A Better Blessing

Good morning!

This week we are wrapping up our little mini-series on stewardship. Last week we set a baseline and talked about what stewardship means and why we should concern ourselves with the practice. We defined stewardship as:

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 commands His people to be generous, to make sure that we are good managers or stewards of what God has given to us…which I talk about as our Time, Talent, and our Treasure. Similar to last week, today we will not be going in depth into 1 particular passage of scripture. Instead, we will be exploring a few different passages that pertain to our time, our talent and our treasure. Let’s Pray.

PRAY

OK! I pray that you all found the message edifying last week, perhaps learned a thing or two, or were reminded of a thing or two. I will tell you, right up front today, that my goal for this series on stewardship is not to be guilt or condemnation upon anyone…I hope I’ve made that very clear. It is, however, my goal, to teach a very, very important principle found throughout both, Old and New Testaments. Let’s start off this morning a bit differently. Before we get into our Time, Talent, and Treasure, I want to read to you a number of passages from Christ, while He was on this earth. Jesus had much to say about money and finances, I mentioned that last week…and it hasn’t changed since then. Naturally, Jesus spoke many things that were never recorded by the writers of the 4 gospels. so we must assume that what was recorded were His most important words, stories, and interactions. Here are some of Jesus’s words about the subject of stewardship:

1. “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42).

2. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:2).

3. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25).

4. “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21). (We will talk about this one.)

5. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

6. “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). (We will talk about this one.)

7. “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

This last one is the most strongly worded of the bunch and is found in Revelation. Jesus is speaking with one of the “Seven Churches” found in the book of Revelation. Jesus described this church as “neither cold nor hot” (v. 15), and it was because of their wealth.They had forgotten that the things that matter most in life—like faith and worship—cannot be bought with money. They come free of charge, but only from the hand of the Father. I share all of these things with you just as a brief example of how much Jesus spoke about money and the topic of how to properly handle it…otherwise known as stewardship.

Now let’s turn our focus to the topic DEJure (which I’m pretty sure I spelled wrong in my notes here).

Time:

Talent:

Treasure:

These 3 areas encompass pretty much every area of our lives…it includes all that we often hold valuable, that is for sure. Let’s start with our time.

1. Stewarding our Time According to God’s Plan and Will For Our Lives:

Time is a valuable commodity! When we were young, time couldn’t pass quick enough....the 6 or so years of Jr. High and High School seem to drag on while you live them…you can’t wait to grow up, drive, graduate, be an adult. However, as you get older, time sees to rush by, often quicker than you might like…especially as a person begins to get into their senior years. On a person’s death bed, I’ve never heard a person say: “I wish I had less time.” Lots of studies have been done when it comes to how you and I perceive time. One study whose results have been duplicated over and over found that when a person is engaged with an activity that has a potential reward, time seems to go by more quickly than a person engaged in an activity with no potential reward. In other words, if I were to tell half of you that at the end of service today, you will receive $1000 dollars, but the other half will receive nothing, those of you who are expecting the $1000, time will seem like it goes much quicker than the other half of the church. This is why people, who are facing a particular tough life situations, are susceptible to depression and anxiety-the lack of a reward or good outcome causes the person to perceive time moving slower. Think of it this way…If I know that at the end of the week I am going on vacation, time will generally go by quickly. However, if I know, at the end of the week, I have to have a root canal…time will seem to drag, often causing us to focus on the negative thing even more than normal, often worrying about how bad the root canal will be. Over a long period of time, this can cause problems in our lives.

Believe it or not, the Bible was way ahead of modern researchers in this area. In the book of Matthew, Jesus addresses our tendency to spend our time worrying and fretting about tomorrow.

Matthew 6:34 “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Scripture talks about us stewarding our time in a couple of different ways…but the main theme is that we are to use the time that God has given us wisely, and to keep our minds, or our thoughts, on things from above. For example,

The Apostle Paul tells us to use our time to pray and to treat others well…even those who are not Christians.

Colossians 4:2–6 “Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, so that I may make it known as I should. Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.”

What does Paul mean to “make the most of the time?”

