The Line of Stewardship

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Before we do, this morning we need to take a moment of prayer.

I woke up yesterday, maybe like many of you, um reading about the conflict in our world.

And um I spent probably too much time trying to figure out what was what.

And um I finally got myself to a place where anxiousness and worry was behind me, and I read some scripture that I want to read.

Psalms 46, 6, and 7 says, The nations rage, kingdoms totter, but God utters his voice and the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us, he is our fortress.

And I've read and seen conflict that's broken throughout the Middle East yesterday.

I was reminded that the Bible says that wars and rumors of wars are always and will always be a part of a broken, sin-filled, disease-filled society until Jesus Christ makes his return.

So what do we do?

The Bible says for us not to respond in panic, but we look up.

Scripture says, look up in that we should pray.

And so I want to invite you this morning to pray for the United States of America, to pray for Israel, and to pray for Iran.

Pray for our president, pray for our vice president, pray for the Secretary of Defense and global leaders across the world, because the Bible also says this that the heart of the king is in the hand of God, and he turns it withersoever he wills.

And so this is what I know.

Our hope, church, is not in politics.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ.

And so we want to call on him this morning, and I want to ask you to invite him in prayer and ask for his presence in the Middle East, ask for his justice throughout this conflict, because we know that he, that psalm, the very first verse, says, Our Lord is a refuge and a help in a time of need.

So let's go to him in prayer as we open this morning.

Father, God, we know that you are sovereign.

And God, we're even studying in the grand end of this story, Joseph said to his brothers, what was meant for evil, God meant for good.

And God, we know that nothing is outside of your control.

And so, God, we call on you for your will to happen, uh, Lord, in this time of war, in this time of conflict.

And God, we pray uh for the troops in the United States of America and their families.

God, we ask for safety, for provision.

God, we pray for people in Israel and Iran and God's citizens who, Lord, really, there's innocent people not even involved in this conflict.

And we we pray, God, that your hand would protect.

And God, I pray for our president, vice president, the secretary of defense, and for people that are making decisions, God, that you'd give them wisdom.

And God, Lord, you would sovereignly be in control, God, that you would lead and guide.

And God, we just pray, Lord, our hope, our hope is always in you.

Lord, it's now in you, it's in the future in you, it's always you.

And so, God, we look up and we claim you are king, you are on the throne, and God, our allegiance is to you.

We thank you and we ask, God, that this morning that you would have our hearts' attention, our mind's eye, Lord, that you would draw us to your scripture, to your word, so that we can learn to be better.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Psalms 41, I want to read uh verses 37 through 43 and then kind of walk back through that.

So if you're there, Psalms 41.

Uh Joseph gets his moment finally, and he's before Pharaoh, and he tells him how this dream, um, what he can do to better the country through this dream, if it's true.

And so Joseph, verse 37 says, So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.

Pharaoh said, You shall be over my house and all my people, you shall be ruled according to your word.

Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck, and he had him ride in the second chariot which he had, and they cried out before him, Bow the knee.

So he set him over the land of Egypt.

So I don't know if, you know, I my mind is sometimes a little seventh-grade juvenile.

And I apologize for that.

Sometimes you feel that.

But when I look at this scenario, I see Pharaoh coming to Joseph, and he's so ecstatic about this dream and Joseph's advice that it in my mind it becomes like an Italian mob scene.

And Pharaoh puts his arm around Joseph and he's like, This is good.

This is really good.

And he says to him, he says, Y'all look at, y'all look at what he said.

Does he says, Joseph, Joey, Joey, do you got a ring?

Does anybody where's this ring at?

Somebody get him a ring.

He says, What are you wearing, Joseph?

What is this?

Somebody bring, bring out my boy, bring him out some silk.

Put some silk on him.

He's like, Look at you.

You don't, what, you don't, you don't have a necklace?

No chain?

Somebody in the back, get him a chain.

What about your ride, Joey?

What you riding in?

Let me tell you, you're gonna ride in the second chariot from now on.

And when people see you, this is what I want them to know: you represent me.

You're gonna be my manager.

And that's what he tells them.

He says, only above you is gonna be me.

That word, though, my manager, you represent me.

He's giving him the ride.

I mean, flipped his life.

This is extreme makeover.

Joseph came out in the orange jumpsuit and left with everything.

Now he's a steward.

That word steward is economos, and it literally means house manager.

