STEWARDSHIP: WHO DO YOU SERVE?
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 6:27
AUGUST 12, 1990
Everything belongs to God; nothing belongs to us. God has entrusted some things into our care. We are therefore stewards. The Bible promises that one day our stewardship will be evaluated. One day, your stewardship will be evaluated. At the end of your life on the day of judgment, at the judgment seat, at the throne of God. On that day, two questions will be answered. The first question is this: who did you serve? You see, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, this is the biggest question that will be answered: who did you serve?
In the year 1876, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in the Netherlands. After a few years had passed, it was very obvious that Margaretha was beautiful. She was also intelligent. When she was old enough, she married a Dutch colonel and they moved to the island of Java. There he beat her, and he abused her. She fled in the year 1901 when Margaretha was 25 years old. She arrived in the city of Paris. She claimed to be a Javanese dancer. She took the name Mata Hari. She became a famous exotic dancer, famous throughout France. She had an affair with the chief of the French ministry. Mata Hari became famous throughout Europe. She had an affair with the Duke of Brunswick. She had an affair with the Dutch Prime Minister. She had an affair with the crown prince of Germany. In the year 1917, in the midst of World War I, Mata Hari was brought to trial in France by the government of France. She had sworn allegiance to France, but had she served France? And that was the big question at that trial: who did she serve?
It was determined that Mata Hari was a spy. She hadn’t served France at all. It was determined that she had served Germany, a German spy who had infiltrated France. She had taken secret information from high French officials and she had imparted it to high German officials. It was determined that she had caused the death of 50,000 Allied soldiers. Mata Hari was condemned and she was executed.
If you’re a Christian, then you know that the Bible says you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. If you really believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you have sworn allegiance to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In some measure you have sworn allegiance and you have promised to serve the kingdom of Christ. If you haven’t made such an oath, if you haven’t made such a commitment, you’re not truly a Christian. When you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, this question will be answered: did you really serve him? Did you really serve his kingdom, or did you serve some other kingdom? Did you serve your own kingdom? In the Bible, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” One of the indications, the Bible tells us, of whether or not we are truly committed to Christ’s kingdom and whether we truly serve His kingdom is our financial stewardship. Do you really use your money to seek first His kingdom? That’ll be determined at the judgment seat of Christ.
Richard Halverson, the United States Senate chaplain, tells us that Jesus Christ said more about money than any other subject. Richard Halverson said this is highly appropriate because the human heart, it’s mostly made manifest by the use of money. What you do with your money proves what you’re living for. The Bible says a lot about money. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave 38 parables of the kingdom and 16 of those parables deal explicitly with money and possessions. One out of every 10 verses in the Gospels deal explicitly with money and possessions. There are four times as many verses in the Bible dealing with money and possessions than dealing with the subject of prayer. More verses in the Bible deal with money and possessions than the subject of faith. You see, this issue is paramount to God. Sometimes Christians say, “Well preachers, ministers talk too much about money.” Of course, we don’t want preachers to talk a whole lot about money. Maybe some ministers do speak too much about money and maybe they are improperly motivated, but I want to suggest to you today that most ministers do not speak enough about money because money is a central issue biblically. What we do with our money and with our possessions is critical for the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and what we do with our money and the way we use our money is a very central expression of whether or not we are really seeking first the kingdom of God and whether we are really committed to serving Christ’s kingdom.
You might have heard the story of a little girl whose father gave her two quarters. This happened many years ago. Her father gave her two quarters and said one quarter is for you. You can use it any way you want. It’s for you. The other quarter is for God. I want you to take that quarter on Sunday and I want you to put it in the offering plate at church so you learn to give to the things of the Lord. Well, the little girl took her two quarters in her hand and she went out to the candy store. She couldn’t wait to spend her quarter. She ran and as she was running down the street, she was midst of her excitement. She tripped and she fell and the two quarters came out of her hand and one just rolled a few feet and stopped there. But the other quarter continued to roll and it rolled into a curb gutter into a drain and was lost forever. The little girl thought for a second, she gathered herself, then she looked up towards heaven and she said, “Well Lord, there goes your quarter.”
Of course, it’s just a simple little story, but you see it’s tragically true. Tragically true of little girls, tragically true of little boys, tragically true of men, and tragically true of women. Me first, God second, maybe God isn’t even served at all. There has never been a culture in my view, in the history of the world, more preoccupied with materialism than this western culture in which we live. In the midst of this culture, the church of Christ seeks to live and thrive. Unfortunately, Christian men and women have been tainted by the world’s views. We really don’t want to serve first the things of Christ. We kind of want to serve ourselves. You see, with God, that’s the bottom line, that’s the real question: who do you serve?
