Stewardship Series, Week 2

I chance you did not pick up a handout on the way into the sanctuary. They are outside the doors on a podium, but we're continuing tonight in our sanctuary series on the subject of stewardship. Last week we talked about stewardship of the gospel, which is, without question, our most valuable, our most precious resource, and we began by dispelling the idea that when we introduced the subject of stewardship that we are speaking only of finances. Now, I know that word incites that vein of thinking. If we introduce the topic of stewardship, we are inclined to think of dollars and cents and bills and budgets, and so we worked to dispel that last week. This week we're going to jump in what we did not touch so much last week, and that is the more pragmatic side of stewardship. This is stewardship, and we're talking about lifestyle. And so, as a begin, we're going to review just a few points that set the tone not

only for last week, but the entire month, and it is this, that stewardship is a way of living. This means the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. We don't compartmentalize our lives, but we're desiring to embody a principle that touches every area of our lives. So we're not just trying to be good stewards with our financial budget and neglect everything else in our life. Stewardship is a way of living. A godly and wholesome life is the product of daily stewardship. This is not something that we just can care to visit a day a week or a few days a month, but we're talking about a principle that in some measure requires our attention daily. This is not made up of miracle moments. I thank God for Sundays. I thank God for Wednesday Bible studies. I thank God for revival services and conferences and these moments where we have mighty visitations of God. Those moments are significant, but they're

not enough. And if you live from moment to moment or Sunday to Sunday, I'm sorry, but you will never achieve the level of maturity, stability, or blessing that God has for you. This is a daily thing. And so the good news is this, if some point, whether last week, tonight, or in the weeks to come, you can by the inspiration of the spirit identify an area of your life where you desire change. Start with one thing because the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. And so start with one thing and stay consistent. And eventually, I believe that you can change everything. This is why pastor often refers to this. Admittedly, I've heard preaching on the necessity of church attendance, but I've never heard anyone present it quite like our pastor. He talks about the making of a pickle and the saturation principle. And he said, I just tell people, if you'll just commit to me the next 52

Sundays of your life, I promise you your life can be changed. Now, suffice it to say, they can commit to Sunday. I'm willing to guess that probably Monday through Saturday, there's still some areas of their life that they have not yet got together. But what are we doing? We're trying to identify a single area where they can be consistent. And when they realize the effect of that one change in that one area in remaining consistent with it, how they do that one thing can eventually influence everything. And now, they'll be as diligent in their daily devotion as they were their Sunday attendance. And they'll be as diligent with all their bills as they were the offering. How you do one thing is how you do everything. This is the concept of lifestyle stewardship. Last week, we talked about we're stewards, and stewardship is not ownership. This means that we are accountable as much as we feel possessive towards things that ultimately, as stewards,

we are accountable to the owner of these things, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. In your handout, Job 41 and 11, some context here. Job, as I'm sure you were aware, has endured some unfavorable circumstance in his life. His family has suffered. His finances have suffered. He has endured great loss. His body is afflicted with sickness. And still, Job refuses to curse God. Even those closest to him would admonish him, just curse God and die. He refuses. He maintains his integrity. He has on multiple occasions questions for God, because like any normal person, Job seeks to make sense of the circumstance. And God, to our surprise, is silent through it all. And after 38 chapters, God turns the table on Job and says, who is this that darkeneth my counsel? Limits my knowledge. He says, one translation says it this way. Why do you speak so much for somebody who knows so little? In the preceding chapters, 38 through 41, God begins to

ask Job some questions, over 70 questions by my count. In verse 11 of Job 41 is one of these questions. Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under the heaven belongs to me. It's as if the Lord is saying, Job, I know you don't rejoice, you're not celebrating in the loss, but I need you to understand, I don't owe you anything. Everything under the heaven belongs to me. We are stewards, not owners. He owns our homes, our cars, our clothes, the possessions that fill up our cabinets and cupboards and closets. Everything belongs to him. And we are accountable to him, to how we handle what he gives to us. So tonight we're gonna look at three areas of life. The pragmatic, the practical. And we're gonna begin by looking at the idea of stewarding time. Stewarding time. Ephesians 5.16, Paul writes redeeming the time because the days are evil. The word evil there just means to be full

of labors or annoyances. You know what this is like. How many times have you been about your business and an annoyance appeared? A hardship, an inconvenience, a trouble, and terrible, we call them trains. You thought you had it calculated just right. You were supposed to be at their house at six o'clock, dinner was gonna be on the table, but you got out the door two minutes later than you anticipated. No big deal if I just don't sit too long at the stop sign and if I maybe just go a few miles over the speed limit it'll be all right. But then the evil of the train showed up. Life is full of these kind of moments. The car that doesn't go when the light turns green, the accident you weren't anticipating, the car battery that was dead, the flat tire you didn't know would be there, the power outage that you certainly didn't invite, life has all kinds of these moments. But

to really grasp what Paul is saying we have to understand really the depth of the word time in the Bible. In Ephesians 5 this is the Greek word kyros. Now in the scripture we find two different words for time. One is chronos and one is kyros. Now you're all here tonight right now because at some point in this day you used your chronometer. You're looking at me like I did. A chronometer is the technical term for a watch. A chronometer, a chronos meter, a measurement of time. That's how come you were able to be here at 6.30. Because at some point in this day you looked at a watch, a phone, a car dash, a stove and you figured out well this is what time it is and this is what time it begins and this is how long it takes to get there so this is the time I need to leave. You employed the use of a chronometer, a measurement

