Stewardship

Good morning once again. It's so great to be here in person with you and share the Word of God with you. Go ahead and open your Bibles or devices to Matthew chapter 25 . Before we get going I want to stay a few words about this series of messages. During the next month I'll be preaching through a series about God and Money. Really it's about us stewarding the money we have been entrusted with in a faithful manner. I'm going to be covering this in a topical manner. Most of you know that normally I preach through books of the Bible, which I believe should be the main preaching diet of the church. However, every now and then there are occasions when the church body needs to hear on specific topics in specific times. I am indebted to Capitol Hill Baptist Church for their stewardship material that was majorly helpful in the preparation of this sermon series.

After looking at our financial picture as a church and with some challenges that we have had, I wanted to take a few weeks and really walk though a biblical view of money. This will help us in four significant ways:

1. It reminds us that our money, our health, our time, and even our skills are not unrelated to our spiritual life.

2. It will put us on the same page as a church with how we view personal finances and giving in relation to our spiritual lives.

3. It helps us because people in churches are vulnerable to idolize and misuse these things that God has so graciously given us.

4. It will call us to deeper faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

As Christians, if we are going to talk rightly about money then we have to begin with the true gospel. There are a lot of counterfeits out there and right now one of the primary ones making waves in the world is something called "the prosperity gospel." If you joined us last Sunday night for the movie, American Gospel: Christ Alone, then you heard quite a bit about the false gospel called the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel teaches that God rewards faith with material blessings. This is false because it's not based on grace. It ends up looking a bit like a contract where if you do this thing for God, then God will do this other thing for you. Sometimes it looks like us trying to somehow put God in our debt by reminding Him of all the things we did for Him as if He owes us anything. It teaches that those people who say and do the right things secure good health and financial blessings from God as their reward. But Biblically we know that poverty or blessings or bad health are not linked to a person's righteousness.

All have sinned. God is holy. Sin separates us from a holy God. Something had to die to pay the price for sin. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and gave it willingly in the place of sinners as a substitute. He bore the wrath due us and freely gives us his righteousness. He died and three days later He rose from the dead by the power of God. Salvation: It is not based on our merit. It's not based on our desires or choice. It's based solely on His amazing grace. It's a free gift. I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. And yet He freely offers it to us. And to those who trust in Him He gives eternal life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If we are going to talk about money, we have to start with the true gospel, whereby Jesus purchased a people of His own. If you don't know Jesus, why would you care about what He wants you to do with your money? But if you do know Jesus, if you're submitted to Him, then you care very deeply what He has to say about your money.

One word of caution to you as we dive into the passage for this morning. Some of you are rule-mongers. You want the bottom line rule of how much you should give or how much time you should volunteer or how much time you should allow yourself to use social media. You want a rule to follow. You’re likely going to be disappointed with today. The Bible doesn’t give us that many rules in regards to these areas of our lives. There is a good amount of Christian liberty here. Different consciousness are going to react to different situations. What scripture does give us are some goals in these aspects of our lives. The Bible shows us how we can use these good gifts that God gives to show off the worth and excellence of our redeeming God. We get to use them to show off King Jesus.

So the question should not be, “How much money can I keep for myself?” Instead it should be “how can I use all of my money and all of my time and all of my talents to pursue Christ as much as possible?”

Our finances, our talents, our time, and our health are all areas where we have opportunity.

Colossians 3:17 ESV

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So really the aim of this series is to get us to see how we can do “everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Let's begin by reading from Matthew 25:14-30.

Read

Matthew 25:14–30 ESV

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray and ask God to help us understand and apply it.

PRAY

I. The Master: God

The first person in this parable that Jesus told that I want us to look at is the Master. We don’t want to assume that everything in Jesus's parables stands for something else, like an allegory. But if we want to apply this parable to our lives, then who could we see playing the part of the Master. I hope in your mind you thought, God. Because God is master over everything. If we are going to have a proper understanding of wealth and money it has to be begin with God and His relationship to His creation.

That relationship is:

A. God owns everything.

It’s all His to do with what He wants. He’s the owner of it all because He created it all. He has a claim over everything He created. He owns the patent.

Psalm 24:1–2 ESV

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

God doesn’t owe anyone anything.

