God's Plan for Man

Stewardship is the most misunderstood word in the English language. If you were to ask most people in the church what stewardship means they'd say Money or Tithing or Giving.

But stewardship is not a financial program of the church.

Some may be wondering why I am beginning a series of messages related to stewardship? For one reason it's the second greatest theme in the Bible. It is taught all the way through -- from Genesis all the way through Revelation. Jesus talked more about stewardship than He did about heaven or hell or prayer or a lot of other things. Over half of His parables is about stewardship. In fact, one out of every six verses in the gospels have to do with stewardship.

Today, I want to answer the question, “what is stewardship?” I have entitled today’s message God's Plan For Man. My hope is that some of you are going to see stewardship in a way you've never, ever seen it before. Relax. I'm not going to talk about money. I'm going to talk about God's Plan For Man.

What is the meaning of stewardship anyway? Webster's dictionary defines it like this: "Stewardship is the responsibility of managing some assets or affairs or property of someone else's." Stewardship is managing something that isn't your own. The key word in that definition is the word "management". The word "steward" means "manager". It's the old English word for manager. If you've ever been a manager in a business position or in your career -- you're in a managerial staff position -- you're a steward. Your work involves stewardship. Stewardship is management.

To understand stewardship we have to go back to the very beginning of time. Genesis 1:1. Understanding stewardship starts at the very beginning of time. There are tremendous blessings and benefits when you understand stewardship. In fact, stewardship is the key to understanding the Christian life. If you don't understand stewardship you don't understand the Christian life. If you don't understand stewardship you don't understand why you were put on earth. You don't understand why God made man.

Let's go back and look at the creation story. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." The first principle of stewardship is this: God owns everything. We sing, "This is My Father's World." God owns everything. He owns the mountains. He owns the trees on the mountains. He owns the apples on the trees. He owns the juice in the apples. He owns every plant, every rock, every animal, every person, every thing. God owns everything.

The Bible says, "The heavens declare His glory... The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Why does He have a claim to everything? One, He created it -- He made it -- so He owns it. But more than that, He sustains it. The Bible tells us in Colossians that God holds everything together. He keeps the planets in line. God owns it because He made it and He sustains it.

That's the fact. God owns everything. He owns you. He owns me. He owns this land. He owns everything because He made it. He owns the raw materials that made this building.

But just because God owns everything doesn't mean that it's being used the way He intended for it to be used. Obviously, a lot of things aren't being used the way He wanted them to be used.

My question this morning is, Why did God make man? Why are you here? Why am I here? Why was man created?

The creation account: v. 25 God had created on five of the days and at the end of the fifth day God looked out over everything He had made -- He'd made the earth, the heavens, the sky, the animals, the plants, everything -- v. 25, the last statement, it says "God saw that it was good." Compare verse 25 -- God looked at the world and said it's good -- to verse 31 where God saw all that He had made at the end of the sixth day and He said it was "very good". On the fifth day God looks at the world and says, "It's good." And maybe God said, “Good ain’t good enough.” But on the sixth day, He looks at the end of creation and He says, "It's very good." What happened between verse 25 and verse 31?

Man was created. God looked at the earth and said, "I did a good job on this but there's something lacking." And he made man. And man made the difference.

Why did God make man? Man was made differently from the animals in two different ways.

1. Different in character. It said God made man "... in our own image." God said, "I'm going to make man like Myself. In My own image, after My own likeness." So we're like God in His character. Are we perfect? No. But, for instance, we have the creative ability to make things. God is a creator. He made us to be creative. So we're like God. So we're like God in character.

2. Different in our job description. v. 28 "God blessed them and said to them [talking to man and woman] `Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every creature that moves on the ground." 2:15 continues. The Lord God took man -- after He made him, He put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.

Why did God make man? What's his purpose? The Bible says that God made man to be the caretaker of the world, to be the manager, to be the steward of all the resources of all that God had created.

