A Good Steward
2/26/20
How would you define yourself in the stewardship
category? Let’s be honest with each
other here and not try to pass off some half based truth about this practice
that all of us should be attentive toward.
Do we even know how to be a good steward or what the entire definition
of being a good steward is? How much of
the blessings that God gives us do we use for His Kingdom, taking not only in
to account money but also heart issues and what we present to others on a daily
basis. See, God knows our hearts and He
has given us a purpose in life and He expects us to use that purpose for the
advancement of His Kingdom to those who are lost. In that light, do you have to stop and
reevaluate such a definition of stewardship?
God wants us to be complete stewards with our hearts in all areas of His
Word and we cannot become such Kingdom seekers if we do not properly live-out
those gifts that He has given us.
A long time ago, I heard a song from Keith Green that
dealt with a one-word title “Go”. One of
the monologs of his during this song said that God can’t cash out of state
checks in Heaven, He needs you to go.
Most of the time we think that this job of going someplace belongs to
the missionaries that God sends across the globe and a ministry that we have
not been “called” to do. So, we do the
next best thing, send a check, or cash, or some other financial transaction in
order to appease our minds from the guilt that overrides us. While sending money or other financial means
is a good thing, we are not completely doing what God tells us to be, nor are
we following what His Word teaches us about being and living as a complete
steward. I argue with some folks about
how they feel all good about themselves for working at a local soup kitchen or
homeless shelter, yet as they leave their time from those worthy and great
causes hardly anyone of them witnesses once to the people they are around. This means that you have a warm bellied
sinner and sheltered sinner, period.
God is not saying that we should be maniacs towards other
people when it comes to witnessing to them nor does He expect us to be fanatics
about saving the earth and the so-called “planet” either. God understands that not all times of our day
provides an opportune moment to share the gospel, but when we stop and take a
thought or two about all the times we have been in those ministerial positions
most likely we have had plenty of opportunities to verbally witness to them. There is no question that we who know Christ
as our Savior has the fullness of His Love and Light within our lives and even
if we do not have the immediate opportunity to witness to those around us our
inner spirit should give off enough light to trigger their minds and hearts
enough to initiate the question of our happiness. People need to know about the fullness of God
and how much He wants us to all know and have what Christ gives us but until we
have the burden for the lost our fullness is selfishly hidden and shamefully withheld
from those who need it most. This, my
friends is not a complete steward for God and we are not in line with His Word
but only lined up with the world. There
are many passages that could be used to enhance what God wants us to hear
today, but He has chosen a single verse to complete His message and it is Psalms
24:1.
Psalms 24:1
“The Earth is the
Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
Hebrew
“A Psalm of David.
The earth [is] the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who
dwell therein.”
While stewardship is not strictly limited to money or any
other type of physical financial dealing, it does include many aspects of the physical and spiritual components of our lives.
We cannot deny that the first command of work given to us in the Garden of
Eden was to dress and to keep the Garden of Eden up with its pure and true
growth pattern. God also does not mean
for this article to be strictly an environmental issue either for God would
rather have humans hug each other in unity than spend a great deal of time
hugging trees, grass, rocks, or anything else that would take time away from
increasing our relationship with Him.
Being good stewards with our own personal grooming is part of this topic
as well and must be kept in order to provide a pure example of completeness in
our presence. Our responsibility with
the world did not end with the Garden of Eden but was enhanced through our
departure, a detail that Satan has used against the true calling and mission of
our purpose. Many of us believe or act
like we believe, that when mankind sinned that God’s purpose for our lives left
and died as well, it did not. Nothing
about God can die neither can the Laws of God everything God establishes lives
for eternity.
David reiterates this truth about the earth right up
front in this verse. The earth does
belong to God since the earth was created by God and God alone. Ever since mankind was created, it has been
our responsibility to keep it up and in proper order through a specific order
established by God and not mankind. This
is where we fall into trouble many times is that we through our sinful pride
decide to place our ambitions and ways into the mold so that we can define what
is correct and what is necessary to make the world complete. Over and over, God states in His Word that He
is the author and eternal Creator of the earth and that everything about the
earth is His from the beginning. It is
when we try to rearrange this order of God’s that we fail and as long as we
have this rearrangement concern our offerings shall fail miserably and end up
making things worse than before. It
actually has a compounding effect that adds to the pile of rubbish instead of
making issues better. This is not just
true for the earth issues either if we try to place our own conditions and
order first in anything, those projects shall fail. Ever since the fall of humanity, we have had
to work the ground in order to produce and to sustain the needs of humans; lest
we forget that as we work up the land beneath our feet so do we need to
properly work up the soil of our hearts in the same correct and pure methods.
