Stewardship June 12, 2005
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Who do you belong to?
Those of you who are Simpson’s fans might remember the episode called “tree house of horror” when Homer sells his soul to the devil for a donut. “Mmm... forbidden donut.”
Homer is out of donuts at work, so he sells his soul to the Devil, who turns out to be Ned Flanders. Homer saves the last bite of the donut so that Flanders does not get his soul, however, he eats it the next night during a sleepwalk.
Lisa argues that her father has the right to a fair trial - where Marge shows the jury a photo, signed by Homer, promising Marge his soul forever. Flanders loses, but converts Homer’s head into a donut. (from www.simpsoncrazy.com
The bible teaches us that, like Homer, we do not belong to ourselves, we have given ourselves to Jesus.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
In our understanding that we are no our own, there is great hope and great responsibility
Hope:
Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 1
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
That I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
We belong!
We also have a greater surety of the safety of our souls than even Homer did!
For no one of us lives, and equally no one of us dies, for himself alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether therefore we live or die we belong to the Lord. – Romans 14:7-8
Because we belong to Jesus, the devil has no say over our lives or our soul.
Romans 8:38
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Responsibility.
If we do not belong to ourselves, but belong to God, all that we are and have belong to Him. He has left us in charge of ourselves and our belongings, but they are not ours, the are his. This is what we call “stewardship” A steward was put in charge of a household or a kingdom or domain. They are able to make all the decisions for the running of the household, but it doesn’t belong to them.
You may remember from the movie or book, “The Return of the King” in The Lord of the Rings, the Steward of Gondor – he had been put in charge of the Kingdom of Gondor until the king returned from exile.
Jesus actually has many stories of a master going away and placing a servant or servants in charge of his affairs until he comes back.
The Idea of Stewardship applies to every area of our life where we have influence.
The verse in 1 Corinthians 6 is actually in the context of Paul teaching on sexual purity.
This is what he says:
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins people commit are outside their bodies, but those who sins sexually sin against their own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Our body has been placed in our possession for God’s purpose
Our family has been placed in our possession for God’s purpose
Our possessions & land has been placed in our possession for God’s purpose
Our Money has been placed in our possession for God’s purpose
We can easily forget this, there is one point in the Lord of the Rings when Denethor, the Steward of Gondor realizes that the true king is returning and he would lose his power. He rebels and tries to hold onto the disintegrating kingdom for himself.
We too can get used to the power we have in our lives and think that we can live just for ourselves and do what we like, but we cannot. You are not your own; you were bought at a price
Today I want to concentrate on stewardship of money.
“How do we use the money that God has put in our care?”
Use it for our own well being
Just because it is God’s money, doesn’t mean that you don’t use it to pay the bills, put food on the table, a roof over your head etc.
A faithful steward in the Bible was expected to take a portion of the proceeds of the estate to care for himself and his family.
Paul says to the Corinthians on this point:
7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. – 1 Corinthians 9
This principle of it being God’s money should not lead us to stinginess and joyless life. We should use a portion of God’s money to look after ourselves in joy and in gratitude to God!
Invest it for the kingdom
There are preachers out there that tell us that Christianity is a get rich quick scheme. They try to show through twisting scripture that if you give God $10, he’ll give you $100. This feeds into people’s greed and lust and is the exact opposite of the Gospel.
Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and Money.
Prosperity Gospel tries to get us to use the God of all creation to serve the god of Money.
The way that God would have us use his money is to invest, not for our own personal gain, but for his sake. When I give money to an investor, if I come to them when I’m ready to retire and ask about my money, if they say, oh I invested it and it bought me all sorts of nice stuff, I’d take him to jail.
God want us to spend and invest his money in the way that builds his kingdom, not ours.
Even the way that we spend his money to support ourselves and our family, we should always be asking the question, How does God want his money spent – does this purchase help God’s creation, or hurt it, does it enslave people, or free them? does it improve the body that he has given me or destroy it?
Matthew 25
Wise & Foolish Bride’s Maids – be prepared
Talents – you are prepared by investing God’s resources
Sheep & Goats – you invest God’s resources by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, hospitality to the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoners.
