RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP
LUKE 12:47-48
INTRODUCTION
If there is one message of importance we need to hear today, it is responsibility. We are raising a generation taught to believe that we can escape responsibility for our actions. One of the Andy Griffith episodes begins with Andy and Barney finding one of the farmers in town on the side of the road with the produce from his truck strewn in the road. As they stop to help him clean up the mess, they begin to question him about what happened. He tells them he was sideswiped by a young fellow driving a fancy convertible. As they proceed down the road, they come upon this young man. When Andy begins to question him and ask for his license, he makes it evident to them that he is privileged. His father is some big wheel in the state and can have just about anything he wants, including, as he says to Andy, “that junior G-man badge” he is wearing. These threats do not deter Andy from carrying out his responsibility of arresting the young man and detaining him a couple of days until his hearing. As soon as the young man arrives at the jail, he uses his one phone call to call his father. He does not reach him, but tells his secretary to find his Dad’s attorney to come get him out of this fix. In the intermediate time, Andy takes him fishing and to his home for Sunday dinner. After dinner, Andy and Opie are sitting on the front porch while Aunt Bee and Barney are preparing to fix homemade ice cream. Opie says he had something to tell Andy, something he hopes would not make Andy mad. He tells of how he had accidentally broken a window on the back porch of one the town residents. Andy responds to the situation: “Promise you won't get mad. You will not get an allowance until that window is paid for.” Opie agrees and then makes his way to help with the ice cream. The young fellow tells Andy he thinks he was quite hard on Opie. He said he should have bailed him out. Andy disagrees. He says if he bails him out now, before long it will be something bigger and he will have to bail him out again. He says Opie has to learn to stand on his own two legs now. And you see, it was a wonderful lesson in that for the young man, for his father had made a habit of bailing him out of situations. Thus he had not learned responsibility. As the episode ends, the attorney of the young man's father arrives and tries to pay Andy off. Andy refuses and says he will have to remain in jail until the trial. It is then that the attorney brings in the farmer who in turn tells Andy that the wreck was his fault. It seems the attorney promised him a new truck if he would lie so the charges would be dropped. As the young man watches this scene unfold, it obviously dawns on him that he had never learned to take responsibility for his actions. He chooses on this first occasion to remain in jail that he might learn to take responsibility.
Jesus tells in this parable about two servants and responsibility. One servant knew his master's will but did not do it. His was deliberate disobedience. His punishment would be severe. The second servant was also disobedient, but he did not know his master's will. Therefore, his disobedience was not willful. He disobeyed out of ignorance. Jesus reminds us through the parable that we are responsible for obeying his commands. Those who know his commands and still disobey will be punished severely. Those who do not know the commands and yet disobey will still be punished but not as severely. In both situations, we are responsible. According to the Bible, our rights are matched with responsibility. Our opportunities are matched by obligations, and our privileges are matched with duties. Like the speed limit, we are responsible for obeying whether we know what it is or not.
As we think about how this relates to our stewardship, we see that we are responsible for our stewardship opportunities. God gives us finances, time, talents and gifts and we are responsible for using them in a way that pleases him. The Bible reminds us that all people will one day stand before God and give an account of our stewardship. With this in mind, we need to be responsible stewards.
I. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OPPORTUNITIES
This responsibility applies to churches and individuals. God gives opportunities to individuals and churches to use the knowledge, gifts and talents that he gives to them. Every one of us today has gifts, talents and abilities that are God-given, and God expects us to be obedient in using them. Churches have the same because of the people that make up the churches. Churches, then, are responsible just as individuals are.
We really have only two ways we can go when faced with opportunities. We can take advantage of the opportunity or let it go by. The grave consequence of letting opportunities go by is that many times they do not come again. The ancient Greeks had a statue named Opportunity. The head of the statue was bald on the back but had hair on the front, symbolizing that an opportunity may be grabbed when it approaches, but after it leaves we cannot grab it again.
It is a given that not all individuals or churches have the same opportunities. We are not responsible for the opportunities we do not have, but we must give an account to God concerning our obedience to the opportunities we have had. As we take advantage of the opportunities God gives us, he will in turn give us more opportunities to be involved in work for him.
