Watch the sermon video here.
Good morning. We’re in the 2nd Sunday of a four-part series focusing on stewardship and generosity. The overriding theme we’re working with in this series is this:
Last week, we considered the Context of Stewardship. We learned that our covenant relationship with God is the context in which Christian stewardship can thrive.
We learned that a covenant is a relationship characterized by loving kindness and loyalty – love and loyalty. We learned that covenants have both individual and corporate aspects to them. We learned that a personal relationship with God is really a covenantal relationship. We saw how our covenant relationship with God leads to us being in covenant relationships with each other. We learned that salvation is really believing loyalty to God. We were also encouraged to learn that since we can’t earn our salvation through our performance, we also cannot lose our salvation through lack of performance.
We learned that the new covenant enables us to be faithful to God because God transforms us from the inside out by writing His law into our minds and hearts. But we also noted how we can short-circuit His transforming work by resisting His efforts to write His law into our minds and hearts.
And we faced a penetrating question last week: “Will you participate in the new covenant by allowing God to write fully His laws into your mind and your heart?”
Today, we’re going to look at the Foundation of Stewardship. We’ll learn five foundational truths upon which Christian stewardship is based. So let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 25.14. We’re going to look at the parable of the talents and learn about the five Foundations of Stewardship. Let’s read this together.
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 21 “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!’ 22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “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!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold 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. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “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? 27 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. 28 “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
We need to set the context just a bit. Some have preached that this passage to refers mainly to spiritual riches in which the servants create spiritual returns on their spiritual work.
But when you read this in the Greek, the key words used are economic and monetary words. For example, the Greek word we translate “bags of gold” refers to a unit of weight and measurement in the coinage of money. The sense of the word is “a large monetary measurement”. IOW, a certain weight of a valuable metal. In addition, when the master says that the wicked servant should have earned interest on his one bag of gold, the Greek word for “interest” is a monetary word. It means “the profits arising from lending money”.
The passage doesn’t make sense if we’re talking about spiritual profits. You can’t take spiritual talents and put them in a bank. You can’t take a spiritual gift and somehow double your gifting in the marketplace. Instead, it is right to see this parable as referring to real economic wealth and real monetary profit.
We should also note that this parable assumes that creating profits are seen as an act of discipleship. Profits are seen as good. Profits are not attacked as being evil in this parable.
What are the foundational truths we can learn about stewardship from this parable?
Foundational Truth #1: God Owns Everything.
We see this in the first part of the parable:
14Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability.
There is no doubt that the Master owns the money. His servants used His money to generate real wealth. The servants didn’t go to the bank and invest their own money. They used the Master’s money to create profit.
This idea that God owns everything is also clearly stated in other passages in the Bible. Let’s read Psalm 50.9-12:
I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Psalm 24.1 says:
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
If God owns everything, then it stands to reason that He owns your business, your money, and your wealth. He owns your house, your cars, your cabin, your season tickets, your investments and so forth. We may own things in the American, legal sense. But in God’s economy, He owns it all.
Christianity has some paradoxes. (BTW, a paradox is a seemingly self-contradictory statement that when investigated proves to be well founded and true.) We gain by losing. We become strong when we become weak. We become elevated through humility. The last shall be first.
God’s ownership of everything is somewhat of a paradox. You see, our culture highly values ownership and it encourages us to claim ownership on everything we can. It’s not like we need encouragement. You’ll see little children do this – they don’t need to be taught to claim ownership over a toy. They do it naturally. And we think by gaining ownership and control over things in our environment, we’ll gain the good life. We’ll find happiness. We’ll find financial security. We’ll find what we’re looking for.
But the way we experience God’s best for us is an apparent paradox: we release our ownership of what we have to God, and in exchange, we find the real life of joy and happiness. We gain financial security by giving our money away. We’ll find peace by trusting in God for our financial future rather than trusting in our investments. We’ll be more fulfilled when we buy less and give away more. We’ll be salt and light by helping others who are hurting. And our church will be stronger when we’re more generous.
America says that the good life is to be the master of your domain. But God says the great life is to be a steward in God’s domain.
So, to reiterate the first foundation of all Christian Stewardship is this: God Owns Everything.
Foundational Truth #2: God entrusts to us some of what He owns.
Because God owns everything, He has the authority and right to the entrust care and feeding of that which He owns to anyone He chooses.
As a result, biblical stewardship views everything we have as an entrustment from God because everything we have is owned by God. Let’s look at the parable again – especially verse 15:
To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability.
The act of giving while maintaining ownership is the classic definition of entrusting. The master gave bags of gold to the servants, but her never relinquished his ownership in that gold.
Becoming a servant – a steward – of that which God owns goes against our natural tendencies. Our culture pushes us to be in charge, to pick yourself up by your own bootstraps. Don’t let others run your life. Follow your heart. Do what you think is right. Don’t let anyone tell you how you should live. And when we’re in charge, that’s living the good life.
