Leading an Effective Stewards- Celebration

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, there I was sitting behind the wheel of a 1961 Rolls Royce. The 12-cylinder engine underneath the hood just hummed. It felt like I was going maybe 35-40 miles an hour. In reality, I was hitting close to 80. You see, I took a year off school between college and seminary and I discovered that my four-year degree with a major in sociology and a minor in religion landed me a job as a painter in a high rise apartment complex. It wasn’t a bad job really. It had some interesting perks to it. One interesting perk was that the owner of this building often times would send items to his north Michigan home via me. Up to this point, all I’d really transported for him was mainly furniture. But on this occasion, he had just bought a 1961 Rolls Royce for well over $150,000 and he handed me the keys and he said, “Ron, take it up north for me.” Now I have to tell you there was a mixture of emotions when he did that. I was kind of excited. After all, when would I ever get to drive a Rolls Royce, a hand-built car. At the same time, I was a little bit nervous and a little bit anxious about the fact that I was driving a very expensive piece of machinery up to the north woods of Michigan.

Well, you might say, “What would it matter to me? It’s not my car. I’m just delivering it.” But you see, he gave me the responsibility, the responsibility to deliver it unscathed to his home up there. Another way of putting it, although we don’t normally say this, I was being his steward and he was relying upon me to exercise good stewardship with his car.

Now see, normally when we hear the word steward or stewardship, we automatically think, “Well, that’s the Sunday morning offering,” right? We talk about stewards. We talk about stewardship. Well, that’s just the fund-raising efforts of congregations so they can meet the bills. That’s what stewardship is all about, right? And you have to listen through a series of sermons once a year. Yeah, we know about stewardship. No, that’s not correct. The actual definition of stewardship is when you take personal responsibility for taking care of another person’s possessions. That’s stewardship. When you take personal responsibility for taking care of another person’s possessions. Another way of saying it is when you treat something as if it was your very own but you know all along that you really don’t own it, somebody else does. Thus was the case of me taking this Rolls Royce up north and why the anxious feeling I had as I was driving it up north. I was going to treat it as if it was my very own but I knew full well that it wasn’t mine and I was going to take my responsibility seriously.

It’s no wonder then when I got into the back winding roads of northern Michigan where the trees are about 30 or 40 feet high right on either side of the highway, I got especially anxious and I really almost had a nervous breakdown when this huge buck jumped out in front of the car and I slammed on the brakes and I nearly missed it. I was so shook up I had to pull off to the side of the road. Now, once again, you’d say on one hand, what would it matter to me? This was a huge car. If I had hit the buck, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. I could have just kept on going. No harm would have been to me. The car’s not mine, right? I’m never going to drive it again so why would I really care if I hit the buck or not? Because I wanted to be a good steward. I wanted to be a good manager of what had been entrusted to me.

This is when we get over to the scriptural side of things because God says He wants us to be good stewards. But that goes way beyond the offering that’s taken during the worship service. When God says He wants us to be good stewards, He’s talking about being stewards of everything we have. Because, in reality, God is the owner of all of our possessions and He’s entrusted it to us and we are to be good stewards of what He’s given us.

Well, beginning this Sunday and going for the next two Sundays, we want to talk about being a good steward but we want to go up to the next level. We don’t want to just be a good steward of what God has given to us. We want to be an effective steward. You see, a good steward manages well everything God has given to them. An effective steward not only manages it well but he enjoys it. He enjoys what God has entrusted to him.

Let’s take the Rolls Royce again. Was I nervous about driving this expensive car up north? Oh, you bet I was. Did I enjoy myself? Oh, yeah, I enjoyed myself. Rich leather seats. The steering wheel was about this big. It was huge. It had burrow wood all along the dash and it rode so smooth. Even the potholes of Michigan didn’t even phase it. Yeah, I enjoyed every moment of that ride. You see, I stopped being just a good steward and went up to being an effective steward

What are some of the characteristics of an effective steward? The first thing is an effective steward knows who the owner is. That’s the bottom baseline that everything else is built upon. An effective steward knows that he or she doesn’t really own the thing. They are taking personal responsibility for something that somebody else owns. You can act like you own it. You can act like it’s yours but you know that it’s really not.

For instance, back to the Rolls, when I got to northern Michigan, I pulled into this small town because I needed to fuel up that 12-cylinder engine. It didn’t get great gas mileage. So I pulled in the gas station. I kid you not, everybody from the gas station and the surrounding area came over because they wanted to look at this car. They made about three trips around the car. Finally, one guy looked at me and said, “You must be a millionaire. This is quite some car you got there.” And I straightened up in my seat and I said, “Why, yes, thank you, it is. Fill ‘er up, would you?” Sure, I acted like it was mine but I knew it wasn’t mine. No, I wasn’t the owner.

