We live in a self-centered, consumer-oriented world that looks at life, religion included, primarily from a selfish point of view. And this world viewpoint all too easily rubs off on Christians. A large portion of the Christian community sees the blessings and provisions God has given us in Christ as designed strictly for our own personal happiness and comfort. Our tendency today is to make satisfaction and personal comfort our religion. As J.I. Packer notes in his book, Keep in Step with the Spirit,We show much more concern for self-fulfillment than for pleasing our God. Typical of Christianity today, at any rate in the English-speaking world, is its massive rash of how-to-books for believers, directing us to more successful relationships, more joy in sex, becoming more of a person, realizing our possibilities, getting more excitement each day, reducing our weight, improving our diet, managing our money, licking our families into happier shape, and whatnot. For people whose prime passion is to glorify God, these are doubtless legitimate concerns; but the how-to books regularly explore them in a self-absorbed way that treats our enjoyment of life rather than the glory of God as the center of interest.
By contrast, Scripture teaches us that even the comfort we receive from God is to enable us to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves receive from Him (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). In other words, like our Savior who came not to be ministered to but to minister, the Christian life is to be other oriented.
One of God’s objectives for the church is that we might allow Him to reproduce Himself in us as good stewards of His abundant grace. A steward is a manager, not an owner. He is one who manages the property of another. God is the owner and we are the managers of the various stewardships He has given. This includes the whole of life, of course. But to be good stewards of His grace, we must know the precise areas of stewardship for which God is holding us accountable. Scripture breaks this down into a number of areas. For instance, children are a gift from God and one of our most important stewardships. According to the creation mandate of Genesis chapter one, we are also to be good stewards of His creation.
We will explore over the next four weeks God’s requirement of financial stewardship, using the acronym REAL. We want to be REAL stewards of God’s blessings. The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 teaches us that God expects us to be good stewards of what He gives us, and he will reward us for a job well done. Using the Parable of the Talents, we will look at four aspects of stewardship and what God intends for us to do and to be.
REAL stewardship is:
Responsibility – When God gives us gifts, finances, talents, health, and even the breath of life, He also gives us responsibility for those blessings. In the parable of the talents, the master, before he went on a long journey, entrusted his servants with his property according to their ability. The property still belonged to the master, but it was the responsibility of the servants while he was away. In the same way, God blesses us with financial gain and prosperity, according to our ability to handle it, but it still belongs to God. The question is now, what will we do with what God has entrusted to us? Will we put it to work, which involves some risk, or will we fearfully bury it in the ground? The choice is ours, and we will be held accountable for that choice by God upon His return.
Expectation – As good stewards of God’s blessings, we have a two-fold perspective of expectation. First, we know that God expects us to use wisely his gifts and blessings that he gives us. In the parable of the talents, the master expected his servants to use his property wisely, making a profit and growing the master’s kingdom. He severely admonished the servant with one talent as being wicked and lazy because the master expected him to at least earn interest on the property in the bank. When God gives us blessings, and we do not use them wisely or at all, we are not honoring God’s expectations. God expects us to use them wisely.
Secondly, we expect that God will multiply our blessings if we use them as good stewards. Notice how the servants with five and two talents invested the property and put it to work. The results were a 100% increase in the master’s estate. Were the servants solely credited with this increase? I am sure not. God provided the increase because of the servants’ excellent stewardship. God does reward good stewardship.
Attitude – Stewardship is about attitude. What is our attitude towards what we have? Do we recognize that God gives us everything we have, or do we only see ourselves in our possessions? Money is a very little thing (Luke 16:10). Why? Because money cannot buy happiness. Money cannot give eternal life nor real meaning in life (Isa. 55:1-3; Rev. 3:16-18). Yet, there is nothing that reveals our spiritual orientation and relationship with God like our attitude toward money. Jesus Christ made it clear that a mark of true spirituality was a right attitude toward wealth. The mark of a godly and righteous person is his preoccupation with God and heavenly treasure. In the parable of the talents, the attitudes of the servants with the five talents and the two talents differed considerably from the attitude of the servant with only one talent. The two productive servants went at once and put their money to work. Their attitude was focused not on themselves but on pleasing their master. The wicked servant, though, lived in an attitude of fear and selfishness. He did not live to please his master, but to protect his own rear end! The two productive servants had an attitude which focused on their master, and on others, while the wicked servant displayed an attitude that focused on himself. The productive servants were good and faithful; the other was wicked and lazy. Which are you?
Lifestyle – Stewardship is not an event, it is a lifestyle. In the parable of the talents, the good and faithful servants obviously knew what to do with the master’s property and how to invest it wisely. The wicked servant, however, lived in fear. While this parable describes one event, it also describes the servants’ lifestyles. The two good and faithful servants were trusted by the master with such sums of money, while the wicked servant was not trusted at all, or very little. Why is this the case? Because their lifestyle demonstrated to the master who could be trusted with much, and who could not be trusted at all. What the wicked servant possessed was taken from him and given to the one who was the good steward. How does your lifestyle exhibit good stewardship of what God has given you? Do you continually invest your finances and talents into the Kingdom of God, or do you hide them in the ground? Does your lifestyle exhibit fear of failure, or do you risk and put your blessings to work with the expectation of growth for the Kingdom of God?
Are you a REAL Steward?