5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. (NIV)

The K.J. says that we are to “redeem the time,” which is actually (in this case) the closest to what Paul is trying to communicate here. In essence, Paul is telling us to buy up the the moments or opportunities that become available to us…specifically in the area of how we interact with those who do not know Christ. Using our time wisely is a small but important part of being proper stewards. Depending on your situation, your time can be almost as valuable as your treasure. This often happens because of the choices we make, as far our work is concerned. Quite frankly, being a good steward of our time and treasure is about priorities, it is about what we value in our lives. We will talk more about our priorities when we get to our treasure. Whether we spend too much time trying to get that next dollar or we do the exact opposite, where we become lazy and entitled, neither person is stewarding their time well. No one on their death bed has ever said…oh, I wish I had earned more money, I wish I had spent more time at work, I wish I had spent more time playing video games or I wish I had been a little more lazy and entitled. No, 9/10 times, a person wishes they had spent more time with their family. In those final moments, where money and things loose all of their value, our relationship with the Lord and our family is all that matters.

Let’s keep going…number 2:

2. Stewarding our Talent According to God’s Plan and Will For Our Lives:

A talent is something that you are instinctually born with that gives you unique skills and abilities. Talent is set apart from knowledge in that it is not a learned behavior, although it can be strengthened and practiced. The Bible tells us that we are all born with distinct talents and gifts that set us apart from each other. When you discover the talents that God has given you and you use them to glorify Him, you will experience a full life! Our loving Lord wants us to feel whole and complete, and it is through talents that we can find our unique calling in life! This is what it means to properly steward out talents. I’ve heard people tell me that they don’t have any talents....I always reply to them that they simply haven’t found it yet, but it is there.

1 Peter 4:10–11 “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.”

We explored this passage last week, but it very much fits our topic today…the stewarding of our talents. Often times, especially in the N.T., when the word “gifts” are mentioned, the author is referring to spiritual gifts…but we will use it as an example of our earthly gifts. That is not the case here in 1 Peter chapter 4. Here, the words gifts is referring specifically to our earthly talents and abilities. We are told to use our gifts, whatever they may be, to serve others and bring glory to the Kingdom of God. God set up the church in such a way where everyone's gifts can be used in important ways. Some are good at music, some are good at hospitality, some are good with technology, some are good in administrative type of duties, other are good at things like maintenance and construction. All of these are important to the church....one important gift that often gets overlooked, but is just as important is the person that is at encouraging others. This is most certainly a gift, as not all people are not good at it.

I want to to read to you an excerpt from a paper I recently read. The author is talking about the problem with how the church has divided the church into 2 spheres…the professional clergy and the layman. The author asserts that the Church has become more concerned with what they can get out of the church, rather than what they can give to the church. The title of the paper is “The Stewardship of Talents.”

What obvious truth causes the saints to squirm? Simply this: the church exists for mission. The church lives by mission as fire exists by oxygen. The church does not exist for itself. This collides head-on with the self-indulgent ego-driven psycho-babble mentality that dominates evangelicalism. Look at the best-selling Christian books, listen to the television evangelist, talk to the average parishioner; the common thread is preoccupation with felt needs … the preoccupation and prioritizing of felt needs over Christ-commanded activity must stop.

While the authors words are a bit pointed, his point is very much true. The church is not here as a bless me club or a Christian social club, where our main concern is “how will this affect me.” The stewarding of our talents is necessary for the church to achieve its mission. The church was not designed for one or two people to do everything, while everyone else sits back and waits for the next service. We must remember where our gifts come from in the first place…we must remember that we are merely stewards of the talents the Lord has blessed us with.

Let’s go ahead and look at the third and final principle for today:

3. Stewarding our Treasure According to God’s Plan and Will For Our Lives:

I suppose I should first define what I mean by treasure. If we were living back in Ancient Israel, your treasure might be some land (if you are wealthy), some livestock…but even back then, when physical money was less important than trade-able goods and services, the people in the early church would see these things, in order to give to the church. It doesn’t do the church any good to receive a goat, other than to sell it. Both back then and today, our treasure is that which holds monetary value. So, our treasure is not just the money in the bank…although that is a big part of it. Let’s take a look at an interaction between Jesus and a wealthy young man:

Matthew 19:16–22 “Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself. “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?” “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.”

This story is also found in the book of Mark, who records Jesus’ response a bit differently:

Mark 10:21 “Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.””

Let’s take a look at this story for a couple of minutes. Here comes this young man, who by all accounts, at least outwardly did everything that he was supposed to do…notice that Jesus didn’t say to him…wait a second, you often disrespect your parents. Even if the young man did not perfectly keep all of the commands Jesus mentioned…Jesus did not challenge him on those things. So, if were are to accept this young man for what he claims, he is quite remarkable…faithful and kind towards others.