But God says we can have a great life by becoming a steward. We can finally rest in God’s sovereignty. We no longer need to be burdened and work ourselves until we are weary. We come to God and He lifts those burdens. This is how we find the great life – we become a steward. And we steward well all that He has entrusted to us.
And it’s not just material goods which are entrusted to us. Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 2.4:
On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.
Let’s not forget that God owns the Gospel too. This is why, when He decides to call people to preach or share the good news of the Gospel, He is entrusting that to them. Now, entrustment of the preaching and sharing of the Gospel is a big deal. You’ll recall Christ gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28 – to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything God has commanded. That is a huge entrustment to the church. God owns His commands. And he entrusts them to us to teach to others.
Spreading the Gospel – making disciples – these activities are highly important in God’s economy. In Luke 16.10-12, these activities are called “true riches” and they are compared to worldly wealth.
10 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
The comparison Christ is making is between worldly wealth and true riches. The contrast is between that which is temporal and that which is eternal. “Worldly Wealth” is temporal – it is the small stuff. The true riches of spreading the gospel and discipleship – those are the permanent, abiding, hence “true” riches.
The point Christ makes is that if you’re not trustworthy in how you manage “worldly wealth” – the temporal stuff – the small stuff – then how does God know you’ll be faithful if He entrusts to you the big stuff – true riches – of sharing the gospel and making disciples? To really boil this down to common English, the comparison is this: If you’re not living a life dedicated to God, why would God give you opportunities to lead others in becoming dedicated to Him?
The implication is that He’s not going to take that chance. IOW, we must first prove ourselves faithful in the small stuff – worldly riches – before He’ll consider giving us the more important, eternal and permanent work called “true riches”.
This ties intimately our money management and generosity to our maturity in Christ. If you’re not managing your money the way God would have you manage it – if you’ve not given God control of your all your money and wealth – then you’re not being faithful to Him with the small stuff – the worldly wealthy – and God cannot entrust to you the true riches of sharing the gospel and making disciples.
I’ve come to believe that the reason most Christians rarely sense God’s presence or witness effectively or are able to be mighty in prayer or experience a deep and abiding presence with God is because they have not been faithful in the small stuff. They haven’t been faithful to God with their money, so God can’t entrust to them true riches.
If you’re not being generous toward God, then it is likely you’re not feeling or sensing God’s presence. God won’t entrust to you true riches until you have surrendered your checkbook, your investments, your money, to Him. Until you see yourself as a steward instead of an owner, you will only progress so far in your walk with God. At that point, you’ll either stagnate or surrender. But you and I will never draw intimately close with God without first surrendering ownership of our wealth to Him.
Foundational Truth #3: God Gives Entrustments to Us Based on the Abilities He Has Given to Us
Let’s look at the phrase “according to his ability”
To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability
God gives us different abilities. Some of us create wealth by working for others – in fact, most of us create wealth that way. But some create wealth by employing others. We each have been given abilities in this area. One ability is not more important than another.
America says that in order to have the good life, you must believe in yourself and work hard to get all you can. America says you have no idea the power of your own abilities. So, we must strive hard to win. Accomplish all you can. And when you do, you have found the good life.
Now look, I do understand that if we get some confidence in ourselves and push ourselves, we can usually accomplish more than what we thought we could.
But God says you and I will find a great life by believing in Him and letting His Spirit energize us to do what He asks us to do. The great life is found in being faithful to God within our covenant relationship with Him. God gives us enough abilities to accomplish all which He calls us to do. And doing what God wants us to do is maximizing our abilities. American tells us to push ourselves until we have found the outer limits of our abilities. God gives us just the right mix and amount of abilities to fulfill His call on our lives. The great life is not found in discovering all that I can do, it is found in discovering all that God has called me to do.
If we are talented, it is because the Lord created us that way. If we are smart, it is because God gave us our intelligence. If we are creative—that’s from God too. If we have significant opportunities to create wealth, it is because the Lord has positioned us to do so. If we have been given significant wealth through inheritance, it is because the Lord has been generous to us. If we have a new product idea for a better mouse trap, it is because the Lord has given it to us. We learn to enjoy and celebrate our differences because within our covenant relationships with God and each other, we understand that together, we’re building God’s kingdom on this earth and preparing to reign with Him in eternity. And this collective effort requires different abilities.
So, we’ve learned so far that 1) God owns everything and 2) all that we have are really entrustments from Him and 3) He gives entrustments to us based on the abilities He gave to us.
But there’s more.
Foundational Truth #4: Stewards Know Their Master Well
Faithfully stewarding entrustments means we must know the Master’s heart – they know Him well.
The relationship of the first two servants with the master was substantively different than that of the third servant. The single variable between the first two servants and the third was their view of the master, which was derived from a varying quality of their relationship with the master.
Said a different way, the two good servants had a healthy relationship with the master and the third one did not.
