Stewardship is a Choice Series: "Choose Your Model" (Personal) 1 of 4
Adapted from Dr. John C. Maxwell
January 4, 2004 Chester First Baptist Church, Chester, Illinois
Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
A How many would raise their hand and say, "I have special abilities, talents, resources, gifts and I know that God is the source of these good things."?
a In your bulletin there is a laminated card that is expresses what our stewardship month is all about.
b The card reads "Stewardship is a Choice: God has given me special gifts and resources to help me become the person He intends for me to be. That is His gift to me. I must choose to manage these gifts and resources for His glory and not my own. That is my gift to Him."
B I’m not concerned about God giving us talents, resources, & gifts.
a He’s already done that! (I’m not worried about God doing his part.)
b My concern this month is not if God will do his part: it is what are we doing with those resources that he has given us. That’s a choice.
We are all different (God made us that way.)
a Different likes, dislikes, talents, gifts, resources, interests! THANK God!
b He has gifted us all! The question is "What are you going to do with what God has given you?"
LISTENING GUIDE:
Stewardship defined: The management of my God-given resources for His glory and the good of others.
A There at least three different perspectives concerning possessions:
Communism: Instrument of the state and the individual has no rights to tithe on true possessions.
Capitalism: What a man can rightfully purchase and control.
Christianity: God owns everything.
Two different forms of government based on opposite views of ownership
Christianity, we’re just borrowing God’s stuff, not mine at all.
B Too many of us view our blessings & possessions like Dennis the Menace.
a Dennis is leaving the church with his father, and Dennis is reaching up to shake the preachers and to the embarrassment of his father, Dennis asks; "Pastor, what are you going to do with that quarter?"
b Dennis thought, like a lot of us do, that what his dad gave in the offering belonged to his dad
C Not only what you give in the offering plate is Gods, so is what’s in your pocket.
a 10% belongs to Him, and 90% mind. (No, no, no, no!!!)
b AMEN?
T.S.: This morning I want to look at four biblical models of giving. 2 bad & 2 good.
Luke 12
I The stewards who does little with much. (Bad Model)
(This morning I’ll cover a lot of scripture, we’ll read about four models, two bad have four commonalities I’ve observed.
A Self was given number one consideration. (What am I getting for me?)
B Each had an opportunity to help others.
C Each made a bad decision
D Each paid for that bad decision.
Luke 12:16-21 (Wealthy Farmer) NOTICE HOW MANY PERSONAL PRONOUNS
A The farmer made a terrible mistake! (What will I do with my goods.)
a Opportunity to help people. (Didn’t have to store, he could have shared.)
b Notice: After the farmer made a bad decision, God called him a fool.
*That night, God said, "Tonight, I need your soul."
B I think this story could have turned out different.
a If this man would have used his resources differently, God wouldn’t have called him a fool.
b Instead, "Well done.!" Instead of requiring his soul, he would have had lived a long life and watch God bless people through him.
HE WAS A FOOL! WHY? HE DID LITTLE WITH MUCH!!
Luke 16:19-31 (Same Story: Little with much)
A A rich man with much and at his gate was a poor man with nothing.
a In this life the rich man had everything and the poor man had nothing (In the after life, the roles reverse!)
b The rich man realizes we only live for a short time, he begs Abraham to go and preach a stewardship message like your hearing this morning!
Mark 10, there is another example of someone who does little with much. MK 10.17-25
Two reasons why it’s hard for a person with a lot to be good stewards.
1 Too many options. (People w/ means can be a lot of things, do a lot of things, have a lot of options. Because we live in a "me first" world, it’s easy to chose the wrong option.)
2 Too much control. (Wealth equals Power. Have hard time letting go and letting God control. Jesus is their co-pilot because their certaintely not going to let him have complete control!)
T.S.: Most of you are with me right now! "Amen Pastor! Give it to them rich folks! They ought to be giving money away!" Your trains a coming. I’m going to get all of us this morning!
II Second Model: a steward who does much with little.
(The world may despise little, but God doesn’t. God is into cups of water, two pennies from a widow, a donut or a free stamp from a church.)
