NOTE: The outline and 3 of the illustrations are taken from the very helpful sermon “STEWARDSHIP IS LORDSHIP” by Gerald Flury from September 2002.
LORDSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP - Proverbs 3:5-10
INTRODUCTION: When we think of stewardship, we often consider it merely as a matter of our giving of money to God through the church. While the giving of tithes and offerings is an important aspect of stewardship, it is secondary. Stewardship is a reflection of my relationship to my God and my Savior. It is the way I what God has given me. It is the management of my God-given resources for His glory & for the good of others. Proverbs 3:5-10 contains a pattern for stewardship that asserts loudly and clearly “Stewardship is Lordship!”
I. MY HEART – HIS HEART (“Trust in the LORD with all your heart”)
At the heart of every true act of stewardship, every work of ministry, every acceptable act of worship is the heart, a heart close to God.
PR 23:26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways.
The Hebrew "leb" is a broad, inclusive term. In our culture we tend to divide a human being into isolated functions, such as the spiritual, the intellectual, the emotional, the rational, and the volitional. But Hebrew thought maintains the unity of the person. It looks at a human being as a whole and expresses all of these and other inner human functions by use of the word "leb". In the OT the heart is thus the conscious self--the inner person with every function that make a person human.
The Greek "kardia" is used in the OT sense, with all the meanings found there. The heart of man is his very person: his psychological core. The conscious awareness each of us has that makes us persons; and the spiritual dimension of responsiveness or unresponsiveness to God are both expressed by the word "heart."
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart”
Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Are your will and emotions and thinking all directed to Christ? Are they His? If not, He is not really Lord. We need to give Him our all.
Vince Lombardi believed that mental attitude counted for 75 percent of the ingredients of winning. Everyone wants to win, but most people don’t believe they can, and therefore give up before they have tried. The more you believe you can win, the harder you will work. The harder you work, the more you will believe you can win, and the longer you will persist until you succeed. --Ari Kiev, A Strategy for Success (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1977), p. 39.
To him it was a matter of real heart.
We all know about Cal Ripken Jr. and his remarkable string of consecutive baseball games. NBA fans recognize the name of A.C. Green as the active player with the longest run of games played without missing one, and they know that he is third all-time on the ironman list.
But have you ever heard of Frances Cameron? What she did makes both Ripken’s and Green’s records pale in comparison, simply because what she did has eternal significance. She’s not a shortstop or a power forward; she’s a Sunday school teacher. And her consecutive class record spans over seventy-two years. As Steve Farrar writes in hid book, Point Man: “She’s been studying her lesson and presenting God’s word to her students ever since Herbert Hoover was President, before Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs, and before there was television, modern Israel, the United Nations, and night baseball.” -- Steve Farrar with Dave Branon, Point Man: Taking New Ground (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1996).
Jesus clearly had her heart.
II. MY MIND – HIS MIND (and lean not on your own understanding)
The Bible teaches that sinful humanity has lost the ability to perceive truth about God. The natural mind is hostile to God (Ro 8:6-7).
Ro 8:6-7 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
The capacity to perceive has become corrupt and futile through man’s choice not to respond to God’s self-revelation. Even the organ of perception is twisted and darkened, alienated from God.
The solution is found only in a renewal of the mind, a renewal that comes as a result of a faith commitment to Jesus. Only when God completely changes our thinking are we able by faith to respond to the gospel & begin to grasp reality as God knows and has revealed it.
So Paul can say, as a Christian...(2 Corinthians 10:5) "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” That is a steward’s job.
This past week held Martin Luther King Holiday. Many southern Christians had a blind spot. And sometimes that inability to accept other human beings as persons of value led to tragedy. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his book STRENGTH TO LOVE, gave an unforgettable example:
A few years ago an automobile, carrying several members of a Negro basketball team, had an accident on a southern highway. Three of the young men were severely injured.
An ambulance was immediately called, but, on arriving at the place of the accident, the driver, who was white, said without apology that it was not his policy to service Negroes, and he drove away.
The driver of a passing automobile graciously drove the boys to the nearest hospital, but the attending physician belligerently said, "We don’t take n . . . . in this hospital."
