Godly Stewardship
Last week we learned about the idolatry of money and why it’s harmful and how
we can avoid it. Today, we will be going a bit deeper into how we steward money
God’s way. And if we are currently not on a path of handling money how God
would have us, today is the day to get on track and start heading in the right
direction.
It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Change is hard. No matter what it is,
we like to have things continue the way they’re going as long as there’s nothing
too inconvenient that forces change upon us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t
like to just let life happen to me. I like to happen to it. God has created us to have
a positive influence on the world. Our role is not to be passive but to be proactive
in His work of reconciliation in the world which will ultimately culminate in its
completion in the event of Christ’s return.
Change is a very interesting thing. I heard a quote that goes like this. Changing
yourself involves you becoming both the clay and the sculptor where the process
would be arduous and painful. For the Christian, it’s God that changes us
ultimately where he is the sculptor, the potter, and we are the clay. That painful
chipping away and the molding and shaping is necessary for spiritual growth and
maturity.
The process that God uses to mold and shape His people is called sanctification.
And this process affects every area of our lives. As we go through life, we are
molded into the likeness of Christ in our relationships with one another and how
we live and engage in the world around us. Right now, how does your faith walk
influence your thoughts and actions surrounding money? Does it have any bearing
on your financial decisions? A lot of people seem to think that somehow money
and faith have very little to do with one another. However, I’ve found the opposite
to be true. They have a lot to do with each other. One point I want to make here is
that money is spiritual. What do I mean by that?You cannot make a decision with money without having it be a spiritual one. That
goes for spending, saving, investing, debt accumulation or debt reduction, tithing
so on and so forth. Money is spiritual. We tend to like to compartmentalize things
in our lives. We like to place our politics in a drawer and our jobs in another and
money is in a drawer below that. This leads us to believe that these things are
separated from one another. For the Christian, nothing could be further from the
truth. Money is spiritual.
In order for us to be good stewards of money, we need to understand this one
simple concept first. Everything belongs to God. And, if everything belongs to God,
that means, He is the owner. What does that make us? We are merely stewards or
managers of what God has entrusted to us. That means that “our” money is not
“our” money. When we tithe (that’s 10 percent), that doesn’t mean that that 10
percent is God’s and the other 90 percent is ours. It’s all Gods. As children we used
to fight over toys and exclaim “that’s mine!” Then we get older in our teenage
years and we start being territorial about our bedroom. It’s “my room”, “my
personal space”, “my retreat.” And all the while, the parent or parents are
thinking, “well I don’t remember you paying our mortgage.” Then perhaps when
we become adults and we find ourselves in Church and we complain about this or
complain about that and exclaim, “this is my church, and this is how I want things
done.” It’s not your Church. It’s not my Church. It’s God’s Church. Yes it’s your
church in the sense that you have a place to belong to and commit to. However,
it’s not something that we can claim ownership of.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
Haggai 2:8
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
Deuteronomy 10:14
14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the
earth with all that is in it.You may say, well I worked for this money so it’s most certainly mine. I worked for
this house. It’s most certainly mine. I sacrificed for my retirement, so it’s most
certainly mine. Let me point you to a passage in the Old Testament in the book of
Deuteronomy. The Israelites have just been told what a blessed nation they are
but then comes chapter eight with a warning we must also take heed of.
Deuteronomy 8:11-20
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his
commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12
lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in
them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is
multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and
you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness,
with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water,
who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness
with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test
you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power
and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the
Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm
his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget
the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I
solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the
Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey
the voice of the Lord your God.”
We are not Israel. However, we can learn from the instruction given to them. Do
not forget the Lord your God for He is the reason you have what you have.
Godly stewardship begins with the understanding that everything belongs to God.
So, if everything belongs to God, then we must know how to best manage it.
Whenever JJ and I have an opportunity to go on a date and have someone to
watch the kids, JJ is very good at making things clear on how to best care for them
while we’re gone. We wouldn’t be very happy parents if we came back andinstructions were not followed. The same idea goes for how we steward God’s
money. He expects us to manage it His way.
Many Christian financial advisors will tell you to follow the 10/10/80 rule. That is
to give 10 percent, save 10 percent and live off the other 80 percent. Here’s the
interesting thing about percentages. They’re great. They do not favor the rich or
the poor. It is the same proportionate amount for both.
Why do we give? If you’ve gone through our Foundations Class, a class that
teaches what we believe as a Church, you will know that we do not require a tithe.
