STEWARDSHIP: THE MISSING PIECE TO SUCCESSFUL LIVING
If God Owns It All, What Am I Doing With It?
Matthew 25
Dr. John Maxwell
INTRODUCTION:
In your sermon section this morning, we continue our theme on “Stewardship: The Missing Piece to Successful Living.”
Two weeks ago, we talked about “Benefits of a Lifestyle of Stewardship.” We literally went through the Bible and looked at many Scriptures that talked to us about what a true biblical steward does with all of their possessions. I think pretty much that day, we understood and found out that we were to be rivers and not reservoirs of the blessings that God has given us. We are to pass them on to others.
Then last Sunday, we talked about balance. We talked about the fact that there are those who are good Christians who believe in “Poverty Theology.” There are those who are good Christians that believe the “Prosperity Theology.” We looked at both of them; we saw that they both had wonderful strengths and biblical truths behind them. But we also found that they had some considerable weaknesses and limitations. I think we discovered last Sunday that a steward is right in the middle; claims the promises of both but understands the responsibility we have as managers of the resources that God has given to us.
Now today, I want to talk about that responsibility. In fact, if you’ll look down in that little puzzle there. At number 3, where it says responsibility, I have a quote by Daniel Webster. It says, “The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility to God.” When Daniel Webster made that statement, he was one of the top American statesman in our country. In fact, he made that statement at a banquet. Presidents were there. Heads of State from around the world were there to honor Daniel Webster. During that banquet, someone asked him, “Mr. Webster, what is the most profound thought that ever entered your mind?” and that’s what he replied with. His responsibility to God. In fact, when he made that statement, he became so emotionally involved that he had to excuse himself and went out and came back. And then for 30 minutes he talked to those great men and women of that day about the responsibility he felt of managing the resources that God has given to him. Now that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
In a moment, we’re going to go over to Matthew, chapter 25. It’s the story of the talents. It’s the classic story. I have probably preached at least a dozen messages from that passage itself. It’s a classic story of God’s expectation to you and me in the management of the resources that He has given to us. You see, here’s the problem gang. When we understand, then we’re going to be able to do what we need to do in our message this morning. You see the problem is many of us do not yet recognize God as the owner of everything in our life. That’s the whole issue. The moment that you and I can cross the threshold and understand that everything that you have and everything I have right now is God’s, not mine, I don’t own it, all I do is manage it. The moment that I can understand that mentally, begin to embrace it emotionally, and act it out physically, that’s the moment that things will begin to really change. And then I will truly be a steward of everything that God has given to me.
Some of us, I’m afraid, are like the people down at West Palm Beach. This happened just recently. The camera crew went up to the door and asked permission of a family there to put the cameras in the front yard because they wanted to shoot some scenes for a television episode. The person said, “sure.” There was only one problem; the person didn’t own the house. They were just living in the house; they were tenants. And boy, when the owner found out that they were rolling cars all around the yard he became very upset. Well, obviously he became upset because you see, that person made a major mistake. They assumed that because they lived in the house they owned it.
We make a major mistake in life when we assume just because we’re walking through life and God has given us things u cars to drive, houses to live in we assume that somehow we have become the owner of all of those things. Let me ask you a question. If you earned $400 last week, how much of it belongs to God? Now, if this morning you’re saying, “Okay, I made $400 last week, $40 belongs to God,” then somehow as your pastor I’m not doing the job I need to in teaching you stewardship. You see if you made $400 last week, $400 belongs to God. The steward understands that everything we have, we just manage. God owns it all. There are four principles of money management given to us in the story of the talents. Are you ready?
Biblical principles of money management:
1. God owns it all.
God owns everything. He just asked me to manage it. God owns it, I manage it. He gives me things of which He requires of me, and this is where my responsibility comes in to do the best job of managing that I possibly can. Let’s look at the story. Verse 14: “For it was just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five talents more. And in the same manner, the one who received the two talents gained two more. But he, who had received the one talent, went away 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.” As I began to look at this story, there are two implications that begin to arise out of it.
1) God has a right to do whatever He wants with the possessions that He’s given me.