When the players finally arrived at a "colored" hospital in a town some fifty miles from the scene of the accident, one was dead and the other two died thirty and fifty minutes later respectively. Probably all three could have been saved if they had been given immediate treatment. This happened in the Bible belt where those involved would no doubt say they were church-attending Christians.
After the Sept. 11th attacks, Muslim citizens across the country reported instances of harassment, and even violence. And yet there are many stories of compassion winning out over prejudice in our communities. In Alexandria, Virginia, the community responded with an outpouring of kindness when they learned that a Muslim bookstore in their area had been vandalized. People called with their support. They sent cards and flowers to the bookstore owner. A businessman, who asked to remain anonymous, paid to replace the window. The owner of the Muslim bookstore, commenting on the community’s support, said, "This is like another family I have . . . I want to thank everybody." -- Caryle Murphy, "For Muslims, benevolence is prevailing over backlash," THE WASHINGTON POST, Oct. 6, 2001, A1. Cited in HOMILETICS, Mar. 2002, p. 38.
A psychologist has noted that although the infant cries before he smiles, and experiences pain before pleasure, even in the act of birth itself, he does not begin his life with fear of others. That has to be taught.
Dr. Herbert Farmer puts it well: "If God is love, then the lovelessness of men must bring dire results. Men cannot go against the grain of the universe and not get splinters. The state of the world today does not prove that God is not love; rather it helps to prove that He is."
Stewardship involves allowing God to work in us. Tozer said, “To do his gracious work God must have the intelligent cooperation of his people. If we would think God’s thoughts, we must learn to think continually of God.”
I Corinthians 2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
Dear friends, we need to people who pray and read the Bible each and every day; who seek to think Christ’s thoughts.
Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" (Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus)
Philippians 4:8-9 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—If anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things… and the God of peace will be with you."
III. MY WAYS – HIS WAYS (in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.)
Your way, path or direction—Is the direction of your life consistent with the direction that God wants for your life?
Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that “Salvation is free, ... but discipleship will cost you your life.” Narrow is the way, and few that find it, said Jesus.
Like the person who wrote: "$3 WORTH OF GOD"
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
[SOURCE: Citation: Wilbur Rees, Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 1.]
Psalms 128:1 "Blessed are all who fear the LORD; who walk in his ways.” And Proverbs 16:7 "When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him."
There is peace, prosperity, and safety in being in the center of God’s will and walking in His ways.
The pioneer missionary to Africa, David Livingstone told how he was chased up a small tree and besieged by lions. He said the tree was so small that he was barely out of reach of the lions. He said they would stand on their back feet and roar and shake the little tree, and that he could feel the hot breath of the lions as they sought him. "But," he stated, "I had a good night and felt happier and safer in that little tree besieged by lions, in the jungles of Africa, in the will of God, than I would have been out of the will of God in England." There is one safe and happy place, and that is in the will of God. [William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations."]
Haggai 1:5-7 "Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
IV. MY CLEANLINESS – HIS CLEANLINESS (Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.)
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
The only way to have a powerful life is to fill it with Christ. His purity and holiness will flow into ours, and then overflow into blessing for other people.
On the morning of September 11, Jeannie Braca switched on the television to check the weather report, only to hear that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Jeannie’s husband, Al, worked as a corporate bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. His office was on the 105th floor of Tower One.
Al had survived the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and had even helped a woman with asthma escape from the building. Jeannie knew that Al would do the same thing this time, “I knew he would stop to help and minister to people,” she said, “but I never thought for a minute that he wouldn’t be coming home!”
A week later, like so many others who were in that building, Al’s body was found in the rubble. Al’s wife, Jeannie, and his son Christopher were devastated! Then the reports began to trickle in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent a final e-mail to loved ones saying that a man was leading people in prayer. A few referred to Al by name. Al’s family learned that Al had indeed been ministering to people during the attack!
When Al realized that they were all trapped in the building and would not be able to escape, Al shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer. This news came as no surprise to Al’s wife, Jeannie. For years, she and Al had been praying for the salvation of these men and women. According to Jeannie, Al hated his job and couldn’t stand the environment. It was a world so out of touch with his Christian values, but he wouldn’t quit. Al was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness, and although Al would not have put it this way, to be a hero! Al was not ashamed of Christ and Christ’s words…and he paid the price of taking up his cross daily. Al shared his faith with his co-workers….many of whom sarcastically nicknamed him “The Rev.”
