A teacher once offered a prize for the shortest and most complete essay on "Why the Spanish Navy Made Such a Poor Showing in the Spanish-American War." The winning paper was short and right to the point. It contained two statements: 1. The Spanish Navy failed because it lacked three ships. 2. They were disciplineship, battleships and marksmanship. It would not be out of order to paraphrase this account by saying that the church today is making too little progress because of the lack of three ships. They are Discipleship to Christ, fellowship with one another, and stewardship to God.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. 1Cor. 4:2
The Christian life is two-fold, what God does for us and what we do for God and others. Stewardship includes our daily living, time, talents, money, and everything in every phase of life. Sharing with others not only saves them but helps us to be happier. "It's not what you'd do with a million If riches would e'er be your lot, But what are you doing at present. With the dollar and a quarter you've got."
Some of us will never have a million dollars to spend. But an essential angle of our lives is how we are spending the smaller amounts that we do have.
Several years ago, I was asked to preach on tithing. The church was struggling for money, and the ministry and oversight felt I needed to preach a sermon on giving. First, it may come as a surprise, but early Quakers did not believe in tithing. They believed you were responsible for 100 percent of your money to God. We are to be good stewards of the blessings God has given us. Many believe giving ten percent is all God requires. God wants us accountable for not just our money but our time, influence, our abilities, our Faith, and our service.
Each of us has 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. If you work 40 hours a week, you have 128 hours left. If you sleep 8 hours a night, you have 72 hours left. How do you use those 72 hours? If you come to church every Sunday, 2 hours are given to Sunday School and Worship. If you attend Bible Study, you have another hour. That 3 hours each week you give to study and preparing yourself spiritually.
Romans 14:12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Some may say that we have had difficulty doing things in the past two years because of mandates. Even though we live in the days of wearing a mask, carrying a medical passport to enter some businesses, government mandates, travel restrictions, and many other things brought upon our free lives by the so-called pandemic, there are still many things about us over which we do have control. We as individuals still have many things that the government has made no attempt to control or supervise. More than that, to me, it is cheering to note that we have some things over which no government or group of men will ever be able to control. There are some things about man over which he is supreme ruler, controller, and supervisor. A man may be forced to do some things, but man cannot be forced to do all things.
2 Timothy 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
In our service to God, you and I can be just as faithful as we want to be. On the other hand, we can be just as unconcerned as we care to be. Soon, the government may tell us how much gas we can buy, who can fly and who cannot, who gets medical treatment and who does not, but as yet, they have not rationed our contacts with lost men. These days, we are in danger of hiding behind and blaming the government for many things that need not be blamed. The devil is ever-present with excuses that will defeat the church and, in turn, the souls of men. He cares little, if any, how he breaks up the church's program. If the church cools off, lets down, or gives up in its efforts to stem the tide of lawlessness and sin, it will not be a government program that will cause it. The devil may try to make us think the government is to blame, but the final analysis will show it to be a lethargy, and unconcern, a cooling off, a letting down, a state of lukewarmness, coming over our own lives. We can be as faithful as we want to be in our service to God.
1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Whether we realize it or not, we live in the last days of this Gentile age. One of these days, the trumpet will sound, and time shall be no more. The stroke of midnight will peel out over land and sea any day now. Jesus told us that He was coming back. And when asked what would be the sign of His coming, he gave us several things that would precede His return. II Thessalonians 2:3, "For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first." Men on every hand are cooling off, letting down, and giving up the fight. Thousands of church members have no vital concern and little vision of a perishing world. But even though others may give up the fight and lose the keen edge from their Christian experience, you and I need not go down that road. We may be living in the last days, but we are still stewards of our service to God. We are promised that even though "a thousand may fall at our right hand, it need not come nigh us." And the old song says, "Not to the strong is the battle, not to the swift is the race. But to the true and the faithful, victory is promised through grace."
