God's Provision and Stewardship

There has been in the past a considerable disturbance, I guess you could call it, in our society about the position of the Ten Commandments. Some people want to put them in the courthouse so that people coming to the courthouse would see the Ten Commandments, and some people feel like they ought to be a part of our national scene. But when the Ten Commandments were given in the Scriptures, they were not given to the Egyptians. They were not given to the people in Greece. They were given uniquely to the people of Israel. They're instructions to the people of God. And so they don't make any sense to someone who hasn't placed their trust in God. What God was doing with this time with the people of Israel is he delivered them from Egypt and he set them down before him in Mount Sinai, and he began to instruct them, a new nation, they'd never been a nation before, this is the way you live in the world victoriously. This is the way I designed life to be. And so he began step by step to show them that life is filled with relationships. And if our relationships are right or correct, then life works as it ought to work. He begins, of course, with himself. I am the Lord. I've created everything in the world. Everything's under my authority and my control. And you're never going to be able to live in this world with any kind of success until you recognize the supreme authority I have. I made everything. I made the rules by which you live. If you want to find peace in this world, acknowledge my supreme authority. And you should never insult me. You should remember every single day of your life who I am and the power that I have and the authority that I have. And if you do that, you and I will be able to get along. Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the place in which the Ten Commandments, one of the places in which they're given to us. He said, then the authority that I have, I delegate to people in this world. I have given to each family the authority I have over the children. So when you grow up in your family, recognize the authority of your parents. I have given some of my authority to the government officials, wherever they are, even if they're atheists. I've given them my authority. Recognize and submit to their authority. And when he called the church, he gave gifts within the church, and he said to us, recognize the authority that people have with the gifts I've given them. You'll get along in your family, you'll get along in your country, you'll get along in your church. Recognize the authority that I have distributed to people in all different parts of society. He said, I want you to remember that your relationships with people around you will be gauged on how you treat them. In the Old Testament he says, don't murder anyone. Jesus said, it is your attitude that I'm really interested in controlling. Don't get angry. Now many of you can say, I never murdered anybody, but can you say, I don't get angry. Anger is not a part of what God wants for us. And he says, if you get along, if you are able not to be angry with people around you, you'll find you'll get along with everybody, no matter who they are. I made husbands and wives to come together and give themselves to each other, and I make them into one. They're one. And I don't want you to do anything that would break that oneness apart. I have made you into one. Don't destroy the work of my hands. And if you look at your husband or wife, your spouse, and you see in them everything that you want, then you'll find your marriage will work. Don't go looking around and lusting after another person. Erase that from your mind, and your marriage will work fine. And then he said, I want you not to steal. Now a lot of people think that that passage is related to the importance of property. Some political scientists and even some theologians suggest that God wants us to see things in our world as valuable, and they have a special place in God's eyes. But I don't really think that's what he's getting at here. For when God called the people to follow him, one of the key ingredients in his asking them to follow him was the promise he made that he would provide their needs. When he called Abraham to come and follow him, he said to Abraham, you come to where I want to lead you, and I will bless you. I will provide the needs that you have. Abraham followed him. He gave him this land. Time came when the people of Israel in captivity were crying out to God, please deliver us from the slave we were in. He gathered them together and said, I'm going to take you to the land flowing with milk and honey. A description described the basic needs that you have and then some luxuries too. Milk and honey, two things that describe this land of provision for them. Part of God's relationship with us is the promise of provision to us. I will provide for you. Now God's provision is not necessarily the way we think it is sometimes. He doesn't say, now I'm going to give you everything in the world you want. You may have discovered that's true. He hasn't and he doesn't. What he promised to the people of Israel was, I will provide what you need. His provision to Abraham was this whole country in which he could run his flocks on. His provision to the people of Israel was this place where he was going to bring them and every single family would have a plot of ground. They could plant