But for you and me to understand steward and stewardship, we have to understand origins.

A stewardship is a manager, manager of what?

Well, let's start here.

Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1

It says, In the beginning, God.

We can start there, put a period there.

In the beginning, God.

But Psalms 24, 1 says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

This all that we're living in, that we're experiencing, and even what we live in this body is God's.

And we're a house manager of something that God gave.

We are a steward.

And the Bible says this moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

And so we want to, in that vein today, talk about stewardship.

And let's learn from Joseph and how he was able to steward in such a way.

The first point this morning is this stewardship of self produces stability.

You cannot begin to steward your children, your house, your work, or anything else if you are not first stewarding this.

Stewardship of self.

Letter A, we see that Joseph, how could he do this?

Joseph was a meek man.

I want you to go back and just see this again, but verse number 16.

Joseph had his moment in front of Pharaoh.

And after years of waiting, years of all of these things that seem to go wrong, Joseph answered, his answer is important.

So Joseph answered Pharaoh about the dream.

He said, Can you interpret it?

He answers Pharaoh saying, It is not in me.

God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

So we see Joseph's immediate deferment of credit.

And we see the temperament of meekness.

I heard this illustration once about a music teacher who wanted his choir to sing something with passion, with intensity, but not loudness.

And so he wanted them to sing this moment, and it would come up to this sort of crescendo, but a quieter crescendo.

And so what he would do is he would raise up a fist in power and then cover the fist, signifying to the choir.

Now we're going to come together, but it's going to come together and it's not going to be a loud crashing sound.

It's quiet strength.

That is what meekness is.

Meekness is not weakness, it's strength and submission, it's power, but with precision.

So a question I want you to think on this morning throughout: am I a meek person?

It's an important question.

Ask your spouse.

I did this this week.

I won't share any of the details, but I did ask my spouse.

In uh Matthew 5, 5.

It says, Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.

It implies that peace and spiritual fulfillment will come with meekness.

Joseph was a good manager with Potiphar's house, with prison.

But if you remember throughout the story, he cared about people.

He cared about his work.

Joseph had very little, but I think he gave much.

In his meager, lowly position.

He gave with strength.

He gave with all that he could.

He was meek.

Colossians tells us to put on meekness.

This is what I know about when Scripture uses, Paul uses the idea of clothing, the metaphor of clothing, that if you can put it on, because you woke up, you gotta know that meekness has to be a choice then.

Because if you can put something on, then you can take something off.

And if you took it off, the other outfit comes on.

You know what the other outfit looks like?

The counterpart, aggression, vindictiveness, pride.

So Christians choose, Paul said, to put on your meek.

Being clothed in meekness.

I said it, it's not weakness.

It might be speak less or seek less or post less or boast less or press less or stress less or claim less or fame less.

But meekness is not weakness.

And so we see Joseph was a meek man.

Letter B, Joseph was a man of God.

Look back at verse 38, and I want to look at verse 45 also.

Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?

Look down at verse 45.

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath Penea.

And he gave him as a wife Asinath, the daughter of Potapharah, priest of Own.

So Joseph went out all over the land of Egypt.

So notice, church, this morning, there, that first verse, verse 38.

Before Joseph was anything, there was the Spirit of God that was in him.

Before you go out into the world, before you go out into your work week, before you're anything, if you have been saved by God, you're a child of God.

Before you're anything, Pharaoh recognizes that Joseph's management and wisdom, it says, Who can have wisdom like this?

It was outside of normal human capability.

Pharaoh, an ungodly ruler, saw the Spirit of God, hear me, without a sermon, without a suit jacket, without any pomp or circumstance, but a prisoner coming up out of 11 years of dungeon, still smelling like the dust.

And he said, Where can we find, like this bum on the street, where can we find the spirit of God in anyone like this man?

He recognized the Spirit of God in his character, in his wisdom, and in his meek manner.

There's a New Testament story I love to preach on it, the blind man.

See, when the blind man met Jesus, he was healed.

And if you know anything about a blind person, if they've been healed, everything about them suddenly looks different.

A blind person has to be guided in the way that they walk.

A blind person can't see the world as we see it.

And so if they were healed, if you came in here blind from birth today and you left here seeing, everything would seem different about you.

And I love the blind man's answer.

People ask him and keep questioning, didn't you used to be formerly blind?

And he says, very simply, I met Jesus, I was blind, and now I can see.

