Being a Good Steward | Robert Morris

thanks for tuning into Christ Fellowship Church on YouTube we're so blessed you've chosen to take some time out of your day to spend it with us we hope you enjoyed this week's message please be seated so it's this is the second week of a two week series called beyond blessed and I told you last weekend that this is a companion teaching to the blessed life the blessed life was about generosity and beyond blessed is about stewardship and God wants to bless us to be a blessing to be a blessing that's what he told Abraham I will bless you and you will be a blessing but in order for God to open the windows of heaven over us and for some reason it's like this message isn't being preached we've got to not only be generous but then we have to be good stewards of what God gives us we have to manage it and for many of us that's been a weakness in other words we no one ever taught us they taught us how to drive a car and play an instrument in high school you know but we didn't learn how to manage our checkbook or manage our finances and here's the trick of the enemy you'll hear the message of generosity and there's something in you as a Christian as a believer that you want to be generous so you'll start being generous to the church and tithing and the end the enemy says oh I've kind of lost them now they know about generosity and this is awakened in them and they have this generous in them because see when you get saved you become like God and God so loved the world that He gave God's a giver were the most like God when we give so we this awakens in us and we start giving so the enemy knows he can never take this revelation away from us so what he does is he gets us to buy a car that's too expensive for our budget and then a house is too expensive then we buy something else on a credit card we can't pay it off and pretty soon we're in bondage and it's not that we don't want to give it's that we can't give so it's extremely important to learn the principles of stewardship and let me just give you a definition of stewardship it's called the management of the property of another stewardship is the management of the property of another so last week we talked about living beyond bless this week we run till that good steward but let me give you an illustration all right have you ever I'm gonna ask you to raise your hands in just a moment all the campuses all the participating churches and all but have you ever stayed and don't do it yet because I'm gonna give you some clarifications stayed in someone else's home maybe you went and visited relatives at Christmas maybe someone let you use a vacation home you know maybe you were traveling through somewhere and stayed in a friend's home but have you ever so let's do now you can raise your hands have you ever stayed in someone else's home can't see your hands okay so I just wanted to ask that because I want to know if I was the only moocher here what years ago I remember some friends of us ours let us use their vacation home I didn't really enjoy it because Debbie wouldn't let me be at home she wouldn't let me put my feet on the coffee table she she wouldn't let us stay in the master bedroom they told us we could stay in the master bedroom she said we're not stated the master bedroom she wouldn't let me eat in the living room in the recliner I'd eat at the table during the game who does that you know here's what she kept reminding me this is not our house this is someone else's home this is not our house here's what she was reminding me we are not owners were not the owners of this house were the stewards and she was rightfully reminding me of that so I want to show you it's kind of a long passage I'll stop and make some comments but I'm going to show you a passage that Jesus tells about stewardship in Matthew 25 alright so Matthew 25 starting in verse 14 for the kingdom of heaven is like now stop just for a moment remember this is Jesus talking do you think that Jesus knows what heaven is like so 11 times in Matthew he says the kingdom of heaven is like this is the 11th time the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country so that's Jesus who goes away you know he comes back who calls his own sir that's us and delivered his goods to them I just want you to notice they're his goods and the one he gave five talents now let me stop for a moment I'm going to show you in a moment this is not talking about ability talent ability this talent is talking about a sum of money and I'll show it to you I promise you I'll show you that this is talking about there's a talent of silver and a talent of gold and this was a talent of silver and he's talking about a sum of money so this is on that stewardship actually of finances so watch this too and the one he gave five talents to another two to another one watch this to each according to his own ability so he was giving a sum of money according to each us each ability to handle that money and then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents likewise he had received to gain two more also but he had received one when and dug it in the ground now watch this and hid his Lords what money not his Lords ability his Lords money so Jesus is telling a parable about managing money after a long time the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with him y'all do know that the Lord is going to come back and settle accounts so he had received and by the way he's going to settle accounts according to this in how you handled his money so he are y'all okay okay hi I didn't know where you were getting convicted or just mad at me sorry so he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents saying Lord you delivered to me five talents look I've gotta gain five more talents beside them his Lord said to him well done good and faithful servant have you ever heard that little phrase this is the only tommix in the Bible and it has to do with how you handle money it's amazing how many to say you know what I want to hear the Lord say to me I want to hear the Lord say well done good and faithful servant and the only time it's in the Bible it's talking about how we handle money y'all are either really under conviction or really mad okay well done good and faithful servant you were faithful over a few things I'll make you ruler over many things and again there's another parable about this but it's still about stewardship so and he talks about he says well done good servant I will make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of your Lord then he had received the two talents came and said Lord you delivered to me two talents look I've gained two more talents besides them his Lord said to him well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful over a few