Now let us take the word fullness that is used here in
this small verse. This word comes from
the Hebrew word “umelowah” which means that which fills, handful, mass,
multitude, entire contents, full length, full line. How much more explanation can one need in
order to form a truth about what and how we are to contend with the Word of
God? We have another perfect example of
the completeness of God and how He expects us to live in return. We need to understand that not only does the
earth belong to God but the completeness of the entire world belongs to God as
well; John 3:16 tells us this fact. This
means the weather patterns, growth patterns of the vegetation and animals, the
ozone and atmospheric conditions, airflow and wind, birds and sea life, and
everything else that makes up the world belongs to God. God is a complete God on all areas of
existence and until we admit to all nations that He alone is the eternal
Creator of all things our belief and eyewitness accounts of life itself shall
be skewed. God does not intend nor has
He ever contended on us understanding only a partial presence of our existence
or His existence. God shall continue to
show us that He is a complete God and that His fullness Creates His fullness in
the world, nothing more and nothing less.
Remember, being complete also means being continual.
The last portion of the fullness of God has to with
humanity and everything that God wants from His prized Creations. How do we present ourselves to God in the
capacity of this verse is the question at hand?
A quite striking comparison can be looked at by our actions and words
concerning God and His Ways versus how we conduct our daily lives according to
how we actually complete our journey. In
order to maintain a godly pattern of completeness we must include all portion
of our lives, this includes our bodies both inside and outside. God is not telling us to continually try and
mold our lives into a worldly pattern but to ensure that our actions speak just
as loud as our words for this is the example of a good steward. We must do all we can to make sure that while
we are helping the people around us that we are preparing them for God’s Kingdom
as well. Remember, we were created from
the earth and that means that we should respect the earth according to our
order of Creation because if we do not then we fall into the death trap of
sinful livelihood which has no place with God.
More importantly, we need to understand that everything
that this verse previously mentioned falls into God’s Order according to its
creation status and therefore obeys His commands each and every second. It is also obvious that the most important
Creation that God has made should convey this same eternal Order yet we choose
to obey our own ambitions and wishes thus placing the entire versed objects
into jeopardy because of this stubbornness.
Adam and Eve did serve God to their fullest for a while and their
blessings were given to them on a daily basis, but when they entertained sin
and finally gave into temptation, those free-flowing blessings became difficult
to obtain. Their order of Creation did
not change, only the options of their state of being changed, God had created
within them a connection to Him which still continues and connects today. Satan used the fruit of a tree to trip up and
allow sin into our lives, but it was our choice to say yes to sin, not anyone else’s. Obedience is the only key in regards to living our
lives as a good steward.
When we do not continue the set standard of stewardship
that God has set before us, there can only be one result, destruction. Adam and Eve were given the task to keep the
entire Garden of Eden and Jesus gave us the task to go into all the world, Adam
and Eve fell when they narrowed their keeping just to themselves and we are
currently repeating the exact same pattern with the Word that Jesus gave us to
do. In the case of Adam and Eve, they
lost their incredible stature due to narrow sightedness and as stated above, we
are following in the same pattern as they.
We have an opportunity to change this status before our world that we
know it is taken away from us due to our own narrow sightedness; do we really want
this? The time is at hand Church to
change the way the world looks at us, we are not the friends of the world’s
spirit but ones that should do our best to show it the eternal light of
Salvation. Adam and Eve set an example
that we need to study over and over and do our best to change that pattern; we
are closer than one wishes to think about losing our Eden. God never leaves His children out of His
picture, for if His children were not present then how could He prove to the
darkness that His plan of life is the Way to live and to experience it?
So, what say you Church?
How is your record on witnessing to those who do not know God and
telling them about how their lives would be made complete by honoring God and
His Ways? We know how good we have been
about the environmental issues and all of the other social contact items that
we have joined with the world in promoting, but what about the most single
issue concerning God’s heart; the eternal position of human hearts and spirits? What is our standing as being good stewards
in this area? As Keith Green sang so
many years ago, God cannot cash out of state checks in Heaven, He needs us. We are the only ones with the ability to
witness t others and it is this keeping and dressing that God desires that we
continually hold sacred. God does not
need the world, He needs humans, all humans.
If we decide to choose to talk about the environment, that is a good
thing but it shall never save anyone from hell.
Church, let us start preaching the Truth to this dying world, and not
only can we clean up the inner world of countless people, but we will be
cleaning up the physical as well. It is
all of this verse placed together that contributes as being a good steward, and
I pray that my house shall be this complete steward.
DLB
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