Church, isn't that your story?

If God is in you, I would like to propose this morning, people should see it.

If God is in you, the creator of all things is in you, the sovereign Lord is in you, people should see that there is a different spirit.

Like he said about Joseph, there's this something.

We've not seen anything like this man.

This is a man of God.

It was evident, and it should be, and it should be the story of you and me in your workplace.

With your family, you should be the one in the family that are saying, There's this, there he is.

Always talking about God, always making sure that we're keeping this in front of us.

Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name.

Zap Nathpnea.

I like Joseph better.

It's a mouthful.

You know what Zap Nathpinneh means?

God speaks and lives.

Pharaoh, an ungodly ruler, looked at Joseph and says, God speaks and lives in that man.

God speaks and lives.

Can you imagine?

Think about Joseph.

Think about the next day.

Joseph, for all of these years, and he wakes up the next day and he's over all of Pharaoh's house.

He's over all of Egypt, over all the land.

Got a new name, and in case you missed it, there's a wedding brewing.

All of the things that he went through, and now look at them.

Well, I want you to look down at verse 50 and 52.

It didn't end there.

God kept giving him.

And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Aesaneth, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of Oom, bore to him.

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.

And the name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Those are important names.

Names are important in the Bible.

And Joseph gives him these names.

Sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Look at the first one.

It says, Forgetfulness for all of his troubles.

How many of you here today say, Pastor, I got some troubles.

I like to forget my troubles.

You know, for Joseph to go on to be the steward that he needs to be, it's important that you notice.

He gives him a son and he says, How can I stay back here in my past?

Have you ever watched a childbirth?

I mean, it does change everything.

And he says, Look at what God's done.

And he says, I'm forgetting it.

Whatever God has brought me to to this point, now I'm married and I got a son.

And every time he looked at that boy, Manasseh, he said, My troubles, I'm just forgetting all of my troubles.

And then he had a second one.

He says, Now, this son is the son of fruitfulness.

God has blessed me, and I am blessed to forget.

That's going to play a major part in the future when his brothers settle up with him.

But Joseph is stewarding and with little.

And because he steward well with little, God kept blessing him with more.

Church, when I think about that, that stewardship of self and being the man God wants you to be, don't be a man of work.

Don't be a man of sport.

Don't be a man of building empires of wealth.

Be a man of God.

If you cannot govern yourself first, you cannot govern anything.

And Joseph learned how to steward himself.

The second thing I want you to see is stewardship of strategy that preserves the future.

Now in the seven plentiful years, the ground brought forth abundantly, so he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities.

He laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them.

Joseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.

This strategy.

Y'all remember when COVID hit and things went nuts?

Well, literally, it was like Thursday or Friday we were finding out.

And the next week, Heather at the time worked for a company called Shipped.

And we were not in the office at least that week, and Heather was gone.

Shipped went wild.

Everybody needed their groceries, and nobody was trying to get out in the fray, the grocery store.

But there, my sweet little hero, was out there buying up the toilet paper and the lightsaw.

And they were, I mean, they were making us rich.

People were so happy to get toilet paper and light saw.

She was, I'm telling you, the kids, they were getting tired of it.

Mama was gone day and night because the ship had gone and people couldn't take it.

They needed their milk and they needed their bread.

But I remember no human being, it seemed, could possibly have been prepped for what happened.

Right?

You hear about a snowstorm in Alabama in the south.

What happens?

Right?

Everything about to be shut down.

We gotta get the milk and bread.

But it made me think about his strategy.

How you steward now impacts you for tomorrow.

I kind of joke at it, but Heather keeps gallons.

We have gallons of water just in case.

I'll take one every now and then and pour it in my coffee because it's clean spring water.

And I'm like, I'll make her angry if she sees me.

But she's preparing for something.

How are you stewarding now?

What's your strategy?

A calculated plan is letter A.

We see Joseph with this calculated plan.

And I've got a picture of something that became a plan that I want you to see.

This is important.

So y'all pay attention to this.

Do you remember the first time you had a$100 bill?

Kids, you might be in here and you ain't had that time yet.

Just wait.

It's like a$20 bill now.

But there was a time when a$100 bill made you feel rich.

Well, uh, in my school, like some of y'all still do, they would sell every year a fundraiser and you would take candy, right?

Reese's, 30 of them, the long packs with five of them or whatever.