I wonder if God is not saying to many individuals and churches today: “If you don't intend to use this church or the talents I have given to you, will you please loan it or them to me?” One of the most tragic wars in American history was the Civil War. More lives were lost in this war than in all other wars combined. It was a war that lasted longer than it should have, and some incompetent generals of the Union may have contributed to that. The Union forces far outnumbered the Confederacy. The first four generals of the Union were not aggressive enough. It seemed they would not attack first. Lincoln once wrote to his first general, George B. McClellan; “Would you please loan me this army if you don't intend to use it?”
Lyndon B. Johnson's father used to say to him; “You must seize the moment.” Someone said; “Opportunity is a bird that never perches.” If we always play it safe by thinking of all the reasons or excuses why we cannot or should not grab this opportunity, it will likely be gone.
II. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ABILITIES
Just as all people and churches do not have the same opportunities, so they do not always have the same abilities. Again, we are not responsible for abilities God had not given us, but we are responsible for those he has. All of us, and by extension all churches, have certain abilities. We like to say that all people are created equal, but this is not really true. We are equal before the law and God, but we are not equal in our abilities. God only holds us responsible for the abilities he gives us. When we waste our abilities, it is displeasing to God. God gives us the abilities and the mind to discover our abilities. Then the challenge is to use the abilities. We must use our abilities to the maximum, not in a half-hearted manner. We must give God our best. It is sad that so many Christians have abilities that go unused for whatever reason. Use your abilities to the maximum for God's glory.
The late, legendary football coach of the University of Alabama, Paul “Bear” Bryant, used to say; “There are four types of football players: There are players who have ability and know it; There are players who have ability and don't know it; There are players who don't have ability and know it; There are those who don't have ability but don't know it.” We must be like the players who have ability and know it.
III. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR RESOURCES
All of us have resources to some degree. Some have more than others, but all of us have some. The same is true with churches. Some churches have more and can do more than others, but all churches have some resources. Whatever resources we have as an individual or a church, we are responsible for using to the best of our ability and for God's glory. All we have is a trust from God, and he holds us accountable for our use of it. One day we will give an account of how we have handled his property.
One of the most commendable ways we can show our responsibility with our resources is to give God a tithe of them. Hard economic times are not an excuse to shun our responsibility to God where our money is concerned. When we give to God in spite of our difficult economic times, it means more to us because it takes a greater faith in God that he will meet our needs. A consistent program of giving to God helps us to establish priorities and discipline in our life.
I suppose God must sometimes feel like the parish priest in Montcontour, France who looked at the meager collection of money in the basket. The coins did not even cover the bottom. He turned to the parishioners and said; “My brothers and sisters, earlier today, when I arrived at church, I looked at all those fine cars parked in the square and asked myself, My God, where are the poor? Now, having seen the collection basket, I wonder, My God where are the rich?”
IV. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR KNOWLEDGE
Our punishment will be less severe for knowledge we don’t have, but we are still accountable to God. If you did not have knowledge concerning your responsibility of stewardship to God before entering this building, you have it now. The parable we read has confronted you with that fact. The servant who knew his master's will was responsible for that knowledge. This knowledge made him more accountable than the one who did not know his master's will. When we know that God requires us to use our gifts, talents and abilities to serve him, we are accountable for that knowledge.
The Bible says; “Therefore to the person who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” God is always fair with us. We will never be able to look him in the face and accuse him otherwise. When a person hears the gospel message of Christ, they are from that point on responsible. When a person is given time, talents and resources by God, they are then responsible.
CONCLUSION
John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was one of our nation's first billionaires and a devout Baptist. He believed the ability to make money was a gift from God to be developed and used for the good of others. He gave away more than $550 million during his lifetime, including a one million dollar gift to the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. But he did not wait until he got rich to become generous. From the time of his salvation, he began to tithe. He taught his family that what they had was theirs on a service basis. David Rockefeller said when he was seven he received an allowance of fifty cents a week. He was taught to save five cents and contribute five cents to charity. His father's credo was; “Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty.”
How is your responsibility today concerning your opportunities, abilities, resources and knowledge?
