Renewing Your Mind - How to Be a Good Steward

0:00The worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life. Because every life that has been placed here by God on this planet has been placed here to be used to his glory, and to serve him and to honor him with what you produce and how you live. When people hear the word stewardship, they tend to think of fiscal responsibilities or taking good care of their possessions. Those aren't incorrect notions, but as we'll see today, biblical stewardship is rooted in God's creation and extends to every part of our lives. Hello and welcome back to renewing your mind. I'm glad you're with us. Today we reach the end of our study of Dr. R. C. Sproul's series, Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, with the final of those five things being a good steward. As Dr. Sproul will show us, stewardship is more than merely being kind to nature or managing our time and money well.

1:04It involves the whole of our lives. But here at the end of the week, there was so much more of this series that we'd like to share with you. If you'd like to explore Dr. Sproul's complete 10-part series, please call us with a donation at 800-435-4343 or go online to renewingyourmind.org. You'll receive lifetime downloadable access to the whole series, along with an ebook edition and a bonus crucial questions booklet, which you can learn more about at the end of today's episode. But until then, here's Dr. Sproul. Today we're going to look at the fifth item that we've been concerned with in terms of the five things that every Christian needs to know in order to grow into the fullness of Christ. You recall that the first war we've already looked at included how to study the Bible, how to pray, how to worship, how to serve, and today we begin a look at the fifth one,

2:04which is how to be a good steward. Now keep in mind that we're learning these things so that we can take a hold of what we call the means of grace, and those means by which God helps us to grow spiritually. And when we think of those means of grace, we don't often think of stewardship as one of them. But in fact, when we look at scriptures, we see that God uses the disciplines given by the Holy Ghost and the instruction of His Word to make His people responsible stores of the gifts that God has bestowed upon Him. And the whole concept of stewardship biblically begins with creation. And creation is celebrated not only in the book of Genesis, but throughout the pages of Scripture, especially in the Psalms, where part of the worship and the

3:04singing of the people of Israel in the Old Testament celebrated God's ownership of the whole universe. The earth is the lords and the fullness thereof, and all those who dwell therein. God is the author of all things, the creator of all things, and because He is the creator and the author of all things, He is at the same time the owner of all things. Whatever God makes, He owns. Now, what we own, as it were, we own as stewards who have been given gifts from God Himself, the ultimate ownership of all of our so-called possessions of all of our property is God Himself. So that's axiomatic. That before I think of how I serve God and worship God with my possessions,

4:08the first thing I have to understand is that whatever I own, it's not simply that God own first, but that God still owns. And He has loaned these things, as it were to me, and expects me to manage these gifts in such a way that will bring honor and glory to Him. Now, the word that is translated, stewardship in the Bible, is the Greek word, Oicon Omea. Oicon Omea. On writing this on the board, that new people in radio land can't see, but you can imagine. This board is not for your benefit, but the black board is for my benefit because I can't speak without writing these things down. And we see that word, Oicon Omea, and I'm sure that you could readily guess what English word derives from this Greek word. Even though it is translated by the English word stewardship,

5:11the English word that in fact derives etymologically from it is the word economy. Economy. Oicon Omea. Economy comes from it. And the word economy from this Greek word Oicon Omea can be understood in this way. The word Oicon Omea is one of those words in the Greek language where two different distinct words, in this case nouns, are joined together in a compound way to create a new word. The first part, Oiko, comes from the Greek word, Oiko, which is the Greek word for house. And the word nomos is a word we're familiar with, even if we don't know the language of antiquity. The word nomos is the Greek word for law. We speak of autonomy, heteronomy, anti-nomianism is anti-lawism. So the Greek word nomos is conjoined here with the Greek word for

6:13house. So that literally the word that is translated stewardship means house law or house rule. Now this is how it's linked to stewardship. The steward in the ancient culture was not the owner of the house, but he was hired by the owner of the house to manage the affairs of the house, to manage the property, to allocate the resources of the house, to make sure that the cupboards were filled with food, that the money was taken care of, that the lawn was taken care of, that the house was kept in good repair. All of these dimensions of management were given to the steward. Now in the like manner, this whole concept of stewardship begins in the Garden of Eden, where God creates this wonderful environment and gives Adam and Eve full reign of the Garden.

7:19And not only that, he gives to Adam and Eve what? Dominion over the entire creation. But Adam and Eve are not given ownership of the world, but they're given the responsibility of managing the world, of taking care of the Garden, of taking care to make sure that the Garden is tilled and cultivated, that it's not exploited, that it's not abused, and that the goods that are found there in Eden are not wasted. And so what we're talking about fundamentally in this idea of biblical stewardship is responsibility for managing or allocating the resources that do not belong to us. They belong ultimately to God. Now what is the responsibility of any chief executive officer of any organization? His primary task is the allocation of resources. We look at our