things I'll make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of the Lord then he had received the one talent came and said lord I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you're not sown and gathering where you're scattered seed and I was afraid and when in hid your talent again notice whose it is in the ground look there you have what is yours but his Lord answered said to him you're a wicked and lazy servant you knew that I reap where I've not sown and gathering where I've not scattered seed now watch I told you again that this was all not money because this is Jesus talking so you ought to have deposited my money not my ability my money many people think the parable talents is talking about ability it's not it's talking about money you should have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming I would have received back my own notice whose it is by the way with interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents for to everyone who has more will be given and he will have abundance but from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away in other words God Himself says give more to the person who has more because he's a good steward now not everyone who has more is a good steward but if you're a good steward God gives you more if you're poor Stewart he doesn't give you more so it's the stewardship of what belongs to someone else or the management of another person's property so I have three points like I always do here's number one I am not the owner I'm not the owner I have to get that through my mind if I'm gonna be a good steward Psalm 50 verse 12 I love this verse God says if I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all its fullness here's an essence what he's saying if I'm hungry I'll eat one of my cows I'll eat some of my plants Mike my vegetables I'll eat one of my chickens one of my eggs I don't need yours they're mine the animals belong to me let me just say another way now he's not told my eating but I'm just want to sake because I just want to put this about property in essence God is saying your dog is my dog and as some of your thinking well God can have my dog and by the way let me just take a moment let me answer one of the top five theological questions that pastors rest well my pets be in heaven this one the top five you want me to give a doctorate of divinity which will actually for me to give you the theological answer to that question okay I'll give you the theological answer yours will but mine won't mine are going to help I'm sure of it my pets are demonized and they're going to hell so my son had a dog named Luke I said son that's short for Lucifer because you could he said you think training would help my dog I said the only thing that will help your dog is a priest across and some holy water everything we have belongs to God we're not owners if you have a diamond it came from God's coal the medal that you drove to church today came from God's earth his minerals and his aura the home that you live in the tree the stone the wood the glass everything came from God's earth if you have a pearl it came about because one of God's orders got irritated by some of God's sand so the obvious question is if you don't if God owns it all how much do you own you don't know anything when you get that down and you understand that then one thing it's easy to give because you don't own it but it's also you and you understand I need to manage this because this isn't mine and the Lord is going to come back and settle accounts and he's going to want to know how I managed his money are y'all following me I mean it's pretty it's pretty incredible when you look at Scripture so here's when we talk about stewardship here's something we need to think about you if you have a teenager in your home you can relate to this or if you've ever had a teenager because many teenagers go through this I'm not saying all do but many go through this if you have a teenager in your home or if you've ever had a teenager you have had this thought at some point in your life this not your house matter of fact you're actually here on loan you're gonna be leaving pretty soon and just go it's just gonna be your mom and me and we actually liked it before you came along and even though you think we're old we're gonna like it again when you're gone so you're about to get out you need this not your house here's another thing we say as long as you live in my house if you ever hurry if we ever said this you're gonna follow my rules and you are not the owner a lot of God's children are just teenagers would you like to know the difference between an immature believer and a mature believer stewardship when you realize that you're not the owner and the God's the owner and you're living in his house and you better manage it the way he wants it managed so number one I'm not the owner here's number two I'm the steward God started the whole thing with stewardship many people never even thought about this he puts Adam and Eve in the garden and he puts a tree there to remind them that they're not owners he says to him you have any tree you own except that one that one's mine and every time you walk by that tree you know what you're gonna realize you don't own this garden I own this garden and you're here to tend it and you're here to steward it because it belongs to me and you realize the very first temptation there ever was Satan said to them he doesn't want you to eat from that tree because he knows you'll be like him okay let me just clarify that for you you'll be the owner you'll then be the owner you won't have somebody telling you what to do you won't have to be a steward anymore you'll be the owner and they fail because they were not content to be stewards because they wanted to be owners I'm telling you this is an age-old problem started all the way back from the garden so I said a talent is a sum of money so let me tell you how much it is okay there's a talent of silver and talent of gold a talent of silver is 1,000 Damiri a Denarius is singular it is a day's wage so it would fluctuate with the economy a Demaryius Denari is plural so if you talk about 300 Daenerys when the woman poured the anointing oil in Jesus feet and Judas said why wasn't this sulfur 300 denarii so that's plural de neri for Denarius okay 300 days wages what he was saying was 300 denarii is a year's wage out of 365 days she worked about 300 with feast festivals and Sabbath's so he's saying it's 300 naira was considered a year's wage okay a talent was ten thousand denarii if you just do the math that's thirty three years you started interning with your father when you were 12 and it's 17 you became an adult and you started working you worked from 17 until you were 50 in Jesus today 33 years