their crops. They could have a field for their animals to eat. All the things that they would need. God's interest was in provision for needs. So he wanted each person to take the plot of land they had. He didn't say to them, if you will go and sit down and wait, I will shower you with all the food and things that you need. It doesn't work that way. What he gave them was the opportunity for what they needed. He made provisions for them. You know, if you get into difficulty and you have to sell your land to someone, every 50 years all this land will revert back to your family. No one will live in perpetuity broke in poverty. His provision was permanent for them. His provision allowed them to be able to earn what they wanted, raise what they wanted. The work that they did would mean the result would come to them. This is the key for God's provision. He never promised to anyone, I will give you everything you want. What he promised to his followers was, I will give you what you need. This is a key for us. It's an ingredient that allows us to assess the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves. One of the great difficulties we have is that we look at the things we have and it doesn't look like it's enough. I've seen surveys they did of people and asked how much more money would you need to have everything you need and it's always 5% for the person that makes very little to the person that makes a lot. A guy told me a story one time he worked with people making sure that they made their estate plans correctly. He worked with a family and they had $2 million and he said to them, how much would you need when you died to be able to do everything you need or retired? They said, well, $3 million. Went back to them several years later, they had now $4 million and said, how much would you need to be able to have all that you need in retirement and they said, $6 million. He said, the last time I went it was $25 million. Our desire for what we need is boundless in our eyes but in God's eyes it isn't. Now the provision of God is an important ingredient to this commandment. I will give you what you need. What God expects us to do is to take what he's given and use it the way it's supposed to be done. In the Bible this is called stewardship. It means that you live within your means, that you don't buy or obligate yourself to more than you can afford to buy and pay for. What God wants is for us to use the money he gives us the way he intends it to be used. All the way through the Bible the idea of stewardship is presented. How to be able to use what you have in the way that it will provide what you need. You pay your bills, you pay your expenses, you pay for the things you need and you limit yourself to the things that you can pay for and afford. That's the discipline of stewardship. But also involved in this issue is what God asks. He made it from the very beginning a key ingredient with his people to say, you give me, I'm going to give you what you need, but here's the deal, all of it is mine. Now you're going to forget that, but every time you have income I want you to remember it this way, you take 10% of what I give you and you give it to me as a rent. A way of realizing that all of this stuff you have is really mine and that you're living on my ground and you're using my money and I want you to recognize my supreme authority over it. So every one of you, how much ever I give you, you live on 90% of it and you give 10% of it to me as a way of reminding yourself that it is mine. He is the ruler, the owner of everything, that's the principle behind it. Now this is not made for the people in Egypt or the people in Greece or the people in China. It was made for the people who said, I believe God is the supreme creator of everything in the earth, he owns everything, he made everything and I owe him all and I accept him as the ruling authority for my life. This is the rules for his people. Now this is not an easy thing to do because when you get the money that God gives you and you look at all the things that you have, our desire for things is often times greater than 90% of what we have. And so we look at this and we say, if I give God the monthly or yearly or weekly rent that I'm going to give him, the tithe, then I'm not going to have enough left. Here's the key. I will provide your needs. Do you trust me? If I ask you to do this, do you really believe that I'll short you? See that's the key ingredient in provision. I will give you enough. I want you to accept the idea. I want you to change your living style to where there is enough, not only for me but also to save a little for the future. That's God's intention. All of this is wrapped up in one concept. I will provide for my people. That's the covenant promise God makes. If you will do everything I tell you, I will provide for you. That's his promise. So in the world we see people living exactly as God wants them to live, finding the promise of God to be true. It's not that you have everything left over that you want when you do what he says, but enough. And then God says, I will bless you. All the way through the Bible this concept is held to be true. Now when Jesus comes on the scene, he expands this idea of the provision of God. He says to the people who are listening to him that God makes everything that there is. If you'll turn in the book of Matthew, he's talking to his disciples and