8:27ministry, we have a building that we have to take care of, we have a student base constituents that have to be ministered to, we have a staff, we have equipment, we have computers and machines and all that sort of thing, and we have money. We have so much time in which we can operate our ministry, and we cannot be effective in operating the ministry if we waste our time, waste our people, waste our money, destroy our facility, and allow our equipment to fall into disrepair. To do any of those things would be bad stewardship. And so if we have to spend money, you understand this in your own management of your own household, that if you decide to spend $50 here for food, that's

9:29$50 that you don't have to spend on clothes or vice versa. If you spend the 50 on clothes, you don't have it to spend on food. Everybody, I don't care if they're the richest person in the world, functions in a limited finite set of resources. And so every time we use a resource, we make a decision. And what the good store does is that when he allocates a resource, whether it's his time, his labor, his money, his equipment, he is careful to use that resource in the most prudent way possible. And that's where God holds us accountable. He held Adam and Eve accountable for how they took care of that garden, and God now is interested in how we take care of our ministry, how we take care of our personal lives, how we take care of our house, how we take care of our financial resources. All of these have to do with the pattern of managing and allocating resources.

10:36Now, one of the most gripping stories in the New Testament is Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. And what was the problem with the prodigal son? He received an inheritance that he did not earn. It was given to him by his father. And as soon as he receives this inheritance from his father, instead of trying to use his wisdom to build this inheritance, to invest it as we saw in the parable of the servants in our last lecture, instead he goes into a far country and wastes his inheritance in wine, women, and song, and ends up living in a pegstuy. I mean, the whole story of the prodigal son, at least the first half of the story, and why he's called prodigal, is because it's the story of a man who wastes his father's resources. It's the story of a man who wastes his life,

11:39and that's the worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life. Because every life that has been placed here by God on this planet has been placed here to be used to his glory and to serve him and to honor him with what you produce and how you live. And a wasted life is a horrible, horrible tragedy. And that's what we read in the story of the prodigal son, until he receives a new life and is brought to his senses and he comes back home, back to his father's house in repentance, willing no longer to be a steward, but really to be a hard servant at the lowest level of the household. And instead his father, as you know, kills the fatted calf and has this great celebration to return his son into the family. Now, with respect

12:42to serving God with our substance, we have to look at the Old Testament concept of the tithe, because one of the things that people ask all the time is, okay, I understand I'm supposed to be a steward, I understand I'm supposed to serve God with whatever wealth God bestows upon me. What does that mean in terms of the Old Testament principle of the tithe? Now, I don't have time in this brief introduction to go through all of the nuances and the technical arguments that surround the debate regarding the Old Testament time. But for now, let me just say this, that there's the debate about how many tiths there were, whether the tithe was applied simply to religious matters, or did it also apply to the maintenance of the state. And of course, the biggest question regarding the tithe is, does the tithe belong to the Old Testament ceremonial law that is nowhere carried

13:42forward into the New Testament and is therefore now obsolete or does the tithe apply to the New Testament Christian. Well, again, without going into all of the details of this, let me just tell you what my view of the matter is, I am convinced that the Old Testament principle of the tithe still applies to the New Testament Christian. In the Old Testament, God understood something, folks. God understood that left to themselves people would never place the same value on hearing the word of God or on education. Then they would, for example, on physical medicine, on doctors, or on entertainers, or on business entrepreneurs. If you leave things completely to the market, the market will value entertainment, the market will value entrepreneur producers, attorneys,

14:43doctors. But we look at our own country and we see that the two lowest groups of paid professionals in the United States of America are teachers and pastors. And God knew that in Israel, and he set aside one whole tribe, the Levites. And he said, the Levites will not receive an inheritance here, and the Levites will be responsible for taking care of the matters of the church and for education. And God said, I am instituting the tithe to make sure that these people who are doing these things to which I put a supreme value would be properly remunerated for their services. The principle in both testaments is that the laborer is worthy of his hire. Now still, with all of this image that we have of ministers constantly asking for money and the idea of ministers riding around in gold rolls, Royces and diamond pinky rings and so on, may be part of the TV image that you have.

15:51But still, in the final analysis, the lowest single paid group of professional people in the United States of America today are pastors. And I don't know any minister who ever went into the ministry in order to get rich because it is simply not a lucrative enterprise in our culture, whatsoever. And I saw the largest poll ever taken on the religious habits of American people a few years ago. And in that religious poll of 65 million people in America who claim to be born again, who claim to be evangelical Christians of that group, 4% said that they tithe their income to the work of Christ. Now I don't know how accurate that poll is. You know, these polls can be off two or three percentage points. But let's say it's off by four percentage points. And that

16:52would mean that 92% of professing evangelical people systematically day in and day out, Rob God, and refuse to finance the work of Christ. Now we go back to the Old Testament to the book of Malachi. And we hear God's response to this type of problem. In Malachi chapter 3, in verse 8, we read this text, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say in what way have we robbed you in tithes and in offerings? And you are cursed with a curse because you have robbed me. Even this whole nation bring all the tithes into the storehouse. That there may be food in my house and try me now on this, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will be not enough room for you to receive it. Now this is not the local minister giving an appeal for funds. This is God speaking to his

