1/19/14  EQUIPPING TO SERVE - We are God’s Stewards

    As we enter in to this season focusing on Equipping To Serve, I want to give some foundational material.  The challenge I have faced on where to lay the foundation is that there are multiple topics I could use for the start.
    Let’s start with this statement:  God has given us great resources (don’t just think money with the word resources).  We must use those resources for His honor.  Use them well.
    This may be a poor illustration for starting, but it has a good point.  First of all, even though this illustration talks about the lottery, please don’t waste God’s money on the lottery.  God will take care of you when you are faithful.
Lottery Winners Who File for Bankruptcy
    If you happened to win the lottery, your financial situation would improve, right? Actually, according to a recent study, the answer is maybe not. Three economics professors wrote a paper titled “The Ticket to Easy Street? The Financial Consequences of Winning the Lottery.” Their research tried to address the following questions: Does a lottery windfall have a permanent impact or does it merely postpone financial pain? Does getting a “boatload of money” solve people’s financial problems or just push those problems down the road?
    The professors obtained a list of winners for a Florida lotto game called Fantasy Five. Then they compared those names to Florida bankruptcy records to see how many winners filed for bankruptcy and when. In the first couple of years after winning a jackpot, people who won small amounts were more likely to file bankruptcy than people who won larger amounts. That makes sense. Someone with a large amount of money can initially weather a bad time or keep creditors at bay.
    But after three years, large lottery winners were more likely to file for bankruptcy than small winners. The people who won larger sums did not use their new wealth to pay down debt. Financial consultant Don McNay concludes, “Winning the lottery did not help people increase their net worth. They needed to have set goals and an understanding of finance to make their lives better. It appears that [the lottery winners] did not have those fundamental tools.”
Adapted from Don McNay, “Bailouts Don’t Work: The Lotto Winners Study,” The Huffington Post (9-7-10)
    So, what’s the point?  It is not the amount of money a person has, it is what they do with it.  Many famous entertainers who have made millions have to file bankruptcy.  And, for the Christian, the point is also identifying ownership of our resources.
    Our resources go beyond money.  It is not the abilities and talents we have, it is what we do with them.
    And the point is that God is our source.  We will see this truth develop.
    With this in mind, we want to take a few weeks on the topic of biblical stewardship.  What is it and how do we apply it in daily life?   As we all apply these biblical principles, we will take our church fellowship far down the road God wants to take us.
1 Corinthians 4:1-21 NKJV
1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
    We are ALL called to be God’s servants, His helpers.  This is a subordinate role, not the big cheese.  We are God’s stewards.  We are responsible to manage the large investment God has in us.
□    The steward is accountable to his/her master and must prove trustworthy and faithful.
□    He/she must be reliable.
□    The steward doesn’t own what is managed, it is managed for another.  Yet, he must treat it as if it were his/her own.  The steward is entrusted with the owner’s resources.
Jesus said:  Luke 12:42-44 NLT
42 And the Lord replied, A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 43 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 44 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.
    God gives us the responsibility of managing for the Master. The better we do in managing what God gives us, the more He will trust us with.
    This passage helps understand the concept of ownership.  The Master still owns it all, the servant, the steward manages it.  ***Understanding ownership is a key to biblical stewardship.
    We are called to be God’s managers of what He entrusts to us.  We are to manage our resources in a way that pleases God and follows His commands.  I know of a church that received a large six-figure offering from an individual.  It eventually destroyed the church because people fought over how to use it.  Some tried to control it for what they wanted.  Those folks forgot whose money it was.  It was given to God and belonged to Him.
    I read an expression someone wrote: “the treadmill of accumulation”.  That’s a good expression.  A treadmill has a purpose, but you aren’t going to get any where while you are on it.  The more you accumulate, the more it controls you unless you are using your accumulation as God wants you to use it.
    Here’s an example from the secular world of some people who forgot whose money they were managing.
How Debt Ballooned for the Meadowlands Sports Complex
    Going into debt is such a tempting way to get what we want or supposedly solve our problems. Too often, it only leads to snowballing debt and interest.
    Consider the state of New Jersey, which built the home of the NFL’s New York Giants, the Meadowlands sports complex, in East Rutherford in the early 1970s. The Wall Street Journal reports:
    Nearly 40 years ago the Garden State borrowed $302 million to begin constructing the Meadowlands. The goal was to pay off the bonds in 25 years. Although the project initially went according to plan, politicians couldn’t resist continually refinancing the bonds, siphoning revenues from the complex into the state budget, and using the good credit rating of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition authority to borrow for other unsuccessful building schemes.
    Today, the authority that runs the Meadowlands is in hock for $830 million, which it can’t pay back. The state, facing its own cavernous budget deficits, has had to assume interest payments—about $100 million this year on bonds that still stretch for decades.
Steven Malanga, “America’s Municipal Debt Racket,” The Wall Street Journal (6-14-10), A17
    A big help in understanding biblical stewardship:  Think Eternal.  Look far beyond today to see the long term impact.
    The deeper that people get in to learning about biblical stewardship, the more some people say it doesn’t make sense.  Know this:  God’s ways are higher, and they are always better.
Isaiah 55:8-11 NIV  8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”  declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
1.  God’s ways higher, better, more beneficial.  So, do things God’s way.
2.  God’s purpose will be accomplished.  A crop will come, results will come when we obey the Word of God. 
    So, let’s learn and then follow God’s ways.
    One of the great challenges of the Christian life comes when we see something in the Bible that we should do, and yet we wonder if we really can do it.
□    Will we make it in life if we obey?
□    Will we survive doing it God’s way?
□    Is God really going to take care of us if we obey?
    Chew on these thoughts for a bit.  Let’s discuss them.
    Right in the middle of some laws that God gave Israel, right in the middle of a section that we struggle to get through as we read, we find an example of God’s blessing on obedience.
    God told Israel that every seven years they were to give the land a rest.  They were NOT to plant a crop.  Now, the obvious question is: how could they survive?  They didn’t have all the modern sources of supply, long term storage, freezing, etc. that we have today.  Well, the answer is simple.  God said HE would take care of it.
Leviticus 25:18-22 NKJV
18 ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. 20 ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” 21 Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. 22 And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.
    God said to Israel: if you obey Me I will take care of you.  He says that to us today, as well.
    The miracles:  a bumper crop, no spoilage, they had food when they rested the land.
    Vital principal: when God says to do something, trust HIM to make it work.
    Keep this in mind as we continue to work through this topic of stewardship.  God’s ways are higher and He expects us to obey.
    Stewardship is the Christian way of life and managing resources.  This is not optional for Christians.  It encompasses every aspect of our lives.
    It is common to look at the big mountain before us instead of the powerful vehicle we have to drive over it.  It is common for us to look at the challenges and needs of the world and our fellowship instead of looking to God Who is bigger than anything we face.
    We must keep this focus in mind, not only as we cover this topic, but as we do all the work God has called us to do.  I wish we had more time right now to go deeper, we will continue next week.

DISCUSSION
What is a steward?
How do we define the resources God has invested in us?
What are we to do with these resources?

PRAYER