Video Transcript: Steward

Being an effective manager. Qualification one, we're going to look at a few  qualifications. The first one is being a steward. God creates Genesis 1:1, in the  beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And if you keep reading in  Genesis 1, God created the world in six days. And after each day of creation,  God looked back on what he had created. And when he looked back, he  evaluated, and he said, It is good. Every day he created, then he looked back  and he said, It is good. He did that about every day except one day. Most people don't notice that, but if you read the text carefully, Genesis 1, you'll discover that  one of the days God looks back, but he doesn't say it is good. There's one day  that is not good. You know which day it is? It's Monday. Monday is not a good  day. So if you're driving your car right now, you're listening to this, you're on the  way to work, and you're a bit grumpy, you're a bit sleepy, you don't feel like  going to work, it's okay because Monday is not a good day. Because I'm just  kidding. We don't know why that one day, God doesn't say it is good. But all the  other days, God looks back, he sees what he created, he says it is good. And on the sixth day, God creates the animals, and then he creates man. And when he  looks back on what he created on the sixth day, God said, it is very good, is  good, is good, is good, is good, is good, it's very good. Genesis 1:27, so God  created human beings in His own image. In the image of God. He created them, male and female. He created them. So God created human beings in His own  image. God is a creator, and so part of what it means to be in God's image is we are creative, but we are not the creator. God is still the Creator. We do things  with what God has already created. So we can be creative with stuff, but we are  not the creator. We're not the owner. So what are we? God creates a manager  in Genesis 2, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to  work it and to take care of it, not to own it. Okay? We don't own it. We are there  to work the creation and to take care of it. Okay. I mentioned in Genesis 10. God created the world six days, every day, he looks back and he says, It is good, it's  good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it is very good. But in Genesis 2, God sees  that the man is all alone, and he says, It is not good. The Lord God said, it is not  good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. My wife  points that out on occasion, that creation was not good until God created  woman, it took a woman to make creation Good. Well here it says that God  says, I will make a helper suitable for him. So the woman that God creates is a  helper. And some people think, Well, that's nice. I mean, that means that the  woman is like a maid, or the woman is there to make sure that the man  succeeds at whatever he does. But the word helper here actually the word  helper, or the word that's behind the word translated as helper is only used a few times in the Old Testament. It's used like four times, and three out of the four  times the word helper that's being translated as helper is used in talking about  God, as in, God is our helper. God is our help and our strength. And when we  talk about God as our helper, we certainly don't think of him as our maid. So the 

woman is there to help in the management in fact, perhaps she's even better at  this whole management thing than, than, than most men. God creates a  manager. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals  and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would  name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its  name. That's what a manager does. So there were the many animals, they don't have names. How are we going to organize this? How are we going to think  about these things? Names help us think about things and help us organize  things. You start naming things, and then you start coming up with broad  categories. That's what a manager does. He takes the many, all the complexity,  and he makes it simple. He starts organizing it in such a way that we can use it.  So that's what man did. He becomes a manager, managing the creation that  God created. CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, said every faculty you  have your power of thinking or moving your limbs from moment to moment. It's  given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your life exclusively to his  service, you could not give him anything that was not in that was not in a sense,  his own. Already, all that God has and is is been given to you. The earth is the  Lord's, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, the manager is not  the owner. Well, what does the manager do? The manager takes responsibility.  The manager is responsible to the owner. Jesus told a parable, parable of the  talents. There was a owner. He was going to leave his property, and so he gave  talents or money to three different service servants. He gave five talents to one,  he gave two talents to another. He gave one talent to still another. Then he was  off. The one who was given five talents, worked hard, invested, did something  with it, and he doubled his money. So instead of five, he made it 10. The one  with two talents did the same thing, worked hard, took the two and it became  four. The one with one talent took it, was afraid of losing it, so he buried it in his  tent. When the master came back, the man that had the 10 talents, wow, you  know, you do good job. The next one with the two talents became four. Master  was pleased and praised him. Then the master came to the one that was given  one talent, and the servant said, Well, you know, I was afraid. I know you're a  hard man. I was afraid losing it, so I stored it, I kept it safe, and here it is. And  the master was not pleased, because he said, you know, you could have at least put it in the bank. I could have gotten some interest. The manager is responsible for the stuff to the owner. He doesn't own it. It's not my company. It's God's  company. Okay, so I went and planted a church. Do I own the church? No, the  church is God's and to be honest, there's a lot of freedom when you are not the  owner. When you are the owner, you have all the headaches, all the problems.  When you are the manager, you do the best you can with what you have. But  when there are circumstances that are out of your control, it's like, well, you  know, I'm doing my best. I remember when I was first planting the church. I felt  the ownership of it. I felt like I had to do everything, and I had to make it the best

