Faith Fundamental Baptist Church
September 3, 2004
¡§Understanding Stewardship¡¨
Genesis 39:1-6
INTRODUCTION:
Our new theme has been introduced to us last Wednesday. For the month of September, our theme would be ¡§The God of Creation,¡¨ putting an emphasis on stewardship. I¡¦ll be having a series of messages about stewardship.
If you¡¦re a Christian for a long time, the word stewardship is somewhat familiar to you. Over the years, what has the word stewardship impressed into your hearts?
Let¡¦s be honest, in the past years of our Christian life experience, when we hear the word stewardship, is our reaction more on positive or negative? Is our reaction more of hiding our wallets because we know that it will involve our money? The word stewardship maybe has a negative setback on our part. And sometimes most Christians think that when the theme is stewardship, the church is trying to raise some funds. Let me tell you that we¡¦re not raising some funds, actually God is blessing our financial needs. As Rev. Edpao said, ¡§we¡¦re not raising funds, but we¡¦re building Christian character.¡¨
Listen to this, Satan can take a word intended by God to be positive, joyous, excitedly faith challenging to something negative by deceitfully changing and narrowing the definition of the word. And when Satan does this, he robs us an opportunity to experience God more (knowing who He is and His ways).
ILLUSTRATION:
To look at is one thing; to see is another.
To understand is a third.
To learn from what you understand is still something else.
But to act on what you learn is what really matters.
It is my desire and prayer that after this series of messages from the Word of God, we¡¦ll be able to see what stewardship is, understand what it means, to learn what we understand, and most especially to act. An author said that ¡§an appreciation of Christian stewardship gives you the freedom to enjoy what you have.¡¨
What is a steward? What is stewardship all about? Tonight we¡¦ll try to look at the focus or the center of stewardship. What does being a steward really mean?
In the Bible, the practice of stewardship is seen in the context of ancient Eastern household. I believe that one of the persons who exercised good stewardship in the Old Testament is none other than Joseph. So tonight, we¡¦ll try to learn some principles from Genesis 39:1-6 for us to better understand what a steward is or the focus of stewardship.
I. A Good Steward is Reliable (vv.4,5) assignment
We all know the story. In chapter 37, Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Ismaelite merchants for 20 shekels of silver. Then he was brought to Egypt and was sold as a slave as well. Now here in chapter 39, we can see the story of how Joseph became a steward of Potiphar, a prominent court official and high-ranking officer of Egypt, perhaps captain of the royal bodyguard.
So Joseph lived in the house of his Egyptian master (v.2). It¡¦s amazing how Potiphar took notice of Joseph. The Bible says that he saw that the Lord was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did. When Potiphar saw that Joseph can be trusted, Joseph found favor in the eyes of Potiphar and became his attendant (v.4).
Now I would like to stop for a moment and reflect on a principle that we can see here about stewardship. Do you think when God would look at us and see what we do with what was entrusted to us, do you think we will find favor in His eyes? But you know what, inspite of our unfaithfulness and sinfulness, still the Lord found favor and have made us His stewards. The first thing that I would like for us to realize is this-
being a steward of God is a privilege.
Because Joseph found favor in the eyes of Potiphar, he put Joseph in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned (v.4). Such favor was given to Joseph. He was a slave, he was not even an Egyptian and yet Potiphar trusted him so much that he put him in charge of everything he owned from time to time.
I would like for us to look on the phrase "put him in charge" in verse 4. The Hebrew word for this is the word paqad. It means to number, count; to call into account; or to look after. A strong undercurrent in the meaning of paqad is a positive action by a superior in relation to his subordinates. So when Potiphar made Joseph in charge, it was a positive action. It means that Potiphar saw something in Joseph unique from the other servants that he had.
What do you think Potiphar saw in Joseph that he put everything under Joseph¡¦s care? Pharoah saw that the Lord was with Joseph and he was successful in everything that he did. I would like for us to take note of that- Joseph was successful in all that he did. What do you think does this imply? This means that Joseph was reliable.
When we would say that a person is reliable, what do we mean by that? What does it imply? It means that we completely trust the person. It means that we are confident that that person will be able to do what we would want him to do if we asked him to do something.
A good steward is reliable.
