The Good Steward Gives

Introduction

Good morning Church! I hope each of you are doing well this morning!

Today we will looking at the final message in our series “The Good Steward.”

Over the last couple weeks we have looked at a message entitled “The Good Steward Grows” where we looked at how if we are to be Good Stewards of God then we need to be growing in our walk with God.

We are to study to show ourselves approved unto God as workmen that needeth not be ashamed! We are to desire the sincere milk of the Word and grow in the grace and knowledge of God!

If we want to be Good Stewards of the manifold grace of God then we are to Grow!

Then, last week we looked at how not only is the Good Steward supposed to grow but The Good Steward is supposed to Go!

Once we grow in the grace and knowledge of God, then we are to take that same grace and knowledge and share it with all those we come in contact with!

Jesus said we are to take His gospel to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth! We are to take the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere we go!

To those in our inner circle…i.e. family, friends, co-workers. To those in our outer circles…i.e. acquaintances, people we run into at Walmart. And not only are we to share the gospel with those in our inner and outer circles but we are to share the gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth!

You say, “preacher I’m just little ole me. How in the world am I supposed to reach people at the uttermost ends of earth?”

Well you’re supposed to go there, didn’t you know? :)

I’m just kidding! But you could though if you felt led to! In all reality though, you can and should use every avenue available to you to reach these people.

Do you have Facebook or some other social media outlet? Then use it to share Jesus!

Do you support the different mission offerings we do each year?

Golden State Offering — Local TN missions

Annie Armstrong Offering — North American Missions

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — International Missions

If not, you should! Just by giving to these 3 alone you are fulfilling 3 out of 4 parts of the great commission!

By giving to the Golden State Offering, you are essentially helping to take the gospel out to Judea.

By giving to the Annie Armstrong Offering, you are essentially helping to take the gospel out to Samaria.

And by giving to the Lottie Moon Offering, you are essentially helping to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth!

Now, if you do give to these 3, that’s awesome! Then you just need to take the gospel out to those in Jerusalem which would be here locally!

As Good Stewards of God, we are to Grow, we are to Go and we are to Give which brings us to our final message here today.

Do you see the progression here!

You see, when we begin to Grow in God, we begin to Go for God and as we will see here today, when we begin to Grow in God we will have a desire to Give to God in order to help further the kingdom of God because we have come to understand the great price that God gave for us!

God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish!

He gave the very best He had and we in turn, should want to give Him the very best we have!

Tony Evans — When you invest your time, talents and treasures in the eternal, your investments have a divine return!

Being in the banking business I can tell you right now it’s hard, in the times in which we are living, to get any decent return on your investments especially from traditional bank products.

But friend, when you invest yourself in God, the returns will be immeasurable!

So, if you have your Bible’s with you this morning, turn with me to the Book of Matthew Chapter 25 and we will be looking at verses 14-30 at the Good Steward Gives.

We are to be Good Stewards of Our Time

The first thing I want to talk to you about this morning is the fact that we are to be Good Stewards of Our Time.

We find ourselves here in the final week of Jesus life. He has been teaching in the temple the majority of the day and now Jesus and His disciples have made their way back to the Mount of Olives where they will spend the night.

Little did the disciples know that now it was their turn to learn some things.

As they sat there on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem and the temple mount the disciples begin to think back to something Jesus said to them earlier as they left the city.

As they were leaving the temple, the disciples were talking of how big and beautiful the buildings of the temple were and Jesus makes this statement...

“See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”

This peaked the disciples interest but they didn’t ask Him concerning this revelation right away.

But now they’ve made the journey to the top of the Mount of Olives and His words have settled in their hearts and sparked their interest!

So as they sit here overlooking the city and the temple mount finally they can’t hold it in any longer and ask Jesus when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world?

Jesus had been waiting for them to ask and now gets the opportunity to lay it all out for them. Over the next two chapters, Jesu teaches His disciples what all should come to pass before end would be fulfilled.

And the parable before us this morning is one of 2 that Jesus uses here to describe what we, His disciples, are to be doing while He’s gone!

First, He uses the parable of the 10 virgins. Five were wise and took oil with them to light their lamps as they waited for the bridegrooms coming and five were foolish and didn’t bring any oil.

The bridegroom came at the midnight when they were all fast asleep but a cry was made and they all awoke to see him. The wise lit their lamps as the bridegroom came but the foolish had no oil so they had to try and run to the market and get some.

As they were gone the bridegroom came and took the five wise virgins with him into the marriage and shut the door. When the five foolish virgins returned they begged the bridegroom to let them in but he said I know you not and denied their entrance.

Jesus gave this parable to show how we better be ready for His return at all times! And when I say ready, I mean you better be saved!

The oil was representative of the Holy Spirit living within. The five wise virgins had accepted Jesus as Lord and the Holy Spirit lived within and the were saved!

The five foolish virgins didn’t have the Holy Spirit of God within meaning they weren’t saved, they weren’t prepared and when the bridegroom came they were left behind!

And friend I’m here to tell you today, over 2,000 years later this same parable is still as relevant as it’s ever been!

When the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes you better be ready! You better be saved because if you’re not, you too will be left behind !