of time. Without that you would be at the mercy of your estimating power and your ability to read the position of the sun in relation to the earth which you might get an estimate in the hours but probably not to the minute. Thank God for a chronometer. It is a chronos meter, a measuring device to measure chronological time. And so this word chronos in the scripture is talking about time quantitatively. This is seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. It's the chronos. A kairos is time but it's not speaking of the quantitative measurement. It's a qualitative moment. This is to say that the emphasis in a kairos moment is not on what the clock says or the moving of a second hand but the emphasis is on the God given opportunity in that moment. In the Greek thought which where this word kairos comes from they said that an archer would ready his bow and he would pull his arrow and he would

line that shot up and he would wait for the precise moment when the target was in position and when the moment was right he would release that arrow and that moment was the kairos moment. Now the chronological moments were all those seconds that passed as he aimed the bow and as he readied for that target to come into position but at the moment he employs the power of that bow to fire the arrow that is the kairos moment. He is taking advantage of the opportunity given to him. So the emphasis on a kairos moment is not the time. It's not seconds, minutes, days, months. It is on the opportunity that God has granted you. It's on the significant action that you have in that moment. And so when Paul says we are to redeem the time what he's saying is that there are moments that God has given you. This is a kairos moment. There is an opportunity before you given by God

that demands an emphasis, an action. You have an opportunity now so you have to redeem it. Take advantage of it and I would submit to you here's how we do this because I think the kairos comes in the chronos which means it is the management of chronological time that allows us to discern a kairos moment. It is the good stewardship of our lives, our time. Time management that allows us to take advantage of those kairos moments. Now I don't know, I'm just guessing, but there might be somebody who's not here tonight because they did not manage their chronological time. There may be somebody who intends to be here Sunday who may not come because they did not manage their time. The unfortunate truth is that there could be a kairos moment in this Bible study for their life. God could have a kairos moment, a life changing moment, a God given opportunity for somebody this Sunday, but if they don't manage their chronos

well, the chronological time, if they don't steward the minutes and the hours of their life, they may miss the kairos moment God has come into them. And so I think what Paul is saying is there's all kinds of evil disturbance and annoying things that show up in our lives that interfere with chronological time. It messes with our calculation and our measurement, but we have to redeem the time. We have to be stewards. We have to live with an awareness that somewhere in our time, somewhere in our minutes and hours and days, God intends to visit us. And it is the management of our time that awakens us to that reality. How many times have we thought to ourselves, well, when I get this done, I'll have a time of prayer. When I finish this, I'll go back and read my Bible and then time rolls by and you never get back to what you, the management of time. It is the stewardship of

time. And in managing time well, God gives us the ability to discern these moments of opportunity He gives us for life change. Psalms 90 and two. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Teach us to measure our days. It is the understanding of time, the brevity of it, how short life is, how little we have in a day that causes us to be intentional with our actions. We probably in 2024 can't talk about time and time management and the stewardship of time without considering unquestionably what is the greatest distraction of the present day. The Harmony Healthcare IT is an institution that manages medical information for hospitals and research centers throughout North America. And by their study done in 2023 concluded in 2023, the average American spends four hours and 37 minutes looking at their phone every day. For the teenage demographic, that number increases by about two hours and 15 minutes, almost seven hours a

day. That quickly adds up to about one day every week, six days every month, 70 days every year. If today a child receives a phone at the age of 12, then by the age of 70, they will have spent an entire 12 years of their life looking at the screen of a phone. In this startling statistic does not take into consideration the use of an iPad, handheld gaming systems like Nintendo Switches or the use of a television or computer screen. This is only smartphones. Admittedly, I'm not sure that any medical profession can really give a deep conclusion here because I'm not sure we've had this technology long enough to really impact, to study the impact it will have long term. But the medical recommendation is consistent that they have no more than a maximum of two hours of entertainment or technology use per day. And so you can see we are battling a major distraction. We're talking about the stewardship of time tonight.

This is pragmatic, it's, I said to my wife, I feel like I've got a little meddling spirit on me. The content this evening facilitates it. We're not talking about the burden of the gospel tonight, we're being practical. So time management tips. Now there's books by the dozens on these subjects that are two, three, and 400 pages long. You could go deep. I'm just gonna give you a few surface concepts. I would submit that we need to have a schedule. It has been said if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. In our house, I tell my wife all the time, she'll say we're doing this, we're meeting so and so, we're going there, and I'll say is it in the calendar? Because if it's not in the calendar, it's not in my brain. I don't even try to retain the information because I know I can't. I live by the calendar. If she says we're going to see somebody on Thursday night,

my next question is what time? Because I can't put it in, when I put it in the calendar, I have two choices. I can click the all day button or I can put a time. And I live and die by the calendar. We have to schedule because if we fail to plan, then we're planning to fail. Part of scheduling is prioritizing because if we don't prioritize, then we end up giving attention to what is urgent but what is not always important. And sometimes the urgent can take away from the important because we failed to prioritize. I would advocate in the planning of your days or your weeks or your month, this is just what I do and I've encouraged others and times pass, you're getting conversation and they'll say, well, they begin conceptually in their mind, their planning begins, well, I go to work Monday to Friday, nine to five, no, your schedule doesn't begin on Monday. Your schedule begins Sunday morning. That's