And we went out, and that first year, I sold the most.

I went out, and my I was thinking about my dad today.

I was like, what a you know, what a thing for my dad to do to help me.

But in third grade, the first year I ever had a school fundraiser, I remember, we went out door to door, door to door, asking, Do you want to buy some candy?

And I sold, listen, y'all, you can cheer.

If you need to.

32 boxes.

And they called my name in school before everyone and handed me an envelope and I opened it.

Hundred dollar bill.

And I was like, y'all losers?

And I went quickly with my father to Toys R Us.

Which I'm sad right now that they're not open, but.

And I got this wrestling buddy.

And I wrestled all over my house with that thing.

It never beat me in one match, y'all.

I got a case of Flear baseball cards that I opened, packed by pack, there's 36 packs, and I had money to spare.

So I w I I had that plan, and that happened.

And you know what happened after that?

Because I tasted it in fourth grade and fifth grade, I also won a hundred dollars.

They couldn't stop me.

And then the next year they had a different fundraiser and it messed up my life.

But I had a calculated plan.

I wanted that hundred.

See, Joseph said there's going to be a seven-year year of plenty.

And his calculated idea was to lay up food in cities.

He gathered food.

It says the amount was immeasurable.

My wife lived through some lean years in her life.

And because of that, we have a lot of cans in our pantry.

And it makes her feel a certain way.

And I'm glad for that.

It's a security, but there's this idea.

Seven years, what are you going to do for the lean years?

It was customary, like taxes, for Pharaoh to take a tithe of people from the land.

And that was like a 10%.

But if you look back at verse 40, or chapter 41, verse 34 through 36, Joseph said, take one fifth.

So they doubled it and made it 20%.

And I want you to think about it.

How hard is it for people to plan this way when things are good?

Right?

Part of our problem is when things are good, we want to live it up.

I want you to consider this dream in the same vein of Noah building the ark.

Did they have to believe in Pharaoh?

Did they have to believe in Joseph in this dream?

Seven years waiting.

Now Noah was out here saying, I'm building an ark.

A flood is coming.

We don't know what a flood is.

We don't know anything about this, but it's coming.

And in the same way, Joseph's saying, there is going to be a famine in the land.

And so we need to take in the in the good years and not get fat in the good years, but put away.

So, church, you need to understand a couple of things.

Favor fills the field, but stewardship fills the storehouses.

Proverbs 21, 20 says, wise people store up choice food and oil, yet fools gallb it down.

Financial freedom is not determined in the amount of money that you make.

It's in how that you use the money that you've been given.

There's a statistic that I read this week, and I don't know how old this was, but it said that in Japan, the average family saves 20% of their income.

In Europe, 18% of their income.

And in America, we spend 1% more of our income than we make.

God told Joseph, be prepared for seven years.

The way that you spend your money and the way that you save is a heart matter, church.

Proverbs 6 says, look at the ant who stores its food for the winter.

Proverbs 13 says, A good man saves and leaves an inheritance.

What is your stewardship strategy?

What's your strategy?

Letter B.

After that calculated plan, we see a careful protection.

Look at verse 54.

It says, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said.

The famine was in all the land, but in all the land of Egypt, there was bread.

The word famine means Ra'av, and it means more than hunger.

It implies complete depletion.

And you can look in Leviticus, we don't have time, but in Leviticus chapter 26, it is a in verse 13 through 16, it talks about God.

Leviticus 26 · chapter mention

If people will fall to idolatry, if people will fall away from God, God uses famine to get the attention of people.

Joseph's strategy is not just about stewarding food, it's about preserving life and people and assets.

But in the land of Egypt, for seven years there was no bread.

Famine struck every near nation.

And so the practical application I began to think over this week is this there's not anyone here, probably, that's going through physical famine.

But there's many that are walking through spiritual famine.

A loss of any hunger and appetite for spiritual things.

Let me give you a few signs of spiritual famine.

Number one, you might be in spiritual famine if you have a lost appetite for the word of God.

The psalmist says, as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after thee.

How's your appetite for the word of God?

Another one, if your Christianity feels weaker, let me explain.

In physical famine, bodies become thin.

In spiritual famine, your joy becomes thin.

Another one, worship feels mechanical.

Do you find it hard to rejoice in the Lord?

Do you find it hard to get yourself to a place where you are actually between you and God, praising Him for the things He's doing?

