FINANCIAL
STEWARDSHIP!
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FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
Financial Stewardship: God's Heart Concerning Money and Possessions
Traditionally, there has been a lot of confusion in the Christian Church
on the subject of money and material possessions. They can consume the
majority of our thinking. I have spent many years thinking in terms of
how to acquire goods, how to buy homes, how to buy businesses, or how to
have the various things that are advertised to us. The dominant thing
that we spend our day thinking about is money, so we can obtain things
like food, clothing, and shelter. I think it is pretty easy to recognize
the amount of energy that we spend on these kinds of things. It is
really important for us to delve into the Word of God to see exactly
what God's heart is, what His instruction is, and how we should relate
to money and material goods.
I read an article that asked the question, "What is your Bible I.Q. on
money?" A statement that intrigued me was, "Over 500 verses are in the
Bible on the subject of prayer, but it contains over 2,350 verses about
money and material possessions." I thought that was pretty intriguing,
so I took the time to do a search on all the different types of
property, money, and things of that sort in the Bible. I found that
those references far exceeded 2,350 verses. I believe this is such a big
area of our lives that God clearly wants us to have a solid
understanding of His heart. Billy Graham once made the statement, "You
tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think
about God." I thought about that for a while. I think there is a lot of
truth to the fact that if you took a good look at your checkbook or
financial records, you could very quickly see where your heart is
towards God. Just look to see how you spend your money and where you put
your resources.
Jesus Christ was very clear in Matthew 6:24.
When Jesus made that statement, it was not merely a statement of
advisability. If that were the case, he would have said, "You should not
serve God and money." Nor did he make it a matter of accountability,
"You must not serve God and money." Jesus clearly said that it is an
impossibility, "You cannot serve God and money."
In light of that, my prayer for you is that this teaching will
illuminate your heart. I pray that you will discover areas of your life
where possibly you have not been thinking right with regard to your
relationship with money and material possessions. I can tell you from my
standpoint that this subject brought about some personal conviction of
the sin in my own life. I never realized the subtleties that money had
for me. I thought that I had this area completely in check, but I can
tell you from personal experience-money and possessions are very
intoxicating.
In order to understand stewardship, I think that we need to take the
time to look at the two dominant theologies that have traditionally been
promoted through the Christian Church. These theologies are called the
Poverty Model and the Prosperity Model. Once we examine these, I want to
go to the Word of God and see exactly what God's heart is. In order to
do this, we do need to take the time to understand what theologies have
been promoted in Christianity.
The first theology is called Poverty Theology (see chart).
This is a theology that, for the majority of Christianity, has ruled the
financial theology of the Church. You have to understand that the
Church's earliest history and earliest standard of living was what we
would consider today, a poor one. Those people that were walking around
with Christ, Peter, and the Apostles did not necessarily consider
themselves poor. They considered their life as normal, but from our
perspective, it was a poor life. Traditionally, society was broken down
into the following categories:
-1-3% of society was the ruling class.
-About 10% supported the ruling class (the scribes, clerics, the
overseers), and they lived at a median income level.
-80-90% lived at what we would consider the poverty level.
What we see in third world countries today is very typical of what the
world was back in Christ's time on the earth and for the next couple of
hundred years. What a man earned in a day-he needed to earn in order to
eat that night. Each person usually had no more than one set of
clothing. For someone to have two sets would have been very unusual.
They might have only had one set of sandals. They did not go to their
closet and decide which one of their thirty or forty shirts or which one
of their ten pairs of jeans they were going to wear that day. You must
understand, the level of material abundance that we enjoy today is
really unprecedented for the majority of man's history. Minor exceptions
to this did occur such as Solomon and other periods where societies as a
whole did very well, but these were the exceptions, not the rule. That
is why when you read the record that says, "Not many of you are rich
(influential and powerful -AMP) and not many of you are noble" (1
Cor.1:26), that really was true. Not very many people were rich.
The Poverty Model produced movements like the monastic life-styles.