The Jewish people in the Old Testament era understood these things. They gave a tithe of everything they made under the Lord to serve the kingdom of God: the produce of the land, the fruit of the tree, the grain from the fields. They gave a tithe, they gave one 10th of it, one 10th of it to the work of the kingdom of God. But they wanted the kingdom of God to be the priority in their life and so they gave the first 10th, they call it the first fruits. The first 10th of their crop, they took and gave to the Lord, the first fruits.
They did the same thing in the giving of their animals. They called them the firstlings because they wanted the kingdom of Christ to be preeminent, the kingdom of God to be preeminent. In New Testament era in the first century A.D., there’s every evidence that Christians did the same. They tithed and they made their tithe a first fruit. They gave the first 10th of everything they made to the work of the kingdom of Christ. But you see as time went by, their commitment to the kingdom of Christ diminished. They began to be more preoccupied with serving themselves. Pretty soon, people would tithe the last 10th if they had enough to take care of their own needs. If there was enough left over, they would give the last 10% to the Lord. Then after time passed by, Christians, many of them began to not tithe that all because there wasn’t enough money left over at the end. So, they’d give a smaller percentage through the ages and through the centuries some Christians have not given at all. So here we are today, and here you are and who are you really serving?
You look in the bulletin today and you can see some amazing statistics. 20% of the members of our church give absolutely nothing to the church. Over 40% of the members of this church last year gave no more than $5 a week to the church. If you’re a faithful giver and you tithe to the church, you give 10% of everything you make to the work of the kingdom of Christ, you’re probably sitting there and you’re stunned. You say, how can this be? How can people join the church and not even give? Perhaps you think maybe this church, Cherry Hills Community Church, has an inordinate spiritual problem. Not so. You see, it’s Western Christians as a whole, that has an inordinate spiritual problem. The giving of this church is the norm. It’s pretty typical, a little bit better than the norm. You see it has always been true in this western culture that 10% of the people carry the 90% in their giving. Or at best, 20% of the people carry the other 80%.
The question is, do you want to carry your share of the burden or do you simply want to be a burden? One day you’ll stand before Christ. I’ll stand before Christ. The issue is going to be, who did you serve? Who are you living for?
You know the word worship comes from an old English word “worðscip.” Worship is the means by which we ascribe worth and value to God. Long ago, wise men brought gold and frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. What do you bring to Christ and what’s most important in your life? What are you living for? The judgment seat, at the end of your life, that question will be answered.
The second question that’ll be answered at the judgment seat of Christ and that question is this: who did you trust? Who did you trust and who did you serve? Those are the two key questions of stewardship.
In 1955, during the presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower, a law was passed making it mandatory that the words “In God We Trust” be placed on all American currency. But of course, those words “In God We Trust” had been inscribed on American coins since 1864 except for a brief period in 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt removed those words from all American coins. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust God. Theodore Roosevelt did trust God. It wasn’t because he didn’t like the motto, “In God We Trust.” He liked it very much. In fact, he wanted those words “In God We Trust” inscribed on all of our legislative halls. He wanted those words inscribed on all of our national monuments.
But he thought that somehow those words “In God We Trust” were tainted when they were associated with common everyday money. The people didn’t agree. It was a great outcry. The next year in 1908, the words “In God We Trust” were once again inscribed on American coins. I agree with the people. I don’t think there’s any place more proper for those words to be inscribed than on money because you see the great test, perhaps the greatest test of whether or not you trust God and whether I trust God is money. The way we use our money and whether or not we give our money, it’s not possible, it just isn’t possible to give as we’re meant to give unless we trust the provision of God. Giving is meant to characterize the heart of the Christian. We’re meant to be a giving people. Jesus Christ said it’s more blessed to give than it is to receive. But unless you trust Him, unless you really believe Him, you’re going to be more concerned with getting than you are with giving.
Perhaps you’ve heard of a man named John Camden Neild. John Camden Neild was born in the year 1780 in the city of London, and he was the son of a very famous English philanthropist. Everybody assumed that when John Camden’s dad died and he inherited the family fortune, he would just kind of continue to follow his father’s beneficent example. It didn’t happen. John Camden’s dad died. John Camden Neild received all the family fortune. He resolved that he would give nothing to anyone despite all the wealth that he had. He lived in a mansion. We’re told that in all those remaining years, he never bought any more furniture for the mansion because he wanted to save his money. It was said that he could have bought all the clothing of England, but it was said he didn’t buy any more clothes because he wanted to save his money. He didn’t even buy his own meals. He mooched meals from his own tenants at his vast estates in Buckinghamshire.
One of the responsibilities that John Camden had inherited from his father was the responsibility of taking care of the physical needs of the church at North Marston because he was the estate owner, but he refused to give any money to the church. John Camden Neild died in 1852 at the age of 72. When he died, he had twice as much money as he had when his father died. He had taken his inheritance and he had doubled it. One of the wealthiest men in Britain, and incredibly, he left all of his money to Queen Victoria. She didn’t want the money. She didn’t need the money. She did a beautiful thing. She took a portion of John Camden Neild’s money and she gave it first to the church at North Marston that all of its physical needs might be taken care of. She rebuilt that church. Then she took another portion of his money and she gave it to John Camden Neild’s family and to his servants. She took the remainder of the money and she distributed it to the poor. She did what John Camden Neild should have done and never did.