you retired at 50 in Jesus day soon you say man that sounds great well he didn't live and except 55 to 60 was the life expectancy back there so he retired at 50 but you worked 33 years so 33 years 10,000 Denari when they said 10,000 Denari that's a lifetime a life wage does everyone follow me so Jesus you say well man oh one guy only got one talent hey he didn't have to work for the rest of his life he got a lifetime of wages but another man had more ability so he was given two talents twice the average income because he could manage it and another man was given five times the average income because he couldn't manage it and he produced more and that so talents silver by the way 10,000 Eric a talent of gold is ten times a talent of silver ten times so in essence if one God makes five times how five talents of silver that's five times the average wage a talent of gold would have been ten times that five so I'd be 50 so there are some people today that make 50 times the average wage other they're called athletes but you can see how this plays out okay so what Jesus did was he gave each of them according to their ability that's what you need to understand and they were each given a sum of money look at this scripture Deuteronomy 8 verse 18 and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant so God actually gives you power to make money that he may establish his company in other words that you could use it to do good but some people bury it in the ground never ever give to the kingdom and never manage their funds will some people manage your funds well and give more back to the kingdom again stewardship is the management of someone else's but funds but just once you notice here's what God thought was good stewardship not maintaining but growing the one guy maintained he didn't steal part of the talent he gave the entire talent back and God said you're a wicked and lazy servant the only people he said well done good and faithful servant to were the people that increased what God had given him God calls faithfulness increase that's what he also let me say another way God deposited his money with these three people and he was expecting a return so you may have never thought about this way please hear me you probably have never thought about it this way you our gods bank you are gods bank God has actually given all of you resources and he's wanting you to expand those resources so that he can expand his kingdom on the earth and by the way you say well I'm just a one Talent person you don't have to stay a one talent person because it's according to your ability you can increase your ability you know bike school you could learn a different trade you could change jobs you can improve yourself when Debbie and I got married I made six hundred dollars a month six hundred a month that was all the ability I had I was 18 years old when we got married 18 and I made six hundred dollars a month but I learned and I studied and I developed and I did everything I could so that I could be a better steward so that God could trust me with more so I could bless my family and so I could be a blessing so so we're talking about that God owns it all we're not an owner we are steward but here's point number three am I good steward so you are a steward because God owns that you don't own it but are you a good steward our poor steward Luke 12 verse 16 he spoke a parable then saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentiful and he thought within himself saying what shall I do since I have no room to store now once you notice something my crops he didn't say God's crops my crops so he said I will do this I will pull down my barns and build greater and there I will store all my crops and my goods and I will say to my soul he even thought his soul belong to him but remember your soul doesn't love you I will say to my soul sold you have many goods laid up for many years take your ease eat drink and be merry in other words don't be generous but God said to him you're a fool this night your soul will be required of you the whose will those things be which you are provided so is he who lays up treasure here's the key for himself and is not rich toward God now just once you know so God did not rebuke this man or reprimand him for being wealthy he didn't reprimand him for being successful he didn't reprimand him for increasing or building bigger barns he didn't reprimand him for any of that he were met reprimanded him for living for himself he said this is what's bothering me that I've given you all these resources and you're simply storing them up for yourself you're not thinking about anyone else when when my daughter started to date I told her that she couldn't date you know he board the didn't tithe and I would check the tithing records I'm the pastor I have the ability do that so I checked the tithing records of any boys that wanted to date her and she knew that so there was this board that wanted to date her now her husband by the way tied then he got the price so but anyway there was this boy that wanted to date her and she said to him do you type and he said yes and she said well because my dad will check and if you don't eyes you can't date me and he said well I give in cash so she came and told me and she said now when you check his records so you won't see anything because he gives in cash I said we can't date him she said well why not he ties I said no he doesn't he's a liar and he's a poor steward because people say they give in cash they do that because they don't want a record of it see this guy didn't want to put his talent in the bank because there was a record he put it in the ground and I said he's a poor steward because he's not taking the babies of the tax laws that we have so you can't date a poor steward either but I said I think he's lying to you because I don't think he ties because you know it was a record by the way you need to know that even even if you do things in cash and all the owners keeping the record and the owner even though he's been going a long time he is coming back and when he comes back he's gonna settle accounts with his servants and he's keeping records so you can try to hide what you're doing financially but he's the one keeping records he knows so each person gets it according to his ability I want you to think about that you got two got five talents and makes five a guy who makes two makes two okay think about a guy that in his lifetime he has the ability over his whole lifetime to give a million dollars to the kingdom over his whole life but he only gives 500,000 another guy has the ability over his whole lifetime to give a hundred thousand but he gives two hundred thousand who's gonna get well done good and faithful servant you say yeah but one guy gave a half a