Good stewardship is about being reliable. So when we say that we are stewards of God, God Himself is putting his trust on us that we would be able to manage well the resources that He has given to us. It¡¦s not that God cannot manage it, but he gives us His trust. When God would give us blessings, God is saying ¡§Okay, I trust you that¡¦s why I¡¦m giving this to you. I¡¦m relying on you to take good care of this, to use this wisely for my glory.¡¨
A good steward earns his master¡¦s trust. A quotation says, ¡§A little thing is a little thing. But faithfulness in little things is a great thing.¡¨ We must learn to be faithful in little things. If God would see that we are faithful in little things, that He can rely on us, then I believe that God will entrust to us bigger things. Unless God finds us reliable on little things, he would not entrust us with greater things.
What I would like to point out here is this, a good steward is someone who executes his assignment well that his master can rely on him. A person who does his assignment well is a reliable person. When we talk about our assignments as Christians, we have many of them. In fact, in every area and aspect of our lives we have an assignment, because life itself is from God and is an assignment. We¡¦ll be dealing about them throughout this whole month.
Since being a steward of God is a privilege, we must be reliable. We must execute our assignments well.
II. A Good Steward is Responsible (v. 6) authority
Joseph was able to gain Potiphar¡¦s trust and he proved himself to be trustworthy as well. And because of this Joseph was promoted. If you would notice, in verse 5 it says, ¡§From time to time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned.¡¨ And since the Lord was with Joseph, God blessed the household of the Egyptian, and according to the last part both in the house and in the field.
As a result of his being reliable, in verse 6 we can see that Potiphar ¡§left in Joseph¡¦s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge.¡¨ It was no longer once in a while that Potiphar entrusted to Joseph every thing but he has completely given to Joseph the responsibility to rule the house. Joseph was in-charge of every thing. Potiphar has delegated to Joseph so much that he no longer knew the full extent of his business affairs (v.8). Potiphar¡¦s only concern was the food that was served to him.
Verse 6 says that Potiphar left every thing in Joseph¡¦s care. In the King James version it is translated as Joseph¡¦s hand. The original word is yad, which literally means hand. It signifies strength, power, assistance. To deliver something ¡§into someone¡¦s hand¡¨ means to delegate authority, responsibility, care, or dominion. So when Potiphar left everything in Joseph¡¦s hands it means that Potiphar gave Joseph the authority and responsibility over everything.
Being a steward of God implies having power.
When God said to man after creation that they would have dominion over the creation, it implies that God is giving man the power over His creation. God has given us the power over our resources, our money, our talents, our jobs, our relationships, etc. But let us remember that this power is only delegated. It did not spring from within us. The full authority still belongs to our Master, our God. Yes, we are in charge but not completely in charge.
That¡¦s why a good steward is responsible. He doesn¡¦t abuse the power that was given to him. He uses it wisely and properly so that the trust of his master would not be taken away from him and so that his work might be done well. He doesn¡¦t act unlikely or unjust to destroy the trust that his master has given to him. In fact, he does the opposite.
And this is what exactly Joseph did. Joseph was responsible enough not to abuse his power. He showed this when Potiphar¡¦s wife tried to seduce him. Joseph could have said to himself, ¡§Hey, I¡¦m the one in charge here anyway, so why not make the most out of it.¡¨ ƒº But we can see Joseph¡¦s response in verse 8-9. Joseph did not abuse his delegated power.
Remember this; a good steward is someone who exercises his authority well. If you don¡¦t abuse the authority that was given to you, then you are a responsible steward. Man has not been a responsible steward of God¡¦s creation. We can see that the world is getting worst, it¡¦s because we have abused the authority that was given to us over His creation.
We need to be responsible with the authority that was given to us by God over our time, treasures, talents, our life, and everything that we have. And in this series of message throughout this month, we¡¦ll try to discuss on how we can be responsible in these fields of stewardship.
Since being a steward of God implies power, we must be responsible. We must exercise our authority well.
CONCLUSION:
Let me close with these two principles concerning good stewardship that we can also see in the life of Joseph.
1) A reliable steward is promoted by God. Let us not lose the trust of our Master. Let¡¦s be faithful in what we have right now. If God sees that we are faithful with the little things, then He will bless us with more.
Maybe one of the reasons why God doesn¡¦t promote His people is because He finds them not reliable with the little things that they have. Can God rely on you? Do your assignments well.
2) A responsible steward is prospered by God. Once we get promoted, there will be more responsibility that will be given to us. And we must learn not to abuse the power or authority that was given to us. God¡¦s blessings abound to responsible stewards.