he's explaining in the Sermon on the Mount chapters 5 and 6 and 7 about what it means to follow God. Now the key ingredient in this is that God provides for his people and I trust God for my provision. How can you have a good relationship with me if you don't do what I tell you? Do you know any boss where if you don't do what they tell you, he's happy with you? Do you know any school teacher or coach if you don't do what they tell you, he's happy with you? What God is showing us is how do I have a good relationship with God financially? It's to accept the concept that I provide for my children, it is always adequate, and I ask you then to do the things I tell you to do. I know many followers of Christ, many church members believe that the Bible teaches tithing but they don't necessarily think it's very practical or that people can actually do it. What you're really saying is God didn't know what he was doing. It's a really difficult thing to say to God. God, I have some corrections to make to the Bible. I'm going to tear out a few verses because I don't think that works. That's a difficult thing to say to God and have him respond to you in a kind way. What he asks us to believe is that if we do what he tells us, he provides for us. So Jesus, when he was talking about this stealing deal, said, therefore, chapter 6, verse 25, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life or what you will eat or drink or about what your body will wear. Don't worry. Why? Because if you've trusted me with your life, I'm going to provide these things. What kind of child gets up in the morning and wrings their hands saying, I'm just afraid dad's not going to have enough food for us today and mom's not going to prepare it? You'd say, man, that kid ought to quit worrying. I've never had one of mine worry about that. Now, they worried about not enough candy, but they didn't worry about enough food. God wants us to have the kind of confidence in him that we would normally have in an ordinary parent. Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you'll wear. Is life not more important than body, than the food and body more important than the clothes? So he's interested in our life and our body. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? Or you could say, by worrying, can add a single dollar to your income. Why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They do not labor or spend, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow thrown in the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. All the people around you, not followers of Christ, are worried about their finances, but it shouldn't be about the truth with us. Your father knows that you need them. Here's the secret. Seek first his kingdom, which means his rule over your life, and his righteousness, which means you live the way you're supposed to, and all these things, clothes, food, all the material things, will be given to you as well. The conclusion? Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day is enough, brings enough trouble of its own. You see, what Jesus was outlining was the principle behind God's provision. Once you give your life to me, and you say, I enter your kingdom, he says, OK, I'll take care of you financially. That's my promise to you. And what I give you will be adequate for you. Learn to live with it. I may give you more, I may give you less, but it will be enough. That's my promise to you. What God promised his children was to care for them. Now, let me come back to the commandment. So you are not to steal. Why would someone steal? Well, you look at what you have, and you say, it's not enough, God. And so I must go out and take somebody else's stuff, because you haven't done what you said you would do. See, theft is a declaration to God that he has failed in his promise. I read a story the other day about a boy that was arrested, taken to the courts, and he was stealing. And he told them that he had to do it because his dad said, I'm not going to feed you anything. If you're going to eat, you have to go out and steal your food. How many of you think that this was a good father? Hold your hand up. How many of you think this was a rotten father? Hold your hand up. It's unanimous. So when you say, God has not given me enough to live, I have to steal. What do you say about God? You say, he's a rotten father to me. I cannot even trust him for the basics of life. So he says to them, be satisfied with what I give you. I've already made a promise to you that I will take care of you. Don't look around and get greedy about the things around you. Don't use, misuse the things I've given to you and want more than I've given to you. Be satisfied with it. Be a good steward of what I've given you and do not steal from others to provide for yourself. You see, what God is trying to teach us is he is the provider for his people. He may ask us to live in limited income and there are times when all of us have been in those circumstances. When I first moved to town, we didn't have a washing machine, so we couldn't afford to buy one. We didn't try to steal one. Just every week my wife would take the clothes and go to the washeteria. We would all desire the day when it came when we could get a washing machine. We saved a little bit of money every week and we got a washing machine. That's God's way of dealing with us. We oftentimes don't want to wait. We