January 10, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

EMBRACE THE TRUST
Psalm 24:1-2

As the youngest of three boys, raised by a father who loves organization, I learned early to label everything that was “mine.” And when something was “mine,” then no one else was supposed to mess with it! I think I still have some books in my possession which have the name “Timmy Pusey” written in the front—which is what I was taught to do with books in my possession. I still always put my name in the front whenever I receive a book! I remember as a kid being frustrated sharing a room with a brother who didn’t always keep his half of the room as clean as I thought he should—and I came close to carrying out my solution of drawing a line down the middle of the room with tape, declaring “my” half and “his” half. I didn’t want him to step foot on my side of the room! I even remember a confrontation in my college days when another guy overstepped his rights onto what was mine!

I don’t know why such things are important to us. Perhaps the things we own somehow seem to validate us as persons—in some strange way affirming our value and worth as a person. Maybe it is a matter of control. I’ve sometimes wondered if maybe I’ve tended to be that way because I was the youngest of three boys and often felt I had to stake my turf. I was even for many years the youngest cousin in a string of cousins that were together a lot—I was with some of them this summer and we were all laughing about how much fun they had excluding me, and the fact that it made me mad probably served to only spur them on!

Clinging tightly to what is mine seems a bit childish—but it’s such a part of human nature. In my old age, I’m trying to learn to let loose of things. Oh, I still get a bit cranky when my favorite pen disappears from the desk…but still, I like to think I’ve come a long way! And what I’m trying to learn is what I want to share with you this morning—that it all belongs to the Lord anyway…and when I say “all,” I mean everything belongs to the Lord!

In Psalm 24, King David gives us a rather simple and profound truth. It’s not unique at all to this passage, but this passage seems to put it in words that are unmistakable. Look with me at these first two verses—
[Read Psalm 24:1-2, NIV]
The earth belongs to Who? (the Lord) Who created it? (the Lord) Who rightfully owns it? “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it…” So what part of it belongs to God and what part belongs to you or me? No…everything belongs to the Lord, who created it!

In Jesus’ ministry, He built on this understanding several times. Perhaps the most well-known to us is what is called the Parable of the Talents. Listen to what He said about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 25, beginning at verse 14—
[Read Matthew 25:14-30, NIV]

What Jesus was teaching was the principle of stewardship—the understanding that everything belongs to the Lord, but, like the wealthy man entrusted huge sums of money to his servants when he was going away on a trip, so the Lord entrusts great resources to each of us. We are to be productive with it. We are to use it as He would. And ultimately it all ends up back in the hands of the Lord—because it never belonged to us; it always belonged to Him. He simply entrusts it to us.

This morning I’m beginning a six-week series of sermons on stewardship. Among the thoughts that come to mind when we hear the word “stewardship” is something equivalent to “just turn your wallet upside down over the offering plate and shake.” That’s about what my wife did one time as a child, by the way—with her mother’s purse! Cindy’s dad was the pastor of a small church in South Dakota at the time. They paid him in cash week by week—and his most recent payment was in her mother’s purse. Her mother was evidently at the piano when the offering was taken, and an usher watched as little Cindy dumped all the money in her mom’s purse into the offering plate that morning—it was so generous of her! I’m told that the amused usher gave it all back to Cindy’s parents at the end of the service.

I saw a cartoon this week that showed a pastor standing in front of his congregation, while every person in the crowd was obviously putting their fingers in their ears, and the caption simply states, “It happens every time he mentions church finances.” And I’m guessing that the concept of stewardship draws about the same kind of response.

However, I want you to know that I’m not after your money—nor is the Lord, by the way. He is after our hearts! When He has our hearts, our money and our resources are no problem—because when He has our hearts, we humbly acknowledge that all we have is really His anyway—including our money and our resources. Besides that, money is just one aspect of stewardship—though, granted, it’s an important aspect of it and that’s exactly why Jesus dealt with it as many times as He did.

This six-week series will take a fairly broad look at stewardship—including our stewardship of money and material things, but also our stewardship of our abilities and what’s often called “spiritual gifts”, as well as the stewardship of our bodies, our time and our relationships. The stewardship of our relationships will center primarily on our marriages and the family the Lord has entrusted to us. I also want us to consider the importance of being faithful stewards of what’s left when we come to the end of our lives—in fact, next week I want to introduce to you someone whom we’ve asked to help us with that as we begin a new ministry called “Legacy Ministry.” Too often we’re not as intentional as we should be with what happens to our resources when we’re gone—and those of you who have children in your homes also need to give careful attention to the stewardship of those most precious gifts to you in the event that your lives were cut shorter than we’d all like.

So as we begin these sermons on stewardship, let me share with you something written by Sue Kline that might help us get the big picture of stewardship:
In the beginning there was the King. He was unlike any other king, for he was a creator-king. Everything in his kingdom had been made by him. He made it all; he owned it all.

Among the King’s creation were people. He created these people to be like him in many ways—to bear his image—so that he could enjoy relationship with them. He did not make them kings; there could be only one King. He did not make them owners; there could be only one owner. But his love compelled him to elevate them in some way, to give them a calling worthy of their unique place in his heart.

“All that is precious to me I will entrust to them,” the King declared. “They will become essential to the welfare and expansion of my kingdom. I will honor them by revealing my heart to them: my deepest values, my highest purposes, my innermost character. And they will honor me by using each resource I entrust to them to spread my values and purposes and character to every corner of my kingdom.