These were the monks and the nuns. I was raised in the Roman Catholic
Church, and I remember very well that the nuns swore off all physical
possessions. The priests and nuns actually take a vow of poverty. That
is because they emulate the Poverty Model. Their viewpoint is that it is
more godly to be poor.
The Poverty Model led to movements like asceticism, which is basically a
movement of the denial of material goods and a denial of self. We can
see the records through the Dark Ages where the Roman Catholic Church
was the dominant church. For the masses, the common people, an emulation
of poverty was a higher or more noble way of being.
The Poverty Model can be absolutely supported by Scripture. In order to
do this, however, you have to take the Scriptures out of context.
Financial Theology is such a large subject in the Bible that in order
for you to understand it, you will have to understand the entire scope /
context of the Bible. We cannot take a couple of verses and look at them
exclusively. If we do that, then we will see how it led to the errors of
the Poverty and the Prosperity Models.
To support of the Poverty Model, verses like Luke 6:20-24 are used.
Someone can very easily look at this and say, "Look, it says that it is
more blessed to be poor than rich or hungry than to have your belly
full." He also goes on in the latter part to say, "Woe to you who are
rich..." The emphasis here is that it is better to be poor than to have an
abundance.
Luke 12:22 is another verse that is commonly used to support the Poverty
Model.
Jesus goes on to teach about how God takes care of the birds and clothes
the lilies.
In Luke 12:33, Christ tells the man to sell his possessions.
In Mark chapter ten is the record of the rich young man.
By pulling these verses out of context, you can see where the idea could
be supported that, "Wow, I really better not have anything. It is more
godly for me to be poor and not have material possessions." The problem
with this type of thinking is that in other sections of Scripture, it
clearly says that poverty is a curse. Now if poverty is such a noble way
for us to go, then how can we make that consistent with other verses,
such as 2 Samuel 3:29?
This is specifically talking about Joab's family being cursed. Part of
that curse is poverty. Psalm 109 records a curse against evil men.
Wait a minute, this does not sound like a blessing to me. This was
specifically stated as a curse. You can in no way reconcile the Poverty
Model with the entire context of the Bible and say that this is God's
will. I think that most of us can readily recognize that.
Again, in order for Poverty Theology to work, we have to take verses out
of their context. We need to just take the verses that we like and plug
them into this model. To understand Financial Theology, we must look at
the entire scope of the Bible.
With this teaching is a chart. At the top of the chart it lists Poverty,
Prosperity, and Steward. On the left hand side, you will see the
different areas. I have given you this chart to compare and contrast the
three different financial models that we find in the Word of God.
Speaking just to the Poverty Model, you can see that its view of
prosperity is that it is not good, and you are supposed to be
non-materialistic. The Poverty Model can be summed up in a word-they
consider possessions a curse. They feel that your needs are met by a
carefree attitude; where God takes care of the birds and provides the
food. The concept of material goods is that they reject them; however,
they are totally preoccupied with material goods just to have their
daily needs met because they do not have anything. Their attitude toward
possessions is carefree. Their attitude toward the poor is that they are
the poor. Their ability to help the poor does not exist because they are
the poor. They rely on Scriptures like selling or giving all that you
have to the poor, as shown above in Luke 12:33.
The second theology that is more pertinent to us today is called
Prosperity Theology. This is a wing of Christianity that promises
unlimited levels of material abundance. It is also known as "name-it and
claim-it." Many famous ministries are promoting this type of thinking.
I was involved in a ministry many years ago that promoted a version of
the Prosperity Model. You can find different flavors of the Prosperity
Model, but it is a more current trend. When I say current, I am speaking
in terms of Christianity from approximately 33AD to the present time.
This Prosperity Model has only seen rise in the last 30-40 years.
This type of theology relies on verses such as John 10:10.