But what makes a man like that? What makes a person a miser? What makes a person unwilling to give? Psychologists tell us that misers are riddled with fear. Misers are afraid. They’re afraid that someday they’re going to be without. They’re going to be without provision. So they lay up, they accumulate, they seek desperately to provide for themselves and to provide more and more for themselves and they trust no one. Misers have absolutely no trust in God. Very few of you are truly wealthy by our culture’s standards. But there’s a little bit of miserliness in all of us because when it comes to finances, we’re kind of afraid, a little bit afraid about the future. It’s hard to trust God and the provision of God, but unless you trust God, unless you truly trust God, you’re never going to be able to give like you’re meant to give. You’re never going to be secure enough. You’re never going to have enough. You’re never going to be ready to give unless you trust, unless you trust the Lord.
In Matthew, chapter 6, our Lord Jesus Christ shared that famous passage on the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, part of the Sermon on the Mount. His whole message was trust. He said, “As the Father clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the birds of the air. How much more will he feed you and clothe you? Oh ye of little faith? So why are you anxious?” Trust the Lord. It’s only as you trust the Lord, you’ll be able to seek first His kingdom. It’s only as you trust the Lord, that you’ll really believe that all these things will be given unto you.
The most recent Gallup poll shows that poor people, families making less than $10,000 a year, actually give a higher percentage of their income away than rich people. Families making more than a hundred thousand dollars a year, the affluent, actually give a smaller percentage of their income to charity in America than poor people give. How can that possibly be? I couldn’t answer that, but perhaps, perhaps poor people are more prone, have more learned to trust God. Perhaps poor people are even more appreciative for what they do have. The Bible says wealth is a great danger. To whom much is given, much is required. The temptation, when we have much and we all have much, the temptation is to want more. The temptation is to begin to trust in what you have rather than trust in the Lord, and you’re less prone to give.
The Bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word for cheerful used in that passage in the Bible is the word “hilaros.” It’s the word from which we get the word hilarious. Now, it doesn’t simply mean cheerful. The word was actually used to describe someone who could give with joyous extravagance, almost reckless abandonment. Someone who could give radically, that was hilarious giving. God loves that. It doesn’t mean He wants us to be financially irresponsible, but it does mean He wants us to be people who give.
In our passage of scripture for today in the Sermon on the Plain, our Lord Jesus Christ did say some strange things. He said, “If anyone takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt.” He said, “Give to everyone who begs of you.” He said, “From him who takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” He said, “Lend, expecting nothing in return.” This is strange counsel. If you ran your business like that, you wouldn’t have a business very long. A lot of people misunderstood, misunderstand the Hebraic teaching style Christ is using. It’s very similar to the Sermon on the Mount where Christ said, “If your right eye offends you cut it out. And if your right hand causes you to fall, cut it off.” If it causes you to sin, cut it off. He didn’t mean for the people to take those words literally. He meant them to understand that they had to take sin seriously. So it is that in our passage of the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, chapter 6, what he’s saying is, take giving seriously. Give, give, and give some more. Give hilariously, give radically. That’s the kind of people that Christ is looking for.
At the judgment seat of Christ, it’ll be determined: who did you serve? Who did you trust? The Bible says “Give and it will be given to you.” Unless you trust God, you really won’t believe that. The Bible says, “Bring the full tithes into my storehouse. I’ll open up the windows of heaven and pour down a blessing on you.” But unless you believe God, unless you trust God, you won’t do that.
The apostle Peter wrote to Christians in Asia Minor. He said, “I intend to always to remind you of these things though you know them already.” He said, “I intend to rouse you by way of reminder.” That’s part of a pastor’s responsibility. I know you’ve heard what I’m saying today before. You know that the bottom line is who are you serving and who are you trusting? You’ve heard it before, but the reality is that many of you have not changed, immovable. I’m not responsible for your stewardship. I’m responsible for my stewardship.
As a pastor, it’s also my responsibility to make sure that you understand what God has said about stewardship. The choice is yours. Do you really believe in heaven? I mean, do you really believe? Do you really believe that this life is just a drop in the bucket and the real world is the world to come? Do you really believe you’re going to see Jesus Christ someday? Do you really want to see Him smile? If you don’t believe in heaven, if you don’t believe you’re ever going to give an account, if you don’t really believe you’re ever going to stand before Him, don’t call yourself a Christian. But if you take the name of Christ and you really believe, serve Him, trust Him and you’ll never go wrong. The Bible says, “Choose you this day whom you’ll serve.” Let’s close with the word of prayer.