January is Stewardship Month. In part, it's going to bring to us, let's call that rather, because it's going to bring to us the first church-wide phase of our Stewardship Enrichment Campaign. That will be the prayer visitation, which will take place later in the month. All of us are going to be asked to pray in our homes regarding the stewardship of our lives. I'm going to be preaching on stewardship for the five Sunday mornings of January as well.
I'm doing this not just that it might be a part of the stewardship campaign, but because I believe that nothing is any more important to Christian growth than a proper understanding of and a faithful practice of Christian stewardship. And it's so because stewardship involves the very principles by which we conduct our lives. Now often when you say stewardship, the thing that comes to mind immediately is dollars.
But actually the thing that should come to mind is sense, that is with an S. Because you see, to be a wise steward is to be filled with biblical common sense. It is to conduct one's life well. Therefore we're going to begin today by talking about four principles of biblical stewardship. I'd like for us first to turn to the New Testament, to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. And here we see illustrated the fact that stewardship is a far broader concept than dollars.
The Apostle Paul and some of the other early leaders were being unduly exalted by the carnal Corinthian Christians. They were dividing themselves around personalities. Thinking of these Christian leaders more highly than they ought to think. And so the Apostle writes to them, and in verse 1 he says, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. So you see in verse 1 he talks about stewardship, but it's stewards of the mysteries of God.
He says, in this case moreover it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it's a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even examine myself. I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted. But the one who examines me is the Lord.
Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God. Stewardship is one of the most important truths for you and me to grasp in our Christian life. The four principles we are going to talk about this morning begin with this one, that God is the divine owner of all things.
That you say that seems to be obvious, but it is not so obvious after all. You see the natural man has the concept that he is the owner of all things. What is among the first words that a baby learns to speak? Mine. Is that right? Now where did that child learn that word, mom and dad? Well it could be from our homes, but even if not from there it seems that almost instinctively that word mine comes to the lips very easily, even of an infant.
Because as we grow older we only learn how to pronounce it more clearly and more certainly. We talk in terms of my life, my home, my car, my salary, my bank account, my children, my wife, my husband, my, my, my, my, my. We are my centered aren't we? The natural man is by nature possessive and selfish. Therefore it is a very different concept to introduce the idea that God is the owner of all things. To what does God lay claim? Well in Psalm 89 and 11 we learn that the heavens are his.
It says the heavens are thine, that is the stars and the universe up there, they belong to God. Furthermore, the earth with its resources are his. The last part of that same verse goes on to say the earth also is thine, the world and all it contains, thou has founded them. And David says in Psalm 24 verse 1, the earth is the Lord and all it contains. And so the earth with all of its natural resources belongs to God, our ecologist not withstanding.
In ecology we try to conserve the earth and its resources and we are concerned about the relationship of environment and living things. But you know even in that field of science, which is a very important one these days, the basic motivation is so that man's existence can be prolonged. It is not for the glory of God and to be a steward of what belongs to God, but it is man centered, you see. And yet the Bible says that the earth and its resources are his.
God says in Haggai, the gold and silver are mine. And then every animal is God's. In Psalm 50 verses 10 through 12, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is mine. For the world is mine and all it contains. Furthermore, God lays claim to all of mankind.
In the last part of the verse that we read earlier, Psalm 24, 1, after stating that the earth is the Lord's, it goes on to say, and they who dwell on it. So all earth dwellers belong to God, whether they acknowledge that ownership or not, it makes no difference. God is the creator and by virtue of that creator ship, he is the owner of all men. But he is in a special sense the owner of Christians because we have acknowledged Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord.
And therefore, as Paul says in Romans 14, 8, whether we live or we die therefore, we are the Lord's. But even the intangibles of the world are God's as well. Think with me about some of them. Consider authority, power. Psalm 62, 11 says, power belongs to God. If man has been able to technologically discover how to unleash some of that power, it is only because it was there to begin with. Man has only learned how to tap it. God has even put that kind of power in the universe that belongs to him.
But then power in the sense of authority belongs to him as well. Jesus said, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. This is perhaps no more clearly illustrated anywhere in the Bible than in Daniel, that Old Testament man of God ministered the word of the Lord in a heathen empire. And as empires came and went in that day, he remained firm for God. Do you realize that nothing evil is ever spoken of about Daniel? What a man he was.