Mark says that while Jesus was looking at him, he loved him…telling the young man that he only lacks one single thing, in order to be perfect.

Jesus’s statement to this young man is very telling. It’s almost that Jesus is simply going along with this young man to humor him....

It sounds like this young man actually believed in his own goodness…what I mean, is that the young man really thought that he was righteous in all of the areas Jesus mentioned.

Of course, Jesus knows better, we know that Jesus is not really telling this young man that he can become perfect....there is no such thing and besides that…it turns out that the young man, despite his claims of being so good and faithful, was in fact, a slave to idolatry. After all, Idolatry is simply the act of worshiping something other than our savior. Whatever is the object of our worship will take the number 1 place in our life. For this young man, the reason that Jesus told him to sell everything is because this man worshiped his wealth and possessions…and when called upon to give them up. the object of his worship won out over the call to sacrifice. Flash backward thousands of years, and Abraham found himself in a very similar situation.

Genesis Chapter 22

God had promised Abraham that He would be the father of many nations…that one day Abraham’s descendents would number like the stars in the sky. There was a problem though…Abraham and his wife had no Children. Long story short, God enabled Sari, Abraham’s wife to get pregnant and in their old age, They had a son and named him Issac. Issac was the key to all of the promises that God had given Abraham. Years before, God had declared Abraham righteous…not because Abraham followed some strict law…but because of Abraham’s faith. God favored Abraham greatly....even so, God wanted to ensure that Abraham’s object of worship would not become Isaac…the child through whom Abraham would become the father of Israel. So, God called on Abraham to sacrifice this precious, promised child. Unlike the rich young ruler, who walked away, Abraham showed that the object of his worship was still Yahweh…Abraham worshiped the creator, not the creation.

Being a good steward of our treasure means that we do not become confused over the object of our worship. When we worship our wealth and possessions, we are engaged in idolatry, no different than this rich young ruler. In fact, as I was writing this sermon, I wondered to myself…if I was standing before Jesus and he told me to sell everything I owned, would I act like this rich young ruler or would I act like Abraham, and gladly sacrifice that which is precious and is valuable to me?

I do not present this story to bring guilt or condemnation…throughout the gospels, Jesus only asked this of 1 individual, out of countless interactions. This story is presented so we can take stock of what we worship, not because God is commanding us to go and sell everything we have. It is meant to be a wake-up call and a reminder that our treasure can quickly become the object of worship....an object that we are unwilling to sacrifice, even small sacrifices can be difficult when our treasure becomes the object of our worship.

Being a good steward of our treasure means that we are using it to serve others and to help grow the Kingdom…it means that we recognise that our treasure belongs to the Lord and we are merely stewards of our treasure. Let me give you 3 important principles behind being a good steward of our treasure. We will not spend a ton of time on these, but I want to go through them.

Recognize God’s Ownership

Psalm 24:1 “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;”

This is something that is true for every area of stewardship…including our time and talent. The foundation of financial stewardship is acknowledging that all we have belongs to God. By recognizing God’s ownership, we can develop an attitude of gratitude and responsibility for the resources entrusted to us. This perspective helps us to prioritize our financial decisions according to God’s will and purposes.

Live Within Your Means

Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.”

The Bible encourages us to be content with what we have and avoid the pitfalls of materialism. Living within our means involves establishing a budget, limiting debt, and making responsible choices based on our current financial situation. I realize how difficult this can be today. Living within our means can be a challenge…being content can be a challenge, that is for sure. When we fail to live within our means, it affects other areas of principles of financial Stewardship, and it affects the proper stewarding of our time. I’ll explain what I mean in a moment. For now, let’s look at the third principle of good financial stewardship.

Give Generously

Proverbs 11:24–26 “One person gives freely, yet gains more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor. A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water. People will curse anyone who hoards grain, but a blessing will come to the one who sells it.”