Notice 1:28 God said, "Here's what I want you to do." First, He said "... be fruitful and increase." Up to that point we're no different than the animals. He had told the same thing to the fish and the birds. He had said, "... be fruitful and multiply."That's the only command man's ever been able to keep. Obviously we've kept that one. Now get this. If reproduction is the only purpose of man then we surely are no different from brute animals.

But then God says, "I'm making man a little different. Not only do I want him to be fruitful and multiply, but I want him to do five things." He spells it out: Fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it, (2:15) work it, take care of it. All of those five things God expects of man. Those five things become man’s job description. That can be summed up in one word -- management. God created man to be the managers of His creation. That's the second principle.

Principle number one: God owns it all. Principle number two: You and I were made to manage what God owns.

So, man was made, at least in part, to manage the resources that God put on the earth, to rule over things, to subdue it. God's very first command was stewardship. At the very beginning -- management. He wants us to manage the earth. We're responsible for using it wisely. In a sense, God made man His junior partner. He said, "I've created the world. Here's the raw materials and resources. Now go out and make something of it. You're the manager. I'm the owner but you're the manager. You're the caretaker. You're the steward. You're My junior partner because you're made in My image." That's why God made man.

Man's basic problem still today is we forget what we were created for. We forget our purpose. Man goes out and manages what God has given and created and pretty soon man starts thinking he owns it. But he's just managing it. We try to trade places with God. We start acting like the owners, as if we created the world. We start using words like my and I and mine... my life, my plans, my possessions, my time. Who gave all that to you? God did. God said, "I'm putting you on this earth and you get to use the world and you get to manage the world and you get to enjoy it all. But never forget: I own it. I made it and I keep it going."

We get to use it and we get to manage it and we get to enjoy all of life's resources but God owns it. That's stewardship.

Notice in v. 28 where God said, "I want you to rule over everything." In the King James it says, "I want you to have dominion over the fish and the birds and everything that moves." God intended originally at creation for man to rule over things. But what happened? We got it all mixed up and reversed it. Now things rule over us. We're possessed by possessions. God says, "It's foolish to make your number one goal in life simply the acquisition of things. I'm just loaning them to you for a short time anyway. You're going to be here 60, 70, 80, 90 years. I'll loan them to you. You can manage them. You can use them. You can enjoy them. But then you're going to die and you're going to come into eternity and I'm just going to loan them to somebody else." You don't own anything, really. They're on loan. After we die, God passes them on to somebody else.

People say, "You can't take it with you." That's true. Why? Because it's just loaned to us. God owns everything. But as I said, that doesn't mean He has control of it all, that it's all being used the way He wants it to be used, but He owns it.

The Bible teaches that God has delegated some authority to us. He made us in His image and He's put us on earth and He says "Now make the most of what I've given you." Make the most of your life. Make the most of your time. Make the most of your wealth. Make the most of your talents. Make the most of everything that God has blessed you with. God says, "I provide the raw materials. And I've given you the ability to create, you are creative. Now do something." God provides the forest and man takes the forest and turns it into homes, and objects, and all kinds of things. Because he's creative. He's God's manager on the earth.

Stewardship, when you get down to it, is simply partnership with God. That's all it is. It's why God put you on the earth - to do these five things. I Corinthians 3:9 says "We are laborers together with God." We work with God. We're partners with Him.

If you ever get that concept in your heart and really grasp it, it will revolutionize your life. When you understand that God made it all and He put me here to be the manager of it.

What are the benefits? There are two benefits of being a wise steward. There are immediate benefits to my life and there are future benefits to my life.

Immediate benefits of being a wise steward, or being a good manager of all that God has blessed me with:

· Your happiness will be in proportion to your faithfulness in the stewardship of all the things that God has given you.

The better steward you are the greater your happiness. How? If God has given you, for instance, a talent and you don't make the most of it, you don't use it, you'll be unfulfilled in life. Because you didn't use the talent He gave you. If God has given you wealth and you misuse it, spend it in the wrong way, you will be under tension and pressure and anxiety and worry. If God has given you every day of your life, and you don't manage your time wisely, you waste it, you'll be under pressure, you'll feel defeated, you'll feel like a failure. Every time we mismanage what God has intrusted to our care, it produces negative results.