The first thing I have to understand is that God has a right, no matter what He has given to me; as Job said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” The Lord has a right to enter into my life at any time because the possessions that I have, what I have today is not mine. I am handling them for Him, but He has the right to walk in. That’s exactly what happened here. The master gave one five, he gave one two, now interesting enough, you see, the owner, in fact in your sermon section write this down: The owner has the rights and the steward has the responsibilities. The owner is the one that settled out that he would give five to one, and two to one, and one to the other. We kind of look back and say that’s not fair. My goodness, that shouldn’t happen. That doesn’t seem right to me. Why didn’t he give everybody equal talents? Why didn’t he give everybody an equal chance? I don’t know. That’s God. He has all the rights. I have all the responsibilities. There was a time, it says in this passage that he came back after a long period of time and when he came back, immediately he called those stewards of his that were to manage those resources, and he asked them what they had done with them. It’s God’s right. He has the rights, I have the responsibilities.
I’m afraid too many of us are like Dennis the Menace who was walking out of church one Sunday, shook the pastor’s hand and looked at the pastor and said, “Now, pastor what are you going to do with that dollar my dad gave you this morning?” When you begin to unfold the story of the talents, you begin to understand that God owns everything.
2) God-given resources to accomplish God-given goals.
Let me give you a definition of stewardship. Stewardship is the use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given goals. I have to understand that. God gives me the resources and I am to use those for the accomplishment and the glory of the Kingdom of God.
Now what happens is this: When I truly begin to believe that God owns everything, when I lose possession just as when I gain possessions, I will keep a steady course. Here’s what happens. If I truly believe God owns everything and I have some financial setback s if I lose a job; if all of a sudden, I get into the valley of dark financial times e if I truly believe that God owns everything, my anxiety and my attitude towards what I have lost will be much different than if I thought I owned it. Are you with me? If I think I own everything and then I get more and God blesses and I make more money; all of a sudden, if I’m not careful, I believe I own everything and my attitude is pride and arrogance. All of a sudden, I begin to become greedy and graspy and I begin to hold on to all of those possessions because I don’t understand something. I still think that they are mine.
You see it’s only when we understand that God owns it that we can have the balance Y emotionally, psychologically to handle the blessings and the setbacks of materialism. And the day that we begin to understand this is the day that we go down a long road in our maturity. Not only in responding as a good steward, but in our maturity of understanding balance in the ups and downs, in the economic turns and twists of our own life. You see, as I look at this passage of Scripture, I see that all that I have God has given to me. I see that God gives different amounts to different people, whether it’s talents or whatever, and I see that God has a right to hold me accountable.
2. Every spending decision is a spiritual decision.
I believe that it’s not only what we give to the Lord, but what we do with the rest of our checkbook that again shows where our values are. Let me quote Ron Blue and I have it in your sermon section because I think it’s an outstanding paragraph. He says, “You can’t fake stewardship. Your checkbook reveals all that you really believe about stewardship. A life story could be written from a checkbook. It reflects your goals, priorities, convictions, relationships and even the use of your time. A person who has been a Christian even for a short while can fake prayer, Bible study, evangelism, and going to church and so on but he can’t fake what his checkbook reveals.” Maybe that’s why so many of us are so secretive about our personal finances. This is heavy stuff isn’t it?
When a business or government suspects fraud, you know what they do don’t you? They follow what they call the money trail. They begin to look at the money and what it’s been spent on, and they begin to follow the money trail, and the money trail leads them usually back to intent and motives and decisions, whether they were made right or wrong. They don’t follow the verbal trail. They don’t bring in the person, and the person says well I know I haven’t been doing anything wrong. They don’t follow the verbal trail; they follow the money trail. That is exactly what God is teaching us in this area of stewardship. God doesn’t follow — folks read my lips — God doesn’t follow the verbal trail.
It’s awful easy to sing “I Surrender All” and surrender very little in our life. It’s very easy to look at Romans 12:1-2 where Paul says, “I urge you therefore, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him which, is your reasonable service.” It’s very easy for us to underline Romans 12:1-2 and nod our heads. You see, it’s very easy for us to assent and nod and sing and even come to church. It’s easy for us to do all those things, but Jesus knows where the money trail is. Jesus, not John Maxwell said, “Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.” Jesus knew that He could literally find out the heart of you and me by opening our checkbook. He could find out what our priority was. He could find out what was important: what we loved, what we didn’t love, what we lived for, what we didn’t live for. He said, all you’ve got to do is follow the money trail.
