Stewardship: Money

Welcome again to Watermark.

Do we have a reading?

Okay, sorry.

Please pay attention.

So this morning we're taking a look at the

biblical perspective of money. As we continue to prepare our hearts

please join me in the reading of this passage found in Matthew 25

14-30 and the words are on the screen.

Again, it would be like a man going on a journey

who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.

To one he gave five bags of gold

to another two bags and to another one bag

each according to his ability.

Then he went on his journey. The man who had received

five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work

and gained five bags more. So also the one with two

bags with gold gained two more.

One bag went off, take a hole.

He needed his money.

After a long time

the master of those servants returned

and settled accounts with them.

The man who had received five

bags of gold brought the other five.

Master, he said,

you entrusted me with five bags of gold.

See, I have gained five more.

His master replied,

well done, good and faithful servant.

You have faithful with few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

The man who had received one bag of gold came.

Master, he said,

I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown

and the man who had received one bag of gold came.

His master replied,

well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

Then the man who had received one bag of gold came.

Master, he said,

I knew that you are a hard man,

harvesting where you have not sown

and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.

See, here's what belongs to you.

His master replied,

you wicked, lazy servant.

So you knew that I have served where I have not sown

and gathered where I have not scattered seed.

Well then, you should move my money into possible bankers.

I tell you,

I would receive the bank with interest.

So take the bank of gold from him

and give it to the one who has tanned bags.

Whoever will give more and who have abundance.

Whoever does not have even what they have

will be taken from them.

And throw that worthless servant outside

into the darkness

where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is the reading of God's word.

God bless you.

God bless you.

Morning.

When I said yes to doing money today,

I thought money was going to be an easy topic.

But as you can tell from my eye bags

and my sleepless night last night,

it's not.

Money is fascinating.

It is rather complicated.

It's troublesome.

But at the same time,

it encompasses all facets of life.

That's why it's pretty heavy.

And so I find that one aspect of money leads to another.

And when you think about one topic,

another topic pops up.

So it's rather complicated.

So, you know,

I'm the first person to learn from this project.

And so I come to you today not as a teacher,

not as a critic,

but as a student

that's excited to share with you

some of the things that might have been obvious to you all along,

but to me,

they've come out to be new.

So I'm here as a student, really.

Money is the number one topic in the Bible.

Jesus devotes more than 50% of his parables

talking about money or money-related topics.

And the mention of words,

money, gold, silver, wealth,

they count to about more than 1,000 mentions in the Bible.

So this tells us that,

first, money must be important

because the Bible talks about it.

And second,

money is repeated all the time.

And God, probably in his patience,

knows how stubborn we are,

just like little children.

And so he keeps on repeating this

because he knows that we don't get it

or we just refuse to learn.

I find myself spending more time, obviously,

on other books,

Financial Times, Wall Street Journal,

more than looking at the Bible

for instruction on money.

And the one thing I've learned is

the Bible's got a lot of things to say about money.

And if I had spent more time there,

I'd probably be a happier person.

The topic of money is for everybody.

Jesus talked about money with his disciples.

They were carpenters.

They were fishermen.

He talked about the lady that had given her last savings,

last cents to the church in the offering.

He talked about the rich young ruler.

And so he talked about money to all the cross-section of society.

And so as we think about money this morning,

it's for everybody.

It's for our kids.

It's for our teens.

It's for professionals.

It's for people who manage households.

So it's for everybody.

So this morning, I propose that we cover some ground

using two scripture passages,

Matthew 6 and Matthew 25,

with the following points.

First point, point number one,

what is the trouble with money?

From Matthew 6.

Point number two,

what does the Bible teach about stewardship?

And point number three,

how do we bring what the Bible teaches

to our everyday reality?

Three points.

So let's start with point number one.

What is the trouble with money?

This reminds me of a story of a creative Christian banker

who read Matthew 6, 19 to 20.

And he said,

Lord, I have come up with a new product for you.

I found a way to create treasures on earth

where moth and vermin cannot destroy

and where thieves cannot touch.

And Jesus says,

well, son, let me hear about it.

And the creative banker proudly says,

well, Lord, they're called sure to make money deposits

or also called principal protected notes.

For those who are not familiar with these,

these things lost everything

in the financial crisis of 2008.

Do we sometimes become creative

in interpreting what the Bible teaches

so that we shirk from following it?