· On the positive side: When we are wise managers, God gives us things to manage.

And at the same time we're managing it, we get to enjoy it. We get to use it. God gets tremendous pleasure watching us, the managers of the earth enjoy the very things that He created. He made them, we manage them, and we enjoy them. God gets pleasure watching us.

· Not only that, the Bible teaches that the more faithful we are in managing the things that God has blessed us with, the more He trusts to us.

The greater we are found faithful, being wise managers and wise stewards of all of life, the more He can trust us with. And the more we're blessed with because He says, "You've been faithful in a few things; I'll make you faithful in more." So there are immediate benefits to stewardship in my life.

There are also some future benefits. The Bible teaches that our rewards in eternity will be based on how we managed what God trusted us with here on earth. If you're faithful in a few things, God says you'll be faithful in more in eternity. In a sense, our lives right now are kind of a trial run for greater rewards, greater responsibility. God looks at us and says, "You've been faithful with what you did on earth. You were faithful with your life, your time, your talents, your finances, every area of your life. So I'm going to trust you with even more now." Our stewardship on earth is really just a preparation for greater partnership with God.

The Bible says in Romans 14:12 "One day every one of us will give an account before God of our stewardship" -- our management, how we handle all of the things that God blessed us with. At that point God will look at us and if we've been faithful and used it wisely, we will be rewarded proportionally.

God made it all. We're the managers. And there are benefits to my life. Permanent benefits in eternity. Temporary benefits in the here and now. God says don't waste your life on things that are only of temporary value. Realize that everything's on loan anyway.

You say, "That sounds good. What am I to be a steward of then? If God made me to be a steward, a manager, to take care of it all, to work it, to rule over it, subdue it, if He made me to do all of these things, what specifically is He talking about?"

Answer: You are to be a steward of absolutely everything God has entrusted to you. Everything! Did God give you this environment to live in? Then stewardship involves ecology, taking care of the earth. Did God give you a physical body? Then stewardship involves physical fitness, nutrition. Did God give you every single day of your life? Then stewardship involves time management. Did God give you your wealth, your material possessions? Then stewardship involves money management, financial planning. Everything. Did God give you a position of authority? Has He allowed you to be in a place of prominence and responsibility? Then God says stewardship involves using your influence for good. Every area. Did God give you salvation? Did God give you a new life in Christ? Then stewardship involves the responsibility of sharing your faith with other people.

What I'm talking about this morning is not a trivial issue. It is the reason that we were created and put on earth, to be managers of everything that God has given to us. It starts from Genesis 1:1 and you find the theme all through the scriptures. Stewardship is the basic principle of life. It's foundational. It's understanding why you're here on earth. It's fulfilling the purpose for which God made you. It involves managing every area of life -- my time, my money, my family, my home, my business, my resources, my friends, every area of my life comes under the concept of stewardship.

So why am I preaching this series of messages on stewardship? Because if you don't grasp this concept, you could end up missing out on all that God has for you.

God intends for His resources to be used. Not wasted, but used. Stewardship involves using it wisely. That's what stewardship is all about.

What about tithing or giving? All tithing is, is a reminder. That's the only reason God gave it. Tithing is a reminder. Tithing means ten, ten percent. When we give back ten percent of our income back to God in gratitude, all that is, is a reminder that all of what we've got came from Him in the first place. It's a reminder. God doesn't own ten percent of my income. He owns it all. He just lets me live on ninety percent of it. The ten percent is a reminder of where it all came from. God is saying, "I just want you to remember and never forget that if it weren't for Me, you wouldn't have anything. You could lose it all overnight."

You say, "It was my ideas that got me where I was today. It was my creativity." Who gave you your mind? God could have made you a vegetable. You could have been a vegetale! "Everything I have in life, I got it because I worked hard! I'm a self made man!" The self made man usually worships his maker. "I did it all!" If it weren't for God, you wouldn't even get out of bed in the morning. If God took His hand of blessing off of your life, you wouldn't even have the health you have to work, you wouldn't have the mind you have to think. Who gave you that creativity? Who gave you that ability to work and to produce and to create? God did! And God just says, "I want you never to forget that I'm the source. I'm the creator. If it weren't for Me, you wouldn't have your job. You wouldn't have your life. I made you. I'm your maker."

