to others. O, are you listening to what the spirit is saying to your heart? The key principal that Jesus is telling His disciples is true and it is most excellent. The Lord wants us to live life in abundance. But so many Christians are happy to just survive. Well, not me I want all that Jesus has for me so I will be faithful in little knowing that if I continue being faithful in little than Jesus promises more. The more that Jesus talks about is more than just prosperity it might be more souls, more anointing, more blessings, more of God’s favor. The word faithful means; authentic, true, accurate, and committed, loyal, and true to life. Oh

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next worldly affair. They are in church worshipping God but lusting after and undressing the worship leader in their heart. They are in church but abusing their family members. They are in church but the mud of internet pornography on their computer torments their heart. The time has come to ask God to do what He needs to do to bring you all the way out. Again I say, “The time has come to ask God to The time has come to ask God to The time has come to ask God to The time has come to ask God to bring you all the way out of the pit.”bring you all the way out of the pit.”bring you all the way out of the pit.”bring you all the way out of the pit.” You ought to desire to be pulled all the way out of the miry clay and placed upon the “Rock.” Are you with me are you hearing what the Spirit is trying to say to your heart? You must not stop anywhere short of true freedom. You must hunger and thirst for His ways of righteousness. We must practice righteousness every hour of everyday. You must desire to have your heart firmly planted upon the “Rock.” Anything short of this is ludicrous. Practicing righteousness is simply practicing daily being right with God. We have to practice so that it will become routine. We must practice so that we will become more and more like Him. We need to embrace the truths found in His Holy Bible. We must start aligning are actions, emotions, and our words with His Holy Word. This will happen if we hunger to be pulled all the way out of our stinking thinking, our stinking actions, and our stinking hurt. In order to become a saint all the old pig ways and actions must drop off of us.

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a saint and he had loved to wallow in the mud of life. With one hand he would hunger for the blessings of God and yet in the other he wanted to play with sin. He was deep enough in the mud that his heart was full of the brown mud of life also. (See cover drawing) But he would not settle for less. He wanted all the way out of this horrible pit. He knew in his heart he wanted all the way out until his feet were firmly planted upon the “Rock.” He wanted his feet on the “Rock,” which is Jesus Christ our Messiah the Anointed One. Dear readers are you tired of living in the brown mud of life? Has rejection, hurt, and pain gotten the best of you? Could it be that despair has become your closes friend and he will not leave? Are you tired of looking and smelling like a mud wallowing pig? Do you hunger to be known by God and that God would call you one of His Saints? The time has come to ask God to bring you all the way out of the pit. I see too many Christians who love God but they are stuck about half way down in their pit of darkness. They talk God things but smoke cigarettes. As they try to share about God’s mighty miracles, the mud of their life and the good of God’s Holy word mix within their hearts. Their mouth speaks half lies and half-truths. The mud has mixed with the living waters of God and everyone is mystified. The word of God, which was so pure, is now un-pure as their personal mud mixes with it. They are in church while their mind is planning their

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that God would find us diligently serving in all areas of church ministry as loyal, trustful, and trustworthy. May the Lord find you devoted, steadfast, and reliable. If the Lord sees this day in and day out then He will promote you where ever you are. I recently read a story on the internet by Jimmy D. Brown and it illustrates this very precept I am teaching you about. Listen2:

When I was in high school I took a typing class. Today I think they call it "keyboarding" since few people use typewriters these days. I took this class and... ...I hated it! :-( Everyday we would do what I considered to be stupid exercises. For example: With our left hands we would type AQ AW AE AR AT. Then, SQ SW SE SR ST. Then, DQ, DW, DE, DR, DT. Then, FQ, FW, FE, FR, FT. We would switch hands and do a similar exercise with the right hand. This went on for weeks, even months. What did this little exercise have to do with typing? One day as I was asking that question to myself in my mind, my teacher must have read my thoughts because she said, "Today, you are going to type

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sentences." "But, how?" I thought. "You haven't taught us how to type, you've just taught us all of these stupid exercises." She handed us our assignments for typing and left the room. I didn't understand how, but I started pecking on that typewriter and words began to form! I started typing quicker and sentences appeared. Then paragraphs. I was typing! But, how could this be? I learned to type by learning those little exercises. Those exercises taught me discipline. They taught me where the various keys were located. They taught me how to move my fingers with ease and precision. They taught me how to type. Being faithful in learning the little things, like typing AQ, AW, AE, AR, AT, taught me how to do the big things, like typing 60 words per minute and finishing top of my class.

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1.

heart, and soul of the reader to truly hear with their ears everything that the Spirit is saying to the church. Amen and amen.”

Step number one is to allow God to pull you all the way out of the horrible pit. Look once againLook once againLook once againLook once again at the at the at the at the ddddrawing.rawing.rawing.rawing. The man once lived in that muddy pit of sin.

