Stewardship - A Matter of Trust (Part 1)

Today we want to talk about stewardship.

What is a steward? Oxford Dictionary - “a person who is employed to manage another person’s property”

Mutual funds - billions of dollars in assets

- each fund is managed by a money manager who is trusted to invest that money in a way that will be beneficial to the owners of it. That money manager is a steward—his job is a stewardship; it is a trust.

- suppose a mutual fund manager started to treat that money as if it were his own?

- purchased a very expensive home

- took an elaborate vacation to S. Pacific

- bought a Ferrari

- what would happen to him?

- he would be fired, arrested, indicted w. embezzlement, convicted, and jailed. Why? Because he had broken trust—he had betrayed his stewardship.

- now, what would happen to him if, as a money manager, he had simply taken all those assets out of the stock market and put them in a big vault somewhere so that they would be there if the investors ever wanted them?

- he would be fired for mismanagement

- because he was hired to put that money to work, to invest it, to make it grow. Those are the terms of his stewardship—not just to guard those resources, but to make them grow.

Keeping that in mind, let’s look at Matthew 25:14–30. (page 983)

It’s the last week of Jesus’ ministry before he goes to the cross. He’s preparing his disciples for the fact that he is going to leave them and go back to heaven, but he’s promised them that he will come back again. But in the meantime, what are they supposed to be doing? He tells them three parables in Matthew 25 to show them how they can be ready for his return.

1. The Ten Virgins

2. The Talents

3. The Sheep and the Goats

Read Matthew 25:14–30…

“Again, it (that is, the time when we’re waiting for Jesus to return) will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

(A talent originally was a unit of weight somewhere around 75 lbs. of gold or silver. Obviously one talent was worth a lot of money. This owner had a lot of confidence in his servants!)

The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ “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!’

“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ “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!’

“Then the man who had received the one talent 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. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“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? 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. “‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This story is not about money; it is about character. It is about the character of the servants, and their relationship with their Master. And that’s what stewardship is about: it is about character.

The master gave each of these three servants a trust. He entrusted some of his property to each of them. And he expected them to do something with that trust. He expected them to invest that money; to put the money to work— to use the resources under their management to gain an increase. So this story is about trust.

And the Christian life is about trust. God has entrusted us with many things. He has given us life, health, material possessions, time, knowledge, abilities, and talents. These things all come from him. And they come in the form of a stewardship. He expects us to use those resources for His glory, for His benefit, to further His interests, not our own.

But how often do we do that? We bring home a paycheck and we look at that paycheck as “mine”. To do with what I please. Mine to further my own interests.

We look at time the same way. I have some extra time on my hands, so I’m going to use it to pursue my own interests. To further my own agenda. To build my own castles in the sky.

And yet all of these things have been given us by the Master to use for Him. We are stewards. We are managers of His property, not owners of our own. There is a big difference between ownership and possession. As a steward, I possess many things, but I own none of them. I have been entrusted with them as a manager and I will be accountable for what I do with them.

This story is also about accountability—notice in verse 19 that it says that the master returned and settled accounts with them. Those talents did not belong to the servants. At all times, they belonged to the master, even though he was away on a long journey. That’s why the servants had to give an account to him when he got back. What did they do with his property? How did they use his money? What profit did they make for him?

The Bible says that one day we are going to give an account to Jesus Christ for everything we did.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Are you living in light of that fact?

And this story is also about rewards. The servant with the 5 talents and the servant with the 2 talents were faithful to their master. They put the money to work and gained an increase. They carried out the master’s wishes; they did his will; they looked after his interests while he was away.

And so he rewarded them. He commended them: He said “Well done, good and faithful servants.” And he entrusted them with more of his resources to manage, and he invited them to share in his joy. He said “Come and share your master’s happiness.” You get a picture of closer fellowship between the master and these faithful servants.

But what about the servant who was unfaithful? He had been given one talent, but he just went out and buried that talent in the ground. And when the master came back, he dug it up and gave the original amount back to him with no increase. All he got from this servant was excuses as to why he didn’t carry out his responsibility; why he didn’t fulfill his trust.

What was wrong with this servant? Why did he act this way?

Because he didn’t love his master. He didn’t trust him. He was actually afraid of him. He said “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid of you…”

This servant believed that his master didn’t have his best interests at heart, so he wasn’t going to go out of his way to put his master’s best interests above his own. He was just going to look out for himself—he was going to shrug off his responsibility to his master, bury the talent, forget about it, and go about his own business.

And that is the way so many Christians live. They give little or no thought to their responsibility before God. To what God wants them to do with the resources he has entrusted to them.

When I talk about stewardship, I’m not just talking about what you do with your money. I’m talking about what you do with your whole life and everything in it. Stewardship is when you live a lifestyle of total accountability and responsibility before God for everything you are and everything you have. That includes you money, but it also includes your possessions, your time, your physical body, your abilities, your talents, your intelligence, your creativity—every resource you have.

Because God has given all that to you and He expects you to use it for Him. God never puts something into your life that he doesn’t expect one day to get out of it.

So many of us say we believe in God, but we live as though God doesn’t even exist and that we have no responsibility toward him for the way we live.

“Stewardship is what we do after we say we believe.”

If you and I are going to be effective for God in 1998, we’re going to have to take seriously the Bible’s teaching about stewardship. We are stewards. We are managers of God’s property, not owners of our own. And the sooner we get hold of that, the more pleasing we’re going to be for him.

I don’t know about you, but I want to please Jesus Christ in 1998. I want to hear him say “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share in my happiness.”

If that’s your desire, I want you to stand to your feet so that I can pray for you and that together we can dedicate this new year to Him.