BaptistWay: Stewardship

• The BaptistWay lesson for Aug. 10 focuses on Deuteronomy 8:10-18; Matthew 25:14-30.

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• The BaptistWay lesson for Aug. 10 focuses on Deuteronomy 8:10-18; Matthew 25:14-30.

Broadening our view of stewardship

Far too often, the topic of stewardship becomes reduced to tithing or financial offerings. Truthfully, it is difficult to talk about the subject and apply it to current church life without mentioning this form of stewardship. Money in an offering plate, however, regardless of the percentage of one’s income, is not a sure-fire measurement of biblical stewardship.

Some undoubtedly remember the offering envelopes we used to hand out in Sunday school with empty spaces to put a check mark next to all the actions a good Christian was supposed to engage in throughout the week. Above the spaces were labels such as: Contacts, Bible, Offering, SS Lesson and Worship. I usually marked all of mine, even when I failed to do one or two of the things listed. Truth be told, I imagine most of the other kid in my youth group who checked all the boxes 100 percent of the time lied a time or two, as well.

We cheapen any kind of discipline when we turn it into an action that simplistically can be marked off our to-do list. Even when I was not lying, if my motivation for doing all the things listed on the offering envelope simply was so I would not stand out among the others in my Sunday school class—and all too often it was—then I missed the point. Based on this week’s Scriptures, two broad views of stewardship should serve not as strict rules, but as generous guidelines in pointing toward adopting this discipline as an overall part of Christian discipleship.

Remembering the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:10-18)

In this passage, the Israelites are instructed: “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (vv. 11-14). These verses could serve as the thesis for the book of Deuteronomy. While we often focus on the individual commands listed in the book, the reason behind the commands is what is most important—remembering the Lord your God.

Stewardship often is reduced to a command when a preacher tells his congregation they are “stealing from the Lord” when they fail to give 10 percent of their income to the church, and promise God will not allow them to prosper. Verses in Malachi are proof-texted in this argument, but these verses refer to food being stored for God’s people, and the overall point still is focused on remembering the Lord.

Our passage in Deuteronomy actually seems to suggest one can prosper while failing to remember the Lord and give him credit (vv. 12-14; 17-18). Any time you equate something you give to or do for God with a material result, you run the risk of forgetting the Lord (v. 14) and saying to yourself “my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (v. 17).


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Remembering the risk (Matthew 25:14-30)

So, our first guideline in broadening our view of stewardship simply is remembering the Lord as the source of all we have. Balancing this guideline is another from a parable of Jesus that focuses on how those who remember the Lord are to risk what he has given us for the sake of God’s kingdom. It is the story of a manager who puts three servants in charge of varied amounts of money. The first two put their money to work and are able to present him with a profit when he returns. The third buries his in the ground, keeps it safe and presents it to the manager upon his return. The first two are commended while the last one is called wicked and lazy (v. 26).

The point is not that the third servant generated no profit, but that he made no effort in generating one. He treated what was entrusted to him as only belonging to himself. Remembering the Lord in all we have, however, stipulates we have no right to treat what he has given us as objects to be hoarded. There is indeed a risk we are expected to take when God allows us to have material wealth; and the more we are entrusted with, the greater the risk will be.

Pastor Wade Burleson of Emanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma, embodies this risk during the time his church receives its offerings. He invites all present to give or take from the offering plate to the extent that Holy Spirit leads them. The church asks for no pledge cards and certainly does not ask its members to check a “tithe” space on an envelope. Yet, the church meets its budget every year. Stewardship will fit into your budget, as well, when it is viewed as a response in remembering all the Lord has given and the risk inherent in his tremendous blessings.


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