Sunday, March 25, 2012 am
THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS
MONEY – 2
The Principle of Stewardship
It
is because of this that we have begun a study dealing with the subject
of the Christian and his money.
As we began this study we examined the subject of materialism.
We also noted that Jesus said, “No
one 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.” (Matt. 6:24)
This text is the theme of our study.
In
our lesson today we want to deal with the subject of stewardship.
In 1 Cor. 4:1-2 Paul said, “Moreover
it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”
In dealing with the subject of money, a foundational principle
that we MUST consider is that what we have really belongs to God and we
are His entrusted servants.
In our lesson today we want to examine this principle in some detail.
a.
Defined – a word not
used much in our modern language.
And in many newer translations of the Bible, the word is replaced
with terms like, “manager” (ESV, NIV) or sometimes “servants.”
b.
The Greek word is
defined as, “one who is in charge of running a household.” (L&N)
It is a compound Greek word οἰκονόμος (oikonomos) which combines “house”
and “law” and thus indicates one who rules (the affairs of) the house.
c.
In parables and other
scriptures, he is often distinguished as the chief servant – one over
whom the master has great trust and confidence and thus he entrusts his
assets (in part or in full) to him.
An example of this would be Joseph, of whom we read, “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.” (Ex. 39:2-6)
d.
In Luke 12:42 Jesus
gives us a good description of a steward, “Who
then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler
over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?”
e.
When we speak of
stewardship, what we are reminded of is that while on this earth we are
servants of God, entrusted with resources that we have the
responsibility to use for His glory.
a.
Everything belongs to
God
i.
A fundamental teaching
that affects how anyone manages what he has is the understanding of who
something belongs to. As an
employee, you realize that the resources you are working with don’t
belong to you but the company (or employer).
And that affects how you utilize those resources – including your
time, abilities and physical assets.
ii.
As Christians, one of
the core principles we need to learn is that everything belongs to God.
It is obvious that most of the world doesn’t get this as they
live for themselves with their ultimate goal being material satisfaction
in its various forms. They
live, never thinking about God.
BUT, we as Christians must learn that what we have is not really ours.
And the better we grasp this principle, the more it will affect
everything we do, our perspective of our possessions & conduct and the
goals we seek to achieve in the future.
iii.
The Bible thoroughly
talks about how everything belongs to God
1.
Let’s begin with
Genesis 1:1-4 – In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the
earth. After creating man He
gave him instructions, “See I have
given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the
earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it is as food…”.
(Gen. 1:29-30).
Gen. 2:15 says, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend
and keep it.” The idea
of tending and keeping was as that of a servant taking care of his
Master’s possessions. From
the beginning Adam (& Eve) knew they were accountable to God for their
actions, because the garden (and all the earth) belonged to the LORD.
2.
Old Testament passages–
Psalm 24:1–2 (NKJV) — 1 The earth is the
Lord’s, and all its
fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has
founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
Psalm 50:10–12 (NKJV) — 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.”
Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (NKJV) —after having challenged Israel to fear God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him and serve Him and keep His commandments (vs. 12-13) we read in vs.14, “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.”
1 Chronicles 29:10–15 (NKJV) — as David received abundant offerings from the people for the building of the temple we read, “Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. 12 Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. 13 “Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name. 14 But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And of Your own we have given You. 15 For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope.”
Job 41:11 (NKJV) — As the Lord challenges Job after his complaining, He establishes His greatness. In the midst of His challenge, the Lord asks Job, “Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine”
Haggai 2:8 (NKJV) — Having returned from Babylonian
captivity, the temple had been in ruins for decades.
Finally prophets are sent to provoke the people to begin
repairing and rebuilding the temple so that God could bless them.
IN the midst of Haggai’s challenge to them we read, “‘The
silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the
Lord of hosts.“
3.
New Testament –
Acts 7:48–50 (NKJV) — In
Athens, speaking to the citizens and their idols, Paul said, “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the
prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What
house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what is the place of My
rest? 50 Has My hand not made all these things?’
1 Corinthians 10:25–28 (NKJV) — 25 Eat whatever is sold in the
meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake; 26 for
“the earth is the Lord’s,
and all its fullness.”
b.
What we have is “on loan” from Him
i.
Since God owns
everything, it is incumbent upon us to realize that what we have
actually belongs to Him. We
have simply been entrusted with it to use. If we understand this we will
realize that we are stewards of all that we have.
This attitude WILL set us apart from the way the rest of the world views
its possessions.
ii.
In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 we are told, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is
in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For
you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God’s.”
iii.
Psalm 100:1-3,
a psalm of thanksgiving and praise reminds us of this.
“Make a joyful shout to the
LORD, all you lands! Serve
the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who made us and not we
ourselves; We are His people and
the sheep of His pasture.”
iv.
The Christian, as he
studies God’s word is constantly reminded that whatever his lot, it is
for the Lord that he lives.
We use it for His glory.
Romans 14:7-9, dealing with
Christian liberties and how we ought to treat one another says, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the
Lord. Therefore, whether we
live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He
might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
v.
1 Pet. 4:10
says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
vi.
2 Cor. 8:1-5
– the Macedonians are an example of this understanding.