“I will give them the title of Stewards—the highest title one can aspire to in the kingdom of the creator-owner. And great will be the rewards of my faithful stewards. In relinquishing, they will receive. In living for my glory, they will become glorious beyond their imaginations. In forsaking their tiny personal kingdoms, they will receive my kingdom, which, though great now, is destined to become even greater.”

And so the King, as an expression of his great love for his people, gave them the gift of his trust.

The biblical concept of stewardship deals first and foremost with the paradigm of ownership. Ownership is rooted in the idea of possession. What we own is essentially part of our little kingdom. If you doubt that, try taking a favorite toy away from a toddler—the response you’re likely to get is a clear indication that you’re messing with what the child perceives as his/her “kingdom.” Our possessions are an extension of the kingdom of me. They are things over which I rule—under my dominion, existing for my satisfaction! They are mine!

The problem with that mentality is that it’s not scriptural. True ownership is introduced in the first pages of Scripture. Genesis 1:1 tells us God created all that is—
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
This gives God rightful claim to everything. David affirmed that in the Psalm we read earlier—
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. (Psalm 24:1)
What is clearly established is simple: God made it. He owns it. It belongs to Him.

God created Adam and Eve. He placed them in a beautiful garden where they were to live and work. They were to take care of it. But Adam and Eve’s mutiny changed everything. They had been entrusted with the task of being caretakers of the Garden. But they began to think of themselves as owners who had a legitimate claim on everything.

In the New Testament, Paul tells the Colossians that all things have come into being through Jesus Christ—
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)
Since all things were created for Christ, all things have been created to serve Him and worship Him.

The acknowledgement of God as Creator answers the question, “Whom do we worship?” We are to worship the God who has made us. Our focus is not to be on ourselves and certainly not on our “stuff.” We are to come before Him with singing. We are to
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3)
Thus, God deserves our worship because we belong to Him. All that we are and all that we have belongs to Him.

So, if I’m not really the owner of everything seemingly in my possession, including the intangibles like my time, my talents, and my abilities, what then is my role in it all? The biblical answer is that we are stewards of it all. God entrusts it to us to take care of as He would—never forgetting that ultimately it belongs to Him.

The man named Joseph from the Old Testament provides a great example of a steward. As was a typical arrangement in that day, Joseph, the most trustworthy man Potiphar had working for him, was elevated to a unique position of responsibility: the steward. Joseph’s role in Potiphar’s house exemplifies good stewardship. When his master saw how capable and effective Joseph was,
Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned…with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. (Genesis 39:4,6)
While Joseph owned nothing, he was entrusted with great wealth. And when Potphar’s wife scooted too close to Joseph with less than lofty intentions, Joseph’s quick response was shaped by a right understanding of stewardship:
“With me in charge…my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care…My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:8-9)
The defining quality of the good steward—implicit in Joseph’s words, is trust. Just as Potiphar trusted Joseph and Joseph proved worthy of that trust, so God entrusts much to us—because He trusts us—and our challenge is to prove ourselves worthy of such a trust.

Stewardship is all about trust. To begin with, our Creator God, our Heavenly Father, entrusts to us certain things. He makes them available to us, trusting us to be wise stewards of them. He entrusts us with the care of all He “provides” for us. To embrace the trust is to embrace wholeheartedly the reality that all that we have and all that we are belongs to God—we’re simply blessed by Him entrusting it all to our care and keeping, presuming that we will do with them what He would want in keeping with His purposes.

Our attitude toward everything in our care should be like that of King David when he offered gifts to the Lord for the building of a new temple:
“O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided…it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.” (1 Chronicles 29:16)
It all belongs to Him. Written at the front of every life, sewn into every moment of time, stuck on every penny and possession and person is a label that reads, “Property of the King of the Universe.” It was his long before we had it; it is His while it’s in our hands; and it will remain His even when we give it to others.

And there’s a flip side to this trust. When we acknowledge His ownership of all that seemingly belongs to us, we can embrace the trust that He will in turn provide all that we need. God wants us to trust Him in all things. We too often find our security in what we can call mine. We find security in our bank accounts and in our possessions. We find security in the people the Lord has brought into our lives. We find security in our abilities and achievements. God wants us to find our security in Him. Embracing the trust calls us to step out in faith, assured that God will provide for us, that He will take care of us. When we trust the Lord fully, it really isn’t problematic to let go of anything in our possession—we’re willing to hold onto such things loosely.

The concept of tithing, for example, seems so hard to some people. That the Bible would call for the follower of Christ to return 10% of the gross of everything God provides for us seems from a mere human standpoint unreasonable and demanding. But in so many ways tithing is a continual exercise in trust. It seems to me that when we trust the Lord to provide all that we need, we don’t have any problem letting go of anything God has entrusted to us—including the first 10% of our income. It seems to me that if we have trouble tithing, we likely have a trust issue—that we’re struggling to trust that when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness that He will truly give us all that we need. We want to be in control! We want to call the shots! But when we “embrace the trust” of His provisions, we need not worry and fret about how our needs will be met—we’re set free from that. We trust the Lord—and that’s enough.
Stewardship, then, is not the begrudging business of prying loose our grip from what is rightfully ours. Rather, it is the joyful relinquishment of what never belonged to us in the first place. (David Henderson)

So, what does Christian stewardship ask of us? First, the Christian steward acknowledges that everything we have and everything we are belongs to God—it belonged to Him from the beginning and it will belong to Him long after we’re gone. Second, we are to fully accept our role as steward—to make the most of everything the Lord provides for us in keeping with God’s purpose and mission in this world. And third, we are to trust the Lord to care for our every need—free from worry and free from fear…simply trusting. In a nutshell, we are to embrace the trust.