We see this in how the third servant responded to the Master:
I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid…
But the Master wasn’t a hard man, oppressing his employees or taking wealth from others unfairly. He wasn’t a difficult man to work for.
Instead, this was an excuse the wicked servant offered in the hopes of covering up his laziness. Lazy people always blame others for their laziness.
26His 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? 27 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.
The wicked servant was so lazy he didn’t even make the effort to go to the bank and earn interest on the money, something which would have been easy to do. The wicked servant was just plain lazy. Had he taken the effort to get to know the master, he would have known what to do.
The application here is obvious: lazy Christians don’t pursue God and they are not faithful stewards. They don’t make even minimal efforts to know Him. As a result, they develop wrong ideas and impressions of who He really is. And Satan uses this to slowly, but surely, entice them to drift away from Him. Overtime, lazy Christians can switch gods and thus become unfaithful and leave their covenant relationship with Him.
Taking time to pursue God is a lost discipline in today’s evangelical circles. We so often portray God as some type of cosmic bellhop whose main interest is in serving us. But covenant relationships are a two-way street. God has already taken the initiative to connect with us. We need to take initiative to connect with Him.
People who live the great life do so because they are intentional in drawing close to God’s heart. They know God well because they take the time to know Him. They love the Lord and grow more and more in their love for Him. They avoid evil because they have set their heart on seeking God’s face. Faithful stewards know that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. They look to the Lord in times of trouble and they depend on His strength. They understand His spiritual protection which comes from walking closely with Him. They ask Him what to do in myriad situations. They know and listen to His voice. They confess their sins regularly and they delight in learning His law. They develop an intuitive sense of what God desires in a given situation even if they can’t point to chapter and verse. When they pray, you can sense the anointing of God resting on them. They love the fellowship of other Christians. Others are drawn to the Lord because of their walk with God. They enjoy the sweetness of His presence, the beauty of His holiness, the discernment of the Holy Spirit, the power of His protection, the leading of His voice. They feel His pleasure.
And there is nothing in this world they would trade for these true riches. They have traded the American good life for the great life which we can find only in our covenant relationship with God. And when you meet these people, you’ll also find they are generous toward God. To a person. Everytime.
Before we go on, I want to encourage you here. If you set yourself to pursue the heart of God, then give it time. I think you’ll find that He will give you His heart in proportion to how you allow Him to transform your heart. That’s my experience. God shows Himself to me as I allow Him to change me. And when I resist, He backs off. Then I re-engage and we reconnect. There is nuance here. And it is intimate. All of this takes time and the more you connect with God, the less concerned you’ll be about the time or the effort. Connecting with God is so worth it! You’ll be the man who sold everything he had to buy the pearl. So be encouraged. This is the great life that God offers us. To know His heart. What a joy!
Foundational Truth #5: If We Are Faithful to God, We will Reign With Him Throughout Eternity
Let’s look at the parable one more time:
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 servants who were faithful – what was their reward? It was two things:
There is this theme in the Bible which states, essentially, that if we are faithful to God – love and loyalty – until we die, part of our reward will be to reign with Him in eternity. And we will do so in His presence, enjoying Him and reigning over what He will entrust to us.
This thrust of reigning with Him is given to us in 2 Timothy as well: 2 Timothy 2.12:
11If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him
Hence, what we do on this earth, both in activity and in drawing close to God are preparatory for reigning with Him in eternity. For a Disciple of Jesus Christ, our primary preparation on this earth is not to have a fulfilling career – as important as that is in many instances. It is, instead, to prepare to reign with Christ in eternity by being faithful to Him and learning to enjoy His presence.
If you want the great life God offers, then adopt an eternal perspective on everything you do. When we learn to hear His voice and follow His leading, we’re preparing to reign with Him. When we draw close to Him, we’re preparing to reign with Him. When we represent Him well to a lost and broken world, we’re preparing to reign with Him. Our perspectives of this life will change when we connect our temporal world to our eternal time with Him. The things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. This is the great life. And nothing this world offers can compare to it.
Today, we have learned that God owns everything. Therefore, everything we have is really an entrustment from Him. But in order to steward well what He has entrusted to us, we need to know and understand His heart, His agenda, His intentions for that which He owns.
We’ve also learned that it is God who gives us the ability to create wealth. And if we remain faithful in our covenant with Him, then our reward is more of His presence and reigning over greater entrustments in eternity. What we do on this earth is preparatory for how we will spend eternity with Christ.
Last week, our stewardship question was this: Will you allow God to write fully His laws into your mind and heart?
Slide 35
Our Stewardship Question this week is this: Will you be a faithful steward who properly cares for God’s entrustments and takes the time and effort to intimately know Him?
Will you say “yes” to God this morning?
Disciples of Jesus Christ are faithful to God in stewarding all that He owns by disadvantaging themselves in order to advantage His kingdom.