I think oftentimes,

we don't want to feel guilty

about what the Bible teaches

or we feel that the Bible is rather radical

with what it teaches,

just like the story of the rich young ruler

that we try to either shirk

and not read the Bible,

gloss over,

or maybe have our creative twist

about looking at these verses.

You see, money can blur our eyes

from appreciating and applying

what the Bible teaches.

One might ask

if we believe in Jesus' words

in Matthew 6, 19 and 20

and we'll say yes.

Then the follow-up question arises.

Well, then if you believe this,

why do you accumulate so much stuff

that you don't need?

Both money and possessions.

And if you wanted to be honest,

you would have said,

well, I do this because I worry

that if I run out of this stuff,

Jesus might not be able

to give me the cash I needed

or maybe he might give me that cash,

but it's not enough

or equal to where I wanted to live my life,

my standard of living.

So we chase money

in violation of these verses,

19 and 20.

And here we see

how we get tripped,

how we get tripped up by money

in becoming a true follower

of the teachings of Christ.

So you see,

we call ourselves followers of Christ.

That's a really cool buzzword.

But if someone looks at

how we deal with money

and they're going to put that

beside the teachings of the Bible,

they're going to say,

well, you know what?

One and one don't add to two.

You don't look like a follower in Christ.

So this is where we get tripped up

when it comes to

being obedient to the Bible.

There is a powerful relationship

between a person's spiritual condition

and his attitude and actions

regarding money.

Someone once gave me the illustration

that if you had given me

your checkbook,

then I can tell you

the state of your spiritual life.

I guess, you know,

you can work that

for our credit cards as well.

Credit card statements.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, 24

that we cannot serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one

or love the other.

And he says that we cannot serve

both God and money.

While this is plain and simple,

this seems like a problem for us.

And money has a power to confuse us

regarding what is really important.

There is one great example

of how money can cause poor judgment.

And this is seen in the story

of the rich young ruler,

Matthew 19, 16 to 26.

You will recall in this story

that the rich young man comes to

the teacher and says,

Teacher, what must I do

to gain eternal life?

And the teacher tells the young ruler,

Well, you must do

the following commandments

and in addition to that,

sell all of your possessions

and give it to the poor.

Well, the rich young ruler decided

that he couldn't do this deal.

So, he chose money over eternal life.

Folks, do we choose money

over eternal life?

And of these two masters

that's mentioned in Matthew,

which of these two masters

do we actually serve

and follow every day?

Well, we may all sit here

and say, of course,

what's the rich young ruler,

what's this rich young man

thinking about?

I mean, like, he can't be me.

He's totally deluded.

And the problem with that

is we live in a culture

where the influences of materialism

slowly creep in

and affect our better judgment.

So, what this does

is before we know it,

we're making decisions

that we wouldn't have been making

if we had a clear mind.

What are those things

we need to watch out for?

For example,

has profession become our identity?

Does looking good

replace being good

or doing good?

How would we feel

if we lost all of our savings tomorrow?

Will we grieve

for more than five minutes?

Money tricks us to think

that we have security and control

even if in reality we don't.

Money has the power

to keep us from asking

these hard questions

about our lifestyle,

about our work,

and about our relationships.

In Matthew 6.21,

Jesus tells us

that where our heart,

our treasure is,

where our treasure is,

there our heart is also.

That's from Matthew 6.21.

Our attitude on money

is a litmus test

of our true character.

Our attitude on money

is a litmus test

of our true character.

This is an index.

Money can be an index

of our spiritual life.

This is one of the easiest places

where a believer can stumble,

and in particular,

how we behave in the workplace.

People will watch

and can easily see

how we work with money

in the workplace,

and how it impacts

the way we live,

how we make business

and family decisions,

and the way we think.

Are we living

as if we are off this world,

or are we living

like the example of Daniel,

where while he was

in enemy territory,

he was doing things

in excellence,

but at the same time,

he was keeping himself

apart from the culture

of that time.

If we are obsessed

with money and possessions,

this shows in our lifestyle,

and this affects

our credibility

and our effectiveness

in bringing the gospel

to the workplace.

Let me illustrate this.

If we come to work

and we're obsessed

about something of ourselves,

call that a promotion,

maybe our bonus,

maybe something,

maybe something that just

wasn't making us happy

that day,

do you think that

we'll be able

to have the capacity

to be able to

see if other people

need us

or be able to minister

to others?

So it's just natural

that if we're occupied

and obsessed

with things

that are focused

on ourselves,

then we don't have

the capacity

to be able

to minister to others.

