God and Money Week 3 - Faithfulness

After you became a Christian someone teaches you to think that it’s not about doing stuff for yourself but about doing stuff for God. So what you do is you take that exact same mindset that you had before and you simply aim that toward God and think that you are living like a Christian.

The thing is: God doesn’t need your help.

Psalm 50:12 ESV

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.

God’s not sitting there hoping you’ll lend Him a hand.

He is able to do anything you can do… and do it better than you can.

Of course that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use what we do and it does not mean that what we do is unimportant.

But I want to place before you that it might be important for different reasons than you might think.

We are going to try and really look at a way of thinking about the things we have been given in a radically different way.

What is God’s purpose for our stewardship or managing of these good gifts?

I want to dip back into the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 which we just marinated in a couple of weeks ago. We are going to look at what God’s goals are for our stewardship. This would include money but is not limited to it. This stewardship should also include our time, our jobs, our families and our bodies.

It’s about everything that God has entrusted to us.

Let’s read the parable again and just listen to what God is telling us in His perfect and inerrant Word.

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.

PRAY

I. Why Does the Faithless Servant Go to Hell?

The master gives 5 talents to one servant, 2 to another guy, and 1 to the final guy and then heads out. He’s gone some time. He returns and finds that the first two guys have used the talents and made more. But the third servant hid the money in the ground. The master comes back and rewards the faithful servants but did you catch the twist at the end? The third servant goes to hell. I said a couple of weeks ago that to us this seems extreme. He didn’t lose the talent. He gave it back. But he gets hell just because he didn’t give back more than he was given? To us that sounds unfair so we need to figure out what is really going on here.

- Let me stop here and point something out to you. We tend to think of the one talent as not much to manage. But:

Talent - largest weight of measurement of weight in OT times,

- worth about twenty years wages for the average day laborer.

So even the servant who got one talent to steward was entrusted with an enormous sum to them. It was not much compared to the riches of the master but to the servant it was a big responsibility, even though it was less than the others had been trusted with.

So the poor steward is sent to hell. And what is going on in this parable is the gospel. IF you take out this pin of verse 30 then the whole thing turns into simple moralism. Like, do a lot for God and He’ll be pleased with you. That won’t suffice for what this about so if we can figure out why this guy’s actions deserve hell then we can read this with new eyes.

The key: What the servant’s actions said about his master.

He tried to have things both ways. He hedged his bets. If the master came back he could simply return to the master what was rightfully his and if the master didn’t come back then he had this talent hidden where he would be able to safely keep it. He spent the time the master was away working for himself. Hedging his bets said that his master wasn’t able to be relied upon to deliver on his promises. It said that he didn’t trust the master to reward the servants or even to return. Of course we know that this wasn’t true. The master was trustworthy and as I showed you with the description of a talent, the master was extremely generous.

The master represents God. When the servant said that he knew the master was a hard man it betrayed the fact that the servant didn’t really know the master at all.

The actions of the servant lied about the excellence and faithfulness of the master.

His heart didn’t trust the master.

The first two servants gambled everything on the promises of the master. They bet with their lives that he was good to his word and that risking everything on him was the best thing they could possible do for themselves and it turns out… they were right!

They were all in on the master!

ILLUSTRATION ABOUT MISSIONARIES PACKING in coffins

In the end we find that this parable is about faith. It’s about faith in the master.

Jesus taught that no one can serve two masters. You can not have it both ways. You can try but that ends in hell.

You don’t get to live for yourself your whole life while living just enough for God to sort of slide into heaven like you’re stealing second base.

The bad servant’s double minded life showed he had no faith.

What is the difference between demonic faith and saving faith?

James tells us that even the demons believe in God and they shudder.

Saving faith - not simply believing facts about God.

Believes that God is good for us

that his rewards are worth having

believes that God is so good that we can trust Him with our whole lives, leaving everything behind.

When we live in this way, our lives become like flashing billboards about how good and desirable God is. When we say we want to get into heaven but we want to hedge our bets because we don’t really trust God’s plans for us, then we are a billboard that tells others that he’s not good or trust worthy. We become like that faithless servant. Someone said it’s far worse than if someone spray painted over the Mona Lisa.

If we were to look at another parable that Jesus told, the parable of the rich fool.

Luke 12:13–21 ESV

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

This guy builds bigger and bigger barns to hold all of his wealth and God calls him a fool. Does this story change if he dude first gave 10% to God and then built those bigger barns? NO. The problem wasn’t how he spent the money.

