Stewardship: Redeeming Our Experiences

Review

Christ is superior to all of creation.

Christ is the first born of creation (preeminent) and is therefore the perfect image of God

Christ is Creator, and as Creator, He owns everything.

People were created in the image of God, but that image was marred through sin.

Part of what was lost through the Fall was our ability to exercise the dominion that God has given us over the creation.

Through redemption, the image of God is being restored to people, and part of that restoration is our ability to exercise dominion over creation for the glory of God.

As we glorify God through exercising dominion, we image God to the world. This is stewardship.

Definitions

Stewardship is the exercising of our God-given dominion over His creation, which reflects the image of our Creator to His creation.

A steward is someone who responds to the grace of God by managing what God has given for the glory of God.

Everyday Stewardship

Experiences

While there are many ways we can think of our lives

Gifts from God

Measured in time

Comprised of various relationships with others

The parts of the whole that are our lives are our experiences. Every day we have experiences. Some familiar, some unexpected, some we anticipate and look forward to and some we anticipate and dread. Our experiences are our lives in many ways.

Something I noticed about myself as I thought of my life from this vantage point, and because this is true of me, I assume it is true of at least some of you, is that I often take my experiences for granted. When something pleasant happens like learning that a repair that was needed on my car did not end up being as expensive as anticipated, I can respond with saying good. Or when something unpleasant happens like receiving an unexpected bill in the mail, I can respond with complaint.

We understand why we do this, or at least we are familiar with these kinds of responses, but the question I have been asking myself over the past few weeks is what does it look like for me to exercise faithful stewardship of my experiences?

Ambition & Big Plans

James 4:13-17.

James 4:13–17 ESV

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

The thing about planning

James is addressing a problem.

Is it that people are making plans?

Is it that people are making plans without knowing if tomorrow will permit those plans from coming to fruition?

James’ rebuke is issued to them for their worldly self-confidence. Apparently the way they were pursuing their goals displayed a disregard for their dependence on God. The people presumed to have an ability to determine the course of future events.

The thing about life

Something else we should note is the lesson we have from verse 14:

James 4:14 ESV

14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

We are finite, and one way we know this is our inability to know what will happen the next minute, let alone the next day.

Life is transitory, that is, life in this world is not permanent, therefore as we experience our experiences (steward our experiences), we must remember this world is not our final destination. Pursuing God’s glory in our experiences is how we show we value the eternal over the temporary.

The thing about planning, life and stewardship

James 4:16–17 ESV

16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So, here the offense is names clearly: boasting. And this, James says, is evil.

The exhortation here is that we take the Lord into consideration in all our planning. So, we know what we are to do. We know how we are to handle our lives in a general sense. The Lord must be considered. We must be concerned about what the Lord’s will is in any given experience. This clear, and because it is clear:

James 4:17 ESV

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So, what do we know about life that will help us faithfully steward our experiences?

We are never in a position of self-sufficiency.

We should plan, and have ambition to execute those plans, but our efforts must reflect our dependence on and submission to God.

While we are made in the image of God, we are also finite.

To steward our experiences in light of eternity, we must pursue God’s glory in all of them.

So our everyday stewardship is shaped by how we understand the nature of our lives. But as we strive to faithfully steward our experiences, we need to employ wisdom in our daily experiences. Paul brings our need for wisdom and living day to day in Eph. 5.

Everyday Wisdom

Our Conduct

Eph. 5:15-17.

Ephesians 5:15–17 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

The command in verse 15 is to look carefully how we walk. In other words, we need to assess our conduct.

Our conduct must be shaped by wisdom.

Ephesians 1:16–17 ESV

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

Description of Wise Conduct

Ephesians 5:16 ESV

16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

making the best use of our time describes walking wise.

This is talking about making the right use of time.

Some translations say, redeeming the time, and that’s because the word here can mean that. For example:

Galatians 3:13 ESV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Galatians 4:5 ESV

5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Here’s how Calvin describes the idea here:

Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians (Chapter 5)

To withdraw from the endless variety of allurements which would easily lead us astray; to rid ourselves from the cares and pleasures of the world; and, in a word, to abandon every hinderance.

Time

chronos, which is a word used to describe space and time, but this is not the word Paul uses in verse 16.

Instead, he uses kairos, which goes beyond the hours and minutes in a day, and refers to the God-given opportunities we have every day. This is a reference to God’s divine program. This is especially clear in the first chapter:

Ephesians 1:9–10 ESV

9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

So, in my mind this sheds new light on our experiences. They are God-given, and in order for us to faithfully steward them, we must strive to walk wise which means we will make the best use of our time.

So, an operative question that we should ask ourselves regularly is how can I make the best use of this experience?

But the second half of verse 16 helps to fill this out more

Ephesians 5:16 ESV

16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Wise conduct in the midst of the unwise

I think we all agree that we in an evil age. It is one that is under the control of the Evil One.

So, in order to live as wise and not unwise, we must navigate this evil age which calls for us to waste our experiences in the name of our own agendas or self-imposed limitations (I can’t handle this anymore, I deserve better etc.), but also in light of the fact that there is an age to come that will, for the children of God, relieve the burdens of this burdened age.

Wise Conduct seeks the will of God

Ephesians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Another operative question that we should ask as we strive to steward our experiences: what’s is God’s will?

Not always obvious, but often it is.

So all our experiences are God-given, and we are called to make the best use of those experiences.

Our Experiences

Pleasant

Psalm 150:1–2 ESV

1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Unpleasant

James 1:2–4 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Mundane

Psalm 8 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!