No doubt Jesus Christ did come. I am not going to make an argument that
this verse does not include some form of financial prosperity; however,
is that really the primary emphasis of this verse? I believe that the
primary emphasis of this verse, when read in the scope of its context,
is a spiritual life. I do believe that financial prosperity can be part
of that, but you must see this verse in the scope of the Word and in
light of the culture at that time. At that time, Jesus Christ would not
have been speaking to any Israelite who would have taken this verse to
mean strictly financial abundance. In many cultures, you have to
recognize that physical and financial abundance is just totally not
available. What about India where they have a Caste System? If you are
born into a poor family, you will probably never get out of poverty. How
then do you reconcile people who say a verse like John 10:10 is just
about finances and physical abundance, and try to reconcile that against
the reality of third world countries? How about those in Africa that are
born into poverty and will probably always live in poverty? If you go
there and try to promote that John 10:10 is talking about physical
abundance, then you are missing the point.
Matthew 17:20 is another verse that is typically used to support
Prosperity Theology. They try to build what we call a Faith System.
The point that Prosperity Model preachers make is, "All you need is
faith." They take faith, and they turn it into believing.
If you thus believe, then you will receive whatever you ask in prayer.
People then begin to "believe" for a Mercedes Benz and to "believe" for
bigger houses. The problem is that this is all about building a mental
faith system. What is the definition of faith? Faith is confidence,
trust, and assurance.
I was speaking in Dallas and as I was speaking, I began address the
subject of "believing." I heard as clearly as I have ever heard the Lord
speak to me, he said, "Christian witchcraft." After all, is that not
what witchcraft is? Is it not an attempt to control the physical world
through the power of the mind-making chants, incantations, and such? You
control your physical universe by your mental energies. They build a
system that promotes mind control, and then they call it faith. I
believe that is where a lot of the falsehood in the Prosperity Model
comes from. They promote Prosperity Theology by mis-appointing
Scripture. I will state unequivocally that I believe that it is heresy,
a false doctrine, and a Devilish doctrine.
Prosperity Theology reduces the genuine family, father-child
relationship that we have with God to a contractual arrangement. They
eliminate this loving relationship with God as a father and promote that
if you tithe God will honor that and give back to you. They put a lot of
emphasis on the tithe to the point that they will say, "If you do not
give, then God will not even spit in your direction." They then will go
beyond the tithe and say that you must give above the ten percent or
twelve percent. Again, it is just entering into a contractual basis with
God. They rely on James 1:6-7.
This talks about faith and not doubting. God blesses those who walk in
obedience, no doubt about it. He absolutely will bless, and God's heart
and desire is that we do have a blessing of abundance in our lives. We
can go to the Word and see that.
Speaking of Abraham, when Abraham went back to his traditional family
land, his servant said, "The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and
he has become wealthy."
Also, we can see in Genesis 26:12-14, speaking of Isaac:
I literally have five pages of verses that promote or support a
Prosperity Theology. We can see the same with Jacob. We can see the
ministry of Joseph from prison to royalty. We can see the blessings upon
David's family. Scripture absolutely teaches that God frequently rewards
obedience with material abundance.
A problem arises when we think to ourselves that the evidence of my
obedience is my prosperity. Now, wait a minute, let me repeat that
because this is a subtle shift in thinking. Scripture absolutely teaches
that God frequently rewards obedience with material abundance, but-this
is a very big but, the problem arises when we think to ourselves that
the evidence of our obedience, the evidence of our righteousness, the
evidence of the correctness of our walk before God is our prosperity.
Where in the Word does it say that? When we think to ourselves, "Okay, I
have a whole lot of material possessions in my life, so therefore, I am
standing righteous before God. I have a very large bank account, well,
God must really be happy with me, then. The bigger my home, the newer my
home, then the better I feel."
From where is this righteousness coming? Is this not really idolatry? Is
this not self-righteousness? This is not really godliness because our
righteousness comes from God, and not from anything that we do. It is a
trick of the Enemy to get our eyes off God. The Prosperity Model is a
ploy of the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4 - KJV), and for the most part,
American Christianity is wrapped up in this affluence.