God uses money and possessions to prepare us for His coming Kingdom. This
is a new one for me. In fact, I’m just working on this one myself because it’s exciting. It’s just a recent thought and truth that settled in on me. The second thing that I learned is that God uses money and possessions to prepare us for His coming Kingdom. And now, I know this story and I know it well. I’ve preached it many times but I’ll be honest with you. Just recently I’ve started to become gripped with this fact that God, in dealing with us concerning possessions, here and now is preparing us for a larger eternal Kingdom. And how we handle what we have now will determine what we receive in that eternal Kingdom. That’s powerful stuff folks.
Let’s look at it quickly. In verse 20, he looked at the man who had five talents and the man said, “I’ve gained five more talents” and in verse 21, the master said to him “Well done good and faithful servant. You are faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of the master.” You see, this is a story of living on a temporal earth and then getting ready for a kingdom and the master said, “Since you did good on the temporal earth with what I gave you. As you enter in the joy of the Lord, I’m going to give you more than what you had there, because you’re a steward and I can trust you.”
Then comes the guy with two talents. The one that received two talents in verse 22 came up and said, “Master, you entrusted me two talents, see I’ve gained two more talents.” And the master said to him, “Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of your master.” He said, “Since you handled the temporary things on this earth well, I have more responsibility and more blessings for you as you enter into my Kingdom.” What an incredible, powerful point. I think this is starting to settle in on me, I’m starting now to understand the words of Jesus. I think this is one of the most powerful statements our Lord has ever had and it’s just gripped me, so I guess I’m just passing on to you what I’m learning. For in the words of Jesus He said, “So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches. If you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” It’s from this teaching that I draw three quick points from your sermon section concerning money and possessions.
1) Money and possessions are very effective tools that God uses in our lives.
In other words, they have a tendency to get our attention. And when we have a financial setback, we kind of look around and say, “What happened to me?” God uses possessions many times to teach us things, to process us as a Christian and the mature believer says, “What do I need to learn from this?” The immature Christian, by the way, they look and say, “God what are you doing to me?” God uses possessions and money as a tool to shape us in our Christian life.
2) Money and possessions are very effective tests.
It’s a very effective test in our life to see if He can trust us with more. What is very insightful in this passage is both of the men who took what the master had given them and utilized it as a good steward were given more and the one who did not take it and utilize it had to give up what he had. It becomes a test of the future Kingdom. Remember, we’re on the principle that how I handle today’s possessions will determine, when I’m with the Lord forever, the resource of the blessings God’s going to give me there.
I love the story of the very wealthy man who died and he went to heaven and he was walking around with St. Peter and St. Peter showed him the mansion of his gardener and oh, he was impressed, it was a huge mansion and he said, “Wow! You mean my gardener is going to live there?” And St. Peter said, “Yep, that’s the mansion for your gardener.” He went a little farther and showed him another huge mansion and said, “That’s the mansion of the missionary that you knew when you were a kid that went to a foreign country.” He said, “Good night! You mean that’s where he’s going to stay. This is incredible.” By this time, this worldly man could hardly wait to see what his house was going to look like. They turned the corner and there was a little shack about 6 x 8 with a few boards leaned up against each other and St. Peter said, “That’s your place.” The guy was appalled he said, “What do you mean? My gardener got a mansion, the missionary got a mansion, and I’ve got to live in there. Why is that?” St. Peter looked at him and said, “Well, to be honest with you, we did the best we could with what you sent us.”
Well this passage of scripture tells me that how we handle what we’ve got now is going to determine what we receive in God’s Kingdom.
3) Money and possessions are a very effective testimony that God uses.
You see, we’re to be a light in this world. This should be the distinction of a Christian. The distinction of a Christian on the block isn’t that that person has more money or less money than anybody else on the block. They may have more money. They may be the richest person on the block. They may be the poorest person on block. That is not the distinction of a Christian. It’s not prosperity gospel or poverty gospel that distinguishes us as God’s child. You see what distinguishes us as God’s children is not how much money we have, whether we have a lot or a little but our attitude toward it. Whether we handle it lightly or we grasp and hold on and hang on to it tenaciously tells what Kingdom we live for.
