SALIENT STEWARDS
TITUS 1:7
There was once a pastor who was frustrated because of one man who always seemed to fall asleep during the sermon. So the pastor devised a trick, a way he though he could embarrass the man so as to get him to break this habit of nodding off during the sermon. Near the end of a sermon concerning "hell", the Pastor, in a normal voice, said to the congregation, "Any one here today who wants to go to hell" - - then he raised his voice to a much louder volume - - "PLEASE STAND UP!"
Now of course this woke up the sleeping parishioner who quickly jumped to his feet. After collecting himself for a moment, the man then looked at the pastor and said, "Preacher, I don’t know why I’m standing, but it appears that you and I are both in the same boat."
This morning I would like to turn right to the book of Titus chapter 1, that is page 1032 in your pew Bibles. As you turn there let us remember that beginning in verse 6 Paul begins to give the qualifications of an elder in the church. Which would be our modern day pastors and in the case of this church our deacons.
Notice in verse 6 Paul begins by dealing with the elder home life. He is to be blameless, that is he is to be above reproach. He is to have but one wife, which is to say he is to practice faithfulness, and be a godly husband. A husband that loves his wife as Christ loved the church. He is also to be an parent worthy of honor. One who as his children in control. Children who are not unruly and respect the rules of the home.
Today as we move on to verse 7, we begin to look into the area of the personal life of the elder. Remember that if one is an elder in the church then these areas of his life are to be scrutinized. Please look at verse 7 as I read that passage;
"For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,"
Now the Greek word for bishop is "EPIS-KO-POS" and the basic meaning of the word is "overseer". This is the same church office Paul has in mind in verse 5 when he speaks of the elders, they are interchangeable terms. And again these words "elders" and "Bishop" refer to our present day pastors and elders and what we call deacons in this church.
In the New Testament churches there was not the hierarchy that we see in many churches today.
Today however I want to focus on the next phrase, "Blameless, as a steward of God".
Now we spent one Sunday a few weeks ago on the word blameless. And basically it does not mean that one must be perfect but that one must be above reproach, above serious accusation. Within the Word of God we are all called on to be "blameless".
In our passage for today we see why the elder is to be blameless, because he is "a steward of God". Which literally speaking states "a steward belonging to God".
You see a steward is one who oversees the property of another. Paul is here using a metaphor drawn from the secular world. He has in mind a manager of a house hold or estate. A steward does not own but manages all that the master puts in his charge. The most famous steward I can think of was Joseph who was the steward to Potiphar, he was given complete control over all Potiphar had.
Now God has give charge of his church to the elders of that church. They are the managers of the household of God. This church is not my church, it does not belong to me, it is not Harley’s church, it is not your church, it is God’s church.
When I use the term church I am not only referring to the building, but more importantly I am speaking of the people. Those of us who have professed Christ as Lord and Saviour we belong to God. The church belongs to God.
In the Scripture we are referred to as His sheep, and he is our shepherd. We are called His slaves, because he is our Master. We are His subjects, as he is our King. We are His servants, as He is our Lord, WE are His body in which He is called the Head of that body.
We can see that over and over again the Scripture point out to us that we belong to God, we have be purchased by God.
Listen to 1 Cor. 6:20; "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."
God bought us with the blood of His Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Bishops, elders, pastors, deacons, whatever you want to call them, have been given the grave responsibility of overseeing that which belongs to God. That is a great responsibility, and with the responsibility comes great blessing, but also greater accountability,
As James 3:1 tells us; "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers(as the leaders of the church should be as we will see later on in Titus), knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment."
While James states that not many will become teachers I want to remind the gentlemen of this church, you should all desire to be deacons in this church, 1 Tim 3:1; "This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work." Let every man desire that good work!
So we see that the leaders of the church are to be blameless because they are "Stewards of God". Overseers of what belongs to God. But we can go deeper than that.
Because while the elders of the church ate called to a specific stewardship with God, every born again Christian is called to be a general steward of God.
Let us understand that all we have belongs to God. Everything we see belongs to God. Listen to Col. 1:16;
"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him."
Everything is created by God, for God. As creator He owns everything! We are simply stewards of what God has given to us. That includes our children, our homes, out cars, our golf clubs, our money, all our stuff, it all belongs to God. Everything. We are just stewards of it.
Let us keep reminding ourselves of that fact. We are stewards of what belongs to God. We simply managers of something that as been entrusted to us. You in reality own nothing!
Realize that as Christian stewards we must live by faith and not by sight. As our Lord states in Matthew chapter 6; "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"
As Christian stewards we are not worry about what we have or what we do not have. God will give to us what we need to get by. Why he give more to some and not to others I do not know, but I need to just concern myself with being a good steward of what He has given to me.
Being a Christian steward means making Christ Lord of live. It me submitting to the fact He is Lord. That He does own all, and control all. Making Christ Lord mean you realize that all that you do have really belongs to the Lord and as your Lord you are given the responsibility of taking care of it and using it wisely.
Being a Christian Steward means realizing the God if He so desires can and HAS THE RIGHT TO take it all away in a second! I brought up my friends wife for prayer this morning. 28 years old and dying from cancer. Fred her husband, and I were at one time very close friends. We used to go out and party together. But after I got saved our lifestyles became so different that we kind of drifted apart. In fact I have to spoken to Fred in about 4 years.
A few years ago Fred and his uncle started a hardware store. His uncle who was an old farmer, who never married, owned a lot of land, and had saved a great deal of money, somewhere I guess around a million dollars. And when he died he left it all to Fred. But with his wife lying in hospital dying of brain cancer I do not imagine all that money means as much to Fred as it once did.
