Matt 25:14-30 - Growing in Jesus - Good Stewards
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· 5 viewsHBI – In all things we are to be sacrificial as we are just stewards of all that God has given us. What are we doing with what God has entrusted us with?
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March 21 - Matt 25:14-30 - Growing in Jesus - Good Stewards
HBI – In all things we are to be sacrificial as we are just stewards of all that God has given us. What are we doing with what God has entrusted us with?
Intro
In the book “Little Farmer Boy” By Laura Ingalls Wilder, she tells the story of her future husband when He was but a boy.
One story was about when Almanzo and his family rode into Malone to celebrate Independence Day.
This book tells us that everything was different that day as the Wilder family traveled: Almanzo wore his new suit, nobody was working in the fields, everyone was in their Sunday clothes driving to town. The sidewalks in town were crowded, but the stores were closed. Flags were everywhere and the band in the Square played tunes like "Yankee Doodle".
There where people that where selling dirnks and snacks. Pink lemonade cost a nickle a glass. Almanzo and his cousin Frank get into an argument over whether Almanzo is scared to ask his father for a nickel because Frank had one and bought himself a glass of lemonade, not sharing even a drop.
It is here that Almanzo and Father have a discussion over money. Almanzo asks his father for a nickel to buy some lemonade, but Father takes out a silver half-dollar and asks Almanzo if he knows what it is. Almanzo knew that it was half a dollar, but then his father tells him it is something that Almanzo had never thought of before: "'It's work, son,'" Father said. "'That's what money is; it's hard work.'"
As Father goes on to explain, Almanzo could take that half dollar and buy a suckling pig with it, raise it and then it would raise a litter of pigs worth four or five dollars each. Or Almanzo could buy the lemonade with it, drink the lemonade and it would be all gone.1
We are given wonderful gifts by our heavenly father and the same idea applies; except we are told that these gifts we are given are not ours to begin with but they belong to Him.
We are just stewarding of the gifts God has given us. That means t all we have is essentially borrowed to us by God. The terms of His arrangement are that we use the things He borrows us for His glory and the furthering of His kingdom.
The next step we go through of what it means to grow closer to Jesus is that in all things we are to be sacrificial as we are just stewards of all that God has given us. So, What are we doing with what God has entrusted us with?
Read Matthew 25:14-30 and Pray
What consumes our time, are we giving of it?
This is part of a passage of scripture called the Olivet discourse. Jesus had just torn a strip out of the pharisees and the Sadducees pronouncing many woes on them for their hardness of heart.
Jesus had told them that the temple would be destroyed and in one of the gospels we read that He also adds that in three days it will be rebuilt again.
The disciples here told that this was going to signify the coming of the end of times and they wanted to know more about when this was and what it was going to look like.
The passage we are going to focus on we read that Jesus said that He will delay His return to earth one day to give people a chance to turn to Jesus.
But the ideas are that Jesus was going to go away and He was going to return some day so we better be found prepared for the return of the Lord.
One of the ways that they were supposed to prepare was by using all the gifts they had as being borrowed from God and to be used for God’s glory and God’s purposes.
A parable is told of a master who is going away for a time and gives money to his employees and entrusts them with it. When He returns, He rewards the employees who used his possessions to gain more.
I want to take this parable and expand on it s little bit. I would like to split this sermon into three or four but for the sake of brevity we will go over the three aspects of stewardship in one sermon.
The first talent that we are given that we need to use for the glory of the Lord is our time. The time that we have been given on earth is to be used for the Glory of the Lord. What consumes our time, are we giving of it?
I remember going to India and getting used to something called Indian time. It drove us North Americans nuts. Time was a lot more fluid there.
If you set a church service for 10:30 am and showed up at 10:15 like most people here, do then you would be the only one there. If you showed up at 10:45 you might still be the only one there. Events start whenever everyone meanders in.
What I learned is that we cannot be so set on our own clocks that we have “no time” to do what God has called us to do.
But what is it that we are to do with the time that God has given us? Well, we look at this whole passage to see that because the theme is the same. We need to use the time that God has given us for His glory.
The idea behind all of what we are talking about in the Olivet Discourse is that Jesus was going to come back. That the day of the Lord was coming and that we must be prepared.
Matthew 24:36 36 “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son—except the Father alone.
Joel 1:15 15 Woe because of that day! For the day of the Lord is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty.
Matthew 24 tells us that the day of the coming of the Lord is going to be like in the days of Noah. They all had warnings that there was something bad coming but the did not listen or prepare for the coming judgement of God.
People then are just going to be going about their lives as normal when the day of the Lord comes, and woe unto those who are not already prepared to meet the Lord.