the first day of the week. It's the Lord's day and it's when we gather in this house. What are you doing? You're saying, this is the priority. It's the first thing, it's the starting point from which I plan all else. As you start to schedule and to prioritize, you will learn that you're gonna have to say no sometimes because as skilled as you may be at time management, you simply cannot manage if you have too much. It's impossible. And if your work dynamic or your family dynamic permits it, I would encourage you to delegate. I tell Hailey all the time, you need to delegate. That's, we have sons now. We have boys. Make them do it for you, delegate. Why do we do this? Because ultimately God wants our time. We deceive ourselves to thinking that we can have a relationship with the Lord if we do not spend time with him, allowing him to speak to us, immersing ourselves in his word,

letting the scripture examine us and instruct us. And so I see a principle in scripture that I call the time and place principle. All the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis three, the scripture would say that Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. That's the place in the cool of the day. That's the time. So what you're observing is the Bible's emphasis on time and place. When you get to Genesis 19, I think verse 27 if my memory's correct, the scripture says of Abraham. He comes out and he stands before the Lord at the place and the time he did before. So it's the same thing, it's the time, it's the place. You find Jesus' pattern in his earthly ministry. Frequently, he retreats from the crowds, even from his own disciples into the Mount of Olives. And he has a place of prayer. So we're observing this consistent pattern through scripture. Perhaps you've heard Pastor

Shock teach about this before. I don't know if he's taught it here, but I know he's taught it all across the states at conferences and churches, and he'll talk about the chair. And he'll say, you tell me where your chair is. That's the place. What he's saying, and he says, if they get uncomfortable, what they're telling me is they don't have a place. And this is the observation that I would submit to you. People that don't have a time and place. Now, I think the time can fluctuate. I understand the dynamics of culture and shift work and differing hours. And so if it's not a set time, make it a rhythm. What I mean by that is if you're not gonna make it at 6.30 every morning or eight o'clock at every morning or nine o'clock at every morning or six o'clock at every evening, I would advocate for the morning. But if you don't have a set time,

let it be a rhythm. Let it be when you do get up. But the principle is the time and place. And why we're doing this is because God wants our time. We have no relationship with them. In fact, Pastor preached this, I don't recall if it was January or February, but he said every time I get down to pray, he said, I just feel like the Lord is impressing upon me that God wants our time. Well, I would submit to us that if we're not consistent with the place, it's unlikely we'll be consistent with the time. And so the pattern we're trying to employ is to have a time and place that we meet with God. And practically, let me give you four areas of time stewardship. Number one is daily. Number two is weekly. Number three is seasons. And number four is annually. These are four areas of life that I think we need to employ the stewardship of time daily. What

do I mean? I mean that we must manage our days, take control of our hours. The scripture would say that the Lord's compassion is new every morning. This is personal. That every morning I wake up, God has prepared something new. And so I think daily stewardship is that I come to God every day to receive what he prepared that day. I don't wanna live on what he gave me yesterday if he has something new for me today. So daily stewardship I would submit is yes, it's the managing of our hours at work and our evenings with family, but in the area of walking with God, I'm talking about relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to manage our time in such a way that we have time with the Lord daily. We also need to manage our time weekly. That means prioritizing Wednesday nights, scheduling, prioritizing Sundays. These are not optional. I'm not throwing shame. I'm not being hard on anybody who is in

employment situations that on occasion take them away and have health, I'm not beating up on anybody who's got life circumstance that puts you in sometimes unfavorable predicaments. I think God is gracious, God is merciful, but let me tell you what I am talking about. I could tell you a story tonight about the man who baptized me in Jesus' name when I was 12 years old. I mean, he had profound influence, left the church and went to teach at a Bible school, had profound influence on so many teenagers and young adults, and then decided that he wasn't making enough money in the ministry. I know it takes money to live, I understand that. Got another job on the side and another job and decided, you know what? I'm actually gonna pursue a new career and decided that he was gonna take a career path that would move his family across the country. And now the closest truth preaching church is three or four hours

away from where his family is. That's somebody who did not steward their time well, did not prioritize the things of God. As it pertains to weekly stewardship, we're not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We're prioritizing the corporate gathering because the end of that man's story was today his family's not in church. His marriage has fallen apart. It's a sad story, but where does it begin? It begins with the mismanagement of life in these smaller areas that are easily overlooked. Skipping a Sunday here, skipping a devotion there. And when you do it one time, it's a lot easier to do it the next time. And so I submit we need to be good stewards of our weeks. Seasons, Ecclesiastes chapter three lists 20 something different seasons. Now I know that in the natural world we have spring, summer, fall, and winter, but in life, spiritually speaking, the Bible tells us there's many kinds of different seasons. And so the question is simply this,

what is the focus of God's work in my life right now? What is the purpose of this season? Because knowing the purpose of this season will instruct me how to act. We would be silly to plant seed in the middle of winter. Knowing the season instructs the action. And so if you have some time, I would encourage you to dig into Ecclesiastes three, look at how many different seasons of life and purposes God has, and let the spirit of God speak to you about where you are and instruct you on what to do. Annually, we often do this here at New Life at the first of every year. In January, pastor will call us to a time of fasting, of consecration, a time of prayer. We find similar ideas in scripture. Jericho could be a good example when God finally moves them into the promised land. That first city, Jericho, he said, the spoil is mine. Why? It was the principle of the