Matthew 15, 8 says, People honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And a bleak truth this morning is this you can sing and you can serve and you can be starving.

So what is your spiritual strategy for not starving?

I want you to look back at this picture of Joseph, this careful protection.

He, during lean years, he saved up for preservation, careful protection.

And Joseph, along this storyline, has been a picture of Jesus, a foreshadowing of Jesus.

And you know what Jesus said once?

He said, I am the bread of life.

When you're spiritually malnourished, you should know that Jesus said, I'm the bread of life.

Bread is good.

He wants you to enjoy bread.

He wants you nourished and not malnourished physically speaking, but his teaching is not enjoy the eating of bread, but enjoy the bread.

The breadgiver, enjoy Jesus.

And maybe today, if you can get anything else, you'll leave here saying, I need to enjoy Jesus again.

Jesus was sent to a spiritually bankrupt world.

Everyone everywhere was looking for Messiah, Savior.

And they weren't looking for the bread of life.

They had no way of salvation.

And Jesus brought to them not a physical need, he brought to them a spiritual need.

What Jesus brought was saving.

And guess where Jesus was born?

In Bethlehem, the house of bread.

He brought the bread of life.

Maybe think about the five loaves and two fishes.

It says he fed every man, woman, and child.

And as the disciples went by through there, the disciples all had one basket.

I wonder if they ever looked down at their basket as they were feeding with five loaves and two fishes, five thousand plus people, if they ever looked down in their basket and thought, this is going to dry up.

All I have is one basket, and there's rows and rows and rows, like this congregation times 50, and it just keeps going, and they have one basket, no backup basket.

And somehow they would hand out two and four would come back.

And Jesus kept bringing the answer.

And church, that's what he does.

Jesus brings the answer for every spiritual need that we have.

Now he's not going to give you 20 baskets like me.

Have one basket, and that basket is Jesus, the bread of life.

But Joseph's good stewardship is the picture there.

Jesus came and provided salvation for every nation, for all of eternity.

And Joseph came, and his stewardship preserved the nations by giving them bread.

Don't miss this picture.

The third thing I want you to see this morning is the stewardship of supply releases blessing.

Verse 55.

So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.

Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph, whatever he says to you, do.

Joseph did not create the grain church, but he managed.

And because he did it faithfully, God would bless the nations.

Letter A, I want you to see, is this shared resources.

Go back over there to verse 56.

The famine was over all of the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians.

And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.

So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe in all the land.

I want you to get this idea of what Joseph was doing.

He was stewarding for seven years so that he could share for seven years.

What is everyone's shared capability?

It's the resources you have.

And you've heard this if you've been in church for any time, but I want to just go through your time, your talent, and your treasure.

Biblically, time in Ephesians 5 is a trust.

Time is a trust.

It's something that everybody has given this, not in years, but in days, the same amount of every day.

And the Bible says in Ephesians 5, redeem the time, because the days are evil.

In the Greek, the word redeem is axorazo, and it means to buy up, to seize up.

Before it passes, don't miss on time.

I'm not gonna go through the song Cats in the Cradle this morning.

But before it's gone, don't miss on time.

Are you investing your best hours?

Time isn't spent, it's invested or it's wasted.

We say, Pastor, I just can't manage, I can't find any more time.

I was talking about this this morning, and as I was, my screen notification said screen time.

I don't have any more time.

Check on your screen.

I can't manage to find more time anywhere.

We say we don't have any.

I want to tell you this: you cannot make more time.

There's only one you who can steward the time that you've been given.

We see what's going on in the Middle East, and there used to be uh a prophecy teacher that talked about all of the props are in place, and the curtain is here, and the trumpeter is wetting his whistle.

And listen, I don't, I don't, I won't ever live in a doomsday mentality.

I know that Jesus is coming again, and when that day comes, I hope to be completely ready and living my life ready.

I'm gonna live for every opportunity.

I pray Galatians 6, 9, as we therefore have opportunity every day, looking for a chance to spend my time in that vein.

But I want to tell you, it does seem like if you read Ezekiel 38 and 39 and you look at prophecy, that there are things that are being moved in place.

So I want to challenge you.

What are you doing with your time?

Are you making the most of your time?

Look at those people right next to you.

Look at the people around you.

What about your time?

Well, time is one part of our resources, our talents.

I think Dave quoted this, but 1 Peter 4 10 says, As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as a good steward.