The problem was what his hoarding said about who God is. It lied about who God is.

Your actions tell the truth about what you think of God.

So - what are God’s purposes for your stewardship?

His purpose is that you be faithful.

One author wrote:

“Faithfulness is obedient living that proclaims how excellent, good, trustworthy, and satisfying God is. Every decision you make has potential to say something true or false about who God is.”

As you grow in your faith, the picture that your life paints of Jesus becomes clearer and clearer. Because God is conforming us to the image of His Son.

Romans 8:29 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

That’s why this is so deeply important. It’s why this matters so much. Too many times we put the topic of stewardship into the category of correctness, like if you want to get it all right in your Christian life then you better take this class on stewardship so you can cross your ts and dot your i’s.

Brothers and sisters, the stakes are so much higher than that. It’s so much more important than if you are following rules or not. Stewardship is not about whether or not you are a good Christian or a semi-good Christian or a bad Christian. It’s about whether or not you have saving faith. It’s an issue of eternity. That’s what we see in the parable of the talents.

II. Faithfulness Proclaims Who God Is

I want to dig a little deeper on this idea that faithfulness proclaims who God is. Let’s see if we can see a through-line on this.

Genesis 1:27 – our value is rooted in our creation as image-bearers.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Our value is derivative. We uniquely represent God. He created us to be living mirrors, reflecting His image and His glory. But how…?

Through what we do.

Genesis 1:28 – we image God through relationships and work.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We image God through relationships, as in marriage we create life to fill the earth. And we image God through work as we exercise dominion. But the key is that these things only matter because they’re how we image God. We are valuable because we image God; it is expressed through what we do.

That’s not how our world sees it, though. It’s obsessed with what we do, with Genesis 1:28. It says you are valuable—or not—because of your relationships and your work. But Genesis 1:28 without 1:27 is idolatry. God always intended what we do to be valuable mainly because it shows off who we are as mirrors of his glory.

So, incidentally, what does God curse in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve sin? 3:16, he curses our relationships. 3:17, he curses our work. Why curse the very things he commanded of us back in chapter 1? So that relationships alone will never satisfy. So that work alone will never satisfy. In his mercy, he protects us from finding value in what we do, absent who we are as God’s image-bearers.

After Genesis 3, our mirrors are bent and twisted from sin. But then, when you become a Christian, you become a new creation. You’ve been created once in God’s image—Genesis 1. And then you are recreated, reborn into his image a second time as a redeemed human being. Which means your life now has opportunity to speak even more loudly about the excellence of our God.

This is the main reason God has given you all that He has. What gifts have you been given?

musical or artistic

gifted at numbers or learning languages

your family or friends

the school you’re able to attend

your bank account

your job

your work ethic

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?

Why did God give you these? To glorify Him. By using them you get to show off how good and amazing He is.

Illustration: resume

In some ways your life becomes like His resume. Shows off His goodness and value and worth.

III. Faithfulness Matters More than Results

Sometimes though, if you’re like me, it doesn’t always seem that straightforward where we live. A lot of us… probably most of us evaluate our lives based on the results we see because that’s how we have been brought up in this world. We evaluate what our lives say about God based on the results instead of based on faithfulness. Are you more afraid of failure or faithfulness?

Failure is about you: not living up to your potential. Faithlessness is about God: living in a way that lies about who he is.

Our job is faithfulness, not results. He can take care of the results Himself.

Example #1: Flood Insurance

Let’s say that you live on the top of a hill (maybe Capitol Hill?) and so you don’t buy flood insurance. That’s a very reasonable, good-stewardship decision to make. Then a crazy flood hits that inundates your house. You lose everything and so you can’t go on the missions field when you’re 50 like you’d planned. Have you failed? Well, from a results standpoint you have. But from a faithfulness standpoint you haven’t. You can stand before the Lord some day and give good account for your life even though God clearly had different plans than the good you intended

Example #2: Staying Home with the Kids

Two problems with living for results

1. We can’t see what’s truly valuable.

So, take two men: which life will seem more valuable from the perspective of heaven? The man who spends his life fighting—successfully—for faith in Christ as he struggles through mental illness? He never thrives, never holds down a job for long, never invests in the lives of others, and just survives to the end? Or the man who heads up a large philanthropic enterprise and fights for faith to give glory to God as his organization prospers. How can we possibly know which is more valuable? But figuring that out isn’t our job, is it? Our job is to faithfully obey in whatever situation God puts us in.