first fruits. God said this is the first of all the land, the first of all the cities, and you're not gonna take any of it because the first always belongs to me. And so I would advocate, now this is not, I'm not giving you law tonight, I'm just, this is principle. I would advocate that there is wisdom in taking the beginning of every year as a time of consecration, seeking God, seek direction for that year, see what the Lord has to say to you and about you, what are God's purposes and plans for your life and for our church family. And so as pastor so often does it, at the beginning of the year, he'll call us to a time of consecration. What is that? It's annual stewardship. And so we need God's wisdom in these matters. Proverbs 6, the scripture there in your handout says, go to the aunt thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. She has no guide, no

overseer or ruler. She is not made to do this but provideeth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. What it's saying is the aunt understands the reality of seasons. In its understanding of time instructs its action. And so if you wanna know how to live, just go observe the aunt and consider its ways and be wise. Know the season that you're in and let it instruct your action. And so if pastor's saying, we're coming into a time of evangelism, if we're coming into a time of outreach, we're gonna love our city, we're gonna reach the lost. Knowing the season informs the action. If we're gonna love our city, we've got to do the work of evangelism. So this is the stewarding of time. Let's move on to part two, the stewarding of talent. Romans 12 and 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Paul says, we have different gifts given to

us by the grace of God. Now, we all receive the same grace. We do not all have the same gifts. The grace of God will show itself differently in each of our lives. We have different personalities, different likes and dislikes, different strengths and weaknesses. And the way that grace blossoms the gifts of God in your life may be different than my life. But as James says in James 1 and 17, every good and perfect gift comes from God. So yes, we acknowledge the diversity of gifts, the difference of giftings, but every gift comes from God. Whether your gift puts you on a platform or in a piece of machinery on the property. If your gift puts you in a Sunday school room, in a nursery, in the cafe, every gift comes from God. And so our abilities come from God and should be used for God. And studying this yesterday, I came across Exodus 31, which I thought was a beautiful embodiment of

this principle. Remember, our abilities come from God. Now, when pastor returns home this week and he rises to this pulpit on Sunday to preach, there's not one of us in this room that would question or doubt where that gift comes from. It is evident now, yes, he's disciplined, one of the most disciplined men I have ever met. He's remarkably intentional, but he's gifted by God. He's anointed by God. And not one of us would question that. But I'm willing to guess tonight that there's some people sitting here that when you walk out those doors and you walk into your place of employment tomorrow, you're probably not going to associate what you're doing at eight o'clock tomorrow morning with the gifts of God. And so Exodus 31, the Lord speaks to Moses and says, see, I have chosen Bezaliel, the son of Uri, the son of her of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with

wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills. Verse four, to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. So when my catch is burning his forehead under the heat of the summer sun, pouring concrete, you know why he's doing that? Now I know there's probably somebody in Tarahut that thought, well, he's just doing that because he didn't go to university. No, let me tell you why he's doing that. He was gifted by God to cut and set stone when Joe Hoopengarner's out there in the heat, dragging that air compressor and nail gun and giving orders to laborers to build another beautiful house in the city of Tarahut. Now I know we're not gonna question all the stuff that happens up here, but the scripture is saying that that is just as much the gift of God. And you know the beauty

of it is that when they understand that, which they do, when something needs done around the church here, if there's a project going on in new life, there's not very many days that you could pull in and Joe Hoopengarner's truck's gonna be sitting in the parking lot. Well, Dennis Hoopengarner's truck's gonna be sitting there with it, why? Because they recognize it may be my career, it may be my ability that brings me a paycheck, but it's actually my gift from God. And so because God has given it to me, I give it back to him by finding ways to employ my gift or my ability for the betterment of the kingdom. This is what builds great churches. Listen, I preach in a lot of different places, I've seen a lot of different churches. I've been in churches, I'm telling you, they're spiritual people, they're praying people, they're godly people, but sometimes godly churches don't grow. You think, well how in the world is

that possible? Because of stuff like this. Because sometimes there's a disconnect between career and calling, and we isolate the God part to the building or to what is distinctly spiritual. I'm telling you tonight, everything you do, if you walk into an office tomorrow and you're answering a phone and you're typing on a computer, you're doing that as a gift from God. And what you need to do is seek a way to take the abilities that God has given you for the kingdom. You say, well what in the world would I do? Well, listen, I hate answering the phone. I just do, I don't, problem of an introvert. But if you're one of those people that can answer a phone call and the person feel your joy, I mean they hear your smile. If you have that gift, new life needs you at the doors on Sunday morning. Because you have a gift from God, not just to answer the phone at a doctor's

office, not just to work the billing department. I'm telling you that whatever your ability is, it comes from God. Your next blank, every believer has the ministry of whatever. If you have never been ordained in the ministry of whatever tonight is your commissioning. You have the ministry of whatever. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thine might. We all have the ministry of whatever. Well, I don't really know what I can do. I don't know what might, just whatever, whatever your hand finds to do. If you're walking into the building and there's people a few steps behind you, in that moment, the whatever might be to hold the door and let them walk in. If somebody sits down at the cafe and spills their cup of coffee and you see it, the ministry of whatever might be to jump up and grab some napkins so they don't have to get up out of their seat. If you're walking through the