One of the hardest concepts for us to really accept is that God owns all of our possessions. You’ve heard me speak about this before and it’s a recurring theme because I have to get it through my head and I’m hoping it gets into your hearts. It’s an easy concept to understand. God is the creator of the universe. God is the creator of the world. Therefore, everything belongs to God. Alright, that’s no problem understanding that but when we start saying, “Oh, that means my home, my cars, my clothing, everything I have ultimately belongs to God, He’s the owner of all of that,” we can understand that theoretically but, practically, it really doesn’t sink in for us because there is a part of us there’s a part of me that says, “You know what? I work hard. I put in the hours. I’m going to be in the office come Monday morning, I’m going to do my job. I’m going to try to make smart decisions. I’m going to save. I’m going to sacrifice. After all, these possessions I have, have I not worked hard for each and every one of them? Therefore, they’re mine.”

But who gives me the strength, who’s given me the mind so I could earn a living so I could work hard, so I could save and make sacrifices so I could have everything? It’s our gracious God. You see, David understood that. As he was making a collection for the building of the temple, he said, “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you and we’ve given you only what comes from your hand.” It’s so important, he repeats it two verses later. He says, “Lord, our God, for all this abundance that we’ve provided for the building you a temple, it comes from your hand and it all belongs to you.” David says, “We’re just simply giving back to you what was already yours so how can we take any credit? How can we say that we’ve been generous with anything?” David understands who the owner is.

My friends, if we want to be effective stewards, if we want to not only manage well what we have but also enjoy what we have, the basic building block is we have to understand who’s the owner. God is. He has graciously entrusted it to you. He has graciously given it to me. We are to act as if it is our very own and take care of it as if it is our very own but, as a steward, we know that we’re taking personal responsibility for someone else’s possessions. They’re God’s. Effective stewards know who the owner is.

Effective stewards know what to focus on. In other words, effective stewards focus on what they have, not on what they don’t have. If you’re going to enjoy the abundance and the blessing that God has given to you, then you need to focus on what you do have instead of always what you don’t have. How much time, how much effort have we wasted focusing on things that we don’t have? Now we’re not the first ones to do that. You go back throughout history. People are always focusing in on what they don’t have. Classic example from the Old Testament has got to be the people of Israel. The people of Israel are in captivity in Egypt for 400 years, alright? 400 years they are in Egypt and the only thing on their mind is to get out of Egypt. They cry out to God generation after generation, “God, deliver us from being the slaves of the Egyptians. Deliver us from this bondage.” So God sends Moses. Moses comes in and, through miraculous events, supernatural events, God leads them out of Egypt. He parts the Red Sea. There is a pillar of a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. They have manna falling down from the heavens. Supernatural things happening on a daily basis. God leads them out, gives them exactly what they want. They no sooner get into the desert, do you remember what they did? Exodus 16, “In the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food that we wanted.’” While they were in Egypt, the only thing on their mind was getting out of Egypt. Now that they’re out of Egypt, the only thing on their mind is going back to Egypt. They’re always focusing in on what they don’t have. And in the meantime, they have missed what God did among them. They missed the miraculous things that were happening on a daily basis because they were focusing in on what they don’t have.

You know where I’m going with this. How much do you focus in on what you don’t have? From the smallest of things to the greatest of things. You get a brand new cell phone. You can’t wait to show your friends, your family, your coworkers. “Look at this. It’s the latest. It’s sleek. It’s cool. It does more things than you can count on one hand. It’s a great cell phone.” You’re excited about it. Two months later, they come out with a new model. Now you’re in countdown mode. “When’s my contract up so I can trade this piece of junk in?” You moved into the house. It was spacious. It was enormous. You couldn’t fill the whole place. Now you pull in the driveway, “Man, there’s not even a place to breath around here. I can’t get any privacy in this place. It’s so cramped. It’s so small.” You worked extra hard to land the job. You couldn’t believe it when you finally got hired. Now you spend the majority of your day looking through the company billboard to find out if you can’t transfer to some other location. How much time do we waste focusing in on what we don’t have? And it’s almost doubly bad because, by doing that, we end up being terrible managers, terrible stewards of what God has given to us. Because if we focus long enough on what we don’t have, we’ll go after it and we’ll get it. One way or another, we’ll get it. Is it any wonder that most Americans live on 110% of their income? You heard me right. 110%. That means they have more going out than they having coming in. Is it any wonder that they have skyrocketing MasterCard and Visa bills? Any wonder that we have second mortgages coming out our ears? Any wonder that claiming bankruptcy is at an all-time high? Because we’re living beyond our means. Because we are focusing in on the things that we don’t have. And now do we not only have the wrong focus, but we’re being a terrible steward, a terrible manager of what God has bestowed upon us. An effective steward focuses in on what we do have. We focus in on what God has given to us.