So Then with the time that we have currently been given by God, what have we been doing with it? Do we use our time for the glory of the Lord or do we use it selfishly for our own gains?
What talents do we have? How are we using them in the body of Christ?
As the day of the Lord seems to be approaching, we look not only to our time but our talents as well. When I talk about talents, I mean the gifts God has given us to use for His glory.
1 Peter 4:10 (CSB)10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
But what are the gifts that we are to use for the glory of God? They are the spiritual gifts that have been given to us that we read about.
I like the definition of spiritual gifts that Wayne Grudem uses in His textbook. A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.2
The problem I see lots is that people like to keep their gifts to themselves. Maybe it might be that they think they are not good enough, or that someone else in the church can do it better then you can do it.
Some of you may think that you have no gifts. But that is why I like the definition that Grudem has. Any ability we have that can be used for the glory of the Lord is a gift from God. They are not our own they belong to God to be used for His glory.
I heard of a church in the states that did this well. They found what different abilities the people in the church had and used them for the edification of the church and for the glory of God.
One example is they had a bunch of mechanics in the church. They also had a young moms group meeting. They noticed that there where a lot of single moms who had vehicles they could not afford to fix. So they had the mechanics go and fix their cars while they where in their moms group.
But we are all by sin nature selfaholics, born with an addiction to the intoxication of thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3) and others thinking more highly of us than they ought to think.
We all have abilities that have been given to us by the Holy Spirit. They are not to be used for ourselves, but they are given to us to be used for the building up of the church for the glory of God and for the growing of the K of G
How do we spend our money? Are we faithful givers?
Lastly, we have money. No one likes talking about money but that is usually the first thing that comes to mind when you mention stewardship to people.
The same principal applies to the money we have that applies to the rest of the points we have made about stewardship. As we grow in Jesus, we need to learn that all we have been given belongs to the Lord and He expects us to use it for His glory.
People have argued about this for ages. The term people often use when giving money to God is tithing. But this is an Old Testament principal.
The Old Testament principal was 10% but there was a lot more to it then that. Usually, I do this in a whole sermon but I will boil it down for you here.
If we look to the Pentateuch, or the books of Moses, The first tenth was the general tithe - paid to the Levites to fund the national government and to compensate them for their tabernacle service.
We cannot linger over more details; some think the Israelites gave 14 tithes over seven years; others believe they gave 12. Regardless, when we add the required tithes together, the amount certainly exceeded 10 percent. In fact, the number was probably somewhere around 20 or 30 percent per year. This wasn’t just the leftovers either but the best of all they had.
Tithing is not a NT standard of giving though it is a good place to start. To help you figure it out, 10% is a good place to begin.
But the idea is the same, all we have been given is God’s. I like the book of Acts as it gives us a good example of this in action. Acts 4:32 32 Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.
George Mueller is remembered as a man who received millions of dollars to support his orphanage, in response to secret prayer, without making any needs known to others. What many don’t know is that Mueller gave away vast amounts to the Lord’s work out of funds that were given for his personal support.
From 1870 on, he personally contributed the full support for about 20 missionaries with the China Inland Mission. From 1831-1885, he gave away 86 percent of his personal income! As the Lord prospered him, he could have lived in style. But he lived simply and gave away the rest.
So What?
There is a lot of info that I have tried to boil down into one sermon, but what it all comes down to again is that in all things we are to be sacrificial as we are just stewards of all that God has given us. So, what are we doing with what God has entrusted us with?
What consumes our time, are we giving of it? What talents do we have? How are we using them in the body of Christ? How do we spend our money? Are we faithful givers? In what shape is our hearts? Have we given it to Jesus?
Yes, I added our hearts to there as well. What are we doing with all that has been given to us? What are we doing with the time we have been given?
Are we preparing to see Jesus when He comes back again? Jesus is going to come again at a time when no one expects. Our jobs are to be prepared and to do something with the time that we have. How are we using our time for the glory of God?
What about any of the talents you might have. People seek the miraculous gifts that we read about and that is okay. Though not everyone will have them.
God gifts us according to where He calls us, He gives us abelites and talents. Everyone has something they are good at, that they love to do, so How can you use your talents for the glory of God to Grow God’s Kingdom.
What are we doing with the treasures we have been given? Look to the book of Acts as an example. No one was lacking because everyone used what they had to help each other out and grow God’s Kingdom.
You guys have been extremely generous with the treasures God has given you, may you be blessed as you keep that up!
And lastly what have you done with the heart? Have you given your heart comp[lately to Jesus? Ass the song goes it is His breath in our lungs so how are we using the life God has given us for His glory. Give your heart to Jesus today.