atrium and you see somebody drop something, the ministry of whatever might be to pick it up and return it to them. If you see somebody sitting by themself and they look out of place or uncomfortable, a first time guest here, the ministry of whatever is, you just, you got signed up for the first impressions team. You're on the welcoming committee. We all have the ministry of whatever. Whatever needs to be done, we do it. First Peter four and 10. He says, each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. See, God's grace does not just come to save you. It comes to empower you for the purpose of service. That, Peter says, makes you a faithful steward. So my challenge tonight is to do whatever to serve others. Do whatever you can to make somebody's life better. Think of random acts of kindness. Just do good. In fact, the

scripture would say in Acts 10 and 38 that Jesus was anointed to go about doing good. Now I know the remainder of the verse says he healed the sick and he was casting out devils, but there's also a really practical side to doing good. You can let somebody know you're praying for them. You can have them over for dinner, invite them out for coffee, plan a time of fellowship. If you know that there's a brother or sister in need and you have ability or means to help them in that time of need, let the grace of God empower you in the ministry of whatever. Whatever needs to be done, we're gonna do it. This is the stewardship of talent. And thirdly, and probably what most of us have been waiting for since we started talking about stewardship is stewarding treasure. Proverbs three and nine says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. Possessions are a

form of treasure. Now, before we meddle here a little bit, because this is the area to meddle tonight. So before I meddle, I want you to know that 1 Timothy 6, 17 says that God has richly given you everything to enjoy all things. So it is God's will that you enjoy the possessions in your life. You don't have to feel shame about having some stuff or being blessed of God. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the home you live in or the things that God has blessed you or entrusted to your care. It is God's will that you enjoy what he's given you. Now what you enjoy might be different than what I enjoy. That's okay, because God's made us different. Your likes may be different than my likes. Someone may like fishing, but not like hunting. Someone may like sports and someone may not like sports. Someone may like old cars and someone may like new cars. We all have a diversity of

personalities and interests. But I want you to hear me. It's God's will that you enjoy what he's given you. In fact, the writer of Ecclesiastes would say it's God who gives people power to enjoy the wealth they have, but it's also God who withholds from people the joy when they have wealth. And so it's not wrong to have it, but stewardship means we keep it in its right place. And when it gets in its wrong place when there is a mismanagement of possessions of stuff, this is where we have a problem. And so stewardship is a vital, vital topic to talk about. Proverbs 27 and 23, it's in our handout. Be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds. For riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations. You think, well, I don't have sheep and I don't plan on getting sheep. What's the scripture have to do with me? Well,

a lot. But as I studied this, I was intrigued by the word condition. It's the Hebrew word panim, which means face. Be sure you know the face of your flocks. And as I considered precisely what God was trying to tell the shepherd, this is what I would give for us to consider tonight. It's one thing to know what you have. It's another thing to know the condition of what you have. Now you may have a hundred sheep. Thank God you know what you have because when one goes astray, you know one's missing. But perhaps you have nine very sick sheep and soon you're 99, we'll be 90 if you don't care for them. So I think what the proverb is trying to tell us is stewardship of what God gives you. It's not enough to just know what you have. You have to care for what you have. Give careful attention, he said. Why? Because in the same way the shepherd would behold

the face of that sheep. To look in the eyes of that lamb, to study its health, to know of its condition. The principle we're looking at here is whatever God gives you. Now I'm glad you know what you have, but if you don't care for what you have, if you are not well versed in the condition of what you are stewarding, you're gonna find out you have a problem. Now there are certain areas of life where those smarter than I have endeavored to make this easy on us because your dashboard has all kinds of gauges and lights and now they've got even messages that will flash at you. Why? It's telling you that if you don't take care of this car, you're not gonna have a car. So I know I have a car, it's sitting in the driveway. Yeah, that's the first part of stewardship is knowing what you have. But the next step is taking care of what you have. And

if you're not changing oil, you're soon not gonna have an engine. And if you're not servicing those brakes, you're gonna have an accident. And if you don't take care of those tires, you're gonna find yourself in a predicament. It's one thing to know what you have, it's another thing to know the condition of what you have. As I was preparing, my mind went back to a series similar to this that was taught in the old sanctuary. I don't recall, it was before we had moved here, so it could have been in early 2022, maybe 2021, but Sister Harpole was teaching on a Wednesday night and made this statement and I've never forgot it. I was sitting on an airplane in one sea listening to the podcast and this is what she said. She was talking about the management of a household and this was the statement. Everything should have a purpose and a place. And I know this is, I can feel it

already. This is about the point where they're like, this is the meddling part. Because we start thinking about our homes and how many things we may have that don't have purpose and certainly don't have a place. Well, if something has a purpose and no place, you have clutter and if it has a place and no purpose, then you have wasted space. And so it's not good stewardship of stuff. I'm not gonna cite a bunch of statistics and articles tonight, but trust me, you can find it if you wanna look for it. It's all over the internet, mess equals stress. Now you're not gonna read that statement. That was original to me this afternoon, but I read the articles. It affects the chemicals of your brain. I know sometimes you think it's a spiritual attack, no, it's just that the room is messy. You think a demonic spirit showed up, no, it's clutter because mess equals stress. So a clean home equals a clear

