Stewardship
Hello!
Read this passage of scripture slowly and carefully. Let’s talk about stewardship after you have meditated on these words from Jesus.
Matthew 25.14-30
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
After reading this, it’s clear that being a good steward is of the utmost importance to Jesus. So knowing that, let’s answer this next question.
What are we suppose to steward?
In Psalms 24.1 the Bible says - “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.”
Everything is His. I mean everything! All of creation belongs to The Lord, we are the caretakers of His creation. In Genesis chapter 1.28 the Lord gives instruction to Adam and Eve and says, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” The Lord instructs the two of them to do something productive with His creation!
In Luke chapter 19.13 Jesus is telling a parable of a master giving instructions to his servants and tells them to ‘Do business till I come.’ This statement carries clear instructions that we would be a productive people eagerly awaiting His return, not lazy people sitting around doing nothing waiting for Jesus to come back and fix everything.
So what are we suppose to steward? Everything! Because everything we have is His not ours. In Colossians 1.16 the Bible says “All things were created through Him and for Him.” Everything in creation was made through Jesus AND for Jesus, it is all His!
Every breath we take is borrowed from The Lord, our spouse belongs to The Lord before they are ours. The cloths on our back and the food in our fridge, it is all His. And yes even the money in our bank account belongs to Him (not just 10% of it, but all of it!).
So if we are going to hear those sweet words that the first two servants heard in the parable in Matt 25, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ We must know how to steward well the things that belong to Him.
Here are a few ways you can become a good steward.
Value what was given.
Invest into what was given.
Share what was given.
Let’s talk about these three in greater detail.
Value what was given.
Have you ever regifted an item? Come on, be honest we have all done it! We get a weird mug or a goofy hat for our birthday or Christmas and we shove it into the back of our closet or cabinet for a few months without any intention of ever using it. Then a friends birthday comes up and panicking because we forgot to buy them a gift, we run to our closet and grab the hat throw it into a bag and call it good. The truth is that we didn’t value what was given to us.
Many Christians are poor stewards because they don’t value what was given to them by The Lord. Especially when that gift isn’t as shiny as someone else’s, let me explain.
You see your neighbor pull into their driveway with their brand new car. You get into your beater car that is barely running and seems to be held together by a prayer. While you are trying to get your car started to go to work all you can do is grumble and complain about what you have. “Man God, how come my neighbor is driving that car and I have this piece of junk, it’s not fair!” But the truth is, you could be ridding your bike to work or walking or catching the bus! Instead of being jealous of what you don’t have, be thankful for what you do have.
It’s not bad to desire something, but here is the danger of jealousy. The spirit of jealousy not only makes you desire what someone else has but you begin to despise what you have. We become ungrateful complainers instead of good stewards of what God has given us.
So here is how you value what has been given to you. Give thanks for it! Psalms 100.4 says “ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” When we are thankful, it forces us to see the value in everything, even the difficult circumstances. Thankfulness casts out jealousy and is the beginning of being a good steward.
Invest into what was given.
Right before my wife and I left the hospital with our oldest daughter (now six years old) I almost accidentally told the nurse “I love you!” If you are not a parent you might not understand this almost slip up. Our nurse was incredible! during the delivery she was so supportive and helpful and even after, she took great care of us. As we were getting into the car to drive home there was this empty feeling leaving this wonderful nurse and as new parents we both felt like we needed her to come home with us because of how wonderful she was and because we had no idea what we were doing. So getting our things in the car the words “We love you” and “Can you move in with us?” almost slipped out.
Looking back from that moment until now, we have an incredible six year old daughter. She is smart, confident, a little bossy (but we refer to that as leadership qualities) and talented. As every parent knows, good kids aren’t raised by accident. It is from the parents intentional investments over time. Now Emily and I are far from the perfect parents (see the above paragraph about how we knew absolutely nothing!) but as we invest into our kids we see them grow and mature into incredible people! The same is true about the things God has given you.
To be a good steward, we have to invest into what was given to us. Too many people think that God is just going to make things happen in their life and they just need to sit back and wait. But Jesus referred to that type of person as wicked and lazy!
So many of us have been shown a glimpse of our future and destiny by The Lord. Unfortunately, just waiting around, not making any investments into the future is being a poor steward of your destiny. (remember the guy who “hid” what the Lord gave him?)
Isaiah 55.11 is often used to make this point that God will just make it happen. Let’s read it together.
Isaiah 55.11 - So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
When you take this verse out of context people might have a point, but lets back up one verse.
Isaiah 55.10 - “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
When we read verse 10 we realize that God equates His word with the rain and the snow. Now water alone doesn’t produce fruit, it’s in the combination of seed, soil, sun and proper care that fruit is produced. The point is this, you and I have a very real part to play in investing into what God has given us.
What I’ve learned about The Lord is that He often will give you seeds not fruit. He will show you this grand future and then give you these small beginnings to steward and invest into. It’s only the good stewards who see those seeds become glorious fruit!
Share what was given.
Every once in a while I like to flex my dad muscle. I like to remind my kids who the boss is!
Sometimes I’ll find my kids fighting over a toy. Parents you know how this goes, “Mine!” “No, it’s mine!” and back and forth. So, I’ll walk over and grab the toy and say, “Actually this is mine! Everything in this house is mine because I bought it! Until you kids get a job and buy your own toys, stop fighting over what doesn’t belong to you!” And all the parents said “Amen!”
What I’ve noticed about people who love to give is that they don’t view their things as “theirs”. They know that everything is His and it’s way easier to give when you know what you have isn’t yours anyways! Some people have a hard time giving because they think, “Why does the church want MY money, or MY time or MY…” They are still under the assumption that they are the owner, not Him. Let’s look at how Abraham “shared” what was given to him.
In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Issac. Imagine being Abraham, God comes to you and promises you a son. You didn’t ask for this promise but God gives you this incredible miracle. Then God asks you to give it back to Him. Many of us, thinking that the things we have belong to us would say “No way!” But Abraham understood that before Issac was his son, he belonged to The Lord. So with open hands Abraham obeyed. God ends up stopping Abraham and because of his obedience blesses him saying this:
Genesis 22.15-18 - 15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.
Abraham was blessed because of his good stewardship of what God gave him, and even the blessing wasn’t Abraham’s but ALL the nations of the Earth are blessed because of him.
God’s design is that we would share what was given to us so that we could ultimately be a blessing the the world!
Finally, if you only take one thing away from this writing take this. Everything is His. Remember that every breath that fills your lungs is a gift from The Lord. Everything belongs to Him and we will one day give an account as to how we stewarded His belongings.
Holy Spirit, I pray that these words would spark wisdom and revelation in the hearts of those who read this and that all of us would hear those blessed words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ In Jesus name I pray, amen.