Why is that? A tithe simply means 10 percent. In the Old Testament, tithing was a
requirement under the Mosaic law. Let me ask you this question. Are we still
bound by the Law of Moses today? No, we are not. Nowhere do we find in the
New Testament, apostolic teaching requiring a tithe. Instead, what do we find? We
find teaching on giving. And I cannot, in good conscience, place a requirement on
the Church today that the Bible itself does not impose.
Giving is the pattern we see before us in the New Testament Church.
1 Corinthians 16:2
2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it
up, as he may prosper.
Key phrase, “As he may prosper.” In other words, giving is to be in proportion to
one’s income. The tithe or 10 percent figure is, however, useful in determining a
baseline of what to give. If it was good enough for people in the Old Testament, it
should be even better for us living under the New Covenant. If there were those
who gave 10% before the cross, how could we do any less?
2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
God doesn’t need our money. As I mentioned last week, God wants our hearts.
Your giving is a reflection of the condition of your heart toward God. Are yougiving out of gratitude for what God has done in your life or are you giving out of
obligation?
The last reason we give is for this.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We give, because, when we do, we reflect the heart of God. We give because God
is a giver and He didn’t hold back.
Another aspect of Godly stewardship is saving for the future. Good Christian
stewards plan ahead.
Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
Proverbs 10:4
4 A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
The Christian is not to be lazy. From these two passages, we can learn this. You
cannot be wise and lazy at the same time. Work as unto the Lord (Colossians
3:23). Don’t be lazy, and when you get paid for your work, save it.Proverbs 21:20
Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling,
but a foolish man devours it.
JJ and I like to sit down and watch TV after putting the kids to bed so we can
decompress from the day. I don’t know if you’re like us, but we like to eat snacks
while we watch a show. One evening, I came back from playing basketball. I got
cleaned up and headed downstairs to the living room to get ready to watch a
show. Before I sat down, I headed to our pantry and saw a container of Oreo
cookies. Now, typically I wouldn’t have a craving for Oreo cookies, but remember,
this was after playing basketball for a good two hours. I was hungry. I told myself I
would just eat a few. Before the night was over, I ate a few. A few rows. They were
gone. There was nothing left, therefore there was none left for the next day.
For some of you, your bank account is a rotating door. Money in, money out,
money in money out. Now there’s some things that we can’t avoid such as paying
bills and paying for food and other essential items. For the majority of us, if we are
to be honest with ourselves we spend money on things that we don’t actually
need. Therefore there is an opportunity for bigger margins between the amount
of money you bring in and the amount of money you have going out.
So the Bible teaches us to be givers and savers. If we are following the 10/10/80
rule, we talked about the first 20 percent of the money we have. What do we do
with the other 80? Another concept we must embrace is that Christians must have
a budget. Having a budget is the only way to ensure that we a managing money
God’s way. Why is that? Well you can’t know if you’re honoring God with your
money if you can’t put a name to every dollar.
Dave Ramsey, the founder and CEO of Financial Peace University actually has an
app called the Every Dollar App. It’s a tool to help one budget and put a name to
every dollar. When you do this in your own budgets, you know exactly where your
money is going. For every line item, you need to ask yourself, is this something I
really need or would God want me to use this money differently?Another aspect of Godly stewardship for the Christian is this. Pay off your debts.
The reason many of you don’t have the margin in your budgets that you would like
to have is because you are trapped by your debts.
Proverbs 22:7b
and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
If you have a car payment, pay it off. If you have a mortgage, pay it off. If you have
student loans, pay it off. If you have credit card debt, pay it off and throw them
away. You don’t need them. “But I need my credit score to be high so I can do this
or that.” JJ and I have rented an apartment and secured mortgage loans without
ever owning a credit card. Do not follow the lies that the world tells you. Your
credit score is merely a reflection of your relationship with debt. For the Christian,
we need to stay as far away from it as we can.
Romans 12:2a
2 Do not be conformed to this world
In the United States, it’s normal to have debt. In 2022, the total household debt of
Americans was over $16.9 trillion. We owe $11.92 trillion on mortgages, $1.55
trillion on vehicle loans and $1.60 trillion for student loans.
Let’s take a look at non-mortgage debt. The average American adult owes $20,000
in non-mortgage debt. That’s pretty concerning. Yet, that’s the pattern of this
world. Debt’s normal. I’m here to tell you that it’s not.