Notice as the Spirit of the Lord is taking him out that the man hungers to be pulled completely out of the miry clay. He wants all the way out of the wallow. Pigs wallow in the mud not saints. Pigs love it but in order for us to become Saints of God we must desire to come out of the mud, completely out of the pit. David in the Psalms says it this way:

“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” (Psalm 40:2)

As you read, you see David was glad and full of gratefulness about coming all the way out of the muddy slop. He describes the pit of mud as a horrible place to be. He was muddy and had been wallowing in his sin issues. I am sure he had flashbacks that haunted his soul to the point that he felt dirty even on the inside. He was so dirty within that shame must have even covered his eyes in brown murky mud. He could not see the world around him clearly even his mind was cloudy. He knew he was a pig not

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Pig tPig tPig tPig to Saint in Three Easy Stepso Saint in Three Easy Stepso Saint in Three Easy Stepso Saint in Three Easy Steps I was in the middle of worshipping God on the

Lord’s Day when I received yet another vision from on High. Once again I was lost in the vision and the scriptures, which flooded my soul. I was to preach this next week from the book of Malachi chapter three, but it seemed as though the Lord had another plan. I have learned to throw down my own agenda and to pick up His. Wherever He is going is where I want to be. I just want to sit at His feet and learn from the Master. Like a little boy I just wanted to go where Abba Father was going. Because I know where my Heavenly Father goes is going to be fun and exciting. I want to be close behind Him.

In that vision I saw the drawing above about a man coming all the way out from the miry mud of life. The Lord whispered in my ear, “From Pig to Saint in Three easy Steps!” I was all ears and ready for another scriptural adventure where one lets the Spirit of God teach them God’s ultimate truth. Are you ready to come with me on this adventure? Let us begin this new journey with a word of prayer or simply put; let us talk to God. “Father, I want to go where You are going. Lead my heart, mind, and soul to this place of becoming a Saint. I want to become Your Saint. I want to be taken completely out of the pig’s miry mud pit. I have lived there all too long. Open the mind,

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Let go back to our story about being faithful in little and God will give you much. Consider the Old Testament saint known as Joseph found in Genesis. Every where he ended up he was found faithful. Listen to this:

The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. (Genesis 39:2-6)

Do you see how God saw that Joseph was faithful and so did his Egyptian master. Faithful in little and God will know you will be faithful with much. Joseph was:

1. He was authentic, true, accurate, and committed

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2. He was loyal, and true to life 3. He could be trusted and trustful, and

trustworthy 4. He was devoted, steadfast, and reliable 5. He worked day in and day out with a Spirit of

excellence

Even after Joseph was falsely accused and landed in prison Joseph was again successful because of his faithfulness in little. Listen again:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper. (Genesis 39:21-23)

Joseph learned early on that it was for his own

benefit to be faithful in little and trust God with the rest. As he was faithful in little the lord promoted him to more and more until he was second in command of all of Egypt.

“Lord help me to be faithful in little for I hear what You are saying to my heart. I hear what the

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From Pig to SaintFrom Pig to SaintFrom Pig to SaintFrom Pig to Saint

In Three Easy StepsIn Three Easy StepsIn Three Easy StepsIn Three Easy Steps

By Dr. Duane Bemis, Chaplain

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Spirit is saying to the Church today.” Amen and amen.

What are you thinking about right this very moment? Talk to God about what you are learning. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Listen to Mark Miller from the Nazarene

denomination as he expounds of faith servants of God and what this means to each of us3:

All of this, the literal contextual view of Luke 12:32 with its "little flock" and Luke 12:42 with its "faithful steward" as manifest in the body of the Apostles, would not rule out holding the view that Jesus’ teaching would also apply to individual Christians. Each Christian Saint would be under change to guard against undue material concerns, exercise loving care for the needy, and remain alert for the Master’s return. Throughout the ages millions of Christian disciples of the Nazarene

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have remained awake and alert to the Master’s Return. They as well proved themselves to be "faithful stewards" looking after the material and spiritual needs of their fellow Nazarene Saints.

I believe we do have to answer this call to be

go stewards of what God lays in our personal possession. But we must also pay attention to our stewardship with God’s Kingdom business. I would continue to reiterate the need to learn to be faithful in little hence; God will know you will be faithful in much.

Look at it this way; if God’s church is His only begotten Son’s bride we had better be careful in our stewardship of her dignity. Yet many tear at her dress, they throw mud upon her and they expose her to the world. How dare we treat the Bride of Christ with such distain? How dare anyone force His bride to be raped by the media? How dare we sit by and see many men and women taking money meant for the Bride and place that money in their own purse. The time has come to become a good and faithful servant and or a good and faithful steward of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Memorize Luke 16:10 by writing it down in the

space provided and then say your verse to a witness who should sign in the approved space. ________________________________________________________________________________

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End NotesEnd NotesEnd NotesEnd Notes

1. New King James Version Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

2. http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon7/faithful_in_the_little_things.htm

3. Nazarene Commentary 2000© by Mark Heber Miller http://www.nazarene-friends.org/articles/The%20Little%20Flock%20and%20The%20Faithful%20Steward%20-%20Who%20are%20They.htm

Time to go to the next sermon!Time to go to the next sermon!Time to go to the next sermon!Time to go to the next sermon!

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Write your own personal prayer to God about what you have personally gained from reading this article.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Witness signs here: _________________________ Date here: ____________________ Let us continue in our selected text from Dr. Luke:

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13)

This verse makes it very simple that mammon or money and the love of money is a root to many evils. The time has come to be lovers of God and we should demonstrate this by our working in a Spirit of Excellence where ever God sends us. For Joseph it meant inside the prison but even their God was forging a true man of God as he was faithful in little and later Joseph was given much and he was faithful again.

In conclusion I would hope that your eyes of your heart were opened to the necessity that you are faithful in little if you want God to trust you with

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much. God is never the problem. The problem in the alignment of our hearts to His greater will.

Now, write a prayer between you and your God about what you have learned from reading and studying this article: ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Next, write down the little things in your life that you have been faithful in doing with a Spirit of Excellence. _______________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now I want you to think about what Jesus said and write down what impressed you the most, which gave your heart understanding. ___________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________