The Quest for Today's Church, Part 5

We are looking at the quest for today's church and the journey that we are to be on, the pursuits that all of us need to make available to every one of us as we seek to honor the Lord. It begins with integrity that's to permeate our leadership both in the church and at home for we are to lead in ways that honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It moves from there to understand that there needs to be a purity that protects our fellowship because one sinner destroys much good. And so purity must reign within the hearts and lives of every individual.

From there, we talked about a ministry that's to permeate the membership. Everyone has a personal ministry as well as a public ministry and that is to permeate the membership of our church. And lastly, we talked about a spirituality that prompts our discipleship that we are to grow in our walk with the Lord, that we might encourage others to follow the Lord and to honor him in their lives. And today we want to look at a fifth aspect of our quest as a church and there needs to be a vulnerability, a vulnerability that punctuates our stewardship, a vulnerability that punctuates our stewardship.

Every one of us are what the Bible calls household managers. That's why Paul says in first Corinthians chapter four, verse number one, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy, that one be found faithful. Paul said, we are stewards of God. We are household managers of the things that God has entrusted to us. And therefore we are to be faithful household managers. We are to be faithful protectors of the things that God has given to us. And very briefly, let me give you four of them.

I'll spend extra time on one of them this morning, but just to help you understand that every one of us are stewards, household managers, keepers of those things that God has entrusted to us. Number one, we are stewards of eternal reconciliation.

We are number two, stewards of personal relationships. Three, we are stewards, household managers of our spiritual resources. And fourthly, we are household managers of our temporal riches. All those play a major role in us as individuals in our pursuit to be the kind of church that God wants us to be. In other words, we have been entrusted by God with the gospel of God. That's why we are stewards of eternal reconciliation. That's why Paul says these words over in second Corinthians chapter five, verse number 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

He goes on to say in verse number 18, now, all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We bid you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. In other words, we are stewards of eternal reconciliation.

We were reconciled to God, the father through his son, Jesus Christ. Romans chapter five tells us we were reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ to reconcile means to bring two parties that are in enmity, one with another and bring them together in peace. Christ did that when he died on the cross, that we might be brought to the father. Well, we now have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation and we are as stewards to be faithful in that ministry. And so we must ask ourselves, are we faithful stewards of the ministry of eternal reconciliation?

Are we effective ambassadors for Christ? Are we reconciling the world to Christ? Are we showing them the way to heaven? Are we the ministers of the gospel that God has entrusted to us? So number one, we are to be stewards, household managers of eternal reconciliation.

Number two of personal relationships. We are a family, right? And so God has put us in a family and we are accountable for how we treat one another in the family. So Paul says over the book of Colossians, the third chapter, verse number 12.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. In other words, we are stewards. We're household managers of personal relationships. In other words, because we're a part of the family, God has put us in this family and he wants us to be faithful household managers of the relationships that we have one with another.

So he says, you're going to be kind one to another, forgiving one another, tenderhearted toward one another, compassionate toward one another, loving one another. Romans 12, 10 says that we're to love without hypocrisy. We're to love with sincerity. So the question comes, how are you managing what God has entrusted to you? Number one, the ministry of eternal reconciliation.

Number two, the ministry of personal relationships. And number three, the ministry of spiritual resources.

Spiritual resources over in first Corinthians chapter 12, Paul says these words, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good or for the profit of all.

And we've talked to you about spiritual gifts. We've explained to you the importance of how it is God has given each one of us a gift. God has given you a gift. Now you become a manager of that gift. How are you faithfully dispersing that gift and using that gift to help build the body that you're accountable to, right? And so to look at the scriptures, we begin to realize that every one of us has a responsibility with the things that God has given to us.

He's given us the gospel. So we are ministers of eternal reconciliation. He's given us gifts. So, so we are stewards and ministers of our spiritual resources. He's given us the saints, the godly ones, and we are, we are to be stewards, good managers of personal relationships. But all that requires vulnerability, doesn't it? All that requires vulnerability to put yourself out there to, to serve and administer and to love and to, and to do the things that God wants you to do, to put yourself out there and speak the gospel and, and spread the gospel in a hostile environment, to go out there and to begin to ask for forgiveness for those who have wronged you always requires vulnerability because God wants you to trust him in the process.