If we want

to be credible Christians

in the marketplace,

then how we work

with money

is the one obvious place

where we can make

a difference.

So let me summarize

and conclude

this first point.

Jesus is concerned

about us

and that's why

he mentions money

several times

and he says

that money can blind us

and trip us.

That's why

he speaks plainly

about money

and he mentions money

several times.

But we have to make

these messages sink in.

Money can be

a powerful stumbling block

in our faith,

in our witness

and we have to watch

constantly

if and how money

is getting to us.

Let's move to point two.

What does the Bible

teach about money

and in particular

stewardship

in Matthew 25,

14 to 30?

In this parable,

there is a master

and there are

three servants.

The master goes away

for a very long time

and entrusts his wealth

to his servants.

There are three levels

of wealth

assigned to each servant,

each according

to his ability.

Three responses

or three investing styles.

There is an accounting

of results.

For each result,

varying rewards.

To those that did well,

they share in the master's happiness

and will be put in charge

of many things.

For the servant

that did poorly,

our problem servant,

the punishment is harsh.

He calls,

the master calls them

lazy, worthless,

and wicked.

And there will be

weeping and gnashing

of teeth.

This parable is about

the condition of our hearts.

I always like this parable

because as an economic student,

I like the way

that the Bible's teaching

was very consistent

with the economic,

well, the capitalist ideals

of resource maximization.

But I guess this is one

of the things

that I learned

working through this project.

So thank you, Tobin.

But this is totally

missing the point, obviously.

We're not looking at it

in the proper light.

Let's focus a bit

on the third servant.

Let's put ourselves

in the shoes

of the third servant.

What do you think

was running through

the servant's mind?

Well, number one,

he says,

the master is leaving

for a very long time.

There may be a chance

the master may not come back.

Oh, wait a minute.

He's giving away

bags of gold.

Five, three,

and one to myself.

If the master

may not come back,

then probably this bag

of gold might be mine.

That's interesting.

But wait a minute.

The other servants

got five and three,

and I got one.

I am livid about this.

I'm mad.

This is injustice.

So what do I do with this?

Well, the other servants,

they can do whatever

they do with the bags of money.

They can party.

They can do stewardship.

But I,

I will bury this

in the ground

because this is my treasure.

If the master

doesn't come back,

this is my only hope

of being a free man.

This is my only hope

of being a rich person.

So let me bury this

in the ground.

You know what?

The master does return.

And he reviews the results

of his servant's work.

Our problem servant

made how much?

Zero.

Probably even negative

if we consider inflation

during that time.

So why do you think

he behaved this way?

He said he was fearful

of his master.

But perhaps this was

just an excuse

that he tells the master

so the master

wouldn't get mad at him.

But in reality,

his greed was so overwhelming

that it paralyzed him

and as a result,

he failed to do

the right thing.

This man's problem

was that he was thinking

of his bag of gold

as his security.

And he wasn't using

the wealth

that the master

had given him

for the purposes

that they were intended for.

This result resulted

in wasted resources

and as a result,

he was punished heavily

for that.

This is a tragedy.

In preparation

for his return,

God wants us

to fix our hearts.

For where your heart,

your treasure is,

there your heart is also.

So we ask ourselves,

what is the condition

of our hearts today?

Are we prepared

for judgment

when the master

comes back?

Or have we been

burying our bag of gold

in that hole

on the ground

to feed our selfishness?

Let's talk about ownership.

Who owns

these bags of gold?

If we step

into this parable,

we are the servants

and God is our master.

God is our master

who owns everything.

King David

best models

this perspective

of ownership

in Psalm 24.1,

which is in your bulletin.

The earth is the Lord's

and everything in it.

One of my favorite prayers

to remind me

of this perspective

is David's prayer

on 1 Chronicles 29,

10-16

when he was dedicating

his temple to the Lord.

Let me read

some of those passages.

He says,

yours, O Lord,

is the greatness

and the power

and the glory

and the majesty

and the splendor

for everything

in heaven and earth

is yours.

Yours, Lord,

is a kingdom.

You are exalted

as head over all.

Wealth and honor

come from you.

You are the ruler

of all things.

In your hands

are strength

and power

to exalt

and give strength

to all.

Now, our God,

we give you thanks

and praise your glorious name.

But who am I

and who are my people

that we should

be able to give

as generously as this?

Everything comes from you

and we have given you

only what comes

from your hand.

We are foreigners

and strangers

in your sight.