The return that God is looking for His investment in you is not more money and stuff for you: it is that good news is preached to the poor, freedom is proclaimed for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, the oppressed are released, and the year of the Lord’s favour is proclaimed!
The return that God wants is not bigger bank accounts for his people, but the spread of his Righteous Kingdom.
Give 10% to Him
This is what we often call a tithe in the church – it just means 10% of your income.
It is like the master in Jesus’ stories has told the servants he has left behind to send his 10% of the income of the estate every year while he is in a far off country.
People have been giving 10% to God for a long time – Abraham gives 10% of his belongings to Malchizedek the High Priest in Gen 14. Jacob give 10% to God in Gen 28. In Leviticus 27:30 the people of God are commanded “ ’A tithe (10%) of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
Malachi tells the people that if they withhold their tithe, they are stealing from the Lord.
The New Testament speaks very little of tithing except that Jesus does commend the Pharisees for it in. Paul tells the Corinthians “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 with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. - 1 Corinthians 16 –
He also says:
7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7
The tithe is Old Testament law, although there is a tradition that goes back much further than the law. I think if we apply it too stringently we can get into the danger of legalism, and pride can creep in, like it did with the Pharisees.
As New Testament people of God, I would say that a tithe is a good guideline of how much of God’s money you should given back to him.
The Spirit of Tithing is not regulation but relationship.
What Tithing Does In Us
Tithing Creates a Culture of “Enough”
There was a personal finances book written before “The Wealthy Barber” that had a number of good principles on organizing your finances. One that really struck me was the principle of always living like you have enough.
The world is always telling us that we do not have enough – that is why there is so much credit card debt – we are trained to live beyond our means. We are convinced constantly that the stuff that we have is not good enough, and we need more stuff and different stuff.
Latest Mr. Sub commercial “I Just Can’t Get Enough” by Depeche Mode – theme song for our generation
This book taught people to reject the desire for “more” and live like your income is enough. The way that this secular book suggested that you live like you always have enough is to give 10% of your income away to charity.
What if there isn’t enough, Mike? What if you’re having to decide between feeding the kids and paying the rent? Do I still tithe?
All I can say is I have heard story after story of people who did not have enough, and as a step of faith, gave 10% of the little that they had. Every one of them found that God provided for their needs. It is not a sure thing that if you tithe you will never have financial trouble – we still make bad financial decisions, recessions hit etc. But I do know that God blesses us when we are obedient.
I think that the little boy who gave up his lunch to Jesus ate far more than 2 fish and five loaves that day.
Tithing puts your money where your faith is.
God is our provider
We trust in him, not our paycheck
Tithing Breaks the power of Mammon
Jesus says in the sermon on the mount
Matthe 6:24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
The older versions use the word “Mammon” instead of money. It means material possessions, and it is capitalized because it is a rival god to the one true God. If we have a god of this age, I believe it is Mammon. Taking 10% of our income and giving it to God is a proclamation that we only serve the one true God and I believe that it has the effect of breaking the power of the god of mammon in our lives.
Mammon had such a grip on the Rich young ruler in Matthew 19 that Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. So If you find that materialism still has a grip on you after you tithe, try giving it all away.
1 Corinthians 7:22-23
if you were a slave when the Lord called you, the Lord has now set you free from the awful power of sin. And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God purchased you at a high price. Don’t be enslaved by the world.
How to Give Money to God
How to figure out your tithe – move the decimal one place to the left.
The tithe was used for a few different things in the Bible
1. To support the institutions and people who serve God fulltime. – Like the Levites. So you should give to your church and other Christian organizations that do God’s work.
2. To support those less fortunate – you can give to charities that care for the poor,
3. To celebrate before God – Deuteronomy 14: 25-26 …you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds and take the money to the place the LORD your God chooses. When you arrive, use the money to buy anything you want--an ox, a sheep, some wine, or beer. Then feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and celebrate with your household. (I think we need to take this seriously, and understand what this look’s like in our culture – we always think the tithe must be very practical, but Jesus blesses the offering of the woman who poured expensive perfume on his feet)
There is much more to be said in regards to Stewardship and even tithing.
Remember this – if you have given yourself to Jesus, you really have – you no longer belong to yourself, you are his. Ask him what he wants to do with his possessions that are in your care.
