Today part 3 of Pastor Dons message on stewardship. Please like and share. INSIGHTS ON GOOD STEWARDSHIP 1. Don’t put off service until a later time A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagonload of corn in the road. The former who lived nearby came to investigate. Hey, Willis, he called out, forget your troubles for a spell and come on in and have dinner with us. Then Ill help you get the wagon up. Thats mighty nice of you, Willis answered, But I dont think Pa would like me to. Aw, come on, son! the farmer insisted. Well, okay, the boy finally agreed. But Pa wont like it. After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked his host. I feel a lot better now, but I just know Pa is going to be real upset. Dont be foolish! exclaimed the neighbor. “By the way, where is he? The boy answered,,Under the wagon. There are some things you need to do now-God’s work is one of them. One of our problems is that it is always easy to find a reason to put off until later. Matthew 25:16-17 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. Servant number one went “at once” to work with his masters goods. Jesus said servant number two set out in the same manner Once these men knew what their master wanted them to do, they did it. There was nothing felt had to do first. They werent waiting for retirement. They werent assuming others could do a better job than they could. They werent planning around a burnout. There was an excitement about their stewardship. as the Psalmist would have put it long ago, they knew what it was to serve the Lord with gladness! Nothing opens the door for failure in the Christian life like putting off what you know you should be doing now. for the Lord. 2. Don’t compare yourself with others Why did Jesus include 3 men in the story? If all He wanted to do was compare obedient stewardship with disobedient stewardship He could have left out the two-talent servant in the middle and just compared the five talent servant with the one talent servant. That would have made the point that we must invest and not hide our masters goods in the ground. But that is not the only point Jesus was laboring to make. He included three servants because He also wanted to compare the two faithful servants in terms of their reward when the master came back. He specifically compared the two faithful servants to show that their reward was the same, even though one was working with bigger numbers than the other .They received the same reward because they were equally faithful to use what they had been given. They both put their master first with what they were given. The fact that someone may be a little more knowledgeable than you, or be able to do some things you can’t do should never discourage you in your service. The trouble is that ordinary people tend to hide behind their ordinariness. Commonly it’s not the five-talent people who bury their talents, but the one-talent people, discovering they don’t have five and maybe feeling a little bit intimidated and inadequate, who bury the one talent they do have. Because they figure they can’t do much, that what they do won’t make any difference anyway, they do nothing. That’s a big mistake. God does not want extraordinary people who do extraordinary things nearly so much as He wants ordinary people who do ordinary things extraordinarily well. Just do the best with what you have. That’s all God expects. 3. Good stewards are not afraid to try The parable of the talents is not a lesson about ability, or productivity. It is a lesson about the faith and attitude we should have. The right attitude is illustrated by Woodrow Wilson. Wilson once said, I would rather fail in a cause that someday will triumph than to win in a cause that I know someday will fail. There is no sin in failure. There is only sin in not attempting to honor God by listening to Him and obeying Him. In the case of the 3rd servant who hid his master’s money, the master’s judgment did no fall on him because he tried and failed. The judgment of the master fell on him because he was afraid to try. Instead of sitting back thinking of reasons why you can’t do things, step out and try. Stewardship is summed up by the great missionary David Livingstone who once said, “I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity “ That’s biblical stewardship. fellowship-katy.org
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015