mind. Now, this next script, I'll read this and we'll come back. Proverbs 24, 30, 31. I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall was broken down. Now consider this, he identifies, he speaks to the character of the owner with ever meeting, without ever meeting the owner. I went by the field of the slothful. Well, how did you know he was slothful? Because I looked at the condition of the vineyard. I saw the condition of the fence, the wall. So by knowing the issue, he identified the character. Now, I don't want you to think I'm unnecessarily hard, I'm a dad with three kids. Our living room's not always clean. In fact, before we left for church tonight, there's about three puzzles. My five-year-old has scattered on the living room floor, but they'll

get picked up. So I understand there are seasons and circumstance that may disrupt our desire or our balance if we're parenting young children, if we've had a get-together, if we've just finished baking. I'm not talking about those moments, I'm talking about the overarching practice of your life. I'm not talking about what the kitchen looks like when someone walks in after you've been baking all afternoon. I'm talking about what is your routine? What's your baseline? What is your rhythm? So the stewardship of our possessions demands that we care for them. If God's given you a house, care for it. If God's given you a property, care for it. Mow the lawn. Take care of it. Wash your car. Keep it clean. Vacuum the floor. Why? Because we're doing it to the glory of God. Because how I treat the gift reveals what I think about the giver. Now, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm not naive. I know we all have different

standards. And I'm not standing here tonight trying to provoke us to some battle of comparison where we find the greatest steward of the cleanest person or the nicest property and measure ourselves against them. That's not what I'm advocating. But at the same time, I think we can be challenged and learned by those who do it well. My intention is not to promote comparison. My intention tonight is to promote or provoke reflection. Not to compare yourself to somebody else but to reflect on your life and measure the stewardship of your possessions to the principles of Scripture. If somebody drove by your vineyard, if somebody saw your house, if somebody came into your living room or spent time in your kitchen, if they rode in your car, what conclusion would they draw about you? Now, I know we don't like that. Oh, my. But it happened in the Scripture. And so as servants of God and stewards of everything He has given to us, knowing

that everything in our lives points back to Him, I have to do my due diligence and take care of these areas of my life. Because whether I like it or not, they know I'm part of new life. They know I go there. They've heard me talk about this church and they know the leadership I represent and the God that I speak of and when there's areas of my life, I do not steward well. It's not just a reflection of you, but it reflects back on God. And so please hear me. I'm not trying to provoke you to comparison. I want to provoke you to reflection into good works, to be honest with our stewardship of stuff and let the spirit of God speak to us about how we can all do better. And because I have a mild case of OCD, I did have to put this in your handout, the OCD of the stewardship of possessions, organize, care, and declutter. Cause it

doesn't matter how good you are at management, if you have too much stuff, you just can't manage it. Now, you know, our cabinets have three shelves. And so if you have three types of glasses, you have coffee mugs, short cups, tall cups. In my OCD mind, it just makes sense that all the mugs go on one shelf, all the short cups go on another shelf, and all the tall cups go on another shelf. My wife is not OCD and we have a good marriage. You know why? Because you learn what really matters and as long as you can close the cupboard door, you don't see it and there's peace in the room. You walk into my room, there's brown suit jackets, blue suit jackets, not brown, blue, no. Blue, brown, gray, black. My shirts, white, blue, stripes. My ties, the pattern ones are here, the plain ones are here. My trousers, gray, blue, brown. You might say I have a mild case of

OCD. Now I'm not saying you have to do it that way, but you do have to let the reality of the scriptural's truths on the principle of stewardship in some measure impose themself on your life. I'm not gonna judge you if you go white, blue, white, blue, or you have no order at all. You do you, but you do have to have a little bit of OCD and that's this, you gotta organize your stuff. Yeah, how many times have you needed something, looked for something and you didn't know? I'll tell you why you didn't know because it's not organized. Listen, I can tell you where all my stuff is, partially because I'm OCD, but I have a place for things. This is where this goes. When I go to bed tonight, my Bible, my computer, my notebook is gonna be in a certain place, my glasses will be in a certain place. I have a place for it, it's organized. Might not be

the way you would do it, you might not do it the way I'd do it, but you've got to organize and you've got to care for it. I like suits, I'm interested in suits. I like shoes and ties, that's what I like. I'm not really into hunting or fishing, but I like this kind of stuff and so you know what, I take care of it. I take care of my shoes when I walk in the room some days and the morning sun's coming through the window and I see how much dust has built up on them. You know what I do? I get down there and I get a little brush and I dust them off. Why am I doing that? Well, because I care enough about it that I invested to me a decent amount of money in a nice pair of shoes, which it's okay. God delights in me enjoying what he blesses me to have, but if I'm gonna do

that, I better take care of it because caring for it is part of stewardship. And in the subject of declutter, wouldn't you know what, I found this scripture and he please, he asked, he's three. The Bible says there's a time to keep, but there's also a time to cast away. And I don't know who that word is for, but it could be for somebody here tonight. Now I know it's 730, but you give me 10 more minutes because money is a form of treasure. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Many people come under the mastery of money. And I know we often think of that as, well, they get a lot of money and it destroys their life. Well, the presence of money and even the lack of money can control people. Randy Alcorn has written several wonderful books on the topic of money and giving. One is entitled Eternity and Possessions, I think, or Money,