3. The amount is not important.
In God’s sight, what is important is not the amount of possessions that I handle. What is important is how I handle those possessions, whether it is a little or a lot. Now, I know that because look at verse 21. This is the person who had five talents who doubled them to 10. Look what the master said in verse 21. “Well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful in a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of your master.”
Now, there was one who went from two to four. The one who went from two to four, look what the master said in verse 23, the very same words he said in verse 21, exactly. “Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of our Lord.” It’s obvious to me that it doesn’t matter to God whether we have a lot or a little. That is totally immaterial. To the master, the one that had two that went to four was in his sight as blessed and wonderful and as important as the guy who had five and went to ten.
You see, I run into people all the time who say, “Well, you know I just don’t have a lot to give to God,” or “I can’t tithe because I don’t have a very big income.” You see, interestingly enough, the guy who strikes it rich can’t tithe because he has too much and it would be just an exorbitant amount. And the one who has too little can’t tithe because they can’t meet their bills.
God’s not interested whether you’ve got too much or too little. God’s interested in only one thing. That is what are we doing with what we have right now, if you are tithing and you are a faithful steward of the little that you have. I mean you may have very little that has been entrusted to you at this point in your life. If you are faithful to God with the very little that has been entrusted to you, in God’s sight that is as important as the person who has a whole bunch. In fact, if you have very little and your are faithful with what God has entrusted to you and the person who has a bunch is unfaithful with what God has entrusted to him, then you are going to be rewarded and the one who has much will not be rewarded. That’s a fact of life. That’s a biblical principle. The one who had five, when he went to ten, God said, “great.” The guy that had two, when he went to four, God said, “great.” There’s only one person who God didn’t say great to and that’s the one who thought that what he had was his and decided not use it and not to give it and not to pass it on.
Remember about five years ago when I preached from this passage and the title of my message was “What Makes God Mad.” Because God gets a little ticked in this passage. And the thing that made Him mad was the fact that the person who had only one talent was the one who didn’t use it.
You see I look at people all the time, they say, “Well, God can excuse me. I don’t have a lot anyway and so it’s not important that I tithe. It’s not important that I put God first in all these areas. I can’t afford to.” And I’m telling you it’s as important to you if you make $200 a week as it is if you make $20,000 a week. That is not the issue. God wants us to realize whether it is a little or a lot, we’ve got to treat life with an open hand. These are convicting words my brothers and sisters. These are not words where we get warm fuzzy feelings and walk out humming “Something Good is Going to Happen to You Today.” These are the words of the Lord. These are just good biblical words of stewardship. And when we understand the Bible says that the way that we handle possessions is the number one priority teaching, when we realize that God gives us four times as much time to that as He does with prayer, all of a sudden it helps us to understand what really is important in God’s life concerning us. It’s easy for us to talk about loving Him. Oh, yeah, sing another song. God says, “No, no don’t sing another song. Are you putting Me first in your possessions?”
4. Stewardship requires action.
What’s interesting about this story of money management is that it requires action from you and it requires action from me. You see, this fellow who had one talent, he knew what he should do. This is very significant, he understood. Look at verse 24. “And the one who had received the one talent came up and said ‘Master I knew.’” He knew. What did he do in verse 25? He hid his talent. Look at verse 26, “...but the master answered and said, ‘You wicked lazy servant, you knew.’” We know the rest of the story. The rest of the story is the guy that had one talent and buried it, God took it away from him and gave it to the one who had five and multiplied it to ten.
CONCLUSION:
In your sermon section I have a closing statement and that is “The wicked servant knew what to do but he did nothing.” Many of us know what to do but we either disobey or delay and today we have a chance to change all of this. Ben Haden in his book “Changed Lives” said, “I want to tell you something from observation. I never met anyone who tithed that did not tend to be happy about the fact that he did. He was not just happy about tithing but about a lot of other things. I never met anybody that tithed very long who gave it up. I never met anyone who tithed who did not say at some time it had become extremely difficult. Generous people seem to be the happy ones and miserly people seem to be the unhappy ones. And the critical spirit is with those who are not giving people. Just look around you and you can tell.”
I want you to pull the white card out of your bulletin. I’m going to come down and talk with you for the next three minutes. Every year, when I teach stewardship, I give you an opportunity to be a steward and to act upon what God’s Word teaches us. This is that day. I want to take you through it if you’ll allow please. Just hold it in your hand and let’s look at it together. If God owns it all, what am I doing with it? Today, we have learned that God owns everything. The Lord spoke through Moses and said the tithe is the Lord’s. Not a question mark, it was an exclamation point. That means that 10% of our income should be given each week or each month to the work of the Lord through His church. The other 90% should also be managed wisely.
Five biblical reasons why every Christian should be a tither:
1. Obedience
Genesis 14:20 tells us that Abraham tithed before the law was given to Moses at Sinai. Malachi 3:20 teaches us and summarizes about what the law required. Everyone was required to tithe everything they had. Matthew 23:23 shows us that our Lord Jesus recommended everyone to tithe. I Corinthians 16:2 indicates that tithing is still a part of God’s expectation of His children.
2. Honesty
In Malachi 3:8-10, the Bible teaches that if we do not tithe, we’re robbing God. Isn’t it unthinkable that a Christian would steal from anyone? Much less his God? We must continue to remind ourselves that we do not give the tithe. We simply return it. It already belongs to God.
3. Love
In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me keep my commandments.” Nothing will loosen the purse strings like good old-fashioned Christian love. We give the best gifts to those we love.
4. Gratitude
In Psalm 116:12-14, the Lord reminds us, since we have received so much, we should respond by giving much. We have received God’s Son, His salvation, His presence, His blessings, and we will receive His Heaven. How can we think of giving Him less than the tithe?
5. Faith
God has promised a blessing to those who are faithful in the stewardship of giving. See Malachi 3, Proverbs 3, Matthew 6, and Luke 6. Faith in God’s promises is reflected by obedience to His Word. The requirement is that we are to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. God says, “I will respond test me now.” By the way, may I stop here? It’s the only place in the Bible that God ever tells you to test Him. You see, when you test God, in the Bible it’s always a lack of faith and a lack of willingness to obey. The only place in the Bible that God says to test Him is right here. Because, He knows that possessions have such a grip on our lives, He says, “I want you to test me in this area. I dare you to test me.” “...and I will open up for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” If you go back to the other side again, below the perforated line, is my response. My commitment to tithe is based upon the following truth:
A. God owns everything. My tithe is returned not given.
B. God expects me to tithe.
C. God promises to meet the needs of a faithful steward.
See, tithing is an issue of trust, not an issue of money. Therefore, I commit the first 10% of my income to the Lord through Skyline Wesleyan Church and there are two boxes. But before you get your pencil out and check the boxes, let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, I thank you this morning for the tremendous truths of your Word. You have taught us God that where our treasure is, that’s where our heart is. We can fool you with the songs we sing, we can fool you with the testimonies we give, but we can’t fool you when you follow the money trail. You know our heart. I pray especially now for those who have never tithed. This is an incredible step of faith in their life. No doubt they’re looking at their budget and wondering how in the world they can ever put you first and give you that 10% and still have enough. But God teach them this morning that you’ve promised to take care of them. Teach them that you can do more with that 90% than they can do with 100%. Oh, God, help us to understand. The pressure we feel inside us right now is a battle and the issue is obedience, trust. Can I trust you today, if I put you first in this area to take care of my other needs? I pray Holy Spirit, Comforter of mankind, that you will encourage them this day to act on what they have already known and that is to put you first in every area in Jesus’ name.
With every head bowed but now our eyes are open, I want you to get a pen or pencil out. Many of you, hundreds of you have tithed. Many of you for years, some of you for months, some of you for weeks, if you already tithe, check that box. But if you will begin tithing, if you will begin putting God first in your life with this issue of possessions, I want you to check the box that says I will begin tithing, and act upon that which you know already right. God bless you as you do that. Put your name in there.
