What You Must Know About Faithful Stewardship

Introduction

What you KNOW can change your life.

Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

John 8:32 (NKJV)

³²And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

 

There are some things that we must know about stewardship.

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STEWARDSHIP’S NUMBER ONE PRINCIPLE:  GOD OWNS IT ALL

Psalm 24:1-2 says:

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. (NIV)

This Psalm tells us that everything in and on the earth belongs to God.  He is the sole founder and owner.

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WE ARE STEWARDS

STEWARDSHIP DEFINED

Old Testament

In the OT a steward is a man who is ‘over a house’ (Gn. 43:19; 44:4; Is. 22:15, etc.).

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STEWARDS MUST BE FAITHFUL

1 Corinthians 4:1–2 (NKJV)

¹Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

²Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

Faithful – trustworthy, dependable, reliable

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MAN’S STEWARDSHIP

Man has been given the awesome task of managing or being the steward of God’s possessions.  When the bible speaks of a steward it is speaking of a manager or superintendent of another’s household.

Luke 16:1-12 gives the Biblical Steward clear insight as to how God wants us to handle His possessions.

Luke 16:1–13 (NKJV)

¹He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

²So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³“Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵“So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So 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?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

⁹“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

¹⁰He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

¹¹Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

¹²And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

¹³“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

 

Principle #1:

How you handle what you currently have is an indication as to how you will handle more.

 

Luke 16:10

¹⁰He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

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Principle #2: 

God uses money as a barometer to see if you can be trusted with true riches.

Luke16:11

11Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

 

“True riches are people.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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Principle #3: 

God will test you with someone else’s property or goods before He gives you your own.

Luke 16:12

¹²And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

Stewardship is really about our relating to God.

“Stewardship is the management of God’s possessions according to God’s values in pursuit of God’s agenda.” – Pastor Billy Johnson