Stewardship is a “touchy” subject …. many seem to resent any mention of money from church leadership, even though scripture does discuss it in plain words. Also, i’ve noticed, almost anytime stewardship is mentioned, among the very first thoughts in our minds is about money, but truly, money is just a small part of the stewardship the Lord has called us to. It’s a provocative subject, and many will, when it is mentioned, inject all sorts of pro’s and con’s into the conversation. Strangely enough, “giving an account” also seems to be an oddly difficult conversation. There’s just something about “accountability” most of us seem to avoid, no one seems none too eager to tell the narrative of where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing with their time and resources . We know how the widow gave when Jesus sat opposite the treasury and watched, as seen in Mark 12, or how Ananias and Sapphira lied about their giving and how there came to them some very final results, to say the least, for telling the “untruth” in Acts 5.
We may appreciate Paul’s statement to the Corinthians about the Macedonians giving of themselves before they gave their gift in 2 Corinthians 8. We might even feel we know what our neighbor ought to give to their church or another charity. However, it is another matter when we sit down to take inventory of our own “take home pay”, so to speak. But that is what the scripture says in Luke 16:2. It says: “Give an account of your stewardship.” Did you get that? Not your neighbor, not your spouse, but your stewardship. It means to sit down and tally a “trial balance”, in the words of a bookkeeper, to see where we stand with God. And for those of us who would like to know, a “trial balance” is when we take a snap shot of all our accounts, giving account of our stewardship of our treasures…..and i’m not talking about just money either.
This is Outposts and i’ll be your host this evening with cool jazz and contemplative conversation from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.
Taking a good, honest, inventory is always a good idea, although we all tend to feel very exposed or uncovered, but, in the long run i believe the Lord wants us to tell the truth about what is r-e-a-l-l-y on our shelves and in our pockets. Let’s take a break, and i’ll be right back.
Many years ago i worked in manufacturing. We made generator regulators, some nearly as large as a train car … there were many specialized parts of steel, copper, and many electronic parts which were used in building our products. Some of the electronic parts were very special and had order lead times of over 10-12 months … they were very special indeed. On a side note, “Lead time” is how far in advance a part must be ordered for it to be in-house in time to be assembled and make the shipping deadline. The warehouse inventory specialists had to keep an almost constant inventory, and if they forgot to order something, and lied about it on the inventory, they could easily lose their job. i remember once, a friend of mine, an inventory specialist, was supposed to have ordered a very special transformer but somehow he missed his queue to order it. When inventory time came, he lied about what was really on the shelves, because he thought he could get the parts in fast enough to cover his poor stewardship. It wasn’t gonna happen and he was found out. The manufacturing manager gave him his walking papers immediately. It would have been better for him to say he missed his ordering queue, than to lie about the inventory.
In Mark 6:38 Jesus asks the disciples a question saying, “How many loaves and fishes have we got? Go and see.” The “go and see” part means for them to take an inventory. Suppose they had lied to Jesus reporting there was more in the basket than there really was, how do you suppose things would have gone with them? Or what if they lied and said there were none because they pocketed the items in hopes of turning a profit later on? Maybe there would have been an addition to Sermon on the Mount called, “Sermon in the Desert”. There is a lesson of stewardship and being an administrator there in Mark 6.
Taking an accurate inventory of what we’ve really got is important. Telling ourselves what we’ve truly got on the shelves of our heart gives us a snap-shot of what and how we ought to pray, it re-centers us as to who God is and where we fit with Him. How do we know what to talk to God about unless we have an honest and truthful idea of exactly what we’ve got and what we’re about?
In Exodus 38:21 Moses asked for an inventory, or as the King James puts it, a “sum of the tabernacle”. They were counting everything to see what they really had, not what they might have, or what they dreamed they would have sometime in the future, but real time, in the NOW, the brutal truth of what in actuality was in their possession. It was a check-up of the Stewardship of the Treasuries. Have you taken inventory lately? Ever? One way to take inventory is through prayer. Charles Spurgeon said, “If God gave us favors without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities, and revelation of hidden poverty.”
Being a good steward of the gifts God has given us is a learned endeavor, and truly, everyone is born with God-given capacities, but what we do with those God-given gifts is a choice we must make.
The realization and exercise of our God given giftings is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. The Lord didn’t give you gifts just so you could put them on the shelf, nor did He give them to you so others could be exploited for your own gain. Use them wisely. Think how you would feel if you gave your child a wonderful gift, and your little loved one just put it away, or held it in contempt, or sold it to the kid down the street? ….why do we think our Father is any different towards us? God has made us rich in every way so we can be generous on every occasion. There’s a good word, “Think generous”. Generous in kindness, generous in mercy, generous in patience, generous in hope. Generous in the exercise of your giftings. Think generous!
Someone asked Daniel Webster, a leading American statesman, a senator from Massachusetts, and the 14th and 19th U.S. Secretary of State, “What is the most solemn thought that has ever entered your mind?” He replied without hesitation, “My most solemn thought, and i have it often, is my personal accountability to God.” We must face the truth that every one of us is accountable to God for the use we make of the gifts and blessings He has entrusted to us. Some think God doesn’t heal anymore…read your Bible and think again. Some think God doesn’t speak to men anymore … read your Bible and think again. When, not if, but when God speaks to you….listen. By the fact God is speaking to you….that in itself is a gift. Use it. He’s not speaking to you for nothing.
