Stewardship (4 Of 4)

In this message we want to turn our attention to that part of God’s Word that reminds us we are stewards of our TIME and TALENTS. One of the things the Lord has promised us, if we are faithful stewards of these things He has entrusted to us, is that He will bless us. Look at Rev. 22:12. We read, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” In other words, there are going to be two different groups of Christians that will stand before the Lord at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

(1) ONE GROUP WILL BE SAD. They will be there because God, by His marvelous grace, saved them, but they will have no eternal rewards. All of their Christian lives, preachers have been preaching from God’s Word that they need to faithfully use their TALENTS and TIME to serve the Lord. As they stand before the Lord it is going to dawn on them how they wasted their lives God had given them.

Illus: They are the ones God speaks of in I Cor. 3:15, “If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” Many Christians are going to be sad on that day as they stand before their blessed Savior Who gave His life for them, and be sorry they gave so little of themselves to Him. They built their lives around themselves and had little or no time for the Lord.

A lot of folks have the false notion that God is going to shower them with eternal rewards even though they have wasted their God-given TIME and TALENTS. They are like the children who are told they will receive very little for Christmas because THEY WERE NOT GOOD, but come Christmas morning, there are more presents for them than they can play with in one day.

Listen, be warned, it is not going to work that way in heaven. God loves us, but He is a JUST God. He will not reward those who waste the TIME and TALENTS He gave them. ONE GROUP WILL BE SAD.

(2) ONE GROUP WILL BE GLAD. While there are many Christians who have little or no time for the Lord, there are others who are using their TIME and TALENTS FOR HIM EVERY DAY THAT GOD GIVES THEM. These will be glad they spent their lives serving the Lord with their TIME and their TALENTS. Look what God has promised them in I Cor. 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Those who obey His Word, those who go the “second mile,” will be rewarded. God has special rewards that EYES HAVE NOT SEEN, NOR HAVE EARS HEARD for those who faithfully serve Him. Let us look at some of the CROWNS God has promised to those who are faithful in serving Him.

I. THERE IS THE CROWN OF INCORRUPTION.

THE CROWN OF INCORRUPTION will be awarded to good stewards who lived a disciplined life and ran the race as God told them to run.

Illus: There is an ancient story about three demons who were arguing over the best way to keep Christians from receiving eternal rewards.

(1) The first demon said, “Let’s tell all the Christians there is no heaven. Take away the reward incentive and the mission will collapse.”

(2) The second demon said, “Let’s tell all the Christians there is no hell. Take away the fear of punishment and the mission will collapse.”

(3)The third demon said, “There is one better way. Let’s tell all the Christians that they do not need to hurry to use their TIME and TALENTS for the Lord.” All three immediately agreed, “That’s it! All we have to do is convince them there’s no hurry and the whole Christian enterprise will collapse.”

It seems this is what most Christians believe. God’s churches are filled with well-meaning Christians who INTEND one day to use their TIME and TALENTS for the Lord. The only problem is, years are slipping by and all they have are good intentions. We all have the FREEDOM TO SQUANDER our TIME and our TALENTS, or to use them wisely.

WHAT CAN KEEP US FROM WASTING OUR TIME AND TALENTS? We must have the SELF-DISCIPLINE to act now.

One of the reasons the apostle Paul was such an outstanding Christian was because of the way he viewed the Christian life. He saw the Christian life as a race to be run and won. It was his discipline that made him willing to serve. In I Cor. 9:25, he said and we read, “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”