million yeah but he had five talents he had the ability to give a million and he only gave 500 the other guy only had the ability give a hundred and he gave 200 see remember the widow who gave two mites the uomo Jesus Rimmer Jesus said she gave more to Mike's by the way is rock one Roman penny a Mike is a Jewish painting it takes two jewish pennies to make up one Roman finis so she gave one penny and Jesus said she gave more I want you to here in this little two-week miniseries that we're doing the big deal I want you understand is that God blesses us supernaturally when we steward his funds will please hear this in the same way that we step out in give and we have this testimony that we got a raise or a bonus or a promotion that we weren't expecting and God blesses us supernaturally when we're generous oh I wish people could catch this God blesses us supernaturally when we're good stewards it's not just that the numbers add up and the math works out better it's that God blesses supernaturally so my son James for a while he's doing other things now but for a while then he went to college at Baylor studied business and went into business was very successful at 27 was about to own his own company and he was going to make a lot of money and then come to work for the church and where he didn't have to work another famous salary and at 27 he'd realized his dream basically where he was about to step into the ownership of his own company and he said to me dad if the only reason that I'm not going into ministry its money it's the wrong reason so I'm going to give up my dream of owning my own company and I'd like to come work at the church somewhere so I said well where would you like to work he said well either Stewardship helping people in their finances that's a big deal to be and he was very successful financially or marriage I'd like to help people with her marriage I said well you only been married two years so you don't know anything yet so you can't help anybody in their marriage right now but you can't help people with their finances so he came into our stewardship department as a pastor and we had seven or eight in that department and then he became pretty certain he was running the whole department so when he was running the department he's teaching the stewardship classes and writing the material things like that and he meets this Widow and he has a special place in his heart for widows and he started talking to her about her budget she'd come to the stewardship class and she was eating she had three to five dollars a day for food it's all she had so he said let's talk about stewardship and she really thought she was being a good steward so James started helping her with her budget putting together a budget everything started turning around forth then when Christmas came she said what am I gonna do for my grandkids for Christmas because it's not in the budget he said well we can take it from somewhere else in the budget but he said let me just tell you something else she could do he said you could make them something from stuff you have around the house now she's a widow in our church her kids go to our church which they're grown and then they have kids and that's where her grandkids and I've talked to her kids and they told me the gifts that she made for our kids mean more to them and they can't even remember the Christmas before what she bought and they'll cherish them for the rest of their lives so that Christmas that's what she did so anyway after about three or four months she's managing her funds she's got more to eat own everything she's paying down their debt all this and all sudden she comes to meet with my son and she says I have a reverse mortgage on my home and the company called me this list last week and said that they've read the price and they want to send me $30,000 extra and so James thought this could be a scale you know and so I want to check to make sure it's not so he called the company and started talking to him being in business and asked some questions to find out if she go to Oh more is she not gonna be able to pay it are you taking this out of what you know does all that stuff and finally the guy said you said you're a pastor right and James said yes I'm one of her pastors he said okay I'm gonna be honest with you the owner of our company had a dream I want you to think about this and God spoke to him this woman's night and he wrote it down when he woke up and he came in and said do we have a widow who has this name and we looked it up and we did and he said I want you to reevaluate her home and they came back and found out that it was worth thirty thousand dollars more and he said sender thirty thousand dollars and this guy told my son the owner of our company has never done that before I'm telling you that God has the ability to supernaturally bless you if you'll see yourself as a steward and not an owner and if you'll get your finances in order I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I really believe that for some of you this met this message and these two messages are a godsend because you really do want to be generous you're just in a bind financially and God doesn't want you to live with that stress he really doesn't want you to live stressed out over finances there are principles in Scripture that you can learn that you can read about that you can find out that will totally change your life and not only will it remove stress from you but God will supernaturally reward you just like he does when we're generous he'll reward he will reward you for being a good steward so when you just take a moment and just what's the Lord say means through this message just take you just a moment Lord what are you saying to me through this message and then make a commitment to them as to the best of my ability I'm gonna learn stewardship principles and I'm gonna try to manage my finances in a way that I'm a good steward and that I understand that you're there actually you're the owner of all that I have Lord thank you thank you God that you bless each of us so that we can be a blessing and I pray God for my brothers and sisters now that they will learn principles of good stewardship and this stress that they've been living under would be completely removed and they reveal to live joyful peaceful generous lives in Jesus name Amen thanks so much for watching Christ Fellowship Church on YouTube we hope you've enjoyed this week's message for more content just like this be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel we hope you have a great rest of your week god bless

Channel: Christ Fellowship Church

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Id: tgUlYds7-hw

Length: 32min 7sec (1927 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2020