"Stewardship"

Intro

Matthew 25:14-30

¹⁴ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. ¹⁵ And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. ¹⁶ Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷ And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. ¹⁸ But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

²⁰ “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ ²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ ²² He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ ²³ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

²⁴ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

²⁹ ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 

God has called each one of us to be good stewards over what He has given to us.  Many times, we can have pure intentions in our actions but mismanage what we have because we do not understand how to properly manage what God has provided us with.  Stewardship is the job of supervising or taking care of something.  A steward is never the OWNER of what they are caring for, they are simply responsible for managing it.  God has called each of us to work in some capacity of the kingdom.  Unfortunately, there are times when we are not able to perform the task that we have been assigned because we have not shown ourselves to be good stewards in certain areas of our lives. 

Although each of us have received a portion of intellect and skill, we are expected to not only operate in excellence but to also increase what we have been given.  The return on investment will not be the same for every person but the evidence of proper stewardship will be visible.  In the upcoming weeks, we will examine three areas that God expects us to manage well.  Those topics include:  our time, our finances, and our health.  

 “Beware of Wolves” Conclusion

Conclusion

It is essential that we beware of NEW teachings.  The reason that they are new teachings is because they are not fully supported by Scripture.  If they are supported by the Bible, they are not new!  Some false teachings are packaged very well.  They have exotic wrapping paper and a beautiful bow but people are unaware of the spring loaded pie that will be propelled into their face when they remove the lid.

Another cause of people being misled by false teachers is grazing in foreign pastures.  While there is nothing wrong with obtaining sound information from those who possess it, we need to be very discriminative regarding those we receive that information from.  Jesus gave a warning in Matthew 7:15 to beware of false prophets.  The way He said we would be able to identify them is by their fruit; their lives.  The Bible tells us that false teachers will be among us and unfortunately, sometimes we miss the false teachers who are AMONG us.  We miss the ones who initiate their own private bible classes for the members of the church without the pastor’s consent.  There have also been people of other religions who have infiltrated the church in order to present a different message to unsuspecting, gullible members. 

Beware of those who operate ministries within a ministry WITHOUT the pastor’s blessing.  Vance Havner once stated that, “Satan is not fighting churches; he is joining them.  He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat.  He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition.”  The greatest threat of deception comes from those we align ourselves with.

In order to protect ourselves and our families from the devastating effects of false teachers, it is important to KNOW the Word of God.  This only comes from dedication to studying the Bible.   We have to be diligent to study so that we will know whether a person is handling the word of truth accurately or not.  We also need to be in a position to hear from the Holy Spirit when He is warning us against individuals. 

Another defense against the deception of a false teacher is belonging to a local church.  That is a church that you physically attend.  At a local church, you have the ability to observe the lives of the pastor as well as others who serve in a speaking capacity.  It can be difficult to observe the lives of people whom you have never met or even had a conversation with.    

Sound teaching has the potential to bring offense because many of God’s solutions require responsible behavior on our part.  There were times when Jesus healed someone or performed a miracle for someone and He would follow the miracle with the instructions to “Go and sin no more.”  Some false teachers will lead you to believe that the answer to money problems is dancing wildly around the church or performing some other act or service instead of paying off your debt and refraining from creating new debt.  Psalm 37:21 says “The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives.  We are encouraged to always use sound judgment in our decision making process and we are instructed to always be watchful and evaluate those who are speaking into our lives. 

Titus 1:10-16

¹⁰ For there are many rebellious people, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, ¹¹ who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹² One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This testimony is true. For this reason reprimand them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

 “Beware of Wolves” Part 3

Confirmation of Teaching

There should never be a time when we enter the house of God without the ability to take notes on the information that is being facilitated.  When we take notes, it is important to verify that the speaker has given us sound information that is supported by the Word of God. 

In Acts 17, the citizens of Berea listened to Paul and Silas as they taught.  After hearing their message, the Bereans searched the Scriptures to ensure that Paul and Silas were teaching them the truth.  We do not restrict our time to simply studying the information that the teacher has taught; we also have a responsibility to search and verify that the information is accurate.  The question we should always ask is, “Does the Bible support what was taught?”  Many times false teachers will alter biblical stories in order to give the story more appeal. 

Over the years, instead of CONFIRMING the accuracy of what was being preached or taught, people instead, studied and memorized what had been taught and RECYCLED the information to the next generation.  For example, generations of Christians have taught that speaking in tongues is the evidence that we have received the Holy Spirit.  However, the Bible does not confirm this belief.  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul identifies different spiritual gifts within the body of Christ and at the end of the chapter, in verses 29 and 30, he asks a number of rhetorical questions concerning the gifts, to which the answer to each question is NO.  One of the questions that he asks is, “All do not speak with tongues, do they?”  Although there isn’t much room for theological debate regarding the meaning of this question, the point of highlighting this subject is to reveal that many within the body of Christ have been made to feel inferior when they failed to display the gift of speaking in tongues.   Some have even been discouraged to the point of leaving the church because they assumed that their inability to speak in tongues meant that God had not given them His Holy Spirit.  However, thorough study of the Scriptures would have extinguished this teaching before it was allowed to propagate through the church for the past 120 years.

Although many have claimed to speak on behalf of God, careful consideration is to be given when evaluating any message that we receive.  It has been said that sometimes when someone gives a word that is supposed to be from God, we may have to eat the meat and throw away the bones.  But, if someone was given a sandwich with molded bread, they would not remove the bread and eat the meat.  They would discard the whole sandwich.  In like manner, we do not eat the meat and throw away the bones when it pertains to anything that God has to say; we receive His entire word.  We do not accept some truth, half-truth, or most truth.  It has to be all truth or nothing at all.  

 “Beware of Wolves” Part 2

Observing Deception

Teachers of the Word are responsible for refuting false teachers and correcting false doctrine.  However, it is never the teacher’s duty to force an individual to accept the message that is being taught.  Their job is to simply teach the truth and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest.  Once truth has been taught, the Holy Spirit then becomes responsible for bringing conviction to an individual to help them to accept the truth that they have heard.  If the individual is receptive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they will, in time, accept the truth. 

People do not easily relinquish beliefs that they have held for long periods of time because when we BELIEVE that something is true, that belief becomes a part of our identity.  As a result of that belief becoming a part of our identity, any data that conflicts with it becomes an attack on who WE are rather than correction to our FLAWED thinking.  It has been said that disproving a misconception can actually STRENGTHEN a person’s belief in that misconception.  The truth will NOT always change a person’s mind.  

One of the easiest ways for a false teacher to deceive people is for them to identify with the audience.  In many cases, social issues such as financial disparity, racial, or gender inequality have caused us to lower our guard against unsuitable instruction.  When we are presented with social struggles that have personally affected us, we are open to accept solutions that God would not approve of.  But when we review what the Bible has to say, we see that we are instructed in Matthew 6:33 to seek God’s way FIRST.  Also, in Luke 9:23, Jesus makes it clear that in order for us to belong to Him, we must first DENY ourselves.  Failure to deny themselves has caused some to bring beliefs into the Church that may represent society’s response to a situation, while conflicting with the way God would want us to address a matter.  When we do not deny ourselves, it becomes easier for us to gravitate toward false doctrine if that teaching appeals to a situation that we identify with. 

First Peter 5:8 warns us to “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  It can be difficult to spot a threat when we are emotionally charged or distracted.  As we become more familiar with what the Bible ACTUALLY says, rather than what people SAY that it says, we can limit the amount of deception that we become susceptible to.  “Be diligent to present yourself to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”  2 Timothy 2:15