Paul is encouraging the brethren at Corinth to give as they had
committed to do a year earlier. He cites the example of the Macedonians,
who were evidently in a region where there was greater poverty (at least
among the Christians) and yet they gave bountifully, beyond their means.
Their willingness to do so was a result of a proper attitude
about their possessions. In
vs. 5 it says, “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the
Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”
Such an attitude comes from an understanding that what we have
actually belongs to Him.
vii.
Matthew 21:33-46
finds Jesus speaking
the parable of the wicked
vinedressers. In it
the owner LEASED the land to the vinedressers.
When vintage time came, he sent servants to receive fruit from
HIS vineyard. Instead, the
wicked vinedressers abused the servants – beating one, stoning one and
killing another. Therefore
the owner sends his son thinking – surely they will respect him, but
instead they kill the son thinking that with such they could SEIZE his
inheritance.
For the purpose of this point let us stop here and notice the account is
about a master and those entrusted with the care of his vineyard.
The message Jesus was teaching is that God is the OWNER and
the Jews were entrusted to tend to HIS vineyard.
In other words, it was not theirs, but rather they were STEWARDS
entrusted with its care. We
shall see in our next point the result of their conduct
viii.
The text we began with
(1 Cor. 4:1-2) speaks of a steward being faithful over his house.
The context is Paul describing his apostleship – not as one of
superiority over the Corinthians but as STEWARDS of Christ entrusted
with a work. God expected him and
others to faithfully execute that service.
c.
One day we will give an
accounting
i.
Making practical
application – in life, especially the business world, we know that what
we work with belongs to the business.
They hire us and while working for them our TIME is theirs.
Whatever resources they entrust us with is THEIRS.
We continually read of workplace misconduct – misusing time,
embezzling, pilfering, taking advantage of benefits (not utilizing them,
but over utilizing them), etc.
A well-managed company expects productivity from all its
employees and will hold them accountable.
ii.
As Christians, we need
to take this principle and apply it our stewardship toward God.
iii.
Continually in scripture
we are reminded that one day we will give an accounting for our lives.
1.
Romans 14:10-12
– “For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the
Lord, Every knee shall bow
to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall
give account of himself to God.”
2.
Revisiting
the parable of the wicked
vinedressers in Matt. 21:33-46, after the wicked conduct of the
vinedressers is exposed, in vss. 40-41 Jesus poses a question to His
audience, “Therefore, when the
owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
They said to Him, ‘He will destroy those wicked men miserably,
and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the
fruits in their seasons.” In summary, the purpose of the parable was
to let his audience know that they had been entrusted with God’s
vineyard and they had abused that trust and they were going to give
account and lose it. In vs.
43 Jesus said, “Therefore, I say
to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation
bearing the fruits of it.”
Vs. 45-46 tells us that the chief priest and Pharisees understood
that Jesus was speaking of them.
POINT MADE!
3.
Parables about servants
– in addition to the above parable consider also
Luke 16:1-13 – the
parable of the unjust steward who was called upon to give an
accounting for his service (he had wasted his goods).
Luke 19:11-27 – the
parable of the minas in
which a nobleman gives to ten of his servants a mina (about 100 days
wages) each. When he
returns, they gave an accounting for how they had managed that money
while he was gone.
Matt. 25:14-30, in
the parable of the talents,
we find a similar message where 3 servants were given talents to manage
according to their ability.
When He returned all answered to the master.
Those who were faithful were rewarded and the wicked, lazy
servant was cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth (vs. 30)
EACH of these has three common factors – 1) the master owned it all, 2)
The servants were to manage to what belonged to their master, 3) they
were ACCOUNTABLE for HOW they managed what they had been entrusted with.
iv.
The parable of the rich fool also illustrates this.
In Luke 12:16-21 we
read this parable of a rich man who was very successful in farming.
He had so much he didn’t have room to store everything.
Considering his “dilemma” he reasoned that what he needed to do
was build bigger barns and retire enjoying the fruit of his labors for
many years to come. BUT,
what he did NOT count on was how God expected him to share with Him.
That night his soul we required of him and he left everything of
this life’s good behind. A
strong message in this parable is that whatever we have, even if we are
not servants to others in this life (cf. 1 Cor. 7:22-23) we ARE servants
to God and He expects us to use our (i.e. HIS) resources for His glory.
a.
Remembering this
principle will drastically affect how we view the things of this life.
b.
Think about it: How are
we using our “talents”? Are
we using our resources to further His cause or to contradict His will?
Are we being resourceful or wasteful?
Are we good stewards with that which we have been entrusted with?
c.
When we consider
ourselves as stewards of God, we will:
i.
Present our bodies as a
“living sacrifice” Rom. 12:1-2
ii.
Be more inclined to
share with others, because that is what He wants us to do – Ac. 4:32-35
iii.
Give with greater
purpose – it will be out of our abundance and prosperity (1 Cor.
16:1-2), it will be done cheerfully & bountifully (2 Cor. 5:6-7).
NOTE: What we “invest” in is what will be important to us.
If you want God’s word to be more important – invest in it!
If you want the church to be more important to you – invest in
it! (including with your
wallet) Much more on this in future studies.
iv.
Make wise decisions in
view toward what is important to God rather than our own desires.
v.
Ultimately, we will be
laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
“For where your treasure
is, there your heart will also be.” (Matt. 6:19-21)