Being A Manager Of God's Resources Series

Being a Manager of God’s resources

1 Tim 6:17-19

There are three types of givers. The first is like flint. You have to strike it to get a spark they are hard and rough. The second is like a sponge; you have to squeeze them to get anything out of it. The third type of giver is like a honeycomb, oozing its contents out all over. Which one describes would describe our giving? If we want to experience God’s blessing, we need to be more like the honeycomb and let our resources flow out as a part of our nature. Moreover, God is in control of the resources.

In order for us to manage our finances is that we must first understand that God owns everything. The second part of Psalm 50:12b says; for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Also in Psalm 50, we see he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Everything we possess is merely a loan from Him so that we can use his resources to bring Him glory and build His Kingdom. As Buster puts it sometimes in his prayer over the offering, he thanks God for the jobs we have and the ability to work. If we understand that we have an honor and duty to manage these resources well, we then can see that we can take God at his word.

As we see in the sports world, there are managers and there are owners. The owners trust the managers with the resources to take care of the team. Rarely does a manager start out with the big club. Usually a manager would start out coaching or managing one of the minor league clubs. Then as the person is successful in coaching or managing the minor clubs he or she moves up. Well that same principle is applied with our finances and other resources that God has left us to manage. LK 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

This passage shows that God entrusts more and more of his material resources to those who prove they can be trusted to manage it effectively. This is one of the reasons why God has always wanted his people to be generous in giving of tithes and offerings. It is a form of spiritual resource management.

Throughout the Bible, God’s people made offerings in order to support ministry projects and programs, like the famine relief to Jerusalem, the care for widows and orphans, to construct and maintain facilities for worship, to the physical needs of the leaders, teachers, and workers in God’s service. God wants his people to experience the privilege of giving-even those in poverty. All financial decisions are actually spiritual decisions. When we put God first, in our giving, we are involved in and act of worship to God.

We need to make some decisions:

1. Give to the LORD this Sunday.

Make today the day you take that first bold step of faith and follow God with our finances. The idea of giving on the first day of the week comes from the early church. First Corinthians 16 tells us 1 Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Everyone is to be involved, the rich and the poor, the men, women and children, because everyone has some sort of income. Allowances, part time jobs, whatever we have received. Some might put in checks and include the tithe of the entire household. Children who learn to put in the offering plate will grow up trusting God with their finances. Proverbs tells us PR 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it. If we want our children to learn to trust God, we have to teach them.

2. Decide to give to the Lord every Sunday.

Now how do I fit that with those on fixed incomes and retirement. Well you could give every week or once a month tithing on that income. Since Paul is responding to their questions about when and how to give, these instructions also give wise counsel to us about the frequency of giving. Now in Paul’s day there was no such thing as social security or welfare as we know it. So Paul is encouraging the Corinthian Christians to set aside each week. Why is that? Paul knows a larger gift is possible when people set aside money regularly. It is a very healthy spiritual habit to get into.