A Better Blessing!

Good Morning Ottawa Family! Today, we are having our annual business meeting after church, so please plan on sticking around after service. We will be bringing on some new members, recap last years’s financial situation, and talk about the future. It shouldn’t take too long. Thank you for making yourselves available for that. This week and next week is everyone's favorite series topic…it the one you wait for all year long, with much anticipation…the series on stewardship, which is the churchy way of saying money and giving. When I first came to Ottawa First, I promised that I would only talk about giving once a year…as far as dedicating an entire sermon or series of sermons on the topic. That is this time of year. Over the next 2 weeks we will be talking about stewardship....I know I just poked fun at the term, but the truth is, we call it stewardship because it is about far more than money. Money is but one area of stewardship…which we will talk about together this week and next week. Let’s pray, then we will begin.

PRAY!

Before I talk about money, there are a couple of things I like to get out of the way up top.

Abusive doctrine and the mishandling of church finances.

My personal practice of handling the finances of Ottawa First.

How my own family handles stewardship.

Abusive doctrine and the mishandling of church finances.

I wish I did not have to address this before I talk about stewardship; it breaks my heart to see how the church (in general) has often handled money. We all know about the guys who get on TV and try to sell you miracles, or they try to convince you that if you just sow a faith seed, God’s hand will move in your situation…in other words, your money has the power to move God’s sovereign will and plan for your life or for the life of those you love. This is wrong and I am heartbroken that people like that give the Body of Christ a black eye. Nine times out of 10, these people will take some story from the O.T., a time when God commanded a person or even the nation of Israel to sacrifice something important to them, and in return, God moved. I’m going to give you an example, so you can see firsthand just how convincing it can be.

In the book of 2nd Kings, chapter 4, the prophet Elisha comes upon a woman that is all out of money and food, all she had left is a small bottle of olive oil. This lady’s husband had died and some creditors were coming to take her son for the payment she owed them. This poor lady was at her wits end. Elisha and this lady then have a conversation

2 Kings 4:2–7 “Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” So she left. After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.””

You see, this lady was willing to sow what little she had, in order that the Lord might give her an abundance…more than she needed. Just like that, the Lord still honors our “little” in order to bless us with an abundance. If you are willing to sow what little you have, the Lord is promising you an abundance today…more than you need…you only need to be willing to give the little first, then the Lord can bless.

Now, that may be exciting to hear, that may even help build some faith within you…but it is wrong. Not only is that a terrible way to apply this story today, but the Lord does not promise abundance if we would only give. I could take the next 30 minutes explaining to you why this type of giving sermon is harmful to the Body of Christ, but we do not have time for that. Just because something sounds like it makes sense, or seems to build some faith…the underlying premise is rotten and manipulative. Imagine though, if I were to preach an entire sermon on how the Lord promises you abundance and really drilled that into your heads…it’s easy to fall prey to that.

I say all of that to let you know, that is not how we handle giving here at Ottawa First Assembly. Would that be easier…to manipulate people into giving by appealing to your emotions, yes…much, much easier…but it is wrong. I am the first to recognize and point out the abusive practices of the church when it comes to money.

2. My personal practice of handling the finances of Ottawa First.

Since I have been your pastor, not one time have a ever looked at the giving. All I see are the final numbers. I have no idea who give what. You might give super generously, or you might have never given a dime…I have no idea. Different pastors handle these things differently. I’ve known pastors who look at the giving records on a regular basis, but I also know others (like myself) who have never looked at them. In fact, funny story. The other day I was speaking with a fellow pastor that is not from this area. He remarked that a woman in the church he pastors would constantly come up to him and tell him what needs changed. He told me that whenever anyone suggests a change in the church, he looks at their giving records…if they don’t give, he doesn’t take their suggestion seriously. To him, if a person isn’t willing to invest in the church financially, they shouldn’t have a voice in important matters. I asked him what his congregation might think of that practice and suggested that if he isn’t willing to share it from the pulpit, then he shouldn't be doing it. Anything done in secret is wrong. As I said, I do not look at giving records…that way, when I do talk about money, I can do so completely unbiased…which leads to the final thing