You see God can take back anything He wants. Our family, our friends, our money, our very lives, it all belongs to Him. Let us realize that. My prayer is that Fred and Liz both realize that and come to know Jesus as Saviour.
In simple terms "Stewardship is what we do with what we have".
Now what does stewardship involve for us. I have already stated it involves all things but let us be a little more specific.
It involves our time. Time once passed is gone forever. We must view time as an opportunity, and opportunity to bring God glory. To often we waste our time at amusements, waste our time sleeping, waste our time doing nothing, when we ought to be praying, reading God’s Word, or serving God in some capacity.
Now I am not saying that we should not do things we enjoy, or that we should not sleep, what I am saying is that we should not let those things crowd out God. Because time belongs to God, He created it, and we are not being good stewards of our time if we allow it to slip away.
God will hold us accountable for how we do spent our time, neglecting time with Him, neglecting time serving others. Let us be good steward of the time God give to us, realize that time could come to an end at any time.
Being a good steward also involves our money. Now you all know that I very rarely speak on the subject of giving. But God wants us to be givers, God does not want money, He wants givers.
2 Cor. 9:7; "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver."
God wants you to give to His work, He wants you to give from your heart. Not grudgingly, not complaining about it, but cheerfully. Now I am not going to tell you how much you have to give. I am not going to tell you that you have to give 10%, or 15% or whatever. But if God has purposed in your heart to give 10% then you should. If He has purposed in your heart to give 15% or 20% then you should.
But the whole point is you need to be good steward of the finances that the Lord as blessed you with, regardless of how much you make.
Understand as well that that is just the start. Being a good steward of your money is not only what you give to the church, to the work of God, but what do you do with the rest of it. Do you spent it foolishly or wisely. To you spent it just on yourself or do you help others as well. Being a good steward not only includes what you give to God, but that portion you keep for your own use.
Stewardship also involves our talents and gifts. We need to understand that God as our creator has blessed us with certain talents. Some are good at playing the piano, some can sing well, some can play a certain sport well, there are all different types of talents that we have from God.
God expects us to use those talents he has in trusted us with not for our own benefit for His glory. For His honor. If you are gifted in some way that can be a benefit to the God’s church then you have a responsibility to use it.
Now all of us do not have talents that we can use in serving the body of Christ. While I may have some talent in playing golf, that talent does not really do the church any good.
While we may not have a talent that we can serve the church, every believer does have a gift from the Holy Spirit that they can serve the church. If fact that is the very purpose God blesses us with Spiritual gifts.
Listen to 1 Cor 12:4-7; "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:"
There is not one believer here who has not received one or more gifts from the Holy Spirit, and to be a good steward of those gifts we need to realize that they are given for "the profit of all". God does not give them to us for our own benefit but for the benefit of the other members of the body, for the glory of God.
Talents which are natural abilities, and gifts which are supernatural gifts, are a trust from God. And we will be held accountable for the misuse or nonuse of them.
The Lord speaks these words in Luke 12:18; "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."
The Lord’s point is that what God has given you He will require you to us it. It is not a request that you use the gifts you are given to edify the body, it is a command.
Let me ask you if you gave your child a very precious gift and that child ignored it how would you feel. If they just refused to use it. While you may not be angry with the child your would feel hurt.
This reminds me of hat that Darleen made me for golfing. She bought a hat and then crossed stitched this set of clubs on it with the word Fore going up and down. Now I have never worn that hat on the golf course. Maybe when I’m in my 70’s (if I make it that long), I will wear it. But more then once Darleen has asked why I did not wear that hat. She felt bad because she had given me a gift and I never used it.
God is insulted when He gives us gifts and talents and we refuse to use them. And when we do refuse to use them for His glory and the profit of the body of Christ, we show that we are not being good stewards of God.
So those are just some of things which stewardship involves. I know we could add a lot more to the list.
In looking at those things we can see that a good steward has certain traits, traits we all ought to have.
A good steward is a responsible. I would challenge you to read Matthew 23:14-30 and the parable of the talents to get and understanding of what a good steward is. One who can be depended upon. One who responds to others in need, much like the good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10.
A good steward is a surrendered person. Surrendered to the authority and will of Jesus Christ as the Lord and master of their lives.
A good steward is a humble and emptied person. Who follows the example of humility set by our Lord Jesus of whom scripture states in Phil chapter 2; "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."
How far are we willing to humble ourselves to serve God and each other, how far are we willing to place other first? To the point our Lord did?
A good steward is a purchased and sanctified person. Listen to two verse Hebrews 9:14; "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
1 John 1:7; "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
It is the blood of Christ that not only cleanses us from all sin, but it will "cleanse your conscience for dead works to serve the living God", or be a good Steward.
To be a good steward you must place your faith in the cleaning power of the blood of Jesus Christ. You must realize that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, in need of salvation, and that salvation, that forgiveness, that eternal life can only come through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. May prayer is that each person here as made such a profession to God.
In closing we have seen that elders need to be blameless stewards of God, but the Scripture also testify that we all need to be blameless stewards of God.
So ask yourself what kind of steward am I? Am in a good manager of the things the Lord has blessed me with, the things He has entrusted me with?
When you stand before the judgement seat of the Lord what words will you. Will it be as Matthew 25:30 states concerning the unprofitable steward; "And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Or will you hear the sweetest words that any saint can when they stand face to face with the Lord, "His lord said to him, ’Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord."
Those are the word I want to hear and pray they are the words you want to hear. But what are you doing to make them be realized? Let us do all we can through the strength of God, the strength that comes through the blood of Christ to those precious words, and to God be the Glory!
LET US PRAY