17:56covenant people. And he asked the question, Will a man rob me? Would you steal from God himself? And of course the people shrink back in horror from a question like that. And I think of course we would never rob you. I mean we wouldn't think of robbing God. God said, yet you have robbed me. How in tithes and offering you have kept back for yourself that which belongs to me and that which I have required of you. Now that's what happened in Old Testament Israel. That was a serious problem. A problem that the prophets had to come and rebuke the people and God said, Will, Why don't you test me and see what I do? If you honor me, if you obey me, I'm going to open up the windows of heaven and pour out so much blessing upon you, you're not even going to be able to have room to put it. But no, you have elected to hold it back. Now beloved, it is our duty as Christians

19:01to be stewards and to respond to the command of God. Now again, some people say that the tithes does not apply to the New Testament. I think it does. And we see people continuing to tie the New Testament in one of the earliest non-biblical books that we have in antiquity, the did-ok or the so-called teaching of the apostles, which was written either at the end of the first century or early in the second century, has a significant portion of it given over to this question of supporting the work of the kingdom. And the tith principle is clearly communicated there so that in the earliest documents that we have from the Christian church, we see that the primitive Christian community continued the practice of the tith. When we are engaged in financing the kingdom of God, the biblical concept is that we are called to invest in the kingdom. We live in a country that

20:03was built on the principle of capitalism. And the fundamental idea of capitalism is this, that you are engaged in delayed gratification instead of taking your money that you make and spending it all now. The principle of capitalism is that you save it. You invest it instead of spending it, allowing your capital to go to work for you, allowing your capital to expand your wealth and to increase your wealth while you are sleeping as it were, your money is working for you. And so people invest in the stock market. And then they check the stock market every day to see how their investments are doing. And I think that's a very wise way to manage one's personal income, that if you make ten dollars an hour, say to yourself, okay, I'm going to live on eight dollars an hour. I'm going to take one dollar out of that ten and I'm going to invest it in God. And the other dollar I'm going to take and invest it in mutual funds or whatever. Because whatever money you have,

21:06that's what you have to live on. But we don't want to do that instead. We spend twelve dollars on the ten dollars that we make, which is the American way. But the classic way of delayed gratification is you invest to increase. But I really believe that the most important investment we can ever make is in the kingdom of God. Because it has eternal returns. Not just for us, but for our family, our children, our grandchildren, and this generation of Christians has to invest for the next generation in the things of God. And this only follows Christ's advice, Seek ye first, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. And so my charge to you is when you are allocating your resources, when you are spending your money, that you think about how you can invest in Christ's kingdom. With the allocation of your resources, that means your time,

22:08your labor, your equipment, and your money. That's how we support the ministry of Christ. Time, energy, labor, property, all of the resources that God has given to us. And the wonderful thing about the tithe is that if God prospers you, you don't have to feel guilty above it. If you return to him what he asked of you, then you can enjoy the rest as long as you use it wisely. But you can enjoy his prosperity, which is what he encourages us on the pages of Sacred Scripture. In closing, I want to give a couple of practical comments on how to tithe. People ask me that all the time. I hear people say, I'd like to tithe, but I can't afford to tithe. And I say, what you were saying to me is you cannot afford to live at the level you're living now and tithe.

23:08That's what you say. Although I really doubt that. I honestly believed that you invest in the kingdom of God. You're not going to lose anything in the final analysis. But the way to overcome that always is to tithe from the top. And learn that as early as you can in life with your children. If they get a dollar allowance, make sure that their first 10 cents goes in the collection plate on Sunday morning. So that they learn the principle early and they learn that even if, for example, if the government's going to come and tax your income, you know that you can't spend the money that the government's taken. Well, my obligation to God takes precedence over my obligation to government. He gets paid first. He gets paid from the top. And if you want to know how serious you are about investing in God's kingdom and what kind of a steward you really are, look at your checkbook because your checkbook is an objective, concrete record of where your treasure is and of where your

24:11heart is and how much you care about financing the kingdom of God. Your checkbook tells the story of your stewardship. Go look at it because it won't lie to you. LAY UP YOUR TREASURES IN HEVENS, says our Savior. We all will have to give account for our lives. And the kind of stewards we are here on earth will shape that account. But God gives us guidelines clearly in Scripture and we should strive to follow them. You've been listening to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. That concludes our study of Dr. Sproul's series Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow. But if you've found this series helpful, there is a lot more there for you to explore yourself. We'd like to make this entire 10 lecture series available to you. If you call us with a donation at 800-435-4343 or go online at RenewingYourMind.org, you'll receive

25:18lifetime downloadable access to the entire series, the e-book edition, and one of Ligonier's crucial questions booklets, How Should I Live in this World? Your support helps us to reach more people with the truth of God's holiness. I hope you'll join us next week as we begin a study of one of the figures of Old Testament history, a study of the life of King David. And don't forget our weekend schedule as my co-host, Josh Mann, introduces a continued look at Dr. Sproul's series A Blueprint for Thinking and an Exposition of the Book of Luke. I hope you join us here on Renewing Your Mind.