Stewardship - Glenn Conjurske
Stewardship
A Sermon Preached on Sept. 25, 1994, Recorded, Transcribed, & Revised
Introduction
Open your Bibles to the sixteenth chapter of the book of Luke. Luke, chapter 16, beginning at verse 1, “And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do, for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, how much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?”
The True Meaning of Stewardship
Father, I pray that you will indeed enlighten our minds and stir our spirits this morning, that you will teach us, and move us to be what we ought to be in the stewardship that you’ve committed to us. Give me, Father, a warm heart and a clear mind, and enable me to preach the message of God this morning. Amen.
Now, the first thing I want to point out is that this parable is obviously about stewardship. “A certain rich man had a steward.” I think “stewardship” is a word that the modern evangelical church has so corrupted that it is very little understood. All the major so-called Christian organizations have a stewardship department, and what does that stewardship department consist of? Well, it’s a department which exists for the purpose of getting money for the organization. And, generally speaking, the thing that they concentrate the most upon is trying to persuade Christians to give something to them in their wills. Hold on to your money, use it as you please, use it for yourself, lay it up in a bank while you live, but of course, when you can’t hold on to it any more, when you’re going to die, then give it to the work of the Lord. This is the kind of idea that the modern church has made out of stewardship, which is directly the reverse of the true idea of it. Stewardship, of course, is using your goods for the Lord while you live—not bequeathing them to him when you die. Actually, the real fact of the matter is, stewardship is using his goods for him while you live. Your goods are in fact not yours at all. They’re God’s. This is the root idea of stewardship. A steward is a treasurer. He’s a manager. He doesn’t own the goods. They’re only committed into his hands to take care of them, to use them for his Lord’s interests.
Stewardship and Ownership
Now, we are all stewards. We have something committed to us. It is not ours. This comes out twice in this passage that we have read. At the end of this passage, in the 12th verse, “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” What you have, then, is not your own.
One of the most common words we hear is “my.” Little children learn it early. One of the first words that they learn to speak with emotion and expression is “my”—or “mine.” By the way, parents, when you hear your little child say, “my—mine,” stop him, curb him. That’s a very bad habit, and we all learned it early. But what we have is not ours. What we have is God’s. We’re only stewards. We’re just treasurers, managers. That is the plain doctrine of the 12th verse, where it says, “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” That implies what you have now is not your own. It’s another’s. It belongs to your master. It doesn’t belong to you. You’re just managing it for him.
The Steward’s Wasting of His Master’s Goods
Again, in the first verse of this chapter it says, “There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.” You understand, “his” here refers to “his Lord’s” goods. The man was a steward. They weren’t his goods. They were his master’s goods. And he was accused to his master that he was wasting his master’s goods. You know, we all have a master, and we are all stewards. We all have an accuser, too. The accuser of the brethren accuses us day and night before God. We all have an accuser, and we all have an advocate, a defender to defend us when we’re accused before God. And you know, I wonder how our advocate manages it. When your accuser stands before God to accuse you of wasting your master’s goods, how do you think your advocate manages that? The devil stands before God and says, “See John Jones down here. He’s supposed to be a good Christian. Now look at how he wastes your goods.” And I have an idea that our advocate and high priest just might have to hang his head and say, “It’s true. He does waste our goods.”
Wasting God’s Goods
Well now, how do you waste your master’s goods? I think the primary thing involved here is that you forget that they are your master’s goods, and begin to use them for yourself. You know, if there is one thing that has distinguished my message, my ministry, it has always been that I have preached all-out devotedness to the cause of Christ. That was the subject of the first sermon I ever preached. But before I ever preached a sermon, right after I was converted, I went up to upper Michigan with a couple of men to hear an evangelist preach. He preached in a football stadium. I don’t remember anything he said, except one thing. One thing impressed me, and stuck with me. He said, “God is not going to hold you responsible for ten per cent of your income. He is going to hold you responsible for every penny.” And that’s true. That’s strictly true. It isn’t yours. It’s his. A steward—that’s all you are. A treasurer, a manager.
