Well good morning brothers and sisters and I’m Alan and I want to welcome you to Ocean View Baptist Church but before we get started now you have a couple announcements to make first of all I’d like to update you on the new direction of our church is taking as of last Sunday’s business meeting option three including the covenant agreement with Kona Baptist Church was adopted by the majority of members present what does this mean for us it means there are many advantages to this choice but let me just name a few one we will still remain Ocean View about this church too the church’s assets will remain in the visit of Ocean View Baptist Church 3 we will have access to many resources of Kona Baptist Church such as pastoral mentoring leadership counting children’s ministry assistance and financial and administrative assistance the members of the transitional leadership team and the church building construction committee who were elected by a majority of the church membership present at the April 12th meeting are as follows leadership team Nate Seto ABI summers Sharon Madson Bob Werner and myself Building Committee Derrick summers Bob Werner and myself devotional messages will be given by Bob every Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. sermons will be given every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. by Nate and I on a rotational basis alright the sermon today is from Luke chapter 16 verses 1 to 18 and it’s about stewardship what is stewardship simply put stewardship is how well we take care of something in other words how responsible are we was something that has been entrusted to us and for the Christian that means how we manage God’s gifts and how we use them for his glory we begin as our Lord Jesus is telling the disciples about a rich man who heard that the manager he employed was squandering his possessions and when he had heard this he confronted his manager as it says in verse 2 and he called him and said to him what is this I hear about you give an accounting of your management for you can no longer be manager right away the manager realized that he was being fired from his position and knew that he was not strong enough to dig and – ashamed – BAE he considered himself too good for manual labor so he devises a plan to make himself seem respectable in the eyes of his master’s debtors in fact in verses 4 to 7 the manager tells us exactly what his plan is I know what I shall do so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes and he summoned each one of his master’s debtors and he began saying to the first how much do you owe my master and he said a hundred measures of oil and he said to him take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty then he said to another and how much do you owe and he said a hundred measures of wheat he said to him take your bill and write eighty – hope you understand a little bit about Hebrew units of measure a hundred measures of oil equalled about seven and a half gallons and a hundred measures of wheat equal ten to twelve bushels but brothers and sisters do you see what’s happening here the manager is

getting the rich man’s debtors to shortchange him so that they will be his friends instead and welcome him into their home’s he is being sneaky and goes behind the back of his manager he is also sinning but I’ll guarantee you this guy wasn’t thinking about sinning against God he was only thinking of himself this action is a prime example of just how Satan can control us he is wickedly powerful and he will do anything to destroy our fellowship with God we must resist Satan’s temptation and take old of our spiritual well-being we must be good stewards of our relationship with the Lord and responsible with what he is entrusted to us however something unexpectedly happens in verse 8 here Jesus tells us and his master praised the unrighteousness manager because he had acted shrewdly for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of Alawite you see my friends the unfaithful manager was being complimented by his master for being dishonest and doing something sinful it reminds me of that old saying there’s no honor among thieves and that’s why Jesus said that the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light in another reference Jesus mentions the sons of light in John chapter 12 verse 36 where it says in part while you have the light believe in the light so that you may become sons of light for those of you who might not be familiar with the term the sons of light they were those that followed the ways of Jesus the believers the ones just like you who hold Christ Jesus in their hearts the ones who love him and strive every day to walk the path that he has shown us the path of righteousness the path of love and humility Jesus continues now by telling the disciples about being responsible with what’s been given to you we’re in verse 11 he says this therefore if you have not been faithful in the youths of unrighteous wealth who will entrust the true riches to you what our Lord is saying here is that if you are not a good steward of what you earn or are given in this life then why would God trust giving you true spiritual riches like eternal life so please understand this we must be good stewards and we must be responsible for not only our spiritual side but our physical side as well continuing in verse 13 our Lord says to the disciples no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve God and wealth now the Pharisees had heard Jesus and we’re making fun of him because they loved money so in verses 15 16 and 17 Jesus turns and says to them you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men but God knows your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God the law and the prophets were proclaimed before John since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is forcing his way into a faith but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail now we come to verse 18 the last verse where Jesus says everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery so what does this verse mean you might ask it doesn’t seem to fit with the story of the rich man and his manager oh but it does and here’s why Jesus is reminding us that stewardship it is important even in a marriage that you have a responsibility to your spouse to love them care for them and not forsake them that if you stray from them push them away or divorce them you will not be acting responsible and will be guilty of sin in the eyes of God my friends before we end the sermon today though I want to share a personal testimony with you although I started to serve the Lord when I was 12 there were times in my life that have I drift away from God I was rough around the edges and I became aggressive and sinned I worked hard but I also didn’t eat healthy and smoked about two packs of cigarettes a day and I could drink a six-pack of beer in no time I was not being a good steward of my body and I was not acting responsible to those I love but God then gave me two of his greatest gifts forgiveness and redemption two gifts of grace that I have felt I was not worthy of of course he had to pound some sense into my heart headfirst so this is what he did in 2009 I was diagnosed with cancer I had dwindled down to 150 pounds and was bleeding badly internally I was deathly sick but after several surgeries and five years of treatments and because God loves me I come before you today cancer-free oh but he was not finished with me yet in January of 2017 I suddenly found myself in a head-on collision that was not my fault the intoxicated driver of the other vehicle had crossed over the double yellow line and plowed right into me I was trapped inside the truck but the emergency responders were eventually able to get me out and I was flown to the hospital on Oahu my left leg had been crushed and so for the next two years I took pain pills and struggled to walk on it finally the bone deteriorated and the only option left was amputation I prayed to God like I never prayed before and asked him to forgive me and make me into who he wanted me to be and believe me things were hard but God gave me the strength to endure and a joy inside me that I had never felt folks I was not a good steward but because I repented and asked God to forgive me promising to turn away from sin and walking the way our Lord walk in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ he showed me his steadfast love and brought me through these trials and by the grace of God in 2019 little over a year ago I was given my new prosthetic leg allowing me to walk upright on two feet again brothers and sisters I ask you closely examine your life and if you are suffering physically or spiritually please repent for not taking care of the things entrusted to you by God and ask for forgiveness he loves you he will help you through your trials and if you know how others who may be making the same mistakes help them to realize what it means to be a good steward thank you this closing a word of Prayer loving father we your children love you we ask you for your guidance and strength in our personal trials and the trials ahead for our nation and for the world this virus we ask you to shine your light upon the path the path the narrow path leading to the narrow gate we love you and we ask these things in Jesus Christ’s name Amen amen thank you brother al and thank you everyone who joined us on Facebook live and zoom we’re gonna be trying to do this every week now and it seems like it worked really well live so we’ll plan for this next week as well I’ll try and get the youtubes going I’m not sure why it wouldn’t let us go live but hopefully we’ll have everything set for next week and please join us next week