want it now. That's saying to God, we don't trust you to provide us in the way that we should. You have failed us, so we're going to take it on ourselves to manage our own way. Like everyone else in the world, it doesn't follow you. No, that's not God's way. He provides what we need. It's not always as comfortable we want. It's not always as much as we want. It's not always like the rest of the people around us have. But He promises us it's enough. Now, God's way of dealing with this is to say, I want to provide your need, but I want you also to participate in what I'm doing, and that's why the 10% is given to me. But that's not all of it. There are times when I'm going to come to you and say, I want to do something and send missionaries all across Kansas and Nebraska, all across North America, all across the world. And the only way I have to do that is to say to you, would you give me some of the money that belongs to me, that I've wrested with you? So that's what the offering really is. The offering is God's way of saying, you have my money, all that there is, and if each of you will give me what I tell you, then everything will be taken care of. Everything in the church, everything in the association, everything in the state convention, everything in the Southern Baptist convention, everything will be taken care of. For I've given to you everything you need to do the work that I need to do and to take care of yourself. Now, if you don't think that that's true, then something is wrong. Either God doesn't know what he's doing, or I don't know how I'm using this money correctly. That's God's principle. The principle is shown again because Jesus, in dealing with people that came to him, helped them understand the importance and significance of what all of this was about. There was a man one time who came, and he had lots of money. He had a lot of money. And he wanted to be able to find peace between himself and God, what he called eternal life. Life like God lives it. He came to Jesus, and he said, I hear you talking about living with God in a good relationship with him. And I want that relationship in which I feel like God is a part of my life, and I'm a part of his. And I can live like God wants me to live. And there's something missing in my life. Jesus said, well, go back and teach the ten, keep the ten commandments. He said, I've kept all of those commandments. I've kept all of them, including the one not to steal. The rich man, he hadn't stolen anything. Jesus said, one thing you lack, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and then come and follow me. This is the story. A certain rich man asked a good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one's good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and your mother. All of these I've kept since I was a boy, he said. And if you'd asked him, he'd have said, and I tithed. When Jesus heard this, he said to them, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When he heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. What Jesus was talking about was, whenever you become wealthy, that is, you have money, you begin to think of it as your own. That was a problem with this man. I've paid the ten percent, now I think all the rest of it's mine. Keep your hands off of it, God. It's mine. Big mistake. Everything in the world belongs to God. It's his. The man was willing to do all these things and even pay the tithe, but he was not willing to say, God has authority over every single thing in my life. He was willing to give a piece of his life to God, but he recognized that there was something wrong. He didn't have peace with God. That's what he was looking for. Jesus came and said, you'll never have peace with God until you're willing to do whatever he tells you. See, this shows your real trust in God. Will you do whatever I ask of you? Jesus knew the one thing that he really was caught up with, and it was the money deal. And so he said, sell what you have, give it away, and come and follow me. Do you trust God that he will give you the fullness of life that you seek even without your money? The rich man didn't. I can't imagine my life without this wealth. I cannot imagine having joy or peace of heart or peace of mind without this wealth. So if you take that away from me, God, you're going to rip the heart out of everything I know and live for. He did not really trust what God asked him to do. He thought God's request would destroy his life, not make it rich and full. So listen for us. If you think giving what God wants you to give is going to hurt you, then you misunderstand God. He would not die on the cross for your sins if he wants to hurt you. He wants to enrich your life. He wants to enrich your life by teaching you in every part of your life how to find a oneness with him. And that only comes when you say, I will do for God whatever he asks. For some people, it's their time. For some people, it's their family. For some people, it's their job. And for some people, it's their money. It stands that barrier between them and God. What God wants us to understand is that he's the creator of the world. He owns everything that's here. Everything that we have is something he shares with us. The breath of life, our bodies, the clothes that we have, the food that we eat are gifts from him. And he wants us to acknowledge that. And he wants us to learn to live