Stewarding Your Obedience

Jesus utilizes the experience of this steward to communicate three expectations He has of us:

EXPECTATION 1:
Use our opportunities .  Luke 16:9

1. we must invest our money in “”  for the Lord. This means who will one day welcome us to heaven.
2. Our lives and our will one day end, so it behooves us to use them .
3. It is sad to see how God’s wealth is being wasted by Christians who Jesus never died and judgment is never coming.
4. The heritage of the past must be used wisely in the present to guarantee in the future.

EXPECTATION 2:
Be in the way you use your material wealth.  Luke 16:10-12

1. you can’t the “material realm” from the “spiritual realm.”
2. money is not ; it is basically   (“the mammon of unrighteousness”)
3. only God can it and use it for good.  1 Timothy 3:3, 1 Peter 5:2 (TEV)
4. By its very nature, money corrupts and those who love it and let it control their lives. Luke 16:11

QUOTES:

“We cannot safely use mammon until we are absolutely clear that we are dealing, not just with mammon, but with unrighteous mammon”   Richard Foster

People who are unfaithful in the way they use money are also unfaithful in the way they use the “true riches” of God’s kingdom.

We cannot be true to Scripture in our theology and at the same time heretical in the way we use money.

God will not commit His true riches to individuals or ministries that waste money and will not give an honest accounting to the people who have supported them.

2 Corinthians 8:21

EXPECTATION 3: 
Be wholly to God and single-minded.  Luke 16:13

1. If we choose to serve , then we cannot serve .
2. If we to serve God, then we serve money.
3. Jesus is demands integrity, total to God that puts Him in everything.  Matthew 6:33

QUOTES:

If God is our Master, then money will be our servant, and we will use our resources in the will of God.

But if God is not our Master, then we will become the servants of money, and money is a terrible master! We will be wasting our lives instead of investing them, and we will one day find ourselves “friendless” as we enter the gates of glory.

“Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil!” Henry Fielding

“Make money your servant and use today’s opportunities as investments in tomorrow’s dividends.” Jesus

Be a wise steward! There are souls to win to the Savior, and your money can help get the job done.

For Further Consideration

A. Jesus expects us to be wise stewards of our time.

• Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:15-17 (ESV)
• The phrase “redeeming the time” comes from the business world and means “buying up the opportunity.”
• Time is eternity, minted into precious minutes and handed to us to use- either wisely or carelessly.
• The main lesson of this narrative is that the steward, as dishonest as he was, used his opportunity wisely and prepared for the future.
• We were not given life so that we can “enjoy” it, but rather that we might “invest” it.

B. Jesus expects us to be wise stewards of the gifts and abilities God has given us.

• Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)
• We must use our gifts and abilities to serve others.
• The thief says, “What’s yours is mine—I’ll take it!” The selfish man says, “What’s mine is mine—I’ll keep it!” But the Christian must say, “What’s mine is a gift from God—I’ll share it!”
• We are stewards and we must use our abilities to win the lost, encourage the saints, and meet the needs of hurting people.

C. Jesus expects us to be wise stewards of the Gospel (1 Thes. 2:4)

• God has committed the treasure of His truth to us (2 Cor. 4:7),
• and we must guard this treasure (1 Tim. 6:20)
• and invest it in the lives of others (2 Tim. 2:2).
• The enemy wants to rob the church of this treasure (Jude 3-4), and we must be alert and courageous.

D. God has appointed you as His steward.

• One day you will have to give Him an account of the resources he has entrusted to you
• If you’ve been faithful, Jesus will give you His commendation and reward
• ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matthew 25:21 (ESV)
• If you have been a poor, or lazy steward, you will lose many blessings the Lord would want to share with you, even though we will be saved and enter heaven
• Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
  1 Corinthians 3:13-15 (ESV)
• Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30  And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Matthew 25:27-30 (ESV)
• “God called us to play the game, not keep the score.”   Vance Havner
• If we are faithful stewards, God will reward us generously, and that reward will bring glory to His name.