Job 41:11 ESV

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

God has true, outright ownership. He has the right to do with the wealth of the world, anything He wants to.

At creation, God called it good. He assigned value to creation. Sin entered the world but it did not destroy the goodness of God’s creation.

1 Timothy 4:4–5 ESV

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Did you know that we can bring glory to God by enjoying His creation?

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Paul basically kills the idols of wealth and poverty with one fell swoop. We shouldn't idolize wealth and we shouldn’t assign some sort of higher spiritual value on being poor either.

The secret to managing things God has given is not running from them but to understand why He has given them to us in the first place. Which leads right into this next subpoint:

B. God gives people their wealth.

If God owns everything then it logically follows that everything we have comes from Him.

1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

The famous King David of Israel even recognized this. In order to help build the temple, the Israelites were giving things they personally owned. But David’s prayer in response was:

1 Chronicles 29:16 ESV

O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.

In our parable from today, did you notice that the master gave the servants different amounts to manage?

1 Samuel 2:7 ESV

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

So God doesn’t see inequality of wealth as evil in an of itself. God gives to each as He deems. The important thing is how we steward what God has given to us.

Let’s talk about the servants in this parable: man… us.

II. The Servants: Man

Probably the hardest thing to wrap our heads and hearts around is understanding that we don’t own what we own.

A. We don't own what we own.

That car you just paid off - you don’t own that. That education you paid for - you don’t own that.

Your house or your kids or the money sitting in your bank account - It’s not really yours.

Something about us doesn’t like to admit this. We bristle at it a little. Maybe some of you felt something rise up inside you when I said that it’s not yours. We say things like, “I earned it so it’s mine.” “Pastor, you can’t tell me what I should do with what is mine.” Here is the problem with that kind of thinking: If we agree with scripture, we MUST admit that those things are not ours, they are ultimately God’s. And here is the crux of what we have to come to grips with when we talk about money or any other topic really: Do we trust adn

This is a huge reason why a lot of people don’t want to follow Jesus. In Luke 18, the rich young ruler went away sad and not as a follower of Jesus because he couldn’t get past his love of all the stuff that he though was his. People like this don’t want to submit EVERYTHING to God’s lordship.

When you realize the truth in this, that what you have is not yours, it lifts a heavy burden from off our shoulders. This is a burden we were never meant to carry.

In his book Desiring God, John Piper gives an illustration about someone who comes into an art museum empty-handed.As they walk into the rooms, they take pictures off the walls and put them under their arm. When they’re confronted with, “What are you doing?” They reply, “I’m becoming an art collector.” But when they’re told that the pictures aren’t theirs and they won’t be able to take them out of the building, the person replies, “Sure they’re mine. I’ve got them under my arm.”

What we have in our possesion is not truly ours. You came into the world with nothing and you leave with nothing. There’s an old saying, “There are no U-Haul’s behind herses.”

B. We're only stewards of what we've been given.

We aren’t debtors but stewards. We aren’t trying to pay back a debt but as stewards are obligated to use the assets for the purposes of the master.

From creation, man was put on earth not just as a creation but as a creation with a task.

Of we are stewards and not owners of all of the wealth that we have recieved, then how does that change our view of our bank accounts, vehicles, homes, and other posessions? Four main ways:

1. They’re not to be used for our sole purpose, but God’s.

2. We’ll be held accountabe for how we use our master’s wealth.

Romans 14:12 “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

3. We must justify how we use all our wealth, not just what we give to church, but what we also spend on ourselves.

4. Getting wealthy isn’t an end in itself.

What kind of a steward are you? A poor steward or a good steward?

III. Poor Stewardship: Evidence of No Faith

We see the difference between the master and the servants in the parable but now let’s look at the disction between the types of servants in the parable. We are going to begin by looking at the unfaithful servant. What he did was lazy and wicked. That makes me want to look at what he did. He hid the money in the ground. So why was this wrong?

He neglected his responsibility.

He didn’t consider his master worthy.

And what was the consequence for this? He was thrown into the darkness - into hell. Now, that seems like a stiff consequence for burrying money. So let’s look at what the servants did in more detail:

The faithful servants did not know when the master would return but they trusted that he would so they went out and risked absolutely everything on his promise. They held nothing back. The unfaithful servant decided to play it safe and not risk. Now either he thought the master wouldn’t return as promised or that when he did return that faithfulness would not be rewarded. He hedged. He decided to hedge his bet and curb his risk by burying the talent and spending his time doing something else.