But the fourth element is that we are stewards of temporal riches. We are household managers of temporal riches. In other words, you are holding on to God's money. How are you doing at handling God's money? How are you doing at handling God's gospel, God's gifts, God's people, God's money? Because they're all God's. See, it's important for us to realize this. So I want to talk to you this morning about that. How well are you a steward, a household manager of temporal riches? And the emphasis is on temporal because you can't take them with you when you die.

But God has given you money. God has entrusted his money to you. How well are you doing with his money? See, the problem is we think it's our money. So let me give you three principles.

And then let me give you some practices that you can go through when it talks about temporal riches. First of all, three principles.

One is theological, one is spiritual, and one is biblical. The first one is theological. And that is this, that God himself, God himself owns everything that you have. God owns it all. Let me show you what the Bible says.

The Bible says in the book of Job chapter 41, whatever is under the whole heaven, God says, is mine. It's mine. That means you are his. That means whatever you have is his. And to come to the realization that you own nothing is really an affront to our ego. But you don't own anything. God owns it all. In fact, he says in the book of Exodus chapter 19, all the earth is mine. In Psalm 24, he says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Wow. Then over in the book of Isaiah, it says, I'm sorry, 1 Timothy 6, it says, we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of the world.

God says in the book of Haggai, the silver is mine, the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. And then it says in 1 Corinthians 4, in what hast thou that thou hast not received? In other words, God owns everything. So whatever money is in your bank account, whatever money's in your pocket right now, it's really not yours. It's God's. God owns it all. And the implications of that are far reaching. One author, Ron Blue said this, he says, very few Christians would argue with the principle that God owns it all.

And yet, if we follow that principle to its natural conclusion, there are three revolutionary implications. First of all, God has the right to whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, it's all his.

Because an owner has rights, and I, as a steward, have only responsibilities. Then he says, if I really believe that God owns it all, then when I lost my possessions, for whatever reason, my emotions may cry out, but my mind and spirit have not the slightest question as to the right of God to take whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. Really believing this also frees me to give generously of God's resources to God's purposes and God's people for all that I have belongs to him. The second implication of God's owning it all is that not only is my giving decision a spiritual decision, but every spending decision is a spiritual decision.

As a steward, I have a great deal of latitude, but I am still responsible to the owner, someday I will give an accounting of how I used his property. Then he says this, the third implication of the truth that God owns it all is that you can't fake stewardship.

Your checkbook reveals all that you really believe about stewardship, your goals, your priorities, your convictions, your relationships, and even the use of your time. A person who has been a Christian for even a short while can fake prayer, can fake Bible study, fake evangelism, and even fake going to church, but he cannot fake what his checkbook reveals. If you were to bring your checkbook to church for the elders of the church to examine, what would it say about your priorities? What would it say about your values?

What would it say about how well you are handling God's money? Now, we don't do that, we're not going to ask you to do that, but just think about that for a moment. See, God owns everything, so what are you doing with what God owns? It's a theological principle. The second principle is a spiritual principle, and this is that you must give yourself to God first.

You must give yourself to God first. Second Corinthians chapter eight says this, second Corinthians chapter eight, speaking of those in Macedonia, now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God, which has been given to the churches of Macedonia, that in a great deal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.

For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. And this not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

See, the problem in the issue of temporal riches is not a giving problem, it's a heart problem. For those in Macedonia under severe affliction and under the fact that they were incredibly poor, they had given themselves to God first.

And because they had given themselves to God first, then their desire to give out of their liberality was an abundance.

In fact, they wanted to give so badly they begged and pleaded with Paul that no matter how poor they were, no matter how great the affliction was, they wanted to give to the needs of the saints. Why? Simply because they had given themselves to the Lord first.

We've spoken over the years about the fact that there's all the money in the church, no matter what church you go to, to take care of the needs of the church because everybody in the church has money, God's money. And the problem never is a giving problem, it's always a heart problem. Because if God has your heart, giving is not even an issue. Giving is never an issue for those who have a heart already given to the Lord. In fact, it's so much not an issue that whenever the pastor speaks about it, you hear it with joy, not with, oh, here he goes again.

Why? Because you have a heart already given to the Lord. And because you've given everything to the Lord already, your heart, your life, your resources, all you're doing is managing the things that God's given to you. There's also, though, a biblical principle, a principle that most of us hardly ever experience, but it is a biblical principle. It's taken from an agricultural metaphor. It's found in the 2 Corinthians chapter 9, which says this. Now, I see he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

That's an agricultural metaphor, but it's a biblical principle. The more you give, the more you get, the less you give, the less you get. You never give to get, but you always give because of a heart given to God. And God goes on to say this. Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. God not only supplies, God always multiplies, and very few of us ever experience God's multiplication when it comes to our temporal riches, and that's because we want to hold on to God's money.

Remember the woman from Shunem? We talked about her Wednesday night. She wanted to give. She was a wealthy woman. She was a prominent woman, and she wanted to give. And so when she saw Elisha walking by, although she did not know who he was, just some little bald guy walking by with a mantle on, she wanted to provide a meal for him. So she did, and that every time he passed by, she would make sure that there was a meal provided for him. She was a lover of strangers. She showed hospitality. She recognized by the way he ate that he was a godly man.

She went and pled with her husband. Let us build an upper chamber for this guy. Let's spend more money on this guy. Let's get him a bed. Let's get him a lamp. Let's get him a chair. Let's build him a room so that whenever he comes by, he can have a place to stay. And she didn't give because she wanted to get anything in return, but Elisha wanted to give to her. And so when he asked her, what can I do for you? She says, oh, I'm good. Thanks anyway. He goes, no, let me go to the king and put in a good word to you to the king so that he can reward you.

She goes, no, no, I'm good. Thanks. Oh, let me go to the captain of the army. Let me put a good word in for you there.

No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm content. Don't need you to do anything for me. But Elisha in spirit wanted to give. So his servant said to her, she has no child. Her husband is old. There's no legacy left. Elisha says, we're giving her a child. Next year at this time, you will have a son. She never asked for a son. But see, he who gives bountifully, not only does God supply, God multiplies. And God gave her something she never even asked for. But in her contentment, Elisha would erase the stigma of this Jewish woman because she was barren and supply the needs of the family and its legacy.

And also take care of her husband, who by the way, never speaks in scenario. But his needs are met as well because God not just supplies, God multiplies. And that's the law of the harvest. It's a biblical principle. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If he sows sparingly, he reaps sparingly. If he sows bountifully, he reaps bountifully. Let me ask you a question.

Are you reaping bountifully today? It's not God's fault that you're not because God promises you will reap bountifully. Proverbs 11, verse number 24 says this, there is one who scatters and increases all the more. And there is one who withholds what is justly due and yet it results only in want. That's a great verse, man. There is he who scatters and the one who scatters is so rewarded, but there is one who withholds. And the result of withholding from God, what is rightfully his only increases your want.

It never decreases your wants. Now, I bet you never knew that, did you? The more you hold on to what God has, the more you're going to want and you never are satisfied because you keep holding on to it, but you never have enough to meet the wants or the needs. But he who scatters liberally has all of his needs met. But the one who holds on to what is justly due, which is justly due to the King, only lives wanting more and more and more and more and is never, ever satisfied because he has missed the biblical principle of sowing and reaping the law of the harvest.

So I get asked all the time, how much should I give? Well, based on the theological principle that God owns everything, you own nothing. You got to get past that first.

So whatever you have, your clothes, they're God's, right? Your car, it's God's. I know you might have the deed, but it's still God's. Your house, it's God's. Your money, God's. You got to get past that. Once you get past that, not only does God own everything, God owns you and you owe everything to God because it's his anyway. So you give your heart to God. You give everything back to God. So when God decides to take what is rightfully his, although emotionally it might drain you mentally and spiritually, you know that God is sovereign and God's in complete control and you rest in that sovereign purpose.

That's a spiritual principle. Then the biblical principle is whatever you sow, you're going to reap. You sow little, you get little. You sow a lot, you get a lot. It's the law of the harvest. That's how it works. I didn't come up with that. That isn't my idea. That's God's. So how is it we are to give? Well, the Bible tells us how we are to give. Let me give you just a couple of principles.

This is the practical side of it and it's this. By the way, Proverbs 22 verse number nine says that he who is generous will always be blessed. He who is generous will always be blessed. Whenever you give, you always give, number one, bountifully, not sparingly.

When you gave this morning, did you give bountifully or sparingly? God says give bountifully. That's what 2 Corinthians 9, 6 says. He who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. That's what the Bible says.

So if I am to give to God, I am to give to him abundantly, not sparingly, not grudgingly, not wanting to hold on to something, but I give bountifully. Well, how much is bountifully, someone might ask? Well, not only do you give bountifully, but you always are to give individually. Individually. It says, now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed. Each one, okay? Giving is an individual thing.

So when you give individually, you always give secretly, because Matthew 7 says, you're not to let your right hand know what your left hand is doing or vice versa. Always give secretly. But you always give individually. Each one is to be the giver. Each one is to be the one who puts the money out. No one is exempt. The point is, not that you as a husband give, and you as a wife give, and you as a son give, and you as a daughter give, but that you as a family are giving, and that you give individually, because everyone has that responsibility.

And so you give bountifully, and you give individually. Luke 16, verse number 10, the Lord says, he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. But he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you or entrust the riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? In other words, you give bountifully, and you give individually.

And you give bountifully, because listen, the more you give, the more you get. And so when you give individually, you are giving out of a heart committed to Christ. And to whom much is given, much is required. And if you are only given a little, why would God give you more? Because if you only give a little, when you have a little, God will not give you more, because you won't give more. See, we think, well, I've only got a little, so I'm going to give a little. God says, no, if you're faithful in the little things, he'll entrust you with more things.

Sometimes the reason we don't get another job or a better job or a higher paying job is because we're not faithful in the little paying job. And why would God give you more money and more avenues and more opportunities if you're not faithful with the little things, right? And that's the biblical principle. So you give bountifully, you give individually, and as you're giving, you always give systematically. Each one must do just as he has purposed or chosen beforehand or planned out. In other words, giving is a systematic process.

I don't come to church and say, oh, I think I got some money to put in the office, but there you go. That works. No, you give systematically. You plan it out. You plan it out beforehand. That's why the Lord says, honor me with the first fruits of your increase and your vats will overflow.

But if you don't honor me with the fruits of your first increase, then they will not overflow. So I sit down, and the very first thing I do is say, okay, this is how much money I make.

This is how much I'm going to give to the Lord based on what I'm making. And the rest is left over to pay the bills. We do it the other way. This is how much I'm making. This is how much my bills are. If I got something left over, I'll give it to the Lord. That's how we live our lives most of the time. That is always a bad way to live because you're faithful in little, and God will never increase your much. Because if you're unfaithful in little, you won't all of a sudden now be faithful in a lot.

You'll still remain unfaithful because unfaithfulness is a character issue. It's a character issue. And so God wants you to give to him faithfully, systematically. How many of you have a plan for giving? Do you have a plan? I didn't make this up. This is the biblical principle in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. You give bountifully, you give individually, you give systematically, and on top of that, you give joyfully. As each is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

You're to give joyfully. It's the word that means hilariously. You should give with such a joyful spirit. It should just ring true of everything you do. In fact, when the offering basket's being placed, we should break out in laughter. This is such a great opportunity for me to give. I have no idea how many of these are getting met, but Lord, here you go. It's all yours anyway. And so we give to the Lord joyfully. And you can give joyfully, not grudgingly, because you've already given yourself to the Lord.

See, if you haven't given your heart to the Lord, if you haven't given what is his anyway back to him, you're going to give grudgingly. You don't want to give. You're going to hold on to those things. And see, the believer, he just wants to give to the Lord. He wants to meet the needs that are before him. He's a giving kind of person. And so we are to give bountifully. We are to give individually, systematically, joyfully, and we are to give proportionally. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse number one, Paul says this, Now, concerning the collection of the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also.

