The Five Laws Of Stewardship
The Life Of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: The Life of Christ.
Hope: To draw closer to our Lord and Savior through a study of his life here on earth.
Last week we examine the question “Are You Ready” by looking at Matthew 25.
We noticed the need to be prepared from the parable of the ten virgins.
We examined the importance of being faithful” from the parable of the talents.
We lastly studied the joy of being excited at the second coming because Jesus knows his sheep’s works.
Today we are going to continue looking at Matthew 25, specifically Matthew 25:14-30 but instead of answering the question of “Are You Ready?” for Christ’s return we are going to be looking at “The Five Laws Of Stewardship.”
The reality we all face, whether secularly minded or spiritually minded, is that we live in this material world.
Mankind’s flesh desires and needs material sustenance and as long as we are in this world we will deal with problems that arise from this fact.
We must in fact, create an attitude and adopted criteria that deal with the material world around us or eventually we will become subjected to it.
In other words, if we don’t learn to become subjected to our spiritual lives “in light of our material lives” we will succumb to a “love of this world.”
In Matthew 25:14-30 we find seven laws by which we “God’s Stewards” of this world can learn and live by.
The first law we see is…
Man’s Goods Are God’s
Man’s Goods Are God’s
Everything Is Really God’s.
Everything Is Really God’s.
In the parable of the talents we read this…
Matthew 25:14 (ESV)
14 For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
God’s has been clear from the beginning, everything in his creation is his, it all belongs to him.
1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The etymology of the word “steward” indicates that it has to do with the care of another’s possessions.
“Two Anglo-Sacon words, literally meaning ‘style’ and ‘ward,’ or one who cares for the pigpen of another, became our term steward.”
When God puts us in the care of what belongs to him we are his stewards and we better be found faithful in such.
2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Summary
Summary
Though we like to think of those things we possess as “ours” that couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is “his property” that we have been placed to care for.
Once that becomes understood it is far easier to be content with whatever God’s has blessed us with.
Now because God is the owner of everything our next law should be apparent.
That law states…
God Determines Wealth
God Determines Wealth
We Control What We Are Given.
We Control What We Are Given.
The amount of goods entrusted to each steward was determined by God not themselves.
15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
It’s clear from this that we do not determine our goods only the prosperity from the goods.
What I mean by that is that we do not determine…
If we are born blind or seeing, deaf or hearing, deformed or whole.
Where would you or I be today if we were the tenth child born to a poor African tribe in Tanzania verses the wealthiest nation in the world?
The more we have received, the more grateful we should be.
As one brother put it, “an ungrateful man is like a hog eating acorns under a giant oak tree and yet never looking up to see from whence they came.”
The point is this, if we have been greatly blessed we are not just to be grateful but remember that “to whom much is given much is expected.”
This means using what God has entrusted us to help the less fortunate.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Matthew 10:8 (NKJV)
8 …Freely you have received, freely give.
Summary
Summary
Those of us who have been so bountifully blessed in our possessions by God must not turn our nose at “serving one another” but rather be mindful of God’s blessings and grace toward us.
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Another law that we must be both mindful of and careful of is the law that…
Stewards Have Liberty
Stewards Have Liberty
Use The Goods Given As Seen Best.
Use The Goods Given As Seen Best.
In our parable we read this in Matthew 25:16-18…
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
There is absolutely nothing in the text that points to the Master giving instructions on how to invest the money given to them.
It is obvious that there was an expectation on his part that it would be used “wisely” however.
We see a great illustration by Jesus on how stewards are giving liberty in our how they use their master’s possessions.
In Luke 12:17 the farmer how had a bumper crop asked himself the question…
17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
Now this would have been a perfect time for the master, God, to stop in and suggest that he use some of it to feed his hungry neighbor, sell some and clothe a destitute child, or any number of biblical actions.
But God left the decision up to the farmer who showed himself as someone who made a unwise decision.
Early Christians were not “forced” to sell their land and houses and lay it at the apostles feet.
Remember what Peter told Ananias in Acts 5:4?
Acts 5:4 (ESV)
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Summary
Summary
Stewards of God’s possessions have liberty in how they use those possessions.
It is up to us to determine if we are “wise, kind, and generous” or “foolish, mean, and selfish.”
Because each steward has liberty over the Master’s possession they have been entrusted with there is an expectation that goes with that as we stated earlier.
The Master, God, expects us to use his possessions wisely which gives us our next law…
Stewards Must Show A Gain
Stewards Must Show A Gain
There Must Be Growth.
There Must Be Growth.
As the master told the man whom he gave one talent in Matthew 25:27…
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
The one-talent man did not make any investment because he feared he would make a bad investment and lose his master’s money.
Now you and I can certainly understand this man’s concern.
Any of us, if given “three months” worth of pay would be concerned about losing money rather than “gaining” money for our master.
However, this man missed the point of his master as do we when we think this way concerning what God has blessed us with financially.
Jesus does not want his money back when we die or when he comes again.
We are not safe-deposit boxes for God’s money here on earth.
Jesus wants the souls that his money will buy if we are wise with it.
He wants the goods that his wealth can accomplish here on earth “now!”
Summary
Summary
How many billions of dollars will be found to have been “hid in the earth” when the Lord returns?
How many churches keep thousands of dollars in different funds or Christians with piggy banks bursting at the seems?
We need to make sure, as stewards of God’s money, we are not just storing it up for a rainy day but using it to save souls for the King.
Lastly, the fifth and final law we find is that…
God Will Settle The Accounts
God Will Settle The Accounts
This Is Certain.
This Is Certain.
All stewards will be required to give an account of how they managed the funds and possessions God gave them.
God is coming to “settle all accounts.”
19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
In the illustration given by Jesus about the rich man and Lazarus we find each man had to settle his account with God.
Lazarus was found wise in how he managed what little he was given and was taken by the angels to paradise while the rich man was found to be in torment.
Luke 16:22 (ESV)
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried
The day of accounting is coming for every steward of God.
Now this is a good thing for every faithful steward.
Matthew 25:21 (ESV)
21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Matthew 25:23 (ESV)
23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
This is a horrible thing for every unfaithful steward.
Matthew 25:29–30 (ESV)
29 …But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Summary
Summary
The reality is, if we are unfaithful with what God has blessed us with and do not use it to God’s glory we will be found guilty of being unwise stewards.
Landon, “do you mean that God will doom me eternally over the misuse use of a few bucks?”
Unfortunately, the answer is an emphatic yes and the master’s response will be “wicked and slothful servant.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
These five stewardship law are not options they are LAWS.
Every single thing committed to our care we will give an account as to how we used it.
Whether to the glorification of God or to our own glorification we will give an answer.
Now, before any takes from this lesson that I’m saying 100% of what God has given us must be used on the poor or given to God in the contribution that is not what I’m saying.
When we use the funds put in our charge to live on and take care of our basic needs and there is nothing wrong with wants as well God is please with us.
It is only when we ignore how those funds could be used to help others “as well” and are therefore selfish with what God has so bountifully blessed us with that we will give an account.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.