I read this week about a church in the south that was growing so fast it ran out of parking space. They went across the street to a super market that was closed on Sundays and made a deal with the owner of the supermarket to use their parking lot. The owner of the supermarket said, "You can use the parking lot 51 Sundays out of the year, but on the 52nd Sunday, I'm going to chain it off." The church people said, "Why? We don't understand. Why would you let us use it 51 times a year and chain it off the 52nd?" He said, "Because I never want you to forget that the parking lot belongs to the grocery store, not the church."

That's what tithing is all about. God says I just don't want you to forget where it's all coming from. That I'm the source of your blessing. I'm the creator." God owns it all. We're managers. We're not the owners. We get to manage it and we get to enjoy it and use it and develop it. But we don't own it. It's God's.

Deuteronomy 8. What I'm talking about is not trivial. It's a basic principle of life. It's why we're here. Deuteronomy 8:17 "You may say to yourself, `My power and the strength of my hand have produced this wealth for me.'..." Doesn't that sound contemporary? "You may say `My power and the strength of my hand have produced this wealth for me' but remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth." God has blessed us so much. We live in the most affluent country in the world. And God has blessed us and He says, "I just don't want you to forget that I'mthe one who gives you the ability. I'm the one who gave you the creative ability and the desire to work and the desire to produce and the desire to invent and to change and develop and manage. That's what I put you here for and I get pleasure out of watching you do a good job of it. But don't forget I'm the owner and you're responsible to Me." Never forget the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Deuteronomy 14:22 is talking about tithing. Tithing is the concept, God says, of giving the first ten percent of all of our profits, all our income back to Him. "Be sure to set aside a tenth of all your field's produce each year." Why? Last part of v. 23 "... so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always." That's the purpose of tithing. Living Bible "The purpose of tithing is to teach us to put God first in every situation." We don't give to help out God. Is God poor? Does God have to depend on my tithing to make it? He's on welfare or something that we have to subsidize Him, help Him out, pay the rent on heaven? God doesn't need our giving. We give for our own benefit. It's a reminder that God's the one who blesses and if it wasn't for Him, we wouldn't have anything. The purpose of tithing is to put God first. It teaches that.

As a child at Christmas time, my parents would take us down to the mall and give us their own money to go out and buy them a Christmas present. We'd buy the present and bring it back and they always got real joy out of seeing what we bought them with their own money. If they had wanted to, they could have gone out and bought the thing themselves. It was their money in the first place. But they got joy out of watching their children take money, that wasn't even their's in the first place, and spend it back on the parents.

That's exactly what God does. God doesn't need our giving. But He gets joy out of seeing us return a portion to Him of what was His in the first place. But we give it back as a reminder of our stewardship, of why God put us on the earth. Tithing is just a minimum standard. That's all it is.

Summarize:

1. God owns everything. Why does He own everything? He owns it because He created it and He sustains it. It's all His.

2. God has made us stewards over all He owns. We are responsible to God in how well we manage what He has loaned to us. It’s not ours. It’s God’s. And one day we will give an account of just how well we’ve really done with what God owns. God takes inventory!

3. Tithing is simply a reminder that all of it really came from God in the first place. We give back ten percent to Him, even though it's already His money in the first place just as a reminder.

4. Why is our pastor taking four weeks to deal with the subject of stewardship? Because He doesn’t want you to mismanage God’s resources and as a result, miss out on all the blessings of being a faithful steward.

God really loves you and has great things in store for you. The first thing God gives to each of us is the most priceless, our own souls. The most important decision you can make regarding your soul is that you are going to give it back to God. You’re going to trust God with your very soul. That’s called redemption, or salvation. Before we can learn to be a faithful steward of anything else in life, we must first learn to trust Christ as our Savior and make Him Lord of our life.