I think there are three things that will determine the way we live and the way that we give:
Our perspective – how we not only look at things but how we see them.
Our priorities – what we place as of utmost importance in our lives (and, often, in our world).
Our personal choices – what we hang to, what we let go of; where we go, how we live, how we uplift or downplay our Christian faith, when to speak out and when to shut up, and so on.
I also think it’s always been this way, and that’s why God gave us that first, and most important, commandment then followed it with a warning about worshiping idols.
Listen again to God’s word:
Exodus 20:1-6
And God spoke all these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Why did give these commandments?
• The commandments were designed to lead Israel to a life of practical holiness.
• In them, people could see the nature of God and his plan for how they should live.
• The commands and guidelines were intended to direct the community to meet the needs of each individual in a loving and responsible manner.
The Israelites had just come from Egypt, a land of many idols and many gods. Because each god represented a different aspect of life, it was common to worship many gods in order to get the maximum number of blessings.
When God told his people to worship and believe in him, that wasn’t so hard for them-he was just one more god to add to the list. But when he said, "You shall have no other gods before me," that was difficult for the people to accept.
But if they didn’t learn that the God who led them out of Egypt was the only true God, they could not be his people-no matter how faithfully they kept the other nine commandments.
That’s why God made this his first commandment and emphasized it more than the others.
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
Letting God hold the central place in our lives keeps things from turning into gods.
Today we can allow many things to become gods to us.
Money, fame, work, or pleasure can become gods when we concentrate too much on them for personal identity, meaning, and security.
We probably don’t mean to. No one sets out with the intention of worshiping these things. But they can grow into gods that ultimately control our thoughts and energies by the amount of time we devote to them.
So you see, it becomes a matter of perspective, priorities and personal choices: How we see things; What we hold as important; How we live.
There’s another biblical word for this: STEWARDSHIP.
The concept of biblical stewardship is God’s wonderful way of asking us to see things differently, to weigh things differently, and to live differently.
If I look at how we practice stewardship as a church and as individual Christians, I don’t think we understand the concept of stewardship.
I don’t think we care enough about how our perspective, priorities and personal choices line up with God’s commandments.
I think we put a lot of things before God AND I think we’ve allowed a lot of idols in our lives.
I also think we need to be told that our perspective, priorities and personal choices are all out of whack!
We need to see things as God sees them, make the things of God first in our lives, and live according to God’s will, word and expectations.
PERSPECTIVE
My Perspective – This is my stuff; I own it and it belongs to me.
God’s Perspective – You own nothing; it comes from me; you are called to be my steward.
Concept of the steward.
1. This is not a lowly position.
2. Throughout biblical history, those who were wealthy had numerous servants; those who were the most trustworthy were elevated to the position of “steward.”
Genesis 39:3-6
Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned....So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,
3. From Joseph’s story we find three essential roles of the stewardship:
• Nothing he put his hands on belongs to him. But although he owned nothing, he’s entrusted with great wealth. Everything that belongs to his master has been placed under his control.
• He has no status or significance but he has been charged with great responsibility. Everything that has to do with running the house falls on his shoulders.
• He is a slave and has no freedom or rights, but as the chief steward he is free to make use of the master’s property and to manage his affairs as he sees fit. Nobody but the master has more power.
4. Further reading of Joseph’s story would show us that the defining quality of the good steward is trust. What does it mean to be a trustworthy steward?
• proving worthy of the confidence placed in you
• being faithful to your task
• resisting opportunities to take advantage of your position
Applying the concept of stewardship
Matthew 24:45-51
"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.”
God calls us to be “faithful and wise” servants; he calls us to the high place of stewardship in which entrusts all of his wealth to us – our homes, our families, our careers, our money, our possessions.
He expects us to remember that calling and to keep a proper perspective on this stuff of life!
One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.
The son answered:
"I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us and they have friends to protect them."
The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? It puts us in our place...and helps us keep God in His!
There’s a reason Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Keep that perspective.
PRIORITIES
Illus.: Herewith an Ann Landers column: Dear Ann: I’ve got to decide between the new car and getting engaged. I love the girl. But every night when I go to sleep I dream about the car. What should I do?
A simple truth: What we place as a priority is generally what we will worship.
A corollary to that truth: What we worship becomes our god.