Joseph became Egypt's house manager.

Literally, he's just been stewarding.

It's like everything that happened was preparing him for this one moment.

And it's like it didn't even matter to him that that moment came.

Whatever he was given, he was going to just manage.

He was going to steward it and manage it.

Mountains, valleys, in a prison, or in this posh house, or wherever he was.

And lo and behold, how God works.

Egypt's biggest need.

We got applications out for a manager.

Anybody know where we can find a good manager?

It wasn't their biggest need for Pharaoh or a fisherman or a pyramid builder, it was for a great steward.

And Joseph, it says, opened up the storehouses.

Let me ask you a question to think on.

What good are resources alone?

You might have some fun with resources alone for a little while.

But not much.

Hebrews 13, 16 says, Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.

Galatians 6, 2, it's part of our connect group vision.

It says, bear ye one another's burdens in love.

Acts 2, 42 through 45 talks about the believers and the beginning of the church.

And it says the believers were together and they had everything in common.

They sold their property and possessions to give to anyone who lacked.

So how are you sharing your resources of time and talent?

I want to tell you today, church, somebody real close to where you are needs the gift that God's given you.

There's people that are around you and they need the gifts and talents that God's given you.

And they've God's given you through his Holy Spirit something special for this vapor of time, and you get a chance to move the needle in people's lives.

Or what?

What is the other opportunity that is so grand?

What empire, what trophy, what thing that we're building outside of giving God all of our talents and sharing resources.

Well, let's look at letter B.

Sowing provisions.

If you would take your Bible and turn over to Proverbs chapter 3.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

It says at the end of that chapter that all of the countries came to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe.

Because Joseph had sown for those seven thin years, or those seven plenty years, when things were thin, there was resources.

Proverbs 3, everybody quotes this, and and you hear the first part of this often, and I want to hit it again, but I want to go through verse nine.

It takes this first part trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

Keep going.

Joseph's sown for seven years and opens up these storehouses.

But I want just focus for a moment on this proverb.

It's teaching a few things.

First, how to walk rightly with God, that's trusting in the Lord, and by humility.

And then the third part is about how we use our resources to steward.

It's talking about possessions and money.

Joseph gathered in plenty so he could release in famine.

It says, honor the Lord with possessions.

Well, how, Pastor?

Help me, make that practical.

Everybody here, I believe, has a home.

And in your home, you have resources.

You have a table that people should eat at.

You should feed people.

You may not, you say, Pastor, I'm not a good cook.

You should buy some KFC and feed people.

You should have people sitting at your table, using your resources.

You have a bed in your home.

And I'm not talking about an Airbnb.

But people need a bed, a place to sleep, a place to be heard.

How about this?

Let's start with praying and reading your Bible in your home.

Can you steward that with the possession that God's given you?

How about a car?

You got a car?

I used to tell teenagers, get your mom and dad on board, and on Wednesday night, don't leave the neighborhood without somebody.

Just tell them.

Tell mom and dad, we're gonna use your car for church.

I sat in the back of my dad's pickup truck with seven friends going to patch the pirate club.

I know it was illegal, it had to be.

But my dad was using that resource and taking a load of kids to church.

God's given you a car.

Many of you have a business.

How is your business being utilized for the gospel, for caring for people, for sewing into lives?

Because I know this.

You may have a business, but you're not the owner.

You may have a home, but you're not the owner.

You're a manager.

Well, Pastor Rick, I worked 50 hours last week.

You telling me this ain't mine?

Well, you could have been sick.

You could have been without a job last week.

You could have been in the hospital.

But Proverbs says, honor the Lord with the first fruits.

That word is re sheath.

And the word resheath means the first in placement.

Where do you rank God's things?

Is it resheath?

Is the first in placement?

That word first or chiefest of your increase.

Let me just tell you something real here.

Because I know you're in church and we're talking about giving.

Let me just be real.

I was telling Benji this week, I've been in church, I think 2,200 plus services.

If I just counted Sundays, I've been in church my whole life.

Okay?

I think that I'm an expert on the giving sermons.

I think I have to be.

Malachi 3, every pastor, my whole life, I've heard missionaries, I've heard evangelists, I've heard pastors.

They all say, How can a man rob God?

Bring the tithe into the storehouse, and it will overflow with blessings so deep you can't even imagine it.

Okay?

I've been hearing this since I was two.