3. How my own family handles stewardship.

I grew up being taught the principles of faithful stewardship. My mother and father were very generous and very faithful. In fact, at one point, when he worked in the Corporate world, the church they were attending (and he worked part time at) were building a new building. My dad actually agreed to match anything given toward the building over a period of a few months. My mom and dad were sacrificial givers, as were my grandparents…that is the legacy I have in my family. I do not tell you any of this out of pride or arrogance, only to tell you that the reason I feel comfortable getting up here to talk about money is because my wife and I are faithful and consistent givers as well. When I got hired on to Ottawa First the board offered me a set amount, since then, I have not asked for a raise nor would I accept one if offered at this point. Just for full transparency, our tithe comes from my wife’s job, while the income I earn here, that tithe goes to the district....which is not my choice. And just to be clear, after my wife and I tithe off of her income, I make exactly $200 a month…just in case any of you thought I was pulling down massive bank as your pastor. Laura and I have been blessed financially…that is what allows me to be your pastor. Which is another reason I feel comfortable getting up here to talk about money…my presence as your pastor does not overburden the church financially.

For the remainder of our time this morning, I want to answer a couple of questions that people often have when it comes to the church and giving. 1. What is stewardship and 2. Why should I care about stewardship? To do this, we will be looking at a couple of different passages in the N.T.

1. What is Stewardship?

We are going to begin in the book of Titus. Let’s go ahead and read that and talk about it.

Titus 1:7–9 “As an overseer of God’s household, he must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.”

Probably not the passage you would expect a pastor to start with on a series about giving. Hang with me though, because there is a good reason we are starting with Paul’s instructions for leaders within the church…which is what we have here in the book of Titus. Paul uses the term overseer to describe a person that is a leader. In modern churches, the term pastor is used, rather than overseer. Paul says that these overseers must not be greedy, drunkards, prideful, and so on....and the reason for all of these character qualities is so the overseer can both teach and effectively fend off those who would seek to harm the Body. What does that have to do with stewardship though…well, the term overseer comes from and is interchangeable with the word steward.

An overseer is someone who has been entrusted with certain responsibilities. In the N.T., the term overseer is used to refer to a church leader, but it’s also used to show Christs’ role as our overseer.

1 Peter 2:25 “For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Back in Bible times, wealthy families would have (what is called) a steward, often referred to as an overseer. The steward was someone who was appointed to oversee the affairs of the house and was accountable to the head of the home. The steward was a household servant, often in charge of the kids, the finances, discipline, and so and was only accountable, as I said, to the head of the household. As your pastor, or overseer, or steward, I am responsible for teaching, discipling, and equipping. I am accountable to both the elders and of course, the Lord. Husbands, you are the overseers or stewards of your home…God has blessed you with a family and expects you to love your wife like Christ loves the church…you are stewards.

Stewardship is one of the major differences between a worldly mindset and a godly mindset.

Worldly Mindset: I own what I have. It is mine. I earned it.

Godly Mindset: Everything I have comes from God, I am merely a steward.

Some people never fully make this leap in their walk with Christ, which we will talk more about in a moment. The further we progress in our understanding that everything we have belongs to the Lord, and that we are merely stewards, the easier it is to follow the principles we will be talking about the next couple of weeks.

The truth is, everyone has been given the responsibility of stewardship over different areas of their lives. Let’s define stewardship, then we will talk about why it is important, or why we should care.

Stewardship:

The process of being responsible with someone else’s property while it is entrusted to you. For Christians, stewardship is the recognition and faithful management of God's gifts, including our time, talents, treasure, for the purpose of advancing God's kingdom and serving others.

God has gifted every individual with certain abilities and talents. Furthermore, God has gifted each person with the ability to support and provide for their needs, as well as the needs of others.

1 Peter 4:8–11 “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Our time, talent and treasure are a gift from our Overseer…the One to whom we are accountable. Now that we’ve answered the question of what stewardship is…now let’s talk about why we, as a church should care (corporately) and why you, as followers of Christ, should care (individually).