We are told in Jude 24 about Him who is able to keep us from falling. Yet we are cautioned about even the very elect being deceived in another place. We are urged to watch and pray, lest that day comes upon us unawares. We are encouraged to take heed lest a promise being left us of entering into that rest, we should fall short of it. Then we are told to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip (leak out).
Few, if any, of us will be tempted to murder, rob, steal, or kidnap. Our temptations will come from other angles. The enemy of our soul will try to get us to round the corners a bit here and there. He will try to get us to let up, slow down, and not put forth much effort to be faithful servants of God. We may be prone to lay the blame here or place it there, but in the final analysis, we are stewards, managers, and caretakers of our service to God. It is our privilege to be just as good a Christian as we want to be. We can work just as hard in God's vineyard as we want to work. We can be just as faithful in our prayer lives as we want to be. There is no limit that our Faith cannot reach. All the resources of heaven are ours for the asking. God would quickly dispatch a legion of angels to help us in our efforts to surpass others.
1 Peter 4:10-11 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
We are warned to guard ourselves and to be careful lest we slip, lest we miss it, lest we fall short. The Priest and Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan were not condemned because they mistreated the unfortunate man. Their condemnation lay in their being too self-centered and too wrapped up in their own lives.
In Christ's interpretation of the parable of the sower, he plainly states three things that defeat the progress and growth of the Word in the hearts of men: 1. The cares of the world. 2. Deceitfulness of riches. 3. The lust of other things. The religion of Jesus is not all negatives and prohibitions and must-not. There is a positive side. We are stewards of our service to God. It is ours to choose how faithfully we will serve Him.
There is no limit on Faith. Jesus did not say that we could have just so much and no more. Instead, he taught us to believe and exercise our Faith for the unusual. Only two things recorded in the Bible made the Master marvel. One was the great Faith of the centurion; the other was the unbelief of the people of his own country. In the latter case, it is recorded that there He could do no mighty works. That group of people tied down the hands of the blessed Son of God. In another case, he refers to the Faith of his disciples and helpers with the words, "Oh, ye of little faith." But in the incident of the centurion, he says, I have not seen so great Faith, no, not in Israel."
Faith springs from the heart. It is impossible to believe from the heart until all handicaps and hindrances are put under the blood of Jesus. We increase our Faith by using the Faith we now have. But we are stewards of our faith life. It is possible to be saved and sanctified, a member in good standing in the church, and yet not have much Faith that achieves. The heart can be full of doubts on the point of really getting down and believing God for the unusual and the seemingly impossible.
Might it be that our Faith has not grown deeper because we have used it so little? Could it be that the Faith of many is growing hide-bound, matted, root-bound, shriveled, dwarfed? Are we not content with too little? Do we not give up too easily? To illustrate this, I would quote a paragraph given at a church conference some time ago. "Members received, none. Members dismissed, none. No weddings, No funerals, Missionary budget, unpaid. District Budget, unpaid. Home Missions Budget, unpaid. Pastor's salary, unpaid. Pray for us, brethren, that we may hold our own this coming year." Does it require any faith to manage a church in that manner?
If a sports team worked like most churches, they would never win a game. But we, as Christians and members of the Body of Christ, have the greatest thing in the world to offer a faith that does the impossible. Should we not come out of the corner where the devil has tried to drive us and exert our Faith for some actual, unusual, challenging tasks? Like so many other things, Faith grows, develops, roots, and strengthens so much faster and better when used and put to some actual exercise.
Let me throw this out. What are the plans for Sugar Plain for the next five years? Are we going to be like most rural churches and die from old age? If new people are not reached, we will die. As a member of this church, what are you doing to make it grow? As a member of this church, how much do you support the church's programs?
I do not believe it pleases God, who has promised us so much to have us accomplish so little for Him. "Has he not said, and will he not do it?" But are we not stewards of our Faith? Is it not for us to determine whether our Faith will be little, much, or great? If we allow ourselves to be full of doubts, Faith cannot work as it should. Ought we not as stewards of this manifold grace of God to stir ourselves until we get on believing ground and cry, "It shall be done of My Father which is in Heaven?"
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