And I've heard it, and I've heard it, and I've heard I've heard sermon series, I've heard missions conferences.

And I've heard God says, be a cheerful giver.

Means hilarious.

How many of you laugh really hard when you give money to somebody?

Woo!

Gave away a 50.

He says, hilarious.

Well, when you stop being the owner of that, I'm gonna tell you somebody else gives me money again.

It's a little easier to give that money away.

And in fact, it did happen for me and Heather.

It's a thing that has changed my heart about generosity.

When things were really lean for a while, there was a family, a man walked up to us and he handed me a wad of hundred dollar bills and other bills.

And I'm like, What we got here?

You got my attention.

He said, The only rule with this, he says, I want you to give it away.

He said, and don't tell me any more about it.

And Heather and I spent Christmas going to people in our youth groove.

What he did was he gave to someone who didn't have enough to do.

And he allowed me to feel the feeling of generosity.

And to watch people's faces who needed something.

What a blessing that was.

They tell me there are more scriptures on money than on heaven and hell.

Commentators said Jesus spoke more on the topic of money than any other topic.

And if you're new here, there's a part in our service, every service, we have an offering.

But why?

I said I don't want to be real, but why?

Money, church, serves as the litmus test of your heart.

We need finances.

It takes money to fulfill vision.

And if you don't steward finances and gives, that's what I believe this book says.

And I've heard it time and time again, but I believe it's disobedience to God.

And this is what I know from life testing.

For 20 years of being married, Heather and I have tested the Lord in this area.

And that's, he says that Malachi, test it.

We've tested God in this area.

And his faithfulness, he's never missed.

We have a black book at home.

It's God's blessings book.

And God fills it and fills it and fills it and fills it.

And I don't do.

There's a lot of ways I got to get better.

But in faithfulness to God, God has showed himself over and over and over.

And so if you're not giving in any way, I just want to challenge you.

Just start.

He says it.

He gives the challenge.

God says, see if I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.

But here's the deal: it's not about a number.

God wants the first fruit, the resheath of your heart.

Because Matthew says, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

You see what Proverbs said.

It says, Test me, see that your barns won't be filled.

Well, I wish we all could feel for a day.

Barry was telling me they went downtown, him and his son Clay, and fed people in need.

And they gave out a bunch of meals and how that impacted his and Clay's heart to go and do that.

And I thought, it's a beautiful picture of going and serving these because, church, it's it's not far.

I wish we could know what it felt for Joseph who worked.

Don't hear me.

He didn't sit around for seven years and and that produce just found its way to lockers and storage facilities.

He worked, he stewarded seven years.

And I wish we could all could know what it felt like to watch not just person after person, nations of people.

He handed hungry people food to.

Why?

Because they stewarded God's blessing.

He was able to help all these people that were trying to survive famine because first he stewarded himself, then he stewarded his talent, and then all of this treasure.

The world was in famine.

But God had already been at work in a young boy with a dream.

Years and years ago, he was at work in his heart.

And because Joseph reheathed his heart, God had Joseph's first fruits.

Joseph realized he wasn't the owner.

He was holding the line by being a steward.

So let me give you a challenge from Scripture.

If you want to turn there, you can.

Haggai chapter 1, verse 6 and 7 is the challenge that I'll share.

Haggai 1:6

Let God's word do its work.

It ends, and a couple of times in this passage, it gives these three words.

It says, Consider your ways.

And that's what I want to leave you with.

Consider your ways.

Haggai 1, 6 and 7 says, You have sown much and bring in little.

You eat, but do not have enough.

You drink, but you're not filled with drink.

You clothe, but no one is warm.

He who earns wages earns wages to put it in a bag with holes.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

He says, Consider your ways.

People were busy but empty.

Sound familiar.

People were working but not satisfied, earning but not fulfilled.

God wasn't condemning them, he was confronting priorities.

And this is what I think about who we are.

I don't think many of us in here are lazy people.

I think we're busy people.

I don't think many of you aren't busy, but I think our priorities get sideways.

So consider your ways, not your neighbors' ways, or your spouse's ways, or your church's ways, your ways.

You so much, but let me ask this, and we're gonna pray.

Are you filled?

You work hard, are you satisfied?

You build, but is God first in it?

The issue was not anyone's effort, it was their order.

Stewardship is not about what you have in your hand, it's about what has your heart.

Will you bow your heads and close your eyes this morning?

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