2. Why Should OFA care about stewardship?

In the book of Acts chapter 20, the author, Luke is recording a conversation between the apostle Paul and the Ephesian church…the same people that Paul wrote to in the book of Ephesians. We are going to read Acts 20, verses 32-35…prior to what we are going to read, Luke warns the people to watch out for false teachers that may rise up…even from their own people. As we start in verse 32, Luke records what Paul says to the people in Ephesus…so this is Paul talking.

Acts 20:32–35 ““And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who are with me. In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ””

Here in Acts 20, Paul is giving some final instructions to the church. Paul makes it pretty clear that he will not see them again, as the Holy Spirit has prompted him that his public ministry is nearing its end. Paul is committing them to the Lord…it’s similar to giving your child away in marriage. No longer are you responsible for them. Paul is symbolically handing off the people to God’s grace…Paul has done his best to disciple, teach and challenge the people…but he will no longer be around. Just as Paul does in the book of 1st Corinthians, Paul reminds them that he has worked hard for their benefit…in order to set an example of what is required as a follower of Christ…and what is that? What was Paul trying to show to the Church in Ephesus?

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

There were a couple of churches that Paul went out of his way to not take anything from them. The church in Ephesus was one, and the church in Corinth was another. When Paul went to these churches to minister, he would not take from them. Paul makes it clear why this is the case…we talked a bit about this a couple weeks ago when we looked at Philippians 4. Paul did not want anyone in those Churches to think he is in this thing for the money. Yet, we know that Paul did receive financial support from other people…which He humbly accepted. In fact, in the book of Philippians, Paul points out that the only reason he could minister to the people in Corinth is because another church was faithful in supporting him.

2 Corinthians 11:7–9 “Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by taking pay from them to minister to you. When I was present with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, since the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have kept myself, and will keep myself, from burdening you in any way.”

Strictly from a biblical perspective on how churches out to operate, the reason we should care about stewardship is because we should long to be more the the Philippian church than the church in Ephesus or Corinth. If Paul were around today, would we hear…”when I was with you, I wouldn’t or didn’t take a dime from you.” Or would we hear, thank you so much for supporting me, you did well by partnering with me in the gospel?” The difference is in our mindset and what we value. Now, that is from the perspective of our Church…and our ability to be a blessing to those who carry out the work of the gospel, such as missionaries.

So, first we defined stewardship, then we looked at why, as a church, we should care about stewardship, lastly, let’s turn our focus to why we should care about stewardship as individuals?

Why Should I Care About Stewardship?

A little bit ago we defined the term Stewardship, I’ll read it again real quick:

Stewardship:

The process of being responsible with someone else’s property while it is entrusted to you. For Christians, stewardship is the recognition and faithful management of God's gifts, including our time, talents, treasure, for the purpose of advancing God's kingdom and serving others.

As we conclude this little mini-series on stewardship next week, I will be going into more detail about our Time, Talent, and Treasure-what each of those entail, as a follower of Christ. Before that though, I wanted to take the first week and set a baseline of what stewardship even means and why we should concern ourselves with it. Next week we will get into more specifics on what it looks like when we properly steward our time, talent and treasure. Let me quickly give you 2 reasons why we should take stewardship seriously in our daily lives.

We are Commanded to be good Stewards.

In short, the reason that we should care about stewardship, on a personal level, is because we are commanded to do so.

There are many passages I could point to that talk about the importance of being a good steward of what the Lord has blessed us with. The most well know is probably the parable of the dishonest manager. In the book of Luke, chapter 16, Jesus is speaking with his disciples and begins to tell them a story or parable about a bad steward, or manager

Luke 16:1–4 “Now he said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions. So he called the manager in and asked, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be my manager.’ “Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg. I know what I’ll do so that when I’m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’”

In this story, a wealthy man hires a guy to oversee or manage his finances and possessions. It turns out that the man hired to do the job was not being a good steward…he was squandering his employers wealth....so, the man get fired. As a result, the man, now without a job and afraid of the shame of being homeless and unemployed, comes up with a plan. The man goes around to everyone that owes the rich man something and begins to bargain with them. In other words, if someone owed the rich man 1000 dollars, this manager would make a deal with them…if they agreed to pay now, he would reduce what they owed…so, instead of owing 1000 dollars, they would only owe 600 dollars, if they agreed to pay right then.