Possessions and Eternity, a phenomenal book. He says, when money has lordship, it becomes money. This is in your handout and you'll notice that second money is a capital M. It ceases to be an object and it becomes your God. It is an idol. When money has lordship, control, or unrighteous influence in your life, you have allowed it to become your God. And the love of money is the root of all evil. It is disturbing what people will do for money. People will forsake the sanctity of marriage for money. People will neglect the stewardship of family and fatherhood and motherhood and neglect legacy for money. People will kill for money. People will sell out their values and walk away from truth, from money. The love of money is the root of all evil. It'll make people do terrible things. I know when we talk about this, we often isolate the abundance of money in this conversation, but I would tell you that poverty was

never in God's plan. If you go back to the beginning, God blessed Adam, gave Adam dominion, called him to steward, but poverty invaded the creation of God through human disobedience. But as much as poverty was never God's plan, wealth apart from God was never God's plan. Both of these things, a lot of money with the absence of God or no money, poverty, both are a mismanagement of resources. Now I know tonight, we talk about this in North America, we start comparing ourselves among ourselves. We think of the guy, the family that's blessed, has a bigger house, a nicer car, more stuff. Every single one, we are among the wealthiest people in the world. So we need to broaden our perspective beyond these walls in this city tonight and consider in the scope of human history and the world today, we are all wealthy. While it's not God's will for us to live in poverty, neither is it now, there may be seasons of

it, there's a process, God may walk you through a process, he may teach you some lessons. Paul said, I know how to abound and I know how to be in lack, but I will tell you it's not God's will for anybody to stay in poverty. But neither is it his will for you to accumulate wealth and not live under the Lordship of Jesus because money that is not brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a curse. And that's why the scripture said, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into heaven. Because Jesus knew how the abundance of money with the absence of surrender to him will destroy the human heart. And so how do you redeem it? How do you steward money? How do you have money and not live under the mastery or the Lordship of it? How do you allow God to give it to you and

not be controlled by it? The only way you can conquer the control of money is to give it away. It's the only way. There is no other way. The only way you can break the curse that money has is to open up your hand and give it away. And that starts with a tithe. Malachi three, perhaps the most often scripture we would use in the subject of tithing or certainly a point of origin for it as we springboard to teach is this. It is a rebuke, a command, an invitation and a promise concerning the handling of money. Will a man rob God? He says, yet you have robbed me. How? In tithes and offerings. You did not return your tithes and you did not give offerings. So the tithe is simply the starting point. He says because of that your curse, that is the rebuke, the command is verse 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. That's the command and prove

me now, he says. That's the invitation. God says I'm inviting you to test me. Try me. Bring your tithe and see what I'll do and then the promise. I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. Now, here's what we do. When the blessing gets too big for the room, what do we do? We build a bigger room. That's not what we're supposed to do. When the blessing gets too big for the room, we just keep our hand open because we're a channel, not a, we're a conduit. We're a channel. So God, I'm given and God keeps blessing me. I'm getting promoted and more keeps coming. That wasn't so you could get a new car. You just got a new car last year. That wasn't cause you needed a bigger family vacation home. You're only there a week a year.

I'll tell you why he did it. Cause there's a building we're trying to pay off. Cause here in a couple months, we're gonna have a bunch of missionaries here and there's a world that needs reached. And so when the blessing starts coming and we don't have room, we're thinking, well, we need to rip out a wall and expand and we need to knew this and no, the reason there's more blessing coming is cause there's more work to do. And the way we break the curse of money is to give. When we give God the tie that 10th, what happens is there's a blessing that comes on the 90. And all of a sudden we don't live. Now listen, stewardship is not just the tie. You can't give the 10 and then do whatever you want with the 90. God has to speak into what you do with the 90 as much as he does the 10. But when you bring the tie and

when you bring the offering and the scripture tells us how we should give 2 Corinthians 9, he said we give voluntarily of our own will, our own accord and we give it cheerfully. We come known, we don't give begrudgingly. We come with a smile on our face and joy in the heart because God has blessed us in such a way that we can open our hand and give freely, give liberally, give generously into the kingdom. When we do that, God said try me, see what I'll do. Watch me open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing. I could tell you stories all night long. I'm not gonna because it's 736. But I would challenge you, take God at his word, try him, test him, prove him. And just in case you're here or you've heard because there will some who will say things like, well, tithing is just an Old Testament law thing. I'm sorry, you're wrong. Tithing didn't originate in

the law. Tithing predates the law. Which means that somewhere before God moved on Moses to write the law in the intimacy of relationship and fellowship, the people who followed this God learned that he wanted a tithe. And before it was required by law, they did it. And so when Abram reaps the spoil of the land in the early writings of Genesis, the kings of Mesopotamia come and say, you know what? If you just pay your soldiers a little bit, you could keep the rest of this for yourself. And he says, no, I'm not gonna do that. I've lifted up my hand to the most high God. What he said is I've gone into covenant with God. I will bring him the tithe. That was long before Moses. I said, well, Jesus just mentioned tithe a couple of times. Yeah, you know why he only mentioned it a couple of times? Because he did not need to. It was a common practice among the

early church. He didn't have to spend a bunch of time solidifying a practice, a spiritual discipline that had been done for thousands of years. And then you get to Hebrews 7. And they say, just as Melchizedek received tithes of Abraham, so Jesus Christ as our high priest receives tithes of us. So I know when you write your check out, you're putting New Life Fellowship on it. And I know it's going into a bank that New Life Fellowship manages, but let me tell you, there's a higher economy. When you put your tithes in the offering plater, when you send it online, what you're doing is paying that tithes to Jesus Christ who is our high priest. And when you do that, Jesus says, all right, see if I'll not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you don't have room enough to receive. Well, what am I gonna do when I have more than I know what to do with?