Fritz Kreisler, an Austrian-born violinist and composer, once said, “I was born with music in my system. It was a gift from God. I did not acquire it. I didn’t even deserve thanks for the music. Music is too sacred to be sold, I never look upon the money I have as my own. It is public money. It is only a fund entrusted to me for proper disbursement…”
What are you doing with the treasures God has given you? Do most of us even have an idea of what they are?
In Matthew 25 there is a parable about talents (or gifts) and what three servants did with their talents. Rev. R. R. Belter wrote, “The man in Matthew 25:26 said, “I went and hid my talent in the ground,”, and he is not the only one on whose tombstone, in the “Cemetery of Neglect” such words were written. Arthur Brisbane, whose’ syndicated column we read with relish years ago, once penned these words: “The greatest loss to the human race has not been caused by floods or by fire, not by epidemics which have spread disease over vast areas and with the sickle of death mowed down millions, nor by earthquakes and topical storms; neither by record-breaking crashes of Wall Street … the greatest loss … has been in the buried talent of God’s people.”
Reverend Belter continued saying, “Is there anything more pathetic than a trained teacher who will not teach, a beautiful voice which will not sing, a pastoral gifting that will not shepherd, an apostolic anointing not allowed to plant, an efficient businessman who will not give to God the benefit of his knowledge, or a lawyer who will not serve in Church councils so that his Lord can have the benefit of talent which God alone gave him? We have men and women in all walks of life, who have been given blessings, but refuse to be a blessing.”
Someone, anyone, please tell me the difference, between the person who neglected the talent God gave them and the one who simply misuses it by not using it? Our gifts and talents may not be, in our estimation, a “big” talent at all, but we are to serve where we are with what we’ve got, the best we know how, as unto the Lord.
Asaph was a steward, He was appointed and purposed to make all provision and preparation as necessary to take action as the keeper of the Kings forest. You think you’re not a steward of anything? Think again my friend. God has made us stewards of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding as He gives it to us, stewards of the Kingdom of God, stewards of the reflection of Glory, and stewards of worship and praise. He has given us stewardship of our communications with Him and others, stewardship over investment, and multiplication of His investments, and stewardship of our pursuit of the mysteries of God. We are absolutely stewards, and not having a title and position in church doesn’t mean we are not.
1 Corinthians 4:2 “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” A steward is someone who is an administrator of the house, one who oversees, and each one of us has authority over ourselves, in mind, body and spirit. Are we good stewards over what God has given us? Mediocre maybe? More specifically, ?do we see the value in ourselves as God sees that value, enough so that we are willing to take responsibility for being a good steward over our giftings? We can’t be neglecting our gifts just because we find them scary or we might get it wrong…that doesn’t negate our stewardship. Just because someone one you respect says the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for today, does not negate our responsibility of stewardship. If you don’t believe they are for today doesn’t mean suddenly they aren’t for today, it simply means you don’t believe it. Stepping out in obedience and being willing to use the giftings God has given us is part of growing up, and i’m quite certain the Lord is calling all of us to be mature believers, rightly occupying our place in the Kingdom. Our stewardship and gifts do not possess us, we possess them. 1Cor14:32 says that the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet, meaning the gift doesn’t possess him or her, but they possess the gift.
Our giftings don’t have to just be under the heading of the “big five” as seen in Ephesians 4. Some have pockets full of hope, others have a gift of just meeting people….people just like talking to them. Some have a gift of just knowing how to help before other folks seem to know they even need help, they just show up right on time, it’s more than a knack, it’s a gift and leading of the Lord. There are gifts of writing and communicating….some people in the Body of Christ are simply wonderful, vision imparting communicators. There are people with organizational gifts, administrative gifts, gifts of compassion and grace, gifts of imagination and dreaming, the gift of spoken languages, gift of mathematics and the practical application; there are people who just ooze kindness….those are all gifts from God and we are the stewards of those beautiful things the Lord gave us. What will you do with what God gave you, while practicing humility and gentleness, being patient, and supporting one another in love? Are we going to bury our giftings, or use them for the furtherment of the Kingdom of God? Think about it.
This has been Outposts, brought to you live from the edge of the gently flowing, Ockluhwahhah River, where every evening is pleasant, and harmony is not an exception but the standard of life. i’m Social Porter and this production has been brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, the Knox clan in Mebane N.C., Jax-Pax one stop grocery store, White Knuckle Studios, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.
Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Plas Johnson, Mitchel Forman, Mark Egan, Cindy Cashdollar, and the Western Swing Allstars.
All music use is licensed by BMI.
Use the giftings God has given you, be accountable to God for the implementation of what He has planted in you. Be a good steward of your treasures. God doesn’t give us gifts just so we can keep them hidden in our pockets. Think generous, lavish His love and blessings on others, cut the cord baby, and let it flow. No longer allow unbelief or sour doctrine to restrict your service to the Lord and the world around you. Paul said in 2Cor9 that In the use of God’s gifts in you and in your being generous in sharing them with everyone else, the world around you will see your confession of the gospel of Christ.
Listen carefully to the Lord, be strong and courageous! Peace my friends, be at peace.