In the second chapter of the book that bears his name, comes right after the book of Ezekiel if you're wondering where it is, we have a vision recorded which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had. None of his advisors were able to interpret the vision. But Daniel was brought in and he had that capacity because the vision was given to Nebuchadnezzar from God. It was the vision of the image, the head of which was gold and there were other metals and ores involved in it.
But the head of that image was Nebuchadnezzar himself as Daniel says in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 37, you, O king, are the king of kings. Then notice what he says, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory. And so Daniel declares to Nebuchadnezzar that the very kingdom over which he reigns was given to him by God. Nebuchadnezzar had a hard time learning that. Chapter 3 constructs an image and commands that all men bow down to the image and worship.
In chapter 4 we see him bragging about this great Babylon that he has constructed. And in chapter 4 we see a word from God to this king. We're going to start at verse 25, back up just a little bit as Daniel interprets the vision and catch the last part of verse 25 where again Daniel reminds him, seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it, that is the rule, on whomever he wishes.
Nebuchadnezzar still refused to see that and so God sent him through a little experience in which he lost the rule for a period of time.
In verse 31, while the word was in the king's mouth, that is this word of boasting found in the previous verses, the boasting of his power, his glory, the great Babylon he had built, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared, sovereignty has been removed from you and you will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be the beasts of the field. You read about it in the following verses. That happened.
Nebuchadnezzar went crazy for a period of seven years and lived like an animal and then his sanity was restored to him.
And notice his response in verse 34, my reason returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, says Nebuchadnezzar, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what has thou done?
In other words, nobody can call God into accountability because he is God. All authority is God's. He raises up governments and when they have accomplished their purpose, he causes them to pass away. I believe that he brought about the United States of America, that we like every other world power today exist because he has brought us into existence and we will be finished when he's done with us.
Someone has interestingly pointed out that the United States began its decline as soon as it recognized Israel as a nation. You mark it from the later 40s and early 50s, the United States has been on direct skid to judgment. I wonder how long we'll be here. I tell you this, when God is done with us, we will be out of the picture because all authority is God's, all power is God's and Washington, D.C. has power today for one reason, God has given Washington power.
He's also given Moscow power and he can even use ungodly nations that he puts into power to accomplish his purposes. One of the minor prophets had a little problem with that and God explained it to him. Hey, we'll talk about that someday. Not only is authority in power God's, but the intangible of life itself is God's. At Psalm 104 verses 29 and 30, thou dost hide thy face, they are dismayed. Thou dost take away their spirit, they expire, and return to their dust.
Thou dost send forth thy spirit, they are created. Ecclesiastes 12-7, Solomon correctly says, the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. In other words, the spirit of a man returns to God for judgment after his lifetime. You see, the very essence of our life is given to us by God. We are not reincarnated from something in the past that is a lot of garbage that's being sold to the world today that's very gullible for it.
You are in your only lifetime right now and when you are finished living this life and taken out of this body, your body will go back to the dust and your spirit will go to God for judgment. Your very life essence is from God. The very breath in your lungs at this moment is borrowed from His atmosphere. Don't ever forget that. Furthermore, the capacities or the abilities that we have come to us from God. As Paul observed, what have you that you did not receive? Did you ever think about that?
What do you have that you did not receive from somebody? What inherently is yours? Even the body in which you live, you receive from your parents. There is nothing that you have that you have not received. So why do you boast, says Paul, as though you did not receive it but had it inherently? God said to Moses, who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
You see the very capacities that you have were given to you by God and if God withheld some of them, it was because that was His sovereign purpose to do so. Everything you have, everything you can do, everything you are is God's ultimately. Your physical body, your spiritual being, your ability to earn, to learn, to help, to know, to communicate, your possessions, your salary, your spiritual gifts. Ultimately, all of it belongs to God because you are His creation.
And that, my friend, is the reason that the world so detests the idea of creation. That's why science finds evolution so appealing because it leaves man without any responsibility to God. But you see, creation is true and therefore man is ultimately responsible only to God and completely to God. And if we are saved today, of course, we belong to God because of our redemption as well. We have been purchased. And so all things, all that we are or have or can do belongs to the Lord.
