Saturday, May 09, 2009

Are you a good manager?

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. `Master,' he said, `you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

"The man with the two talents also came. `Master,' he said, `you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

"Then the man who had received the one talent came. `Master,' he said, `I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

"His master replied, `You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

"`Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'" (Matthew 25:14-30).

Christian stewardship is about much more than money; it is about everything that God has given you. And so the proper management of money is only a small part of my message for you today.

What has God given you? First of all, He has given you life, and how much life He has given you is measured by time. God has also given you the ability to do things, some better than others. Your abilities can be gauged by how skilled you are at doing different things. And, of course, God has filled your life with material goods—and the way that you measure how much of these God has given you is by adding up how much money they are worth. To properly understand Christian stewardship, we must consider all three together. But first, a few words about stewardship itself.

When the Europeans arrived in North America, they started buying land from the Native Americans for ridiculously small amounts of money. The colonists were surprised that the locals were willing to settle for so little compensation. But the Indians did not understand that the White Men meant to take ownership of the land permanently. To the Native American way of thinking, no one could actually "own" pieces of land; the earth did not belong to anyone. So in many cases, the Indians thought that they were merely receiving rental money for use of the land.

The earth and everything living upon it belongs to God; Genesis says In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God made everything; everything is His. When Adam and Eve were given life, God did not give them unconditional control of all that He had created; instead, we are told The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. This is what stewardship is—taking care of things that belong to someone else. You do not truly own your home, your car, your clothes—the earth is God’s, and everything made from the earth is His as well, because He provided the skills that were used to turn raw materials into finished goods. Even you belong to Him, because 1st Corinthians points out: You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. Your soul was placed in your body by God, and the blood of His Son bought your soul’s freedom from the sin that results in eternal death. There truly is nothing in your life to which you can claim ownership.

Since everything you have belongs to God, the question becomes: how are these gifts appropriately used? Let us start with time. Time is the ultimate gift; without time, our lives would be over long before being delivered from our mothers’ womb. Without time, there would be no opportunity to use our abilities, no way to accumulate or spend money. Time is the most precious gift of all. So let me ask you: how do you use the time God has given you?

When we think about the passing of time, we tend to think of "quality of life." We don’t like to spend time being uncomfortable. Medicines are advertised as being able to bring "quick relief." We want our time on earth to feel good.

But how good did Jesus feel as He suffered and died for us? Why did He tolerate the verbal abuse, the beatings, the piercing of His skin by thorns and nails and spear point? Why didn’t He just step down from the cross instead of enduring the agony of His Father’s hatred of our sins? It was because of love—committed love. Jesus loved each of you reading this so much that He dedicated His time on earth to your salvation, no matter how unpleasant that time became.

What does this tell us about stewardship of time? It tells us that time is to be used to love and care for others, no matter how unpleasant or painful that care might become. It tells us that our time is spent in a God-pleasing way when we hold the hand of a hurting friend and let him pour out his pain to us. It tells us that long hours spent patiently teaching and encouraging others is how God uses us to strengthen sin-sick souls. It tells us that time spent telling others about the love of Jesus is an investment in eternity. How many hours of your week are spent in the care of others? How many hours are spent lounging in bed or zoned out in front of the television or engaged in idle gossip?

God has also designed each of us to be good at doing certain things. Some are good at math, others are comfortable with public speaking. Some have a green thumb, others can get a stain or wrinkle out of just about anything. There are those who have a knack with children, while others have a gift for design. Some are blessed with a strong back, and others have the ability to concentrate in spite of distractions. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. The Lord made each of us unique, blessed with the particular skills needed to do the work He created us to do in His service.

So I ask you: what are you good at doing, and are you putting that ability to work for the Lord? If you are good at math, you are equipped to serve a term as church treasurer. If you are comfortable with public speaking, the Lord may have designed you to teach in a parochial school or preach in a congregation. If you have a green thumb, you could volunteer to be in charge of flowers for the altar, or plant and maintain flowerbeds around the church. If you can get a stain or wrinkle out of anything, you should consider caring for the altar cloths and pastor’s vestments. If you have a knack with children, the Sunday School needs your skill. If you have a gift for design, you could help make banners for the church. If you are blessed with a strong back, you help take care of church property by scooping snow and cutting grass, by scraping and painting, by cleaning and polishing. And if you are able to concentrate in spite of distractions, you can offer your help as part of a prayer chain for the membership. Whatever skills God has given you, they can be put to use in His service. How many of your skills are you putting at the Lord’s disposal? How many of them are being used to do things that God would not approve of?

And, of course, there is the God-pleasing stewardship of money. All the way back in Genesis, we are told how Abraham gave a tenth of everything he had to Melchizedek, priest of God. When Moses received God’s law at Mount Sinai, the Israelites were required to give one tenth of their wealth to the support of God’s Temple. Because of this, we tend to think that what God wants from us is 10% of our income.

But consider the account of the widow’s mite. In the Temple courts, Jesus and His disciples witnessed a widow, a woman with no means of support, as she put her last two coins into the treasury to be used in God’s work. Jesus praised this act of giving, a gift of not 10% but 100% of all the resources she had. That unnamed woman understood the purpose for which God had given her money—God lent it to her so that she could support the work of bringing the Good News of salvation to people dying in their sins.

All that you have—your property, your investments, your money—all of it has been lent to you so that you can be equipped to serve God. You have food and clothing and a roof over your head so that you can be healthy and thus serve God with your abilities. You have money to send your children to college so that they can develop their skills for God’s use. In addition, God gives you enough money so that you can share it with those who are in need. But the poverty-stricken widow in the Temple reminds us that the single most important use for money is in supporting the soul-saving work that the Church does as Christ’s voice on earth. Rest assured that nothing we do on earth will have any lasting value, except that which is dedicated to things eternal.

So look in your checkbook. How much money is spent on God? How much money is spent keeping your family alive and training your children to serve the Lord? And how much is spent on frivolous things—recreational equipment, fine jewelry, collectibles? How much is spent on things that damage the body that God gave you to serve Him with—things like cigarettes, alcohol, or illegal drugs? How much is spent on sinful pleasures like pornography, or on gambling, the very antithesis of good stewardship? All that you have belongs to God—do you return to Him even ten percent? Five percent? One percent?

It should now be obvious that stewardship is not something that you just do on Sunday morning; stewardship is how you live your life. Stewardship is about not wasting the resources that God has given you. In the parable of the talents, Jesus makes it clear that He expects us to use the gifts He has given us to bring about increase. But Jesus is not concerned with us becoming millionaires--money has no worth in heaven. No, what He wants us to grow is His Church on earth, an ever-increasing fellowship of sinners who turn to the Master in sorrow over their failings, and receive the joy of eternal life through His tender words of forgiveness. The Church is Christ’s kingdom, and the work we do in support of it will last into eternity.

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