I have been caught in this trap. I thought that if I prospered; it was a
sign of God's blessing on my life. Now, it may be that I am prospering
because God is blessing my life, but I do not rely on the blessings in
my life-the evidence of what I see, my financial prosperity as evidence
of God's happiness with me. The problem was that when I prospered, I
knew that I really was not doing much for God. Are there not a lot of
people who prosper and have nothing to do with God? Do not use material
possessions as evidence of your righteousness. Is that not one of the
fundamental messages of the book of Job. You cannot reconcile Prosperity
Theology with the reality of third world countries. There are Christians
there that are more loving, more kind, and more Christ-like than I have
ever seen before; yet, they do not have anything that remotely
approaches prosperity. I can speak from personal experience by having
been to the Philippians. These were the most righteous, most God loving
people that I have ever seen in my life, and yet they did not have
anything that you could remotely call physical abundance. Please do not
rely on your material abundance as a sign of your obedience. Does it not
say that the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous alike
(Matt. 5:45)? Is it not available for the unrighteous to have abundance
too? When you begin to use your material abundance as evidence of your
righteousness before God, you are setting yourself up to be tricked by
the god of this world.
Do not treat poverty and suffering as a sign of disobedience. Do you
know how condemning that is? I know many people who have suffered and
struggled with a lack of finances in their life, and they are under
condemnation, guilt, and shame because they think that they do not have
abundance because God is not happy with them. Where does it say that?
You must recognize that the Devil also controls material goods. Just
because you do not have material abundance in your life does not mean
that God is not pleased or happy with you.
Ecclesiastes 8:14 is important here.
I have seen many righteous men in the Philippines getting what they do
not deserve; and yet, I see daily many unrighteous men driving around in
big cars and living in big homes, and they are not getting what they
deserve from God's perspective.
As a quick review, Prosperity Theology is unhealthy. It is doctrinally
unsound and unbalanced. It results in division. This is why I know that
it is unhealthy because Prosperity Theology absolutely results in
divisions. It separates the haves from the have-nots. Does it not
develop a class structure within the Church, the rich verses the
poor-those that have a lot, the Armani suits, the big cars? If we had a
church based on Prosperity Theology, they would be the ones in the front
row and we would be looking up to them. It sets up a class structure of
rich verses poor. Christianity is not about this.
It also promotes condemnation. We go through this mental process: "I
lack because I am doing something wrong." I then have guilt and shame
because of that lack. Christianity does not promote condemnation, but
Prosperity Theology does. It also justifies a lack of compassion for
others. I can look at those around me, and if they have a lack in their
life, I can then justify it. I can say, "You lack because you do not
have faith; it is your own fault. If you had faith like me, you would
have things in your life." Christianity is all about compassion for
those that do not have, so any type of theology which promotes a lack of
compassion has to be heresy, it has to be false teaching. It also
encourages a self-righteous attitude. Prosperity Theology develops a
self-righteous attitude like: "The more I have; the more righteous and
better I feel about myself." Where do we get that thinking? That is not
a righteousness based on God. That is a righteousness based on works. It
relies on the works of the flesh that I am driven to acquire. It is also
embedded in a religious behavior versus a godly behavior. It relies on
an external behavior of acquiring, working hard, and getting all these
material goods versus the internal proper posturing of the heart. If you
look at your chart, you will see that Prosperity Theology has a view of
prosperity being a reward for being righteous. It is also that material
goods can be summed up as "It is your covenantal right to have all these
things." I have actually heard preachers say that. They also live in the
fact that their needs are met by a transaction.
They also look at material goods as if they own them. They are
preoccupied with money and material goods because that makes them feel
more righteous and makes them feel like they are standing more correctly
before God. They are driven to acquire things as it also plays into that
attitude of self-righteousness. Their attitude toward the poor is that
they are lazy and lack faith, and if anything they feel that they owe it
to their brothers and sisters to help them out. Their ability to help
the poor is absolutely limited by their own greed. The Scripture in
which they rely on is "to ask, to seek, and to knock, and it will be
given to you" (Matt. 7:7 and 8).
That now brings us to the Stewardship Model.
I believe that we will find that this is God's heart, and that God
demonstrates to us what our relationship to material possessions is
supposed to be. It is not poverty. It is not prosperity. It is
stewardship. Stewardship, which we are going to take the rest of this
teaching to explore, is a model in the balance between poverty and
prosperity. You see, poverty and prosperity are the two opposite poles.
