Stewardship of Money

By Bro. Allan O. Wong                Young Adults’ Fellowship                 December 8, 2010

Passage:Luke 16:1-13

during one of our collections :)

He also said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Let me begin by defining to you what a steward is. “A steward is someone entrusted with another’s wealth or property and charged with the responsibility of managing it in the owner’s best interest.”[1] Because a steward has this important responsibility, he is “entrusted with sufficient resources and the authority to carry out his designated responsibilities.”[2]

As Randy Alcorn says, “A steward’s primary goal is to be found faithful by his Master as the steward uses the Master’s resources to accomplish the tasks delegated to him.” Stewardship embraces a lot of things. There is a stewardship of our very own life; stewardship of our time, of our money and possessions; of our spiritual gifts, as well as stewardship of the gospel. One thing is common and certain in all of these cases: we have been entrusted with these things by God and therefore we will all be held accountable by God for whatever He has entrusted to us.

Lessons:

1.      Just as the rich man entrusted his manager with his possessions, so also God entrusts us with His possessions. Sometimes we forget that and think that we have all the right to do whatever we want to do about the things God has given us. God is the owner. We are simply managers or stewards.

2.      Just as the rich man held his manager accountable, so also God holds us accountable with His possessions left to our care.

Question: What would God hold us accountable with when we face Him? What would God want us to give accounting of with regards to money and material possessions? There are at least two areas of our stewardship of money that God will hold us accountable to:

1.      How you acquire your wealth

2.      How you use your wealth

3.      God wants us to use worldly wealth for eternal benefits

This is Christ’s first application of the parable. He says in v. 9, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Look at the parallel of vv. 3-8 with v. 9.

4.      If we are faithful with very little, we can be entrusted with a lot

Verses 10-12 says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

Many Christians today reverse Matthew 6:33. You can hear them say like this: If I get this project, I will give more. Or if I am promoted I promise to give more. But Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, be faithful with whatever you have and who knows, God will give you more. But there’s more to earthly blessings that God promises in vv. 11-12. He says that if we are good and faithful stewards of God’s wealth, God will grant us true riches in heaven

5.      The love of money is the greatest hindrance to good stewardship

Verse 13 says, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Loving money will make us hoard it rather than give it away. Loving money will make us use it for our own pleasure more than for God’s purposes. But Christ’s discipleship call is for us to carry His cross daily in following Him. You can’t play in between here. Either you serve money or serve God.

As God’s people, we need to prioritize His church and His purposes in our giving. To be able to do this, you need to plan ahead (just like what the unjust manager did), or else nothing will be left and all are spent for our own needs and wants.

My personal principle is this: Never put yourself in a financial situation where your giving to the church and monetary help to others will be affected. (For example, buying things at 0% interest rate for credit card holders).

Second, do not live beyond your means or even within your means. Try to live below your means so that you will have more left to give.

Thirdly, and this is the most important thing, seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and God will provide your needs. Learn to live by faith. How? By believing in the promises of God.

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[1] Money, Possessions and Eternity, p. 140

[2] Ibid, 140

Note: This is a condensed version. Please e-mail us thru sdg.youngadults@gmail.com if you want to have a copy of the whole message.

How to Develop the Virtue of Contentment

By Bro. Allan O. Wong

YA Monthly  Fellowship

November 10, 2010

1 Timothy 6:6-11:

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ⁹But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. ¹¹But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

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a prop in 2009.. Anyone remembers what's in this?

Before v. 6, Paul was talking about the false teachers who were using religion as a means of gain. There are some undeniable things that characterize a false teacher. First, he teaches doctrines contrary to biblical teachings. Character wise he is proud, puffed up and quarrelsome. But there is one thing that is more obvious than these two: the love of money. It can be used to describe unbelievers or believers. So basically, an unbeliever may look the same with a believer outwardly. But what should set them apart is the true nature of the heart. Look at some principles here:

1.      Outward piety or religiosity does not produce contentment.

2.      God’s will for us is to be both godly and contented.

3.      Contentment consists of satisfaction with the basic necessities of life.

4.      A discontented life is a symptom of love of money.

5.   There is great gain in godliness with contentment. The word “great” is the Greek megas meaning exceedingly abounding. These are exceedingly abounding gains because they can be converted to heavenly rewards.

How do you achieve that kind of attitude? In other words, how can you have contentment? Paul gives us a twofold answer here.

Positively, you must have a compelling eternal perspective of things. Look at what Paul says in vv. 6-7.  There then lies the secret of Paul. Paul has a compelling eternal perspective of things that is why he is contented with whatever comes his way.  It is compelling because Christ is the center of Paul’s life and ministry. You must be convinced fully that eternity without Christ is nothing.

This brings us to the second answer. How can you have contentment? Do not desire to be rich.

Do not desire to be rich for obvious reasons. “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” Why is this so? Why is money destructive? Verse 10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Compromises, theft, murder, adultery, envy, anger, all kinds of evil, name it, the love of money can be at the root of these evils. In other words, if you love money, you are declaring war against God Himself. That is the ultimate reason why money does not bring the ultimate joy. That is the reason why it is destructive.

First John 2:15-17:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. [Listen to John’s reason why we should not love the world] ¹⁷And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 

How do you fight against the desire to be rich? First, flee from it. Do not entertain worldly thoughts. Do not imagine being rich or having this or that thing. Passionate sins should not be entertained. Elsewhere, Paul also says, “Flee from sexual immorality.” You don’t play with passionate sins. Sexual sins, love of money. These are sensual sins and God says, “flee from them.

Secondly, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. To pursue means, as the Word Dictionary says, “To follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain, to go after with the desire of obtaining.”  In other words, seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and occupy your mind with that.

Do not therefore neglect your relationship with Christ. Bring that first love. Cultivate a love for Him again.

Recommended Reading: Money, Possessions and Eternity

(Note: This message is a condensed version. If you would like to have a copy of the complete message, please e-mail us thru sdg.youngadults@gmail.com.)