saying, everything I know God tells me I should do, the way I should think, the way I should act, these things are really best for me. Even though sometimes I think if I give up things, I'm going to find my life less valuable. No, trust me, he said. Everything I ask you to get out of your life will enrich your life, not hurt it. How can you trust a God who would ask you to do things that are destructive to you? Okay, I know. This is difficult. It's hard. It's difficult and hard to trust God when we don't understand everything like he does. And when he asks us to do things that are difficult and hard, and even potentially disastrous, we immediately think our judgment is better than his. So we come back to the very first commandment. You are to believe that I'm smarter than you, that I'm more powerful than you, that I own everything in the universe, and that I can be trusted. And you must live that every day of your life, even with the money that I give you. So don't look at what you have and say, I don't have enough, I must steal it. Stealing by saying you work more hours than you do, stealing by cheating on turning in your receipts to the boss when you sell something. Any number of ways by which we can steal, not paying your taxes, whatever it is. If you think you have to steal to make your life full, you don't understand God. So I want you to understand, you and I can have a good relationship if you will trust me in the financial area of your life. If you don't, what I understand is you don't really trust me. How can we have a good relationship if you do not trust me? After all, you said when you started on this journey, I give my life to God. You stood in the baptistry and said, my old self-centered life is gone, I'm buried under the water to symbolize it's dead and gone, and I'm raised up to live a new life doing what God tells me to do. Now you tell me, okay God, almost everything. And so our relationship is strained. What God is teaching us is how to live in this world so that we feel that we and God are one, that he belongs to us and we belong to him. And so he says, trust me with your finances. Don't ever think you need to steal to be provided for. For I am the Lord and I will provide. Would you bow your heads please for a moment? That's what he asks. He asks that you trust him uniquely and completely with everything in your life. I suppose money is one of the hardest things we have to trust God with. That's why Jesus said it was hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, because it's hard to let God control what we prize so much, but that's what he asks for, everything. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless you say to God, everything in my life is yours. When you tell me how to live, I will live that way. And when it seems impossible to tell the truth, I will believe that even telling the truth, if it causes my life, I will tell it. And even if it costs me money, I will do it. For you alone I trust. I want to ask you if you really have at some time in your life given yourself to God completely without reservation. And you can look back and see the decisions you made were based on what God said was the right thing to do, the right way to talk, and the right way to live. Or if you just selected those you like and said no to the rest. This is serious. It's an assessment of whether you really trusted Christ with your life. And your money is one of those places. If you've never done that or you're not sure about it, it's a time you can do that. You say, God, give me the kind of faith to do and say everything you want me to do and say, even though I'm scared to death. Help me to trust you more than myself. If God has made it clear to you that there are certain areas in your life in which you don't trust him, even though you've tried to make this promise, ask him to give you the faith to do that thing he has told you to do that you haven't done. You've resisted it. You've pushed it aside. Father, you're the only one that knows all of our hearts. You know how we think and what we do. You know whether our faith is a matter of word or whether it's a matter of life. Expose us to ourselves so we can see you, see ourselves the way you see us. And give us the faith in you to say, Lord, I'm tired of this halfway life. I want you to have all of me. Give us courage, courage to acknowledge that today I'm ready to give myself to you. I'm going to ask in a few moments, Father, for people to respond to you sitting in their chair seats where they are. Some of them may need to come and say, I know this is a promise I need to make to God and I want God and everyone else to know I make it. There may be some here that want to become a part of this church. You tell them what you want. Give them a spirit of submission to you that they might know the joy of walking in a harmonious relationship with you. I ask this in Christ's name. Sitting seated, your eyes closed, reflecting on what you've had come through your mind. A pianist is going to play. I'll be here at the front. Debbie will be here. Rusty will be here with you. If there's a promise you need to make to God and he's made it clear to you and you're ready to trust him, you need to step out from where you are and come and say, here's the promise God wants me to make. Hold me accountable. It's between you and God. He wants to give you life in all of its fullness. Let him. Trust him.