Take a look at 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it.” Godliness with contentment is great gain. Focusing in on what we do have.

There’s a book that’s out. I haven’t read it but I just read a snippet of it. It’s called Thanks, how the science of gratitude can make you happier. This guy went scientifically and used the scientific method to find out that if we were content with what we had and were thankful for what we had, it would change our whole perspective on life. And his research had a control group that they had a gratitude journal and so they wrote down daily the things they were thankful for that happened that day. On a whole, they slept better at night and they slept longer. They exercised more. They were healthier. They had a different outlook because they were focusing in on what they had and not of what they didn’t have. An effective steward can take great joy in managing the things that God has given him or her because they focus in on what they have and then they enjoy what God has blessed them with.

An effective steward gladly, willingly gives a portion of their income back to God. And there’s a reason for this. There’s a reason why God asks that we give a portion of what He’s given to us back to Him. Because He wants to keep our perspective straight. He wants us to remember who the owner is and He wants us to remember to focus in on what we have. By gladly and willingly giving a portion back to Him, He accomplishes those two goals. When we come on a weekly basis and we offer back to God some of what He’s given to us, it’s a weekly reminder that everything we have comes from God and we’re just simply giving something back to Him.

I read a quote this week from Oswald Smith. He says, “It’s not how much of my money I will give to God but how much of God’s money I will keep for myself.” Let that sink in for a minute. When you put it in this perspective, it’s not how much of my money I will give to God but how much of God’s money will I keep for myself. That means you know who the owner is. You keep in perspective that you’re the steward, I’m the steward. God is the owner. That makes for an effective steward.

Also, when we give a portion of it back to God, we are forced to look at the blessings that we have. As God teaches us in scripture that we give a percentage of our income back to Him, why does He ask for a percentage? So that we take a look at the whole. No matter what the percentage is, 5%, 10%, 15% but we have to look at the whole and we have to realize all the things God has given to us. He is forcing us to focus in on what we have. God asks for a portion of it back but He does so with the purpose to drive home the point that He’s the owner and drive home the point to focus in on what we have.

And when we give it back to God, we give it willingly and we give it with joy. And we also give it with thanks. Think about that one for a moment. We’re thanking God. Take a look at what David said, “All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent and now I have seen with joy how willingly your people here have given to you.” David says it wasn’t by coercion, it wasn’t because he felt compelled to or he had to or he was coerced into doing it. He said he willingly gave of his wealth to God to build that temple. My friends, when we give back to God, it has to be from a willing heart. Scripture says God loves a cheerful giver. I’ll go so far to say if it isn’t with a willing heart, you shouldn’t give back to God. You should wait until God has convinced your heart and pierced your heart to realize that. Otherwise, you’re missing the whole point. We give back gladly and willingly. We give back saying thanks to God. Thanks to God for all the blessings that He’s entrusted to us.

Let’s go back to my Rolls Royce. It wasn’t mine. When I handed the keys back to the owner, I thanked him profusely for letting me drive his car up north. Now some people would say, “Well, why did you thank him? He hired you to do a job. You did the job well. You delivered the car unscathed. Shouldn’t he be thanking you for a job well done?” I don’t think so. I don’t think so. You see, he took the keys of $155,000 car and he placed them in the hand of a scrawny 21-year-old. And he said, “Ron, I trust you with my car. No one else who works here do I trust. I trust you to take my car up north.” That meant something to me. That meant a great deal to me. And then as an extra bonus, I really enjoyed myself. I enjoyed driving that car up north.

My friends, in a sense, God has taken the keys and He’s given them to you for everything that you have and He says, “I trust you. I trust that you’re going to take good care of the things that I’ve bestowed upon you. I trust that you’re going to be a good steward and you’re going to be a good manager.” I don’t know about you but that means something to me, that God says that He trusts me with that. And I don’t know about you but I want to enjoy the things God’s given me, focus in on all of His blessings and to enjoy it. And at that point, my friends, we’ve gone from just being a good steward to being an effective steward. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church