What we know is that misusing God’s wealth is the same as stealing from God. We find out about this in the book of Malachi.

The good servants trusted the master’s word and goodness. The unfaithful servant had faith in neither the master’s word or his goodness. You might think you can play both sides of the coin. You might think you can please God and serve money but in the end your desire will show your lack of faith in God.

Matthew 6:24 ESV

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

You can’t serve God and money. So if you’re serving money and that’s where your desire is, no matter what else is going on, you’re not serving God. If you’re living solely for money and the increase of wealth with no desire to serve God then it’s pretty likely that you’re not even a Christian. So ask yourself, where is your faith?

Listen close here: What we learn from this unfaithful servant is that what you do with your money is an indication of whether or not you have saving faith. This parable has been misunderstood as if it was about being a semi-Christian. That’s not a category. No, this parable is about the difference between heaven and hell. Where is your faith?

This series of sermons is not about you being a good steward of some of the your moeny. It’s not as if you have some that is for you and some you “give back” to God. It’s about spending everything for God. It’s trusting everything on his promises being true. That’s what it means to be Christian.

We try to compartamentalize our lives but Jesus either has it all or not. You don’t give part of yourself to Him. You know Him and serve Him or you don’t. It really is simple.

For the rest of our time this morning as well as next week’s sermon, I want to take a look at what it means to be a faithful steward.

IV. Faithful Stewardship: Glorifying to God

Why were the first two servants called good and faithful?

They were immediately obedient.

They thought well of their master.

They were productive and took risks. (faith)

They received profitable returns.

They were pateient to waith until the Master returned.

Being a faithful steward is using wealth (however much we have been trusted with) to show off God’s goodness. There are two main motivations for why we should do this.

God didn’t only tell us what to do with wealth but in His love, He showed us.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Love for God marks someone who has been forgiven by Christ. That love for God will include a desire to use our money to please Him.

1 Peter 4:10 ESV

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

Second motive for being a faithful steward

2. Christ will return. In the parable the master returned to settle accounts. If you have trusted in Christ and repented of your sin then you will receive eternal life at judgement day.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

What we do while we are still on earth has implications for gaining or losing rewards in heaven. I’m not talking about salvation. But does this factor into your daily decision making. We should expect everyday to be the day Christ will return. Will we be found faithful? Are you ready to given an account for what you have done with what He has entrusted you with?

Conclusion and Response:

If you will put these principles into action as you follow Christ then I think you will discover three specific freedoms along the way.

1. It frees us from our circumstances.

If a tree falls on my car (something that actually has happend to me) but I really believe the money belonds to God then my stress level goes way down. I might think something like, “OH, I guess I didn’t need that for God to accomplish His plans for me.” It’s realizing that God is in control and He could have put that tree somewhere else. But we trust that He has something better in mind than I did. So when we face a lost job, a stock market crash, a leak in the roof, or anything else, we need to trust that those can all be within God’s good plan for me. Knowing that God owns everything allows us to be content whatever our financial circumstances, which we talked about last week at the end of Philippians.

2. It frees us from guilt.

God wants us to enjoy the things He has given us. Sometimes we think that God and things are always opposed to each other. We assume God is unhappy with us watching a tv show we enjoy when we could have been doing something better with our time. Sure, it may be true that we could have done something better. But God made good gifts for us to enjoy. When we steward our time, talent, and treasure faithfully, we are free from guilt and can enjoy the gifts God has given us.

3. It frees us to be generous.

The world and Christians see generousity differently. For the world it’s the part of what’s mine that I’m willing to part with. For the Christian, it’s the portion of God’s that I get to invest in the needs of others. You certainly bring glory to God by providing for yourself but also by providing for others. When we become true Christians and enter the fellowship of the born again, the tug of war that happens in the heart of a worldly person is gone. The worldly person feels the tug of wanting to be generous versus the pull of his own selfishness. But once that person comes to understand that God is the owner of everyhing, he is set free to be generous.

Summary:

God owns everything. He gives us all that we have to steward.

It’s not about amounts and appearances. It’s about whether your heart us fully surrendered to Jesus.