On the first day of the week, each one of you is to set aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

In other words, we give proportionately. Let me give you an illustration of that, okay? Let's say somebody in the room makes $100,000 a year, and someone else in the room makes $10,000 a year. And both the person making $100,000 and the person making $10,000 purpose in their heart to give 10% of what they have. So the person making $10,000 a year gives 10%. That means he gives $1,000 to the Lord every year. And the person making $100,000 decides to give 10%, and he gives $10,000 a year. But the median cost of living is only $30,000 a year.

So the man who makes $10,000 has a hard time making his meat because it costs $30,000 to live, but he has to do it on $9,000, whereas the making $100,000 in the same arena where it costs $30,000 to live only can do it with $90,000. You are to give proportionately. In other words, you are to give as God has prospered you. So why the person might give 10%? See, the percentage is not the issue. It's never been the issue. It's always the heart issue. And that's why the next principle is that you always give sacrificially, right?

A joyful giver is a sacrificial giver because it's always more blessed to give than it is to receive, Christ said. And so you give sacrificially. Very few people I know give sacrificially. They want so much for themselves, they are unwilling to sacrifice for the needs of others. But scripturally speaking, we are to give sacrificially because it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And when you give sacrificially, that means there's a certain kind of sacrifice that you are making for a need that you're going to meet on your own to help someone else.

And we are to give in that kind of manner. Now listen, people always ask me, you know, how much do you give? How much should I give? You know, my job is not to tell you how much to give. My job is to say, give your heart to the Lord. Give all you have to recognize all you have is His anyway. And give proportionately, give sacrificially, give bountifully, give individually, give systematically. Do you have a plan? What's your plan? And does that plan include sacrifice? Does it include, does it include a bountiful habit of giving?

Robert Murray McShane pastored in the 1800s in a little Presbyterian church in Dundee, Scotland. What led him to the Lord was the death of his brother. He gave his life to Christ. And at 22 years of age, he became the pastor of Dundee church in Scotland. He died before his 30th birthday. So there was about eight years, not even eight years of ministry. And there's a book out on the memoirs of Robert Murray McShane that sold over a million different copies in a different many translations. And if you ever had a chance to read it, you need to read the memoirs of Robert Murray McShane because a man whose ministry spanned just a little over seven years turned Scotland upside down.

And this is what he says when it comes to our giving patterns. When he talks about our attitude, he says, dear Christian, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true vine. You pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in your giving. You ever think about that? I want to be like Jesus, but do you want to be like Jesus in your giving? Maybe, maybe not. He says a branch bears the same kind of fruit as the tree. And old divine says, well, what would have become of us if Christ had been as saving of his blood as some of you are of your money?

Oh, how convicting is that? Objection number one, my money is my own answer. Christ might've said that my blood is my own. My life is my own. Then where would you be today? Objection number two, the poor are undeserving or the church is undeserving of my money answer.

Christ might've said the same thing. They are wicked rebels against my father's law. Shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels, but no, he left. The 99 came after the lost. He gave his blood for the undeserving objection. Number three, the poor, the church, they may abuse my money answer.

Christ might have said the same gay with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet, that most would despise it. Yet he gave his own blood anyway. Oh, my dear Christian, if you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy, and so will you be. It is not your money. It's not your money, Mr. McShane says, that I want or that I need. He says, it is your happiness and your holiness.

Remember the word of our Lord. It is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And that's the way Mr. McShane lived his life, a life of giving. How do you live your life? You are a household manager of the gospel of eternal reconciliation. How you doing with that? Are you handling the gospel well? You're a household manager of personal relationships. How you doing with that? How about this one? You're a household manager of spiritual resources. How you doing at managing what God's given you as a gift?

And lastly, you are a household manager of temporal riches. Are you a giver or are you a taker? Do you hold on to what you have or do you give it bountifully, systematically, individually? Do you give it in a way that screams joy? Because you've already given your life to the Lord. We are going to partake at the Lord's table. One who gave his life freely so you would obtain his life. We should hold nothing back from him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day, the glorious day to celebrate you and all that you have done.

Truly, Lord, you are a great God. We thank you for the opportunity you've given to us to worship you on this day. May you be pleased. May you be honored, Lord, that we truly, we would live for the glory of your kingdom. In Jesus name. Amen.