Pt. 3 - Stewardship

God First

Recap:

The Spiritual disciplines are exercises in posturing our lives to be changed by God.

Discipline of Stewardship -

We don’t own, we steward

Avoiding the wrong mindsets of poverty and materialism.

How to walk the narrow path.

Warning:

Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”

Idolatry commenced in the garden with Adam’s choice to find his security without God and his independence from God in the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Idolatry is still the fundamental sin of men and women, and that it is always expressed in attachment to created things rather than the Creator. It is putting something before God.

We must be diligent to remember - we Christians are pilgrims/foreigners in this world. Unbelievers are at home in this world with their trust and security in material wealth, ideologies, immorality, self-worship (by putting self first)

1 Peter 2:11 “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”

It will all be destroyed but you, the you, the church, will remain.

How to live in this world, avoiding idolatry.

Philippians 4:11–13 “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

He gives us strength when in need, gives us strength also when we have plenty. We need the grace and strength of Christ in the midst of our prosperity, perhaps even more than when we are in need.

This is of upmost importance to understand his strength in plenty, because much our understanding of prosperity comes from the world’s perspective… The world correlates having much with their well-being.

We remember that Jesus said, that “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” - Luke 12:15

Rather, as Christians, we correlate our well-being to the strength that Christ provides.

Therefore, His grace and wisdom will enable me to steward that abundance well. Because when I give, I don’t lose - I didn’t lose my well-being. My well-being was never in what I had or didn’t have. My strength He gives comes from His Word and from His promises and Spirit.

Story:

1 Kings 17:7–15 (NIV)

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks.

He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

Expectation

“I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

The woman, taking inventory of her situation, her lack, the drought, concluded in her own wisdom, this is it. She isn’t necessarily being negative or positive in outlook but rather facing the reality she sees.

She didn’t know the hand of God was on her for a purpose that would bless others and her family.

May we be moved not by what the economic indicators are but by purpose and what God wants to do.

The hand of God is on us for purpose, blessed to be a blessing.

I wonder how many the enemy has convinced, rather persuaded, with eyes narrow focused on what can be seen, that this is who I am, this is all, this is my lot, no hope.

But what we learn from Easter, is God knows his way out of a grave. There is never hopelessness with Him.

Prophets were also called seers.

Gehazi and Elisha - Elisha’s prayer was “God open his eyes to see.”

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

“But First make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have...”

The principle of the first is well spoken of throughout the Torah and throughout the rest of the Old Testament and parallels with bringing God our tithe (which is a tenth - 10% of your increase, what comes in, generosity begins at 11%)

Exodus 13:2 ““Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.””

Exodus 34:26 ““Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 27:30 ““ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 14:22 “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.”

Proverbs 3:9–10“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

The principle of the first is beyond just giving something or thinking of God first as if it’s just my choice to do that, no, it is truth.

Christ is first, the firstborn over all creation, created through him and for him, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, he is the preeminent one, all creation is His and for him, and creation recognizes him as first.

The water blushed and held him up as he walk across

The wind and waves bowed its knee to his command

The fig tree agreed and would grow figs no more

gravity was suspended at His ascension

And death was swallowed up at His resurrection.

The rocks would cry out. Luke 19:40 ““I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.””

Me bringing my tithe (notice not “giving”), is recognizing, that it doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to Him. I am not the preeminent one.

It is his beloved creatures in his image who fight to be first, to be the preeminent one.

Abraham, first, gave a tenth of all he had gained in victory from God. He was aligned with truth, with the grain of true reality and

God responded by saying, “Don’t be afraid, I am your shield and your very great reward.”

The world has their security in temporal fallible wealth and material things, we have it in God. My tithe moves my trust and security from that which will destroy me to that or rather who gives me life.

Paul said that in the last days people will be lovers of pleasure and not of God. Warnings abound of the love of money. How do I know I love pleasure or money instead of loving God, you can’t let go of it. You hold on to it thinking it gives you life.

Matthew 6:31–33“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

What can God do this year of putting Him first.

Are you really going to go another year in complacency, are you really going to go another year trying to be your own god instead of trusting Him?

This is what God says

The only guarantee she had was what “God said”

There is something about having nothing to lose, like the woman.

That is the problem for many of us, we don’t follow the Word of the Lord because we have too much to lose.

Maybe you felt the Lord stir you to share the gospel, give, obey sexually, but you were afraid of what you might lose.

Your time and gifts don’t belong to you.

Let’s respond, “Choose you this day who you will love, who you will serve.”

We are coming into a time, where the world is dark, especially our world in America, we need real Christians whose security and hope is in the Lord and His glory will shine.

Screwtape writes to Wormwood, “But, if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere… If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him… it builds up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want… Seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unraveling their souls from Heaven and building up a firm attachment to the earth.”