it could be, that it's going to succeed if I work hard and I make every service this  service is going to be better than last week's service, and the next week's  service has to be better than this week's service or people won't come. And I  felt, I felt the pressure of always trying to perform and make things happen. Well, finally, about three, four years in, God spoke to me and said, you know, this isn't  your church. This is my church. I don't need you to, you know, make every  service better than it was the week before. What I need from you is to walk with  me, spend time talking and listening in the word and prayer with me. Do that  with your wife. Do that with your kids. Help a few other families. Walk with me  too. That's all you need to do. And if those families share it with other families  and it grows into some kind of church, you know, that's not your problem. That's  my problem. I am calling you to a very simple thing. You just be faithful on that.  We'll see what happens. The manager is not the owner. You don't have all the  headaches of the owner. You're responsible to the owner. Accountability. The  manager is accountable to the owner. Same parable, you know, when the  master went away, he comes back and he says, Well, what'd you do with what I  gave you? You know, a lot of people want more money. You know, if I had just a  little bit more money, I'd be happier. Or if a parent has money, they're hoping  that the parent leaves some of the money. They see their parents spending all  their money, and it's like, don't spend it all. Have something left over that I can  inherit. Don't be too quick to want money. Don't be too quick to want an  inheritance. If your if your parents make a lot of money and then they leave it to  you, that just means that one day you will stand before God, and God will ask  you, all right, I gave you all this money. What'd you do with it? I've told my  parents, look, you spent you spend your own money. You decide what good  thing you want to do with your money, because then God will ask you what you  did with your money. I don't want God asking me what what I did with my money and what it what I did with my parents money. You know, I don't know if I'm  ready for that responsibility. I don't want to be accountable for other people's  money. The manager is accountable to the owner, but there is a reward  Colossians 3, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the  Lord, not for man. That's how I see the in the church. I you know, I know that  probably 20% of the people that go to my church give 80% of the money. I don't  know who in my church plant I knew exactly who was giving and who wasn't.  And that would you know, I know someone here is demanding all kinds of  things, and I know they hardly give anything, and I don't. I didn't want to know all that this time. I don't want to I don't want to resent people because they're not  pulling their weight. They're not pulling their share. And sometimes, you know, I  am giving, I am working hard, and if I knew all of you weren't, I'd probably get a  little angry at you. But you know, I want to get away from I'm doing this for you.  I'm not giving the money for you. I'm not you know, we're doing a renovation at  our church. Last night, I was there till 10, spraying the ceiling, getting paint all 

over myself. I'm not doing that for the people. I'm giving my service to the Lord  and God has given me everything. I mean, why shouldn't I work hard? Why  shouldn't I give all I can to him? He's given way beyond what I could ever give  back. And I'm not going to worry about other people. I am not doing it for the  people. I'm doing it for the Lord. So that's true about anything you do, any work  that you do, I don't care whether it's in the church or whether you're in some  secular company. God has called you to do whatever it is you're doing to make a difference, to make a difference in the people's lives that you work with, with the  vendors, people that you sell to. It doesn't matter you're on this planet for a short period of time to make a difference. And God has placed you in the spot where  you are at, and it doesn't what other doesn't matter what other people are doing. You do it for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an  inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving.  Okay? So just doing it because God has blessed you is one thing, but God also  says there's actually going to be a reward. I don't know what that is. You know, if we all go to heaven, I don't know what more reward there is. Maybe it's a better  cloud. I don't know. I'm not sure what it is. But God says, you know, you don't  have to worry about all the hard work you do. There is a reward. You're not just  doing this for nothing, so don't worry about what other people are doing.