1 / 83

THE OFFICE-BEARER AS STEWARD

THE OFFICE-BEARER AS STEWARD. A Puritan View. Challenges Office-Bearers Face In God’s Church Today . 3 More Challenges . Results. Experience. Survivor – Mode . Feeling like you’ve been through a Storm Feeling Worn Out / Beleaguered /Embattled Feeling Alone Only Reactive

ince
Download Presentation

THE OFFICE-BEARER AS STEWARD

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. THE OFFICE-BEARER AS STEWARD A Puritan View

  2. Challenges Office-Bearers Face In God’s Church Today

  3. 3 More Challenges

  4. Results

  5. Experience

  6. Survivor – Mode • Feeling like you’ve been through a Storm • Feeling Worn Out / Beleaguered /Embattled • Feeling Alone • Only Reactive • In Maintenance Mode • Doing Bare Minimum • Having Lost Vision • Desire to Escape Alive = The Biblical Saul

  7. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

  8. The Office-bearer “… is to be neither a speculator who invents new doctrines which please him, nor an editor who excises old doctrines which displease him, but a steward, God’s steward, dispensing faithful to God’s household the truths committed to him in the Scriptures, nothing more, nothing less and nothing else.”

  9. The Steward The biblical word “steward” translates the Greek word “oikonomos” (literally, “the polity of the house,” from which we get our English word “economy”). Examples: Eliezer, Joseph, Shebna, Daniel, Christ, Paul

  10. DEFINITION The biblical view of our identity, commission, and life under the authority of God – His Word, His Son, and His grace –using those things we don’t own, but He has entrusted to us, faithfully for His glory and honor.”

  11. RICHARD BAXTER [God] hath made us his stewards, and trusted us with all his goods.

  12. Central Questions Who is the Owner? God What is mine? Nothing What has value? What God Accords Value What must I be? Faithful What must I aim at? Honor of God

  13. What All Do I Steward? -Mental capabilities of understanding, reason, memory, conscience. -The ability to speak, feel, live, breath, sing … -Spheres of responsibility: Personal, Domestic, Vocational, Congregational, Societal -Material blessings … -Spiritual Blessings …

  14. RICHARD BAXTER Every one must give an account of his stewardship. Every talent of time, health, wit, mercies, afflictions, means, warnings, must be reckoned for.

  15. Specifically in the Office Stewards of God (Titus 1:7) –on behalf of God, with a demeanor that fits that charge Stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10) – the many and varied gifts that God has given to his church need to used Stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1-2) – the revealed Word of God

  16. The Rich Theological Background In eternity past the Triune God in love decreed to bring a people to the saving knowledge of Himself, and on the basis of the work of the Son applied by the Spirit to give Himself away. These are the treasures that the church inherits by faith through the gospel ministry. -Ephesians 1:3-23 -1 Corinthians 1:21-23, etc.

  17. STEWARDS LIKE ELIEZER (GEN 24) OFFICERS ARE MEN: -who have sworn an oath of exact obedience (vv. 3-9); -who endure as long a journey as necessary (vv. 10); -who pray for direction, help, and mercy (vv. 11-14);

  18. AND … -who stand back in wonder at God’s gracious work (vv. 15-21); -who observe and worship the Lord for his mercy (vv. 22-28); -who are more concerned about their errand than ease (vv. 29-48); -who mean business (v. 49);

  19. AND … -who trace back to the Lord any success of mission (vv. 50-52); -who delight to exhibit the riches of their Master (v. 53); -who are anxious to return to their Master (vv. 54-60);

  20. AND … -who do not stop short of presenting the Master to the bride, and the bride to their Master (vv. 61-65); -who give account of what they have done, to acquit themselves of the oath they have made and move out of sight (vv. 66-67).

  21. The Puritans as Models: 1. They were God-centered in their understanding of the gospel as well as life – both in theology as well as in their practice.

  22. JOHNATHAN EDWARDS I have this day been before God and have given myself, all that I have an am, to God; so that I am in no respect my own. I can no longer challenge any right in myself, in this understanding, this will, these affections. Neither have I the right to this body, or any of its members. No right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears. I have given myself clean away.

  23. PHILIP HENRY I take God the Father to be my God; I take God the Son to be my Saviour; I take the Holy Spirit to be my Sanctifier; I take the Word of God to be my rule; I take the people of God to be my people; And I do hereby dedicate and yield my whole self to the Lord: And I do this deliberately, freely, and forever.

  24. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD I know Christ and I shall never be even; I shall die in his debt.