That leads us to principle number two, that stewardship is a sacred trust committed to you. That is a definition of stewardship. It is a sacred trust committed to you for your care. This is seen in several dimensions in 2 Timothy chapter 1. I invite you to turn there with me. I want you to see this. We have here illustrated what stewardship really is.
In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12, Paul says, for this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. What is he talking about? Paul is talking about his soul, his eternal well-being. He says, I have entrusted that to God. And so in essence, Paul says here that God is the steward of his soul.
He has committed it to the care of the Lord, and he finds security and joy and peace in that. In verse 14, it is used a different way. He says, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you, Timothy. Now here he is talking about the gospel, the pure message of the gospel. He says to Timothy that he is to guard this message of faith and grace, to preserve it from error. He says to Timothy, it has been entrusted to you.
It is a deposit, a good deposit that I have given to you. Now guard it. Don't let error enter into it. You see, the gospel was in Timothy's care. It's in your care today too, my friend. It is entrusted to you to protect and to share. And then we find this same emphasis in chapter 2 verse 2 when he says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's a good verse for discipleship.
And what he is saying is, Timothy, I have built into your life spiritual principles. I have entrusted those to you. You are now the steward of them. Take care of them and pass them along to others who will take care of them and pass them along to still others. So you see there is stewardship here in the sense of the soul's salvation, stewardship in the sense of the gospel itself, stewardship in the sense of discipling people. Stewardship is a sacred trust that is committed to you.
Your children, for example, are a stewardship. They are committed to you for your care. We see an illustration of this in the Old Testament. Turn back there with me to Genesis chapter 24 for a moment. Abraham has grown old as we come to our text. And it says the Lord had blessed him in every way. But there was one thing that he had to do yet. As a good oriental father, he had to arrange for the wife of his son Isaac. He hadn't done that.
And so it says in Genesis 24, 2, Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned. Now what is that? That's a steward. It's a very good definition of a steward. It may be that this was Eliezer, his trusted steward mentioned elsewhere. But Abraham calls in this man who had charge of all that Abraham owned.
And he says to him, please place your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the God of earth that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live. But you shall go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac. Verse 9. So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter. You see this steward recognized he was given a sacred trust.
Abraham committed to him one of the most important duties it was possible for him to have. He was to go and find a wife for the son of his master. And in the oriental fashion he placed his hand upon his thigh and swore by the God of heaven and earth that he would fulfill that sacred trust committed to him. Now that's what stewardship is my friend. It is a sacred trust committed to you. That brings us to principle number three.
Because that is so, it is your personal responsibility then to manage your trust. You see stewardship involves my making the most of what has been put in my charge. As I heard often as I grew up, use it or lose it. You ever heard that? And it's true. My friend we either use what has been committed to us or we lose its effectiveness in our lives. Use it or lose it. The stewardship that you have been given is a personal responsibility for you to manage.
We see this illustrated in a parable that Jesus told found in Luke chapter 19. There are several parables that Jesus told that are similar. We are going to be looking at some of those in the Sundays ahead. But in Luke 19 we have these words beginning in verse 12. A certain noble man went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then returned. And he called ten of his slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, do business with this until I come back.
He selected ten slaves, he brought them before him, he gave them the money and he said to them personally, you are to do business with this until I get back. Use it. It was their personal responsibility. And my friend our Lord has gone away to heaven. He's there today. We are here in this world and he has given to you and to me a stewardship. And he says to us, do business until I get back.
It's a personal thing and I believe that's why the apostle emphasizes it by saying in Galatians 6.5, every man will bear his own burden. That seems to contradict something he said a couple of verses earlier when he said bear one another's burdens. But the context changes between the two verses. In the last part of the verse what he is saying is this, you have a personal obligation to serve God. Now do it. Every man will bear his own burden.
You're not going to have to give answer for somebody else nor is somebody else going to give answer for you. It's your responsibility. We can't stand before God and say, but God, you know, I belong to a great church. It was doing good things. God's going to say, but what did you do with what I gave you? It's a personal thing. The same thing is emphasized in Romans 14.12 where the apostle says, so then every one of us shall give account of what? Do you know the next word? I heard somebody say it.
Shall give account of himself to God. Not the other guy, not the proverbial hypocrite, but himself. That's important for us to remember folks. Occasionally I hear people rail against certain Christian leaders or servants to attack them and accuse them of things. We need to be careful in judging the Lord's servants.