As we are all ancestors,

our days on earth

are like a shadow

without hope.

Lord our God,

all this abundance

that we have provided

for building you

a temple

for your holy name

comes from your hand

and all of this

belongs to you.

Isn't that a great way

of restoring

our perspective

on things?

When I feel

that I'm a bit

confused about things,

I oftentimes

come back

to this prayer

and it helps

me in maintaining

that perspective.

So do you know

what David was doing here?

He was worshiping God.

What David was saying here

was that even if

what we have

is a result

of our hard work,

this hard work

is really a gift

of God.

God is our provider

and the only natural

response

is to give him back

the work of our hands

as an act of worship

as David did.

If we remember

that God owns everything,

we are unattached

to the things

of this world.

We feel liberated

and unencumbered.

Tim Keller

in Redeemer

says that if we

have this perspective,

then we become

more promiscuous

about the spending

of our money.

I thought that was

a little bit strange

of a term

but as you think

about it,

if you have

this perspective

about ownership,

it will be easier

for you to let go

of money

and as a result,

you're able

to open up

the chances

of blessing

other people

with this money.

Many of us

seem to spend

our lifetime

striving for things

to own

and once we get them,

we are determined

to protect what we have

and accumulate more.

And so our minds

are constantly

preoccupied with worry

and as Matthew 6.32 says,

like pagans,

we are running

after these things.

God commands us

in Matthew 6.25-34

not to worry

but to trust

in his provision.

If we worry

and are constantly

preoccupied

with chasing

after all this,

then we miss out

on God's blessings.

What are we worrying

about right now?

Are we acting

like pagans

running after

these things?

Moving on,

what do we learn

about stewardship

in this parable?

We are told

that servants

one and two

made 100%

return on their wealth

left with them

by the master.

we are not told

where the bags

of gold are invested.

But if we go

a bit further along,

Matthew 25,

past this parable

and we get into

verses 34-40

for those of you

with the Bibles,

you will see

that Jesus talks

about caring

for the hungry,

the needy,

the thirsty,

the stranger,

the sick.

and he says,

whatever you did

for one of the least

of these brothers

of mine,

you did for me.

I find that the sequencing

of these topics

in Matthew 25

is rather telling.

Jesus talks about

the stewardship

of bags of gold.

Then he talks about

taking care

of our brethren

a few minutes later.

He is setting up

our thinking

on what to do

with money

and a direct application

to ministry.

So one thing

we learn about stewardship

is its outward focus

away from ourselves.

Yet God applauds us

for that extra

five bags of gold

we produce.

But he doesn't stop there.

He tells us to use that

in ministering

other people.

Do we ever wonder

why God blesses us?

God wants us

to be faithful

with what he gives us.

And if we please him

with what we do

with the little

that he gives us

then he will put us

in charge

of more things.

So what do we take away

from this parable?

First,

the trouble

with money

stems from the condition

of our hearts.

We are taught

to guard

our hearts

from greed.

Second,

if we remind ourselves

constantly

that God owns,

controls,

and provides

for everything,

we allow ourselves

to live lives

that are free

from worry

and gives us

a chance

to witness

and enjoy

the many blessings

that God wants

to give us.

And lastly,

stewardship

is all about

the outward focus

away from ourselves.

Moving on

to point three now.

What are the things

that we can do

to guard our hearts

from the entrapment

of money?

There's a lot of things

that can be said here

and can be one sermon

by itself.

So let me focus

on just two practical things

that we can do.

First,

and I find this

personally useful,

are small acts

of self-denial.

And I want to be careful

about what I say here.

I'm not talking

about doing sacrifices

and good works

so that we can be saved

or because it is

required by God.

No.

From Psalm 51,

God says,

do not delight

in sacrifice

or take pleasure

in burnt offerings.

He wants,

God wants our heart,

our broken

and contrite heart.

The challenge

we have

in our marketplace

today

is the constant

bombardment

of lies

about money

and success,

about beauty,

self-worth,

the big house,

the accomplishment,

which we all know

are contrary

to what we see

in the Bible

and contrary

to the core

of the gospel

that we've signed up for.

Because I'm constantly

struggling with this issue

of heart and money,

I will go on

what you call

these materialism fasts

every now and then.

Materialism fasts.

For example,

I would probably

do a Starbucks fast

for a couple of weeks.

That's why

when Charles gave me

a Starbucks today,

I said,

no, thank you.