We are to be Good Stewards of our time and part of that means being ready, waiting and watching for His return!

Look with me if you will at verse 19 at what our parable says about time.

The Bible says here, “after a long time the Lord of those servants cometh.”

Listen friend, Jesus has went home for a little while but He’s coming back! It could be 6 months from now, or a year from now, or 500 or 5,000 years from now but He could also come in the next 5 minutes! Amen!

The Bible doesn’t record that He might come back but that He will come back!

Well preacher people have been saying this same thing now for over 2,000 years and He still hasn’t come!

Here’s what I have to say about that...2 Peter 3:9 — The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise! He’s coming back friend and that’s a guarantee but only He himself knows when that time shall be!

Jesus said, neither He nor even the angels in heaven know when that time will be but only that it will be!

Who knows, maybe He’s waiting on you to tell that lost person that’s been on your heart for a while now about Him so that person will get saved! What if that one act is all that’s keeping Him from returning!

That would be something wouldn’t it!

That’s why while the Lord tarries we are to be Good Stewards of Our Time!

Ephesians 5:15-17 — 15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

“Walk circumspectly” — “diligently, carefully”

“Redeeming the time” — (Greek exagorazō) — "buying up the opportunity" speaks of making the most of every opportunity!

Are you making the most of every opportunity God gives you? Are you redeeming the time?

We need to take the advice of the Psalmist who said...

Psalm 90:12 — “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Paul said to the Colossians in...

Colossians 4:5 — Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

Listen Church, Jesus told His disciples in...

John 9:4 — I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

There’s coming a day when we will be called out of this place and we won’t be able to work either!

Therefore, we need to take advantage of the time we have!

We need to go unto the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in! For as Paul said to the Romans...

Romans 13:11 — “knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

With each passing day we are getting closer to that roll being called up yonder!

Galatians 6:9 — “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

If we are to be Good Stewards of God, then we need to be Good Stewards of Our Time!

Are you being a Good Steward of Your Time?

Not only are we to be Good Stewards of Our Time, but we are to also be Good Stewards of Our Talents!

We are to be Good Stewards of our Talents

Someone listening to Dwight L. Moody one time was most critical of his grammar and reprimanded him for it.

Mr. Moody replied, “My dear fellow I wish my grammar were better. I wish I had a better education, but I am using all the grammar I have for the glory of God. Are you doing as much with yours?”

What are you doing with the gift God has given you!

Look at this parable with me really quick. The Bible says the Lord gave unto one of his servants 5 talents, to one 2 talents and to one 1 talent, right?

Then it says something very, very important right here that so many people miss! The Bible then says, “to every man according to his several ability!”

The word “several” used here is the Greek word (idios) and it means “ones own” or “unique”.

The Master knew his servants as well as he knew himself! He knew their abilities, their capabilities, their inabilities, what they could and could not do and he separated to each according to what they could handle and had faith in each that they would do the best they could with what they had been given!

Now I want you to let that sink in for a second!

The Master, our Father in Heaven, the one who created each of us knows what we can do!

He knows each of our abilities and capabilities! He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He knows our limits; what we can and cannot do because He created us, right?

And therefore, he has entrusted each of us with gifts. Some more, some less depending on those abilities and capabilities and expects us to take those gifts and put them to use for His honor and His glory. For the furtherance of His kingdom!

And some of us this morning are like the first two stewards. They took what their master had entrusted them with and put it to use and when their master returned he was happy with them for gaining him more!

Some of us are taking what God has entrusted to us and putting it to work for the furtherance of the kingdom of God and God is happy with our progress!

But I’d also dare say there are some sitting here this morning like the last steward. He was also entrusted with the same type of gift but less because his master knew his limits.

But instead of taking what the master had given to him and done something, anything with it to help further his kingdom, he feared losing it and what the masters reaction might be, so he took his gift and buried in the ground and did nothing with it!

Upon the Master’s return he asked what he had done and the stewards reply was basically, “I was scared of you and losing it so I didn’t do anything with it!”

The ironic part of the story is though he ended up losing it anyway because his Master was angry with him for not doing anything with the gift he had been given and he lost it anyway!

Some of you sitting here this morning are like this steward. You have been given gifts, special gifts, unique to you, for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God but instead of putting them to work to try and gain the more for your Lord, you have hidden them in the fallow ground of your heart!

And I’m here to tell you this morning friend, if you don’t change that, if you don’t put the special, specific gift He has given you to work before His return, He will take that gift from you and give it to someone else!

What a shame it would be for someone to lose their gift all because they were to afraid to use it!

Going back to the set of verses that we have used this entire series...

1 Peter 4:10-11 — 10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

God has given each of us a gift to use for Him! He hasn’t given me the gift of preaching so that I may be glorified but so that God and His Son Jesus may be glorified!

Some of you have the gift of singing! He hasn’t given you the gift of singing so that you might be glorified but so that He might be glorified!

Whatever your gift may be, it has been given to you so that you in turn will use it to glorify God and Jesus and draw all men unto them!

Are you being a Good Steward of your talents?