They sit on the two extremes, but God rests right in the middle, in the
balance.
In order for us to understand stewardship we first need to look at a
couple of points. I will set a little more background for you.
1) God clearly warns us of the dangers of riches
Living in abundance and prosperity can be like walking on a razors
edge-one small slip, and you can get cut. That is what God tells us over
and over again in the Bible.
Is that not clear? That is God's heart, neither poverty nor riches, but
just a reliance on God. He clearly warns us that if you are living in
poverty, you may be forced to steal, and that would dishonor God. Or,
you may have too much and say, "Who is God?" and disown Him. Jesus
warned us about this in Mark 4:18 and 19, and I am just touching on the
tip of the iceberg here to make the point for you.
That is the problem with material goods and material abundance. Nothing
is wrong with it, but if you do not have it in check, properly balanced,
then the wealth will be deceitful, and the desires of other things will
come in and choke the Word from you. You will become unfruitful. Nothing
is wrong with accumulation, but you can absolutely accumulate in a godly
way. If it is not done properly, you will fall into the deceitfulness of
wealth. You will fall into idolatry.
Also, the rich have many difficulties. Do you remember the rich young
ruler in Mark 10:17-31. I referred to this in a peripheral way when we
first began this teaching.
It was an issue of the heart. It was not that anything was wrong with
the wealth, but the wealth had the man's heart. That is what idolatry
is. Idolatry is always a matter of the heart. That is the problem with
prosperity, and that is the problem with abundance. Nothing is wrong
with them, but if you do not have them in proper check, then they will
deceive you, and steal your heart. That is why verse 25 makes this
point.
The point is that for many rich men, their hearts are stolen away from
God by their material possessions. Again, remember the danger of riches
is that they lead to idolatry. That is why Proverbs 10:15 says:
2) Two classical views exist for property rights
In the western world we have a mind set in which we think in terms of
absolute property rights. It might be slightly modified off the extreme
of an absolute property right, but basically absolute property rights
was based on the Romans' view. Our civil legal system came from many of
the Roman institutions. It states that ownership is a natural right. It
defines ownership as the individual's unconditional and exclusive power
over property. It implies an owners right to use property as he pleases
irrespective of the will of others; in other words, that is my car. I
know that it is my car because I have a title deed to it. If I want to
take my car and drive it over a cliff, as long as I own it with no bank
loan on it -that is my car. I can do whatsoever I want with it-the same
for my boat, my home, or whatever.
The problem with this type of thinking is that this is what led to
slavery. It leads to a wealthy minority and an oppression of the
majority. This mindset of absolute property rights ultimately led to the
coliseum and the burning of slaves: "That slave is mine, and I can do
with him whatever I want to do."
When we look at the Bible we see another perspective towards material
goods. This is what we call conditional property rights. God clearly
says that all the earth, all property, belongs to Him -Yahweh. Man is
merely a steward of God's possessions. Is this not what He said in
Genesis 2:15?
This was not Adam's in ownership. It was Adam's in stewardship. In
Exodus 19:5, Moses is speaking to Israel.
You see, the whole earth is God's. Again, we see this in Leviticus 25:23.
I then begin to realize that is really not my car. Yes, I have a deed to
it, but I realize that it really is not my car. Do you know how I
ultimately know that it is not my car? Because you do not get to take it
with you when you die. That is the lesson in Ecclesiastes 2.
Everything is meaningless because you spend your whole life accumulating
and then acquiring and then trying to maintain and keep it up, and then
guess what? You are going to die, whither away, and blow away like the
dust, and someone else is going to come along and get it. The truth is
that we begin to understand that no material goods, that house,
everything you have, is not your own. We need to get it in our heads
that this is not our stuff-that it really is God's. You and I are then
going to be a long way on the path of understanding stewardship. We are
caretakers. That is what a steward is. We thought that these things were
ours, so that can justify taking less care of them than we should-Maybe
not changing the oil in your car the way that you should. When we begin
to think of things as God's, our attitude toward them will begin to
change immediately.
Many records can be found in Scripture to support this way of thinking.
You can look at Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1, Psalm 50:12, 1 Corinthians 10:26.