They may do things differently than we would, but if they do not contradict Scripture, and that of course is a key, but if they do not contradict Scripture in their methods, then we should not judge them but recognize that they will give account for what they do to the Lord. Perhaps He's leading them to do what they're doing. But as we remember that, let us remember that we ourselves will give account to God for ourselves, just as that servant will give account for himself.
That brings us then to the fourth principle, and it is this, that you must give account for your stewardship. Here in Luke chapter 19 we see this true. In verse 15 it says, it came about that when he returned after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves to whom he had given the money be called to him in order that he might know what business they had done. You see, the noble man gave them responsibility, and with that responsibility came accountability. We don't like accountability.
And very frankly, most of us build into our lives certain protections so that we don't have to be accountable to other people. Now we may have to be accountable if we punch a time clock. We may have to be accountable if we write a check for which there aren't sufficient funds in the bank. You see, certain accountability is built into life, but in every way possible it is the natural human thing to try to escape accountability.
I believe that it's a mark of development and growth in a person's life when he is able to find a friend to whom he makes himself accountable. Do you have anybody like that in your life who is holding you accountable for anything?
You know, it would be a good thing for you this year to establish a few precise spiritual goals, and then to share those goals with somebody else, not your wife or your husband, maybe with them too, but with somebody else so that other person can come back to you next month and say, hey, how are you doing in this area? Were you able to accomplish this or that? You see, there is something about accountability that spurs us to faithfulness, to accomplish our goals.
Now listen, God has made you accountable for your life. You have no choice about it. You must give account for your stewardship. You may try to escape that now. You may think up all kinds of excuses to why you're not doing this or not involved in that or why you haven't made this commitment or that decision, but my friend, someday you're going to stand before God and those excuses won't mean a hill of beans. Those will be non-existent at the judgment seat of Christ, Romans 14-12.
So then every one of us must give account of himself to God. We shall do it. And that is a frightening thing. It is, if you stop to think about it. I mean, it's joyful to look forward to the Lord's coming, but there's another side to that coin, and that is that when he comes, we're going to be called to account for our stewardship in this world. Everything that you've been given, whether in terms of money or abilities, physical prowess, whatever, you're going to account for that before God.
The Apostle Paul said, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive according to the things done in his body, whether it be good or worthless. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, he says, we persuade men. Paul let us see a little of his heart there. One of the incentives that kept Paul faithful was the fact that he knew someday he was going to see Jesus Christ face to face.
And when he looked into the eyes of Jesus Christ, he didn't want to have to be ashamed. You're going to do the same thing. Now, there's a sense we're all going to appear, but it goes on to say that every one of us may receive. You know, it's a personal judgment that's coming, a personal accounting. Are you ready for it? If the Lord should say to you today, now it's time to come home, my child, and to give a count of your stewardship. Are you ready to do that?
Let me make some specific applications I'd like for you to follow through on. I'd like for you this week to think about God's ownership in your life. And to help you do that, I want you to memorize two verses, and I'm going to hold you accountable for it. First Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God and ye are not your own? For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.
You memorize that before next week, will you? I challenge you to do it. And as you memorize, think about that center part of the verse that says, you are not your own, you are bought with a price. You think about what that means and how that needs to apply to your life. Memorize this week a fresh and a new, God's ownership in your life. And then I want to ask you to do an inventory this week. A personal inventory of three areas of your life, your abilities, your money, and your time.
I want you to make a piece of paper, this is one way to do it at least, with three lines down it and you have three columns. Take three lines across so you actually have three boxes. In the first box simply write the words, my abilities, and list them. You may not need a very big box you think, you may be surprised. Write your abilities, second box down, my money, and write how much your income is. In box number three, my time, figure out how much time you have in a week when you're awake.
That's only a very few hours for some people though they walk around. You figure out how much time you are awake during the week, how many hours you have. Then in the second column, start at the top and write down how you are now using your abilities for the glory of God. Not how you would like to use them, how you plan to use them proverbial someday, how you are using your abilities right now. Secondly, as you drop down, how are you using your money?