And with the money

I don't spend,

I would probably

give that to,

you know,

a beggar outside

IFC mall

or

you know,

it might be

just a colleague

who is particularly

depressed that morning

and I just

give the colleague

a coffee.

And I find that

exercises like this

can be refreshing

spiritually

because I wean myself

from the selfish

gratification

and transfer that

to helping someone else.

I find that

if my heart

gets trained

and retrained

this way

in small ways,

it makes it easier

for me to be

obedient to God

in bigger ways.

I'm inspired

by a story

of a friend

of a family.

It's a story

of a family

who decided

to downgrade

their flat.

So from a bigger

flat,

they went down

to a smaller flat

and the savings

of a couple

of thousand dollars,

they used that

to send

kids in the Philippines,

slum kids

in the Philippines

to school.

So what they've

done here

is they've

given up

this all too

precious extra

space in Hong Kong

so that they can

keep these kids

off the streets

and feed them.

And I find

that picture

very inspiring

of how we

can be

weaning

ourselves

from

just the

constant

self-gratification

that money

brings.

The other thing

I want to talk

about is regular

accountability

on this topic.

Again,

because of the

powerful pull

of money

and temptation

on materialism,

it is important

to practice

just regular

realignment

or training

the same way

that we prepare

ourselves for battle.

I mean,

after all,

we are in a battle

place here

and the enemy,

just like one might

read in the

screw tape letters,

would use

our temptations

regarding money

to wean us away

or take us away

from our focus

in Christ.

So our enemy

is strong

and we need

to be daily

trained in battle

to resist

the temptation

of falling

into the wrong

attitudes.

So I think

that working

with an

accountability

partner or

partners in

this area

could be very

helpful in

retraining

or refocusing

ourselves.

So let me

close with

a summary of

points that

we've covered

today.

First point,

God tells us

that the issue

of money is

important

in that it

is one of

the surest

places to

stumble a

believer.

We are

encouraged

to be made

aware that

this is a

problem

and that

we should be

made aware

of this

every day.

We want to

ask ourselves

the basic

question of

where our

heart is

and other

questions like

what is driving

us in our

jobs,

where is our

security,

is it in our

savings or

elsewhere.

the second

point is

that the

trouble of

money stems

from the

condition of

our hearts.

We are

taught to

guard our

hearts from

greed.

If we

remind ourselves

constantly that

God owns,

controls,

and provides

for everything,

then we

allow ourselves

to be free

from lives

of worry

and gives

us a chance

to witness

to others

and enjoy

the many

blessings

that God

brings us.

And lastly,

we learn that

stewardship is

not about

ourselves.

Stewardship is

all about

being outward

and being

able to

minister to

the communities

around us.

And lastly,

because of the

strong pull of

materialism,

we need to be

deliberate about

aligning our

perspectives every

day.

So with that,

I'd like to

close in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

our provider,

everything we

have is yours

and everything

comes from

you.

Thank you for

being our

security,

our rock,

and our

rest.

As we go

back into

our marketplace,

give us a

willing spirit

to be credible

followers of

you.

Like David,

we want to

worship you

with our

hearts and

with our

money.

I pray for

everyone in

this room

that you

protect us

from the

control of

money in

our lives.

I pray this

in Jesus'

holy name.

Amen.

If I live

with my eyes

closed with

greed and

distrust,

my body is

a dank

cellar.

I can't

worship two

gods at

once.

I can't

worship God

and money

both.

Don't hold

treasure

down here.

Don't fuss

about what's

on the

table at

mealtimes.

Don't worry

about missing

out.

I'll find

all my

everyday human

concerns will

be met.

And who

really cares

if the

clothes in

my closet

are in

fashion?

There's far

more to

my life

than food

and outer

appearances.

Don't get

worked up

about what

may or may

not happen

tomorrow.

The place

where my

treasure is

is the

place I

will want

to be

and end

up being.

Stockpile

treasure in

heaven where

it is

safe.

If God

gives such

attention to

the appearance

of wildflowers,

don't I

think he'll

attend to

me, take

pride in

me and

do his

best for

me?

So relax.

I don't

want to be

so preoccupied

with getting

that I

can't respond

to God's

giving.

I must

steep my

life in

God

reality.

God

initiative.

God

provisions.

Give

my

entire

attention

to what

God

is doing

right now.

God

will help

me deal

with whatever

hard things

come up

when the

time comes.

God

will help

me deal

with whatever

hard things

come up

when the

time comes.