Being a Faithful Steward
Now, this particular steward in the parable is accused to his lord that he wasted his goods. I understand that to mean he spent them for himself. He decided to use his lord’s goods for his own interests instead of for his lord’s interests. You know, every once in a while folks in this life do that. They’re called embezzlers, thieves. Ah, they go to prison for it, if they’re found out. They’re stewards, treasurers, but the company goods begin to come up short, and the Cadillacs and the boats begin to appear in the steward’s garage. And the books are audited and the accounts come up short, and the steward is accused as wasting the goods over which he was a steward. He was not the owner. They were not his goods to do as he pleased with them. He was just a steward of them. Now, this is where we all are. The goods that we possess are not ours. They’re God’s. He has entrusted them to us—and for what? Obviously for his interests. To serve him with. To promote his interests. To serve his cause. That’s what the goods are given to us for. I’m not just talking about money, though that’s what this parable is primarily talking about—material goods—but time, energy, strength, intellect, personality, everything you’ve got. You’re a steward of it.
The Personal Allowance of a Steward
Well, you say, “How ought this to work, then? I can’t spend all my money for the cause of Christ. I’d starve. My family would starve. We’d wear rags until they wore out, and then we’d go naked. You can’t do that.” That’s true. But you know, a steward would undoubtedly receive a personal allowance. He’s allowed to use some of his master’s goods for his own necessities, but there’s a line drawn somewhere. He gets a personal allowance or salary, and when he begins to use more than that for himself, then he’s wasting his master’s goods. Well, God gives us a personal allowance. He says, “Having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” He says, “Labour, working with your own hands that you may have need of nothing.” So, you are certainly allowed by God to use his goods for yourself in that measure which he has prescribed, so far as to supply the necessities of this life.
But understand, all necessity is relative. I’m not going to nit-pick. All necessity is relative. We undoubtedly all of us possess things that aren’t strictly necessary. I own about 50 or 60 folding chairs. They are not strictly necessary. You folks could stand up like I am. Forks and spoons aren’t strictly necessary. I doubt Adam and Eve had any. But I won’t nit-pick, and I don’t believe God will. God will allow you not only those things that are strictly necessary, but those things that are practically so. But still there’s a point at which necessity ceases, define it as liberally as you will. There’s a point at which necessity ceases, and when you’re still spending at that point, then you’re wasting your master’s goods.
Accountability for Stewardship
All right, back to the parable, the 2nd verse, “he called him,” that is, the master called the steward, “and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.” Now this also is going to happen to every one of us, whether we waste our master’s goods or not. There’s going to come a time when our stewardship is going to cease. God is going to come down to us some day and say, “Thou mayest no longer be steward.” All of the earthly goods that were committed into your hands are going to be taken out of your hands in a moment, and you’re going to enter into eternity as naked as you were born. You are not going to take any of it with you. You’re going to cease to be steward of those goods. Stewardship is going to cease.
Making Friends for Eternity
This steward then, in verse 3, says within himself, “What shall I do, for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.” The man has caught wind of the fact that he’s going to be fired, going to be turned out of his position, not going to have any of his master’s goods to waste any more, or to spend upon himself. He’s going to be turned out. So, he determines—unrighteously now, dishonestly—while he is still in his place of stewardship, he’s going to use his master’s goods to secure his own future, so that when his master fires him, and he’s turned out, he’ll have a place to go.
Conclusion: The True Purpose of Stewardship
Now then, that much is back in the fourth and following verses, but here in the ninth verse the Lord says, That’s what I want you to do—“make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail [that is, when ye die], they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” You are a steward of your Lord’s goods. This is what you do with them. You take your Lord’s goods, and make yourself friends with them, so that when you die they may receive you into everlasting habitations. That is the plain doctrine of this parable.