Hebrews 6.10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
John 6:5-13 (Much with little)
Temptation:
1 Barely enough for our own needs. (How can I help others when I can barely help myself.)
2 Giving my little to a needy world won’t amount to much. (Drop in the bucket)
If the widow who put two mites in the first bank of Jerusalem @ 4% semi-annual intrest should have made 4 sextellion 8 quintillion dollars. $480,000,000,000,000,000,000.00!! 48 with 19 zeros after it!
A If the world can compound money that way, how much more can our God compound it when we become good stewards, start investing into a spiritual kingdom.
a The first thing we see in heaven will be Jesus.
b The second thing we see in heaven will a video of how our stewardship had blessed those we’ve never met. (Good stewards with the little possessions God has given us.)
*Money you gave in lottie, annie, salvation army, etc.
*Donuts, stamps, necklaces, etc.
B Nearly a hundred years ago, a shoe store salesmen, Kimbell, lead a young shoe clerk to the Lord, D.L Moody. Moody lead FB Mayor to the Lord at a crusade, who led J. Wilder Chapman, Billy Sunday, M. Ham, who led Billy Graham who has led thousands to Christ, and the cycle continues.
a Kimbell is in heaven. One day, we’ll see his video!
b Every time somebody walks an aisle at a crusade, Kimbell gets another reward because he was a good steward!
III The third model (Bad): The steward who does little with little.
(We’ve talked about the steward who does little with much, much with little)
Matthew 25:24-30 (The master gave a servant one talent before he went away ona trip.)
V.25 God doesn’t want us to give him back what he’s given us! He wants us to compound it, multiply it, add to it, grow it!!
*This bad steward got one, and gave one back!!!
Four Observations:
1 We are accountable regardless of our gifts. (Doesn’t matter how many or how few gifts we have. Some think because they don’t have much that God doesn’t expect much.
*God expected something from the servant with 5, 2, and 1!
2 God expects us to multiple our gifts.
3 The sin of doing nothing is a great sin to God.
4 How we use our gift today determines how many gifts we receive tomorrow.
The person who does little with little has two temptations that prevent him from being a good steward.
1 The gift seems insignificant. (No big deal. Despise instead of cultivate the gift)
*If I double it, it’s still only two. OR He knew that the other servants got more and got mad!
*If I can’t sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be on church council, I will go over here and pout, and do nothing!
2 When I receive more blessings I will start giving.
*No you won’t! I hear this all the time!
*When I make more money I’ll be a better giver. (No You Won’t!)
*Being a good steward has nothing to do with the amount you have!
Good steward of a little will be a good steward with much.
Bad steward of little will be a bad steward with much.
T.S.: Luke 16:10-11 Good steward of a little will be a good steward with much.
"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?
IV The fourth model: A steward who does much with much.
Matthew 25. 19-23 NOTICE: God increases our resources AFTER we have proven to be good stewards.
Review:
2 bad examples (Little with much, little with little) Bad example of rich man, poor man.
2 good examples (much with little, much with much) Good ex. of rich man, poor man.
Conclusion:
The bible wants us to understand that stewardship has nothing to do with your economic level.
Three words summerize the difference between good and bad stewardship.
1 Ownership
*Those who were good stewards understood God owned it all.
*Those who were bad stewards thought they owned it all.
2 Trust
*Good stewards trusted God with their resources, the bad could not!
*The rich man left Jesus sadly because he had money? No. He couldn’t trust God with his possessions.
3 Attitude
*Good stewards=Good attitudes
*Bad stewards=Bad attitudes
Chose your model:
little w/ much, (Wealthy Farmer, Rich man & Lazarus)
much w/ little, (Boy with the two fish and five loaves of bread)
Little w/ little, (Servant w/ one talent)
much w/ much (Servant w/ five, two)
Take out your Trust Account Transfer
A God has blessed you with a resource, talent (Baby sitting, cookie baking, etc.)
a Write your name & write their name.
b On the back, write down what your going to do for them.
B Allow time for congregation to fill out T.A.T
a have them bow heads and give evangelistic appeal.
b After appeal, begin invitation. Allow people to give TAT during invitation if the person they are going to TAT are present.