The Bible teaches us to be generous givers, in fact, it teaches us to be sacrificial givers. Giving generously to support the work of the church, assist those in need, and advance God’s kingdom is an essential aspect of financial stewardship. By contributing our resources with a cheerful and sacrificial heart, we demonstrate our trust in God’s provision and cultivate a spirit of generosity. Similar to living within our means, being generous with your treasure can be very, very difficult for some people. I could tell you stories from my own life where the Lord has blessed Laura and I....he has blessed us with things that money can never buy…a healthy marriage, a son who wholeheartedly seeks after the Lord, a daughter in law who wholeheartedly seeks after the Lord. I’m not suggesting that we give to get…because the Lord knows our hearts. If we give to get something in return, the only thing we will ever receive is a tax deduction.

There is a principle that my grandparents followed, as did my parents, as do Laura and I…and Sam and Abby are continuing it. It is the principle of the tithe. The principle comes from the O.T., when the Israelites were instructed to give of their treasure, in order to support the temple. Jesus actually recognizes the tithing principle in the N.T.

Matthew 23:23 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.”

In this passage, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that simply giving their tithe means nothing…if they do not properly Love God and Love their neighbor…He tell them that their focus should be on Loving God and loving their neighbor, while not neglecting their tithe to the temple. I do not see the evidence that the N.T. authors specifically teach tithing…which is giving 10 of whatever you make, back to the Lord. I’ve got some bad news though for those who like to plunge their flag in the ground in this area, claiming that the N.T. does not teach tithing....I agree…it actually teaches something much more radical and generous than tithing. The N.T. teaches the principle of sacrificial giving.

The reason that I teach the tithing principle is because it is merely a goal…not because it is a command. If a person wants to argue that they “don’t have to tithe because the N.T. doesn’t teach it,” then that person has a very immature understanding of N.T. generosity.

The most common reason I hear from people for not giving is that all of their money is tied up with bills and debt. This goes back to the idea of living within our means. When we fail to live within our means, it affects our ability to be consistently generous with our treasure and our time. It affects our time because we feel that we always have to be working to earn more money, in order to keep up with the bills. My suggestion to people in this situation is to 1. Get some financial counseling…be prepared to make some tough choices

2. Start giving small amounts, but do so consistently…start with 1 or 2 percent and you might be surprised how God works in your life.

Think back for a second at the rich young ruler…he approaches Jesus, and in his view, had lived a very moral and righteous life. He treated others well, he did everything he was supposed to do…at least that is what he thought…remember what Jesus said to him....that He lacks one thing....the problem was…that one thing he lacked, despite all of his good choices and supposed righteousness, the thing missing was the ability to put God above his treasure. He could not walk away from it, he couldn’t let it go. This man worshiped at the altar of his treasure.

I think we can all be this young man sometimes, or at least, I know I can.

Let’s finish up this morning by comparing the heart of this wealthy young man verses a story from the book of Luke

Luke 21:1–4 “He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.””

This story is just one example of why I say that the N.T. teaching on the stewarding of our treasure goes way beyond the O.T. principle of tithe. People read this story and get the meaning of it completely wrong…despite the fact that Jesus explains the moral of the story quite clearly. The wealthy people were putting in their offerings…nothing wrong with that. Jesus does not say that they shouldn’t do that. What Jesus points out is that this poor woman drops her 2 mites…which is less than 1 modern penny…it’s about 1/10 of 1 penny…but, because that is all the woman had, those 2 mites were worth more than what the rich people put it…it was worth more, because the woman gave out of her need, rather than her surplus. This is the core principle of stewardship…whether it be our time, our talent or our treasure. Proper stewarding means that God doesn’t simply get our leftovers. Well, if I have time this week, I’ll go to church. If I have time, then I might pray for a bit or read my bible. Well, if there is a little bit of money left over, maybe I’ll give it to the church. Proper stewarding of our time, talent and treasure means that Loving God and loving our neighbor is our top priority, rather than giving God the leftovers.

Listen, I realize that talking about stewardship can lead to some pretty strong feelings. Some people will sit there and get angry, while others will sit there and feel guilt and condemnation. Both extremes are not from the Lord. Life any area of our life, if is imperative that we open our hearts to the Lord and allow him to do the work.

Every week I will get up here and preach about various topics and stories from scripture. Every single of of them teaches important principle for our lives. If we were to line up the most important topics, in both the O.T. and N.T., outside of the major salvation issues, like Christ death and resurrection, the principle of stewardship is pretty much number 1. The story of the rich young ruler is a great example of this. If you need help with stewardship is certain areas of your life, that is why I’m here. Reach out to myself and Laura and we will work with you.

PRAY.