Many verses are there that clearly say that the earth is God's.
Now wait a minute, I thought that Satan was the god of this age (2 Cor.
4:4 - KJV)? Yes, he is. He is the god of this age. This world is
Yahwehs, and even Satan, although he has control of it, is the steward
of the world, and he is not doing a very good job. The material goods
that you have, you realize from Job 1:21, Ecclesiastes 5:15 (and many
others), that you brought nothing into the world, and you will leave
with nothing. Even though Satan may be in control of the world (1 John
5:19), he does not have it in an ownership right. Satan has it in a
stewardship right.
Now, we will take a deeper look into Scripture. I want to delve in here.
I have nine points that I saw in the Bible that clearly show God's
heart. This thrilled me when I began to see this.
The first point is the principle of what we call Ancestral Lands.
Each Israelite family was given their own land. When they came into the
land of Canaan, God said, "You will each have your own land." The land
was given to them in proportion to the size of their family. He did not
guarantee them equality of income. He guaranteed them equality of
opportunity. That is a very big point to understanding why some people
in the Bible have and some people do not have. When they came into the
land, God said, "You are all going to get your own land," but if one man
was lazy and did not work his land very much, he did not get very much.
Another man who really worked hard received the reward of his labor.
People began to realize that they were co-workers with God. That was the
point. We are co-workers with God. We are stewards. That is what a
steward is. He works side-by-side with the person who is the owner. The
principle of Ancestral Lands is very clear. There are many records that
refer to boundary markers, ancient land transactions, and to the
disposing of the land. God was very concerned that each family would
have the ability to provide for themselves. You can check this in
Deuteronomy 19:14.
Deuteronomy 27:17 talks about being cursed if you move those boundaries.
These verses also talk about this:
Again, the principle that you see when reading the Old Testament is a
principal of Ancestral Lands. That was the sin with Ahab and Jezebel
when they wanted Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21). Naboth was not going to
sell it because to them the land was so important. The land was God's
provision. That was God giving to each family the opportunity to provide
for the family. You did not sell that land.
The second point is called the Year of Jubilee.
Even if the man sold the land, every 50 years the land was to be
returned to its original owner.
Now look at verse 23. We read this earlier but this is the context.
They could not sell the land permanently because every 50 years the land
would return back to the original ancestral family.
This is in line with the same concept of something that I heard a number
of years ago. If we took all the wealth of the world and redistributed
it evenly amongst all men and women, within one year it would be back in
the hands of those that had it previously. That is because the
majorities do not know how to steward it. The minority who know how to
control it and who understand money and the principles of investment and
return would just have it returned to them. This is the exact same
principle. God knew that it would not take long for a minority to get
the land back from the people who were given an equal share. That is why
God said every 50 years, "Sorry, guess what? Monopoly game is over. We
are shaking up the board, and we are going to return everything to the
original ancestral families."
Now, that is pretty cool. Think about this for a minute. God knew the
greed that was in most men's hearts to accumulate for themselves at the
expense of all the others, so He put this mechanism in place to keep
everything on a level playing field. The principle is that God wants
every family to have resources to produce their own livelihood. This was
the mechanism for correcting those errors. If my father sinned, got in
debt, or became incapacitated in some way and the land got foreclosed on
through a loan, the land may not come back to me in my lifetime, but it
would come back to my children.
I really believe that this was a very big reason why God did not want
Israel to have a king. He knew that once a king came into the situation
the whole economic structure of the land would change. You had Saul,
David, and then by the time that Solomon comes along things were pretty
disgusting. Rehoboam, Solomon's son, was only four generations from the
inauguration of royalty, and his answer to the people was, "You think
that my dad was bad. My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
I am going to whip you with scorpions" (1 Kings 12:10 and 11). Scripture
talks about the wealth of Solomon with gold in the goblets and silver
that was more common than stones. It was amazing the accumulation of
wealth that happened within that short period of time.
The third principle is called the Sabbatical Year.
Take the time to read Deuteronomy 15:1-18, I am only going to emphasize
just a couple of those verses.