What I'd like for you to write down is not how much you give to the Lord, I want you to write down how much you keep because I think that's the essence of stewardship. The more important question is how much I keep out of my salary. Deal with the financial issue. And then drop down to the third box and write down those things that are priorities in your life. Again, not the things you would like to be priorities, the things that ought to be, but the things that are by the way you use your time.
Some of us are so busy doing the urgent that we've forgotten the important. And then go back to that third column in your inventory and write down how you want to begin using your abilities in 1983 for the glory of God, the changes you want to make. How you want to reinvest your money differently for the glory of God, how much you're going to keep, how much you're going to give. Then your time. What priorities do you need to change in 1983? You say, why are we going through this exercise?
And by the way, write it down, don't just think through it. It's when we write it down that it really becomes a part of us. Thinking through it is too easy, too superficial. Write it down, please. Why are we going through this exercise? Because dear people, someday you're going to stand before Jesus Christ and do something very similar to this. Because He's going to be interested in how you used your money. He wants to know how you spent your time.
He wants to know how you invested your abilities for His glory. You see, this is not an empty exercise. It is a preparation for that day when we will give an accounting to Him. Two and a half years ago, we got a letter from the Internal Revenue Service and they said, congratulations, you have been selected at random for an audit. And we would like to meet you on such and such a day and such and such a place and go over some things. Well what happened?
Well, after I got up off the floor and pulled myself together, we moved actually and delayed the audit for a couple of months. But the time came still when we had the appointment in a different city with a different person. They kept up with us, believe me. And finally the day for the audit came and I did the manly thing. I sent my wife. I did. I stayed home and babysat and she went to the audit. That was the reason for that. She writes the checks in our family. Boy, does she write them.
And writes them well. And she also has a better memory than I do, except when we disagree that mine is right. But she has a better memory than I do about things. So we felt that was kind of important. I stayed with the kids. She went to meet with the guy. She came back at lunch. Knuckles still a little white, but doing pretty well. She had to bring back some more information.
She was there from about, what was it, nine o'clock in the morning or eight thirty in the morning until about three or three thirty in the afternoon. I want to tell you that was an exhausting experience, especially for her. For me, I was watching the kids. It was exhausting too. But for her it was a frightening experience in a very personal sense. You know why? Because that auditor went through every check that we wrote for a whole year. Now this was in December.
And he was doing the whole year before. 1979, this was December of 1980. He was doing the whole year before. He went through every check to make sure that what we had reported on the form was correct. He went through every deposit slip to our banks. And by that time there were a couple of them involved because of our move. He wanted to know what every single deposit was for. My wife had to remember every one of them.
He went through our itemized deductions and wanted proof of every single item that we claimed. The outcome of the day was, to the credit of my wife, we got money back from the IRS, which is the way it ought to go, right? But I'll tell you something. That was a terrifying experience because of the authority that the IRS claims to have and does have by law. We felt naked before the IRS for that whole year. I mean, they knew everything about us. We were exposed.
It was frightening to consider the precision of information that they required, the exactness of the details that they wanted. But that experience was small compared to the audit that you and I have coming at the end of this life. Because we're going to stand before one who's not going to have to ask, well, what about this or what about that, because he already knows it. And we're going to have to give answer for the deeds done in our body, whether good or worthless. Now, you realize that.
You remember it as you live this week. It may be that there are some decisions you need to make today or some command you need to obey today. You say, but pastor, I've already blown it. I'm even old now and I haven't done very well. My friend, if you still have breath in your body, there is still time for you to obey God. If you still have one day in your life, it's better to stand before Jesus Christ being a good steward for that one day than for no days.
I call upon you today to give answer to your stewardship, not to me, but to yourself, because someday you're going to stand before Christ and give answer for it. How are you doing? Father, these are difficult words and they are frightening to us. We don't like to think about accountability. We shun it. We run from it, but we know we cannot run from you. We cannot shun the judgment seat of Christ. I know that in many ways all of us have stumbled.
There are ways in which all of us confess before you with sorrow and shame that we have not been very good stewards. I know there are many of us today who commit ourselves on this first Sunday of the New Year to a faithful stewardship. Lord, we want to remember these principles and to see them applied faithfully to our lives. Father, if there are some people here today who need to make particular decisions, help them to do that, I pray, that their stewardship may get back on track.
In Jesus' name, amen.