In the Old Testament, people looked to idols for provision, meaning, significance, and identity. Worshipers bent their knees in submission and devotion to the idols they believed could save them, and they believed the more gods you worshiped, the more blessings you would receive. That’s why there was a god for everything from fire to fertility and weather to wisdom.
When the unfaithful Israelites turned to idolatry, God asked, “But where are your gods which you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah” (Jeremiah 2:28, NASB). But God made it clear that only He could save them. “You were not to know any god except Me, for there is no savior besides Me” (Hosea 13:4, NASB). His people were to worship Him alone.
Exodus 20:2-5
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol . . . You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
God hates idolatry!
What happened when Israel refused to worship God alone and turned to the worship of other gods, idols?
Destruction, plagues, famine, war, captivity. It wasn’t pretty! God took his peoples’ infidelity seriously and his response was severe.
We know the words of the old hymn – “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it: prone to leave the one I love.”
Our hearts are prone to wander.
We must continually ask ourselves, “Who or what is ruling my thoughts and behavior: the Lord or an idol?” and “What are my priorities?”
Whenever we place other things before God we are indulging in idolatry and idolatry drives us to seek life from false gods, but we come away dry and empty because they are never capable of providing it.
If we devote ourselves to knowing God more intimately and place him as first in our lives then we will be less likely to buy into the lies of false gods when they promise what only He can deliver.
Stacy Padrick, (Discipleship Journal): Only worshiping [God] will satisfy our soul’s deepest hunger for the food we’ve been craving in idols. Only in worshiping God, and God alone, can our hearts finally rest. --
1. To what did you devote most of your time in the past week?
2. Where did you expend the most energy?
3. On what did you spend the most money?
4. When you let your mind wander, where does your attention usually travel?
5. What needs might you be trying to meet that could be better met in your relationship with God
PERSONAL CHOICES
The lifestyle most modeled in the culture we live in is the lifestyle of “Mine” and “More.”
You know – I’ve got mine but I want more.
Donald J. Shelby (Santa Monica, California) tells of participating in the annual Shopping Spree sponsored by the Salvation Army. With funds provided by donors who make the event possible, underprivileged children were allowed to shop, within a certain dollar limit, at a local Sears store. Community leaders were matched with individual children, and instructed to guide and assist the child in filling a shopping list which he or she brought from home. It was a delightful experience! One little boy. had his arms loaded with what he had selected, but he had come upon a large-sized item which he wanted very much. What was he to do? Take that item, but his arms were full? Should he give up what he had chosen and go for this other item? Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes as he had to choose.
We’re all too familiar with that conundrum.
We have all that we need but then there’s that one more thing, and as soon as we start really wanting it, it becomes all that we can think about until we have to make a choice: Do we let go of all we have just to have that one item we’re obsessing about?
This is how most debt happens.
This is even how divorce happens.
And this is how spiritual death happens, too!
To live a life of mine and more means that we will choose to let God mean less and less in our lives.
That road leads to destruction every time...especially when we know better.
We know better but we lie to ourselves – it’s only this one thing or this one time.
We deceive ourselves into accepting our wrong choices as justifiable and good – my old one (car, home, spouse) is falling apart; God knows we live in a society where image matters.
We tell ourselves, and God, that we’ll try harder next time – to give more, to live better, to even sacrifice, but we don’t.
I read you the first part Jesus’ parable from Matthew 24, about being a faithful and wise servant, but now listen to the second half which is a warning against straying from good stewardship because of bad personal choices:
Matthew 24:48-51
But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ’My master is staying away a long time,’ 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
WHOA! That’s harsh.
But that’s how important it is to God that we make good choices.
• Do we try to own or do we try to manage (be good stewards)?
• Do we live for ourselves and what we can grab or do we live for God and those we can reach?
• Do we obey our own inclinations and keep our riches to ourselves or do we obey God and be prepared to give everything (which includes ourselves) away (it’s God’s anyway and he can do what He wants with it, right?)
God wants us to make good choices, choices based on what we know to be true in him, that he is trustworthy and true and is totally capable of meeting our every need?
God wants us to live with Him alone as our God, placing Him above everything else in our lives, making Him our center of worship and letting it show in how we live and how we give.
That is stewardship at its best, practicing God’s perspective, making God our priority, choosing God over all the other ways we could live.
What will you do? How will you live?