In the spring of 2018, JJ and I graduated from college, got married, and moved to
Indianapolis. In all of the excitement of what the future would hold for our lives,
we had a significant amount of student loan debt. We were both making more
money than we ever had in our lives (modest amount; minister and teacher’s
salary). I initially pushed back pretty hard on the idea of living frugally so we could
get the debt paid off. Like many others, I figured the debt was going to be around
for it’s full term. I didn’t want to sit down and make a budget, yet JJ was persistent
and persuaded me that this was what we were going to do. It was tough. We lived
on one income and put everything else toward the debt. I wanted wifi, but wesaid no to that. We said no to streaming services. We even door dashed in the
evenings which actually turned out to be quite fun to help pay off the debt faster. I
took on a part time coaching position at Mooresville high school to help pay off
the debt. One thing we understood, is that debt had no place in our lives. So we
paid it off as fast as we could. And the more we saw that debt dwindle, the more
excited we were to get it paid off. And in just 18 months, JJ and I paid off our
combined student loan debt of $65,000.
(Show picture)
Debt is normal. The Christian was never called to be just normal. Be different and
simply say no to debt. Yes, JJ and I currently have a house mortgage, however, we
are being diligent in paying extra payments whenever we can in order to be truly
free from debt for good.
Upon arriving to Union Christian Church for the first time, I was glad to see this
was a congregation that viewed debt how the Bible views it. As I reflect over the
past year you all have been so generous in your over and above giving. After all,
one of our core values is “Generosity is our Joy.” I’m pleased to say that you are
living up to it.
On January 22nd, I received an email from Michael Yeager sent at 3:16am. I
suppose he was awake from excitement and understandably so because we as a
Church had met and exceeded our roof fundraising goal of $120,000, I believe that
was all done in a year or less which is simply incredible. On Sunday, June 23rd, I
issued a challenge to you all to give over and above your regular giving to pay off
the office renovation loan. The balance on the loan was around $60,000 at the
time. On Sunday, August 18th, Michael Yeager made his way up front and made
the announcement that the loan had been paid in full.
I don’t mention these things just so we can give ourselves a pat on the back
(although there’s nothing wrong with that), we don’t stop there. Instead the
response of our hearts and our eyes are to be drawn upward toward an Almighty
and all-powerful God. How great He is and how deserving He is of our praise and
worship for His faithfulness and His goodness. The song we sang last week, I’ve
Witnessed It, says, “I’ve witnessed your faithfulness, I’ve seen you breathe life
within so I’ll pour out my praise you’re worthy, you’re worthy of all of it. Yourpromises never fail, I’ve got stories I’ll live to tell.” And we at UCC, even from the
short amount of time that I’ve been here have stories to tell future generations of
UCC of how God has been so good to us. Here’s the thing, our story is still being
written. I don’t know about you but I am excited for what God has in store for us
in the coming years.
The leadership is working hard at putting together next year’s budget. As we did
for 2024, we will make 2025’s budget available for you to take a look at once it’s
completed. We want you to know how the money that’s been given here is being
stewarded well and being managed God’s way.
Piano to play here.
One goal that’s been on my heart for a while now is to pay off the only other loan
that we have. And that’s the renovation loan for this worship center (sanctuary).
The remaining balance on the loan is a little over $370,000. Yes, that’s a large
amount of debt. All the more reason to pay it off sooner. The longer we keep the
loan around, the more money that goes towards interest rather than ministry
purposes.
So one thing I’ve learned in my faith journey is that God loves big audacious goals.
Why is that? I believe, as long as it’s withing God’s will, the bigger the challenge,
the more God comes through in a big way. I’ve seen that in my own life, in the
accounts in the Bible and even here at Union Christian Church. Simply from
observing what I’ve seen in my short time here, I believe you are prepared and
ready for this big challenge. I don’t have all the details yet, but sometime early in
2025 I want to have a designated offering taken up that should be above your
regular giving to help pay down this debt. This special offering may be taken up
twice a month or once a month, I’m not sure. I wasn’t here when the debt was
acquired. I believe it was a necessary debt as this is a great place to come and
worship. However, I want to see it completely paid off. This will have a lasting
impact not only for the present but for generations to come when we are a
Church that is truly debt free. That’s why I want to call it a Legacy Offering. So
when future generations come to UCC and realize that we are a Church that
operates debt free, they will be able to say that past generations cared enough
about me to make this possible.In summary, we’ve got two areas to focus on. We need to be striving to steward
God’s money His way in our personal lives. The other one is to consider how we as
a congregation will honor God and serve future generations by paying down our
debt. I know that if we strive to honor God with what He has given us, He will
never let us down. He is faithful and He always will be.