The rich man got wind of this

Luke 16:8–13 (CSB) “The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly... Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

We could do an entire series on this parable alone…for today though, I want to draw your attention to what Jesus points out to be the moral of the story…1. Those who are faithful with little will be trusted with much and 2. A person can not serve both God and material possessions. This goes back to the 2 mindsets I’ve referenced a couple of times. According to the worldly mindset, all that I own is mine and are the most important things in my life; verses a godly mindset, which says: I am merely a steward of all I have, and have been commanded to be a good steward. The 2nd reason that we should care about stewardship is because:

2. Proper Stewardship brings a “Better Blessing.”

Jesus talks touches on this in the previous passage we read…that if we are faithful with little, we can be trusted with much....proper stewardship brings with it, a better blessing. The fact that we are commanded should be enough, but like most things we are commanded to do, our obedience brings blessing...something that money can’t buy. Paul talks about this in 1st Timothy.

1 Timothy 6:17–19 “Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.”

It goes without saying that here in 1st Timothy, Paul was not suggesting to his young apprentice, Timothy, that he should teach people to be good stewards because they will be blessed with wealth or other temporal things. Paul is not suggesting that if we are generous, then we will get back 100 fold on this earth, like what is so often taught. No, Paul is suggesting that we be good stewards-because it help us keep our eyes on what is important. Properly stewarding our time, talent and treasure, helps us keep our priorities where they should be, and in turn, we live more content lives, knowing that we are being obedient to the Lord.

A couple of days ago I was speaking to a couple about what makes marriages and our earthly relationships work well…for the most part. There is a principle called reciprocity.

Reciprocity:

a situation or relationship in which two people or groups agree to do something similar for each other, to allow each other to have the same rights.

For example, in a healthy marriage, the husband will love his wife and the wife will respect her husband. I gave the example of how when Laura gets home from a long day at school, it makes her frustrated if the house if a mess…therefore, because I love my wife and want to show her that love, I do my best to make sure she doesn’t come home to a messy house. Likewise, on Sunday afternoons, after a week of schoolwork and developing sermons and preaching, I like to go into my office and get on my computer and just chill…Laura respects that, so she doesn’t plan a bunch of stuff on Sunday afternoon or evenings. I do things for her, because I love her and she does things for me because I say so…not really…because she loves and respects me…that is reciprocity. Normally, unhealthy relationships happen because one or both parties are unwilling or unable to practice mutual reciprocity, either because one person is demanding…my way or the highway type of mentality, or because a person is an overly passive people pleaser, and won’t voice their needs.

I bring that up because we often think of our relationship with God in the same terms as our earthly relationships. If I do something nice for God, then He should or will reciprocate and do something nice for me…this is not, I repeat, NOT, how our relationship with our heavenly father works. It is different than earthly relationships. We do not give money or volunteer at the church in order to get something in return. We steward our time, talent and treasure well because we want to be obedient to our Lord and furthermore, we trust in God’s promise that being a good steward brings contentment and helps us keep our eyes on the eternal, rather than the temporal. The reason that our relationship with God is different, the reason it’s not based upon reciprocity is because we have nothing that God desires, other than our worship and obedience…both of which are based upon our faith in Him.

Last passage today, then we will pray. In 1st Cor. chapter 4, Paul is giving instructions to the people in Corinth. He says:

1 Corinthians 4:1–2 “A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful.”

The expository commentary on the book of first and second corinthians points out that The word Paul uses (manager) refers to a servant whose master empowers him to manage proactively the master’s private commercial estate. Similar to Jesus’ words in Luke, we are called to be faithful managers or stewards of both, the message of Christ….and the gifts and material possessions we have been blessed with. Next week we will talk about what that looks like on a practical level.

PRAY