  25. The Puritans as Models: They were meticulous in living out their stewardship. Someone said: The Puritans were “serious – life is dedicated, not to be wasted on trivialities; earnest – for a man living before God must mind his own spiritual business; and above all things, careful.”

  26. SAMUEL WARD To live well is to live twice.

  27. THOMAS MANTON There is not only a little time between you and judgment, but a little time between you and execution, nothing but the slender thread of a frail life, which is soon fretted asunder; and will you, can you sleep in sin so near eternity, and laugh and dance over the brink of hell? You cannot soon enough flee from the wrath to come.”

  28. RICHARD BAXTER It is a dreaming and distracted world, that spend their days and cares for nothing; and are as serious in following a feather, and in the pursuit of that which they confess is vanity, and dying in their hands, as if, indeed, they knew it to be true felicity. They are like children busy in hunting butterflies; or like boys at football – as eager in the pursuit, and in overturning one another, as if it were for their lives or for some great, desirable prize; or more like a heap of ants that gad about as busily and make as much ado for sticks and dust as if they were about some magnificent work.

  29. WILLIAM GUTHRIE We ought to take account of one's life “in the like manner of the general practice of men of business who year by year [take] stock, examining their books and striking a balance to know how they stand.”

  30. Expositing Meticulousness Richard Baxter's Reformed Pastor or Practical Divinity Richard Bernard's The Faithful Shepherd Thomas Gouge's Christian Direction

  31. Puritans as Models: 3. The Puritans appreciated divine gifts and rightly estimated them.

  32. RICHARD SIBBES If money and property are gifts from God … worldly things are good in themselves and given to sweeten our passage to heaven.

  33. RICHARD BAXTER If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way, (without wrong to your soul, or to any other,) if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God's steward, and to accept his gifts, and use them for him when he requireth it; you may labour to be rich for God, though not for the flesh and sin.”

  34. WILLIAM PEMBERTON Oh how many and great are the dangers and difficulties which attend this gain of the world in getting, and in keeping, and in spending the same.

  35. THOMAS ADAMS Let us do good with our goods while we live, that when we die, by a blessed bill of exchange, we may receive them again in the Kingdom of heaven.

  36. SAMUEL WILLARD As riches are not evidence of God's love, so neither is poverty of His anger or hatred.

  37. RICHARD BAXTER You desire not the biggest shoes or clothes, but the most suitable. … When a man is to travel into a far country … one staff in his hand may comfortably support him, but a bundle of staves would be troublesome. Thus a competency of these outward things may happily help us in the way to heaven, whereas abundance may be hurtful.

  38. THOMAS ADAMS To part with what we cannot keep, that we may get that we cannot lose, is a good bargain. Wealth can do us no good, unless it help us toward heaven.

  39. THOMAS GATAKER So may our affections walk on while God's hand goes before them: but look where God stay His hand and ceases to give, there should our heart stay likewise, and we cease to desire.

  40. THOMAS GOUGE How may I know that these outward mercies which I do enjoy are bestowed upon me in love and favor? … If they inflame thy heart with a love to God, causing thee to love him the more, because he hath been so bountiful unto thee. For this is a sure Rule, Whatsoever causes love comes from love.

  41. The Puritans as Models: 4. The Puritans lived firmly fixed on eternity.

  42. JEREMY TAYLOR God hath given to man a short time here upon earth and yet upon this short time eternity depends. No man is a better merchant than he that lays out his time upon God.

  43. SAMUEL HIERON Oh, let not mine eyes be dazzled, nor my heart bewitched with the glory and sweetness of these worldly treasures … Draw my affection to the love of that durable riches, and to that fruit of heavenly wisdom which is better than gold, and the revenues whereof do surpass the silver, that my chief care may be to have a soul enriched and furnished with Thy grace.

  44. JONATHAN EDWARDS O God, stamp eternity on my eye-balls.

  45. WILLIAM GURNALL Christ hath told us he will come, but not when, that we might never put off our clothes, or put out the candle.

  46. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD Build your nest upon no tree here; for ye see God hath sold the forest to death; and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end we may fly and mount up, and build upon the Rock … There is less sand in your glass now than there was yester night. This span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended.

  47. Summary: The Puritans as Models 1. They were God-centered in their understanding of the gospel as well as life – both in theology as well as in their practice. 2. They were meticulous in living out their stewardship. 3. The Puritans appreciated divine gifts and rightly estimated them. 4. The Puritans lived firmly fixed on eternity.

More Related