In Jesus Holy Name January 13, 2008
Epiphany II Text: Genesis 2:15 Redeemer
“Stewardship: Managing the Things God has entrusted to You”
1st in the series: Christian Stewardship
There are two major themes which weave their way through the scriptures: The “way to God” and the “walk with God”. The message today is not about how to have peace or forgiveness with God. It is about your walk. It’s about the management, the “stewardship” of all that God has placed at your disposal and mine.
(read the text)
The Bible tells us that everything God made was good. “God said, Let the land produce seed bearing plants and trees that bear fruit with seed. And God saw that it was good.” God said. “Let the waters teem with living creatures. Let the birds fly above the sky. God created the great creatures of the sea. God saw that it was good.”
“Then God said, Let us make man in our image and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock and over all the earth…” (Gen. 1:26) “God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15)
I think there were several key words in these passages. The passage says: “Let us make man in our image. and then the tense changes… Let “them” rule…note the word “them”. God is talk about all of us, all of humanity, was given responsibility “to take care of God’s creation.” We have been given the gift of responsibility to “take care of” (to manage) all that God has given.”
Stewardship is the most misunderstood word in the English language. If you were to ask most people in the church what stewardship means they’d say “money” or “tithing”.
But stewardship is not a financial program. Yet it is the 2nd greatest theme in the bible. On our side of salvation, it is talked about all the way from Genesis through Revelation. Jesus talked more about stewardship then he did about heaven or hell or prayer. Over half of his parables are about stewardship. (from Rick Warren’s sermon on Stewardship)
If you look the word stewardship up in Webster’s Dictionary you’ll find this meaning: “Stewardship is the responsibility of managing some assets or affairs or property of some else’s.” Stewardship is managing something that isn’t your own. The key word in that definition is the word management. The word “steward” means “manager”. Today we are talking about your “management” of the things God has given you.
Genesis 2:15 tells us that the first principle of stewardship is this: “God owns everything.” We sing: “This is My Father’s World”. He owns the orange groves, the soil, and the trees. He owns every plant, every rock, every animal, every person, everything. He created it. He made it. So He owns it.
Just because God owns everything doesn’t mean that it’s being used the way He intended for it to be used. Obviously, a lot of things aren’t being us4ed the way He wanted them to be used.
When God created Adam and Eve he said: “I’m making man a little different. Not only do I want him to be fruitful and multiply, but I want him to do five things. 1) Fill the earth. 2) Subdue it. 3) Rule over it. 4)Work it 5) take care of it. These are our responsibilities. We were created to be managers of His creation.
Principle #1 God owns it all. Principle #2 You and I were made to manage what God owns. (from Crossways by Harry Wendt)
We were made to manage the resources that God put on earth, to rule over things and to take care of it. God’s first command involved “stewardship.”
Humanity’s basic problem today is that we forget what we were created for. We forget our purpose. Humanity goes out and manages what God has given and created and pretty soon men and women start thinking they own it. We try to trade places with God. We start acting like owners instead of managers. (read Deuteronomy 8:10,14,17)
One of the most precious things that God has given to us to manage is “time”.
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400 dollars. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to used during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent and invest it? Of course.
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the most you can in “health”, the pursuit of happiness, and success. The clock is running. Make the most of today.
I heard a story about a man who worked at a factory. One of his main jobs was to blow the factory whistle at 5:00 p.m. to indicate the workday was over. He walked to work each day and passed a jewelry store where a beautiful grandfather clock was displayed in the window. Every morning, he stopped and set his pocket watch to match the time on the grandfather clock. One morning the store owner was out front sweeping the sidewalk and the factory worker asked him how he kept such accurate time on the grandfather clock. The jeweler said: “Oh, I set it every afternoon when the factory whistle blows at 5: oo p.m.
That could mean trouble.
People live by the clock. Time is important to us. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”
Many frustrated people seem to always fight the clock, as a way of life. They stay up late, then they sleep late as then can and then they rush frantically to school or work, gulping down an unhealthy breakfast in the car, applying their make up or using a razor at the stop light, talking on the cell phone at the same time.
As I study the life of Jesus I am amazed that He never seemed to be in a hurry. Although he was doing the most important job in history (redeeming the world), and although he knew he had only a few years to do it, He never ran. He made time to consider the flowers and birds of the air. He had time for children when the culture did not. Time was his friend.
We must remember that God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a Rolex or even a Timex. He doesn’t have a Day-timer or PDA. He is the creator of time, and he is greater than time. Psalm 90:10 states “Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, even from ever lasting to everlasting… a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past….teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”
TIME T= God says we should treasure our time as a valuable commodity. Number your years. To realize the value of one year ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of one month ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the business man whose flight was delayed and hour and he missed an important business deal. How valuable is one minute? Ask the man who had the heart attack in the restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table and saved his life. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed the qualifying time by six tents.
God has given us time. We are to be good stewards, managers of our time. Treasure every moment you have! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift…that’s why it’s called the “present.”
“You can make more money, but you can not make more time.”
A. W. Tozer wrote: “Time is a resource that is non renewable and non transferable. You can not store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it or save it for a rainy day…when you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
Are you being a good steward of your time with your family? Are you investing your time in God’s word? Bible studies are available. You can pray after services. You can read more in the bible this year than you did last year. You’ve got the time.
Jim Croce wrote a song that said: “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do is save everyday ‘till eternity passes away…just to spend them with you”. Those are great lyrics, and it would be nice if we could save time, but you can’t. In fact a few months after he wrote that song, he was tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of 30. You can’t save time.
Where you invest your time reveals what is most important to you. There are 168 golden hours each week. The average person will spend about 56 hours sleeping, about 24 of those hours eating and in personal hygiene, about 50 hours working or traveling to work. That means there are only 35 hours a week of “discretionary” time left over. That’s about 5 hours each day. Where are you investing some of that time? Prayer? Reading the scripture? Visiting the sick? Serving those who need help or friendship?
How much time are you devoting to your family? Your children? A study of 1500 households at Michigan University found that mothers working outside the home spend and average of 11 minutes a day on week days, and thirty minutes a day on week ends with children not including meal time. Fathers spend an average of 8 minutes a day on week days and 14 minutes a day on week ends in different activities with their children. Who’s raising the kids?
If you don’t manage your time, someone else will manage it for you.
Several years ago, Ken Griffey Jr. was invited to the “Players Choice Awards” where he was to be awarded the player of the decade award. That’s a big deal…. On national television. He beat out players like Barry Bonds, mark McGwire. But when he found out when the award was to be given, he declined to attend. He had something more important to do. His five year old son, Trey was playing in his first baseball game, and Ken wasn’t going to miss it. Good for him!
Time is God’s gift to you, be a good steward, be a good manager and you will find peace. You’ll enjoy better health, unrelenting stress harms our bodies, and we all know that to be true. Even race cars make pit stops.
Several years ago I was privileged to be part of a funeral service for a 93 year old friend. Through years she had kept little helpful notes in her bible, some of them were Portals of Prayer devotions stapled together from the early 1950’s. She also had a little not that went like this: “when we reach the crest of our years and we are walking down hill, make sure you hold onto the promises of God and don’t be like those who come to the end of their earthly journey to say…”If only I could live life over again.” No, no, live life now in the fullness so that you not regret any moment.”
Time is God’s gift to you, making time for God allows Him to find joy and purpose in serving Him.