And on that fateful day…on September 11, in the midst of the chaos, Al’s co-workers looked to him—-and Al delivered! At the same time, Al too tried to get a phone call through to his family. He asked an MCI operator to contact his family. “Tell them that I love them,” he said. It took the operator more than a month to reach the Bracas, but the message brought them much-needed comfort. “The last thing my dad did involved the two things most important to him—God and his family,” his son Christopher told a writer for Focus on The Family. “He loved to lead people to Christ. That takes away a lot of the hurt and the pain.” SOURCE: compiled by Kenneth Sauer from "A Light in the Darkness" by Christin Ditchfield. Focus on the Family Magazine, September 2002.
My cleanliness – His cleanliness.
V. MY POSSESSION S – HIS POSSESSIONS (Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your increase)
Malachi 3:7-10 " 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?’
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, `How do we rob you?’
"In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. 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.”
We are to use everything as if it belongs to God. The truth is it does! You and I are merely his stewards.
“There is no portion of our time that is our time, and the rest God’s; there is no portion of money that is our money, and the rest God’s money. It is all his; he made it all, gives it all, and he has simply trusted it to us for his service. A servant has two purses, the master’s and his own, but we have only one.” Adolphe Monod (1800-1856)
It is gratitude and love that should motivate us as stewards.
But it seems to be human nature to forget to say, "Thank you."
Tony Bland writes that Samuel Leibowitz, a brillant criminal lawyer, saved 78 people from the electric chair; not one thanked him. Art King had the radio program, "Job Center of the Air." He supposedly found jobs for 2500 people, of whom, only ten ever thanked him. And an official of the post office, in charge of the Dead Letter Box in Washington, D.C., reported, one year, that he had received hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus" asking him to bring many things, but after Christmas, only one letter came to the box thanking Santa Claus for bringing the toys asked for.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 "Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping (proportion) with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
A pastor named Bob Russell tells of “A handful of people went on a mission trip to Eastern Europe. Upon returning, they said that they were really impressed with the dedication of the Christians in Eastern Europe. Christians there don’t have very much, but they believe they should tithe. They think that’s God’s standard. But the government of the country they were in is repressive, and they are allowed to give only 2.5 percent of their income to charitable organizations. They’re trying to minimize the opportunity for any anti-government organization. So the Christians in that country are searching for loopholes in the law, so that they’ll be able to give 10 percent. These believers have less, and they’re looking for a way to give 10 percent. We have more, and we’re free to give as we please. In fact, we get a tax break by doing so, and we’re often looking for loopholes in the Scripture to avoid doing it. What an indictment.” – adapted from Bob Russell, "Take the Risk,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 143.
Do you tithe? Do you give 10%?
Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Some say, dedicate the heart and the money will follow; but Jesus put it the other way around. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." He seems to indicate that if your treasure is dedicated, your heart will be dedicated. If your treasure is not, your heart is not either.
I’ll be talking more about stewardship in next few weeks. We have just received a wonderful, larger bequest – but it is not, cannot be our main source of income. It just won’t last. We must be good stewards of it—and all we have—for Christ’s sake.
In his book, "I Shall Not Want", Robert Ketchum tells about a Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire twenty-third psalm. A little four-and-a-half-year-old girl was among those who raised their hands. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm.
The little girl came to the podium, faced the class, made a little bow, and said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want." She then bowed again and sat down.
She may have overlooked a few verses, but I think that little girl captured David’s heart in Psalm 23. The idea throughout the psalm is that we are utterly contented in the shepherd’s care and there is nothing else that we desire. SOURCE: Alan Smith in "The Lord is My Shepherd" on www.sermoncentral.com.
CONCLUSION: 1 Corinthians 4:2 declares of stewards, "Now it is required (in stewards) that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful."
Every one of us will give an accounting to Christ for our stewardship of those things, which He has entrusted to us. Is your heart his heart? Is your mind His mind? Are your ways His way? Is your cleanliness His cleanliness? Are your possessions His possessions?
On that accounting day, will Christ say to you and I, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s joy!” (Matthew 25:23)