The people of that time did not have such a thing as a 30-year mortgage.
Every seven years debts were cancelled.
Every seven years debts were cancelled. Every seven years servants were
set free, not only set free, but they were sent out with supplies. You
have to understand that during this time period, unlike today, debts
were not used for commercial purposes. They were used because of
calamity and poverty. Let's say that my dad got sick or injured and
cannot provide for the family. He then got a loan. The loan was for food
so that they could eat. This was not like loaning $200,000.00 so that he
could buy a house. These were minor loans. He may have put his children
up as surety in return for the loan. If he did not make the payments,
then they came and took his children away as slaves; however, the
children could only be slaves for seven years because in the seventh
year they were set free.
When I first read this, I thought, "This is crazy. How can God make this
work? Who would want to give a loan and have the loan wiped out every
seven years?" God speaks specifically to that.
Think of this example. My brother comes to me for a loan, it is
five-and-a-half years into the seven year period of debts to be
cancelled, or maybe it is six-and-a-half years into it. That means in
six months debts will be cancelled. My attitude toward my brother is,
"No, I do not want to loan to him because he will not pay me back since
only six months are left before debts are wiped clean." You see, it is
not seven years from the day that I loaned him. The law was every seven
years all debts were cancelled. God is giving us direction in this.
That is the point. They knew that God was their source. God was the one
who ultimately provided for them. If they were generous in their giving
and took care of their needy brothers, even though the debt would be
cancelled in six months, God would supply liberally to them.
This also meant that they let their fields go fallow every seventh year.
That is God's heart. Even though poor people existed, they would be able
to go out and have a provision from the land in the seventh year. That
is the principle of the Sabbatical Year.
The fourth principal is called the Laws on Tithing.
Deuteronomy 14:26 talks about this. We were taught that the tithe was
for the support of the church, the priests, and the Levites. But,
tithing had more to it than that.
The context of this is that they brought their tithe, they converted it
to money, and then they took the money and bought food, wine, cattle,
sheep, and ate it in the presence of the LORD. The tithe also provided
for them.
The tithe was not just for the support of the Levites. It was more than
that. It also provided for the poor, the widows, and those that were in
need.
The fifth point is called the Law of Gleaning.
This is God's provision for the poor and the aliens.
This was not a guarantee of a handout (welfare). It was a guarantee of
an opportunity. The people had to work hard for the grain that they
received. God gives people the opportunity. As a co-worker (a steward),
you have to go and do your part.
She went into the fields and worked steadily. She did the work.
Ruth worked hard for the small basket of grain. Ruth understood the Law
of Gleaning, which was God's provision. That is God's heart. It
demonstrates stewardship. He gives you opportunity, and you have to do
your part.
The sixth principle is called the Principle of Interest.
The interest here is something that most of you have heard about. It is
the idea of usury, which is an excessive interest. In the East, money
was typically not loaned for business purposes but because of illness
and calamity. It was loaned at a rate of approximately twenty-five
percent. It is proven that if you want to become wealthy and develop
significant wealth, you need to increase your wealth at a rate of 25%
per year. That was what these people were doing. They were taking
advantage of others and charging excessive interest rates so that they
could get wealthy. They were doing it at the expense of the
disadvantaged.
Deuteronomy 23:19 and Leviticus 25:35-38 continues this Law of Interest.
God, specifically with the identification of the interest principle,
speaks directly to the idea of not taking advantage of the needy. That
is a demonstration of His heart and how we should be as stewards.
The seventh principle is human life is always valued higher or over
material goods.
The life of even the most degraded person is worth more than the most
valuable possession. This was not true in all Middle Eastern societies,
but in Israel, that is how it was. All citizens were equal. We could go
to Babylon, Assyria, or Egypt, and they had one set of rules for the
royalty, another for officials, another for priests, and another for a
poor man, not so in Israel. God addresses this point about the treatment
of slaves and runaway slaves. He clearly recognizes that human life is
always valued over material goods.
The eighth principle is that God demonstrates His heart for the poor,
the needy, the oppressed, and the less fortunate.