We are to be Good Stewards of Our Time! We are to be Good Stewards of Our Talents! And lastly this morning, we are to be Good Stewards of Our Treasures!

We are to be Good Stewards of our Treasures

As I began to think about the treasures that God has entrusted to us I came up with three categories that I feel our treasures fall into.

Finances, Fortunes and Family.

First off I want us to look at how we are to be Good Stewards of Our Finances.

A. Finances

A little girl was given two dollars by her father. He told her that she could do anything she wanted with one and that the other was to be given to God on Sunday at church. The girl nodded in agreement and asked if she could go to the candy store.

With visions of all that she could buy with her dollar, she happily skipped toward the store, holding tightly to the two dollars in her hand.

As she was skipping along, she tripped and fell and the wind blew one of the dollars into a storm drain at the curb.

Picking herself up, the little girl looked at the dollar still in her hand and then at the storm drain and said, “Well, Lord, there goes your dollar.”

As cute a little story as this may be, it’s a perfect illustration as to how many Christians treat God with their finances.

We have this me first, then God mentality!

When the reality is, if it weren’t for God we wouldn’t have any money to begin with!

God allows us to wake up in the morning to go to work. God gives us the health to go to work. God gives us the ability to do the job at hand. God gives us the means by which we make it to work!

If it weren’t for God allowing it, you wouldn’t be able to work to make the money you make and we need to remember that the next time we go to put God second and ourselves first when it comes to our finances!

I heard a story about this fellow who came to his pastor for counseling. He was under conviction because he’d not been faithful in giving God a portion of his generous thousand-dollar weekly salary.

The man explained, “I had no problem thanking God and giving him a liberal offering when I was making just two hundred and fifty dollars a week but now that I’m making even more I’m struggling. Please pray for me Pastor.”

The pastor then bowed his head in prayer and said, “Father, please bring this man back to a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar salary so that he can get back in your will!”

Boy, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to see that fellow’s reaction when his Pastor prayed that wouldn’t you?

But seriously, we’d better give according to our income, lest God make our income according to our giving.

Malachi 3:10 — Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be meat in mine house, And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, If I will not open you the windows of heaven, And pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

God says if you give me what’s rightfully mine you will never go without! He actually says here that He will bless us with more than we can even handle!

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again...You can’t out give God.

A well-known philanthropist was once asked, “How is it that you give away so much, and yet have so much left.”

He said, “I suppose it’s like this, I shovel out, and God shovels in, and he has a bigger shovel than I do!”

2 Corinthians 9:7 — Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:6 — But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

How have you been sowing this morning? Are you being a Good Steward of God’s Finances?

We are to be Good Stewards of God’s Finances and we are also supposed to be Good Stewards of God’s Fortunes.

B. Fortunes

Now, when I began to put all this down on paper and the Holy Spirit was moving on my mind, my thought of Finances was immediate money or income made as a result of work.

Finances were for daily, weekly, monthly expenditures.

But when I thought of Fortunes my mind went to what we leave behind!

You see, if God has blessed you with more than you could ever use, then wouldn’t it only make sense to leave a portion of it behind for the furtherance of His Kingdom once your gone?

So many times in the banking business I see people who leave great sums of money to their children and often times they end up blowing it within the first few years!

What a sad thought to think that God has blessed you with more than you could ever use and then upon your passing, it gets blown on something ungodly like drugs, alcohol or some other devilish thing!

Most people when it comes to what they leave behind only think of what their going to leave to their children but I believe if we are going to be Good Stewards of God then we need to think very seriously about the Fortunes we leave behind!

Proverbs 13:22a — “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children.”

What a wonderful thought to know that something God has blessed you with was left behind to help others later on down the road come to know him!

Our walk as Christians isn’t only about what we do while we’re here but the legacy we leave behind once we’re gone!

Are you being a Good Steward of the Fortunes that God has given you?

C. Families

And the final treasure I want us to look at this morning is our Families. If we are going to be Good Stewards of God then we need to be Good Stewards of Our Families.

The Bible tells us in...

Proverbs 22:6 — Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I’d like to think that to the majority of us here, our children are the greatest treasure that God has entrusted us with.

And the Bible tells us here that we are to train them up in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.

When it says here “the way” it’s speaking of “His way, God’s way”.

You see, you can train a child to play baseball, basketball, football, or piano; you can train them to be gymnasts, or dancers, or singers or even to be an auctioneer but none of these things will have a lasting effect on their eternal well being.

If we care anything at all about where the greatest treasure God has given us spends eternity then we must teach them about the ways of God.

And not only our children but our siblings, our mothers, our fathers, our grandmothers and grandfathers, our grandchildren, our aunts, uncles and cousins!

These are all treasures that God has entrusted us with and it’s our job to to teach them about the ways of God, train them up in His word, and be examples and lights for them to follow!

Being a Good Steward of God means not only leading others to Christ but we need to make sure we’re leading our own to Christ as well.

We are to be Good Stewards of Our Time. We are to be Good Stewards of Our Talents. And We are to be Good Stewards of the Treasures God entrusts to us as well!

The Good Steward Grows. The Good Steward Goes. And the Good Steward Gives.

Are you being a Good Steward of the manifold Grace of God?