Grant Avenue Baptist Church
2215 Grant Avenue
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
310-591-2968
Pastor David Wilson CELL: 310-213-4586
Pastor David Wilson email abimilech@ca.rr.com
For the first month of 2012 we will place a heavy emphasis on Stewardship. We have designated January as stewardship month. Some believers become uncomfortable with the word “stewardship” because so often it is used to describe a financial campaign to increase tithes and offerings.. That is not our goal. Our goal is to preach the whole Word of God and oftentimes our approach to stewardship is careless in our effort to avoid the appearance ot televangelists who want to reach into your pocket.
First, we need to establish several principles before we even begin. Stewardship is more than just tithing. Yes, we will talk about tithing, for it has its place in the believer’s life. There are several principles I want to establish about proper Christian Stewardship before we actually get to the message. Be forewarned, these principles will be covered again next Sunday so I suggest you make a note of them.
Stewardship Principle # 1: As a believer, I belong to God. Therefore, all that I have also belongs to God.
The apostle Paul reminds us that our own bodies, our flesh, are most certainly not ours to do with as we please. He writes in I Corinthians 6:18-20
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Stewardship Principle # 2: I am not free to use that which is entrusted to my care in a manner that is contrary to God’s will.
That principle was covered in the passage we just referenced. However, let me expand upon it with a silly illustration. If you rent a home you might call it your house, but it really belongs to the landlord. You have a responsibility to provide reasonable care. You cannot suddenly decide without the landlord’s permission that you are going to paint the walls black and place glow in the dark stickers on the wall with psychedelic colors. If you decide to paint, it is only right that you include the landlord in the discussion of color schemes, etc. After all, it is his house, you just have the privilege of living there.
Proper stewardship is more than thinking of money. It is thinking of possessions, time, energy, recreation, and really—every area of your life.
Sometimes stewardship is where you serve, where you attend church. Phillip probably would have loved to stay in the revival that was going on in Samaria. It probably seemed like it would have been God’s will for him. However, God, all-knowing, all-wise, led Phillip out to a lonely road where he met one soul that was ready to be witnessed to. Part of stewardship is learning to discern God’s will with my time and efforts.
Stewardship Principle # 3: Proper stewardship puts God first.
I’ve got a little abbreviation that I’m using for that principle. I don’t know if I heard it somewhere else, but it has stuck with me for the last few weeks as I prepared for this series of messages. That abbreviation is “PGF” and it stands for PUTTING GOD FIRST.
Now, we can begin this morning’s sermon, and our text is found in Matthew 6. We will begin reading with verse 25 but I want to give you some context. Jesus has just spoken about the need for believers to lay treasure up for themselves in heaven and described how earthly material possession decay, rust, or can be stolen. He then warned that material possessions can become a god and warns us to recognize that we cannot serve God and money (material gain) at the same time.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”
Before I read that all important verse 33—let’s take a close look at these verses. They warn against chasing after the basic needs of life. Look at verse 32- the pagans run after all these things.. The chase for possessions consumes their lives, becomes their passion, and all their efforts and focus are placed on chasing these things. Several examples of nature are offered to show that the believer needs to trust God for the basic needs of life. Jesus offers the faithfulness of the Father as the basis for His children to trust Him.
Now, let’s look at the important key verse in this passage:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Jesus contrasts the pagans who are seeking THINGS with the believer who is to seek God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness. The question I ask as we begin our discussion of stewardship is simple: “Are you seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness?”
Recently, while traveling to Oklahoma, there were occasions where other drivers annoyed me. At one point, one driver really stirred my emotions. As I passed that driver I told my wife, “You know, there was a day when I would have cut back in front of him and really taught him a lesson. I’m glad I have matured beyond that.” However, even as I said that, the Holy Spirit convicted me that though I might have grown beyond the action, I still had the inclination within me and therefore have still failed to reach the level of patience that God would expect of me. In other words, I sinned just by thinking how I could “get even” with that driver. While I can easily overlook most drivers who make mistakes, act rudely, or endanger my life, I have to honestly say my heart is not always full of God’s righteousness towards these other drivers. Immediately, I said a quiet prayer asking God to continue to bring about His work in my heart that I might be able to overcome.