You can see this in the following verses:
Is that not God's heart? Is that not the way that we should live, a
heart for the poor, the needy, the oppressed, and the less fortunate?
That is very clear in Scripture.
The ninth principle is called the First Century Model.
I cannot even begin to understand how they could have all things in common.
This was not Communism. They did not just distribute to everyone
equally. It says that they gave to anyone as he needed. These first
century Christians were Hebrews; they were Israelites. They understood
this. They knew about Acts 4:32.
No one claimed that they were their own. They knew that they were not
their own. They knew that they were God's. They were just stewards, and
they provided for the needy. That was the contention in Acts 6 with the
Grecian Jews and the Hebraic Jews because they were not being treated
properly and fairly. They were being overlooked in the daily
distribution of food.
Even through the First Century Model, we see that God demonstrates His
heart for all the poor and needy, and now we can begin to understand how
in the first century it was easy for them. They knew that they were
co-workers and stewards with God. They understood the principle of
Ancestral Lands, they understood the principle of the Year of Jubilee,
where every 50 years the land would be returned, and they understood
that every seven years all debts were cancelled. They understood God's
heart. They could see how God demonstrated His heart through the laws of
tithing, not just that it was going to support the Temple, but that it
was also used for the people. They knew from birth about the law of
gleanings. That is why Christ could walk through the fields and gather
grain. He was not stealing grain. He was walking through and gathering
the gleanings. They understood the principle of interest and usury. They
knew that human life was valued over material goods. They saw clearly
God's heart all through Scripture; a heart for the poor, the needy, and
the oppressed. They knew that they did not have an exclusive right to
accumulate, but that it had to be balanced with generous giving.
Let's recap the five principles that I have identified in Stewardship
Theology.
If you look at the chart:
-Click Here-
In summing up stewardship, you begin to realize that your view of
prosperity is a trust. When you prosper, God is trusting you.
Possessions can be summed up as merely a privilege. I do not have a
right to possessions -they are a privilege. My needs are met by
faithful administration of the things which God has entrusted to me. I
do not look at it like the Prosperity Model where I own things. No, I am
a steward of God's things. I say, "God, how do you want me to use your
things today?" I am preoccupied with wisdom, as that enables me to be a
more faithful and diligent steward. My attitude toward possessions is
that I am faithful and diligent. My attitude toward the poor is that I
totally care for them, love them, and help them for they are merely
disadvantaged. Did you have anything to do with the fact that you born
in the United States of America verses Africa, Haiti, Philippians, or
India? No, of course you did not. You happened to be born to the parents
that you were, so your attitude toward the poor is that they are
disadvantaged. It is not by any fault of their own. Your ability to help
the poor is that you can help them generously because you are completely
free in your relationship to material goods. The Scripture that the
steward relies upon are those like the talents.
We recognize that a variety of lifestyles are available, a variety of
wise ways of accumulation are available, and there are a variety of ways
to disperse it. We can enjoy Creation without worshiping it. All our
possessions are to be used in the context of devotion to God.
I was forwarded an interesting article a few months ago.
In the article is a blurb from the November 2002 Focus On The Family
magazine.
Is that not true according to the Scriptures that we see about material
goods stealing the heart of man away from God?
My point is that as stewards we should recognize that our things are not
ours; they are God's. We use them as God directs our hearts. We identify
where God wants us to place our goods and possessions. We help those as
God directs us to do. I have seen that stewardship can be summed up in
the following phrase:
"Stewardship, all that I am, all that I have, I use in dedicated -
devotion to God."
I encourage you to check your heart and check your life; are you being a
good steward?
Are you using goods the way that God wants you to use them?
We know that Poverty Theology is not correct. We know that Prosperity
Theology is wrong because it can develop a devotion to material things
and a self-righteous attitude. Stewardship is the correct model; it is
God's heart and it is written all over the Word of God.
"Stewardship, all that I am, all that I have, I use in dedicated -
devotion to God."
http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=872
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
May you, and all those you love,
be so blessed and fortunate
as to stand approved before God,
unashamed of your workmanship.
May God Always Bless You and Yours As
You Stand Steadfast on His Word Of Truth!
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