2. The things of this world are passing away.

Proverbs 23:4–5 ESV

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

If you’re a doctor, everyone you will ever save will eventually die. Ever bridge you design as an engineer will eventually fall down. Most of what you teach, your kids will forget. Most of what you write no one will ever read. Our city is full of monuments to “important” people you’ve never heard of. The bad news is that results don’t last. But faithfulness does last! Because faithful obedience shows off the glory and goodness of God, it will last forever.

Often, lack of results point to lack of faithfulness.

Illustration of a missionary from Core Seminar or church planter I know in the south… not finding a supporting church

IV. What Does Faithfulness Look Like?

A. Faithfulness as Obedience

Sometimes being faithful is as simple as obeying the clear commands of God.

You want a promotion at work. You know you can get that promotion if you lie on your sales call. instead you tell the truth. YOu don’t get the promotion. But on the last day you end up getting commended standing before the Lord because you were faithful. Even though you couldn’t now be as generaous with your money as if you had been promoted.

Obedience in this and areas like it are a testimony to what kind of God we serve.

For example, when we thank God for what we’ve received, we glorify God as the giver of all good things (Eph. 5:19). And when we give back the firstfruits, we glorify God as being trustworthy (Matt. 6:33). When we’re content with our wealth, we glorify God as being sufficient to meet our needs (Phil. 4:12, 19-20). When we use our wealth sacrificially to help others, we glorify God as being loving and merciful.

Often, things are not that clear.

So let’s look at how sometimes faithfulness involves comparison shopping.

B. Faithfulness as Comparison Shopping

In the parable, the master never told his servants exactly what to do with the money. God is glorified when we pursue what is valuable in His economy. The world might not think much of it.

We need to be excellent at comparison shopping. WE need to be able to see the opportunity cost associated with every time we spend money or time on something. Some things are worth more to God than others. We have to take this seriously.

Sometimes it’s:

Comparing things of worldly value

pay a plumber to fix my sink so I can use the time to go to Bible Study

Or fix it myself and give the money it would have cost to the church....

In every transaction we are faced with we can choose the option that is most valuable to God.

whether to exercise tomorrow

should I buy a pop at lunch

to what job to pursue

Sometimes we have to compare intangibles. Things that are not visible.

Comparing tangibles with intangibles

Going back to Proverbs, we see a lot of these comparisons. For example, we see that wisdom is more precious than rubies (Prov. 8:10-11). Fear of God is more important than great wealth (Prov. 15:16). Righteousness is more important than money (Prov. 15:6, 16:8), and a good reputation is more important than great riches (Prov. 22:1). Elsewhere we see that our faith in God is more important than gold (1 Peter 1:7), and that salvation is better than gaining the whole world (Mark 8:36).

Comparing worldly value with eternal value

Sometimes this involves investing in what is only valuable in light of eternity. It’s been said that you can’t take it with you . . . but you can send it on ahead. What would you do if you saw on the news that 10 days from now we’d abandon the U.S. Dollar and start using the British Pound? You’d convert all you had into British currency, wouldn’t you? You’d abandon what is about to lose value and invest in what will maintain value. Well, Jesus has told us that’s exactly what will happen.

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

At some point in the next, say, one hundred years, there will come a time when everything you own… every dollar you have will be completely worthless to you, either because you are dead or because Jesus has come back.)

Right now you have the opportunity to use that money to invest in an eternal treasure that will never lose its value. This is the same with your time, your skills, your energy, and your relationships.

You can not buy salvation. Money can’t do that. It can be used to build up faith, hope, and love, and exercise them. When you lend to a friend who you have no idea if he will ever pay you back, you are using your money to build faith and set your priorities straight. When you use your car to drive someone to church you are using your money to help them hear the gospel proclaimed and to be instructed in God’s Word. In God’s economy, this is a wise transaction. This is good stewardship.

Conclusion

We are called to put all our eggs in one basket. This phrase is the antithesis of what the world says. But we are called to bank everything on God. If it were to turn out that God’s promises didn’t come true then someone would look at your budget or your calendar and thing it was an utter disaster. They’d think you gambled everything on God’s promises. YES. This is how we should live. Go all in on God’s promises. He has never failed to keep His promises. Not once. Not ever. And He never will.

So go all in. Freely go all in. Live to be faithful so that your life is a display of the goodness of God. Show Him off!

Jesus will be the one doing this in you. He gave His life on the cross to redeem you. If you have believed the Gospel and repented of your sins, then Christian, God has put His name on you. He will spend your lifetime making you more and more into the image of His Son.