Is that your experience? In order to seek God’s righteousness in your life, you must recognize that as the prophet Isaiah said (Isaiah 64:6) that all of our own personal righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God. I cannot be seeing the righteousness of God if I am satisfied with my own personal level of righteousness. I could be satisfied that I did not act on my impulse, but I have to recognize the sinfulness of that impulse.
Now, you know I have to speak about tithing whenever I speak of stewardship. Let me urge you now to look into the cobwebs of Malachi 3. You know what I mean, that dusty old testament chapter that preachers and believers often avoid.
Malachi offers a supposed dialogue between the nation of Israel and God. Malachi, in dramatic prophetic fashion, provides both sides of the discussion in order to present spiritual truth. It is quite interesting to read and I urge you to take a few minutes (it is a short book, four fairly short chapters) to read this dialogue and ask yourself if some of the same attitudes of the Israelites are present in your life.
For now, however, Let’s read, beginning with verse 6.
6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
This is a powerful passage. This morning I want to preach only on the first part of it. The portion about the curse, and the promise of blessing is something I want you to see, consider, and pray over between now and next week. However, for now, I only want to really emphasize the first part of the passage that we just read.
God tells the people that they need to return to Him and they appear to be unaware that they have left Him. So they ask, “How can we return?” and God then brings up the concept of robbing Him.
This passage of Scripture has always placed an absurd picture in my mind. Can you imagine taking the biggest bore double-barreled shotgun or perhaps you would like to borrow my .44 magnum, which was at one time the most powerful handgun made—and then pointing it at the heavens and saying something utterly ridiculous like “Stick ‘em up, God!” Isn’t that absurd? That is the level of absurdity that God uses in these prophetic words when he says “Will a man rob God?”
I don’t want us to miss a key portion of this passage though. God says that He hasn’t changed and asks the people the return to Him. The first thing he brings up isn’t sexual immorality or drunkenness, it isn’t drug abuse or dishonesty. The first thing he brings up is stewardship. He tells the people that they haven’t been diligent in giving.
Some of you may see the direction I am heading. Often, one of the first areas, if not the very first area, in which the believer slips out of God’s will, is in the area of giving. He gets a bit sloppy in writing his tithe check, or setting aside his tithe for Sunday. The tithe becomes the “what’s left over” instead of PGF (remember that little abbreviation from earlier)-- How can giving God leftovers put God first? Do we neglect the tithe so that we can add to our material possessions, and thus become like the pagans, involved in chasing the things we can add to our lives? Do we fail to tithe because we don’t trust God (like the bird or the flowers) to feed and clothe us?
We may be able to avoid such terrible things as pornography, drunkenness, anger, malice, murder, etc. However, are we, as individual believers, falling away from God, and demonstrating that falling away by failing to be diligent in our giving.
By way of preview—let me introduce several ideas about tithing that we will be looking at in next week’s message. Don’t let these ideas frighten you, because we serve a good and wonderful God.
1) Tithing demonstrates faith in God’s provision.
If you aren’t tithing than you are not demonstrating faith in God’s provision. Instead, you are probably worrying about how to pay your bills or obtain some material possession.
2) A tithe is literally 1/10 (10%) of what we earn.
It is not whatever amount we feel comfortable in giving. It is a LITERAL portion- defined clearly.
3) When the believer fails to tithe then God’s responsibility to rebuke the devourer is minimized.
We will speak more about these things next Sunday.. but for now, I think it is important that you come to the place where you decide that you want to put God first. Does the way you give to God’s kingdom work, His church, demonstrate a willingness to Put Him first?
