The Benefits Of Lifestyle Stewardship Series

One of the first things we need to understand about stewardship is, as long as I have what God has given to me and take it for my own and am stingy with it, I’m responsible for it. But the moment that I give it back to God, God is now responsible for it and He’s responsible for me. That’s why t “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you.” That’s why total consecration, lordship is the first thing that you and I do as far as developing a lifestyle of giving in our life.

2. It teaches us that giving should not be separated from behavior.

God’s word tells me that how I give, and how I behave ought to be the same. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 5, that we are first to be reconciled to our brother and then come and present our gift. In other words, He said, don’t just be giving gifts and have wrong relationships. He says, “Get your relationship settled with your fellow man and become a giver of life. Don’t say, well I give, I pay my tithes, but I have terrible attitudes and terrible relationships with people out there.” No, He says, “Have good relationships with other people. Have your behavior right and your giving right. They should match. One should not be good and the other bad. They both should be right.

3. It is a key test of spiritual commitment.

Do you know that our giving is a key witness test to our commitment to God? Luke 16: “If you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches of heaven.” Do you know what Jesus said? Jesus said if we were not trustworthy with the material possessions we have — He said, “If you can’t handle your checkbook and put Me as a part in that, if you can’t take care of that; Why in the world should I take care and entrust you the riches of heaven? If you can’t take care of mammon, how can I give you something that is eternal? If you can’t take care of that which you have on a day to day basis, how can I ever give you anything and trust you with the kingdom and the riches of God?” Do you realize the way we control our money, the way that we give, all of those things determine not only the blessings we receive from God directly but also it determines how much blessings God gives us spiritually?

Now I’ll read it again. “If you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth; Who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” Do you know what a checkbook is? A checkbook is a theological document. It indicates who and what we worship. It’s so easy to come to church and say, “Oh, Lord we love you; oh, Lord we love you.” The Lord says, “Ah, let me see your checkbook.” Are you all right out there? Martin Luther said one time, “When a person is converted, three conversions are necessary: conversion of the head, conversion of the heart, and conversion of the purse.” He said, “Of the three, the first is the hardest.”

4. It protects against financial enslavement.

When we put God first, we will cease to be financially enslaved by material possessions. You may be extremely wealthy but the reason why an extremely wealthy person that puts God first is freed up from financial enslavement is because they realize that every source and everything that comes, comes from God Himself. That’s why Jesus tells us, you can not serve two masters, God and money. For you will either hate one and love the other or else the other way around. And when you become a steward, it will free you, it will free me up from financial enslavement. All of a sudden, God is our target and He is our source. We seek Him. Now, we may have all kinds of wonderful things added to it, but God is still the focus and so therefore, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.” That’s exactly how Job understood it. He said, “God has blessed me.” There have been times when I have been cursed, but he said it’s okay because my focus is God. My focus isn’t the dollars I have in my bank. It isn’t my possessions. The focus is God. The moment that we have our focus on God, interestingly enough, we are not only being taken care of financially but it also frees us up.