I'm gonna say pastor, how soon can we pay the building off? Pastor, how much can we give to missions this year? Pastor, where is there a need? Where is there a place that I can sow? Where can we invest? God just keeps blessing me. For where your treasure is there, show your heart be also. Contrary to the idea we would hear propagated in 2024, do not follow your heart. Your heart is deceitfully wicked and no one can know it. You lead your heart with the action of your hand. Where my treasure is, where I give, there will my heart be also. So what we do with our money doesn't only reveal where our heart is, it reveals where it's going. Jesus said what we do with money determines where it goes. So if you wanna develop a love for the kingdom, start giving into the kingdom. So that doesn't make sense. That's not logical, oh, I know, but God is not logical. It's

scripture. Stand together with me. A few treasure tips there I put at the bottom of your handout again. There's books written on this, hundreds of pages along, dozens of books you could find here in town. These are but a few I offer for your consideration. I will not read them now for the sake of time and here's where we'll close. I've got tonight 500, 600, 650, 670, 680, 685, 686 dollars in monopoly money. I've also got five, six, seven, eight, nine. Hard labor carry cash, that's all I could come up with, I'm sorry. Now if I offered you tonight to choose, do you want 686 dollars in monopoly money, or do you want nine American dollars? This'll get you and your wife one scoop at Culver's on the way home tonight. If you were looking for the will of God, you just found it. Now if I presented you with a choice tonight, I know nine dollars isn't much really, but you probably

take it over this because this is only any good. If you're playing a game of monopoly, that's just a game. When the game's over, it goes back in the box and you probably don't touch it till next Christmas when your family comes. And I know nine dollars isn't much, but you can do something with it. But you know, really, even the faces on these bills are reminders that this is but temporary. That is that is only good for a game of monopoly. This is only good in this country and in this life. And I know we would all think it's silly tonight to live our lives for this, because this is just a game. It's equally as silly to live your life for this because one day, whether we want to admit it or not, someone's gonna send an email about about you and your home going service. And whether you had nine or nine million, it ain't going with you. So what

are you saying, preacher? I'm saying use it, steward it, but my goodness, do it in a way that impacts eternity. We got a building to pay off. We've got missions to give to. So whether God gives you nine, 900, 9,000, nine million, stewardship is a life principle, not contingent upon how much you have. It's a principle that guides you when you have nine, and it's a principle that guides you when you have nine million. And in the stewardship of money, it is this, God's given it to me to use it. I know I gotta live, there's a home you gotta pay for, a car you gotta take care of, bills you gotta pay, but before any of that, seek ye first the kingdom. It's practical, I know. I've told this story before, years ago when we were on our journey out of debt and sitting with the financial advisor, she put her finger on a line called giving. I said, I'm sorry,

ma'am, that's the one line on this piece of paper you can't touch. And just so you know, that's just what I plan to give. Because I have a budget. I know what, well, I don't always know what comes in because I travel for a living. I know what goes out, and I pray about what comes in. And I know when it goes out, but you know what? Some of my income is given based on percentage, and some of it is just given based on set dollar amount. It's in my budget, a line right at the top of my budget before any other bill is tithing, mission, sorry, tithing, building. Those are percentage-based offerings. And then missions, it's a dollar amount, non-negotiable. It's the first thing that comes out of my, it's what we do, it's stewardship. And if we would be faithful with the little, he said, if you'll be faithful with the little, I'll let you be faithful over

much. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this great church, this church family. I pray tonight that the word of the Lord, as practical as it may have been, would inspire thought, change, action in our lives. I pray God that you would raise up men and women, homes and families of godly stewards, that we would be good stewards of time, good stewards of talent, and good stewards of treasure, that we would be people that use our time wisely, that we would prioritize the family of God and our families, that we would prioritize healthy marriages and healthy homes, that we would keep the kingdom first in all things. I pray, Lord, that you would give somebody courage tonight to seek ways, to use their kingdom gifts, that perhaps they have relegated to career or service. Lord, open the eyes of their understanding of how they can better the kingdom and contribute to the growth of people in this local body by what you have blessed

them with. And lastly, I'm praying God that you would bless the finances of the families of this house. I pray you would cause them to be debt free, bring them out of the bondage of debt, let them no more be slaves to the lender. I'm asking, Lord, that the windows of heaven would be opened upon families, husbands and wives and children. I pray to God that you would bless every entrepreneurial endeavor. I pray, Lord, that you would raise up many more. I pray, God, that you would inspire God ideas. Lord, because there is a work to do, both here and beyond. There is a hope that has to be paid for in this city and for the nations. And it demands the stewardship. And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would give us wisdom now. Spirit-inspired wisdom to handle the treasure you have given us in a way that honors you. And I pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen.