Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate

1. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Stewardship is: • Using God-given abilities • To manage God-owned assets • To accomplish God-ordained results

2. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Biblical Stewardship Teaches: • God owns everything • God has given us responsibility to manage His resources • As stewards we are accountable

3. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. I Cor 4:2 What does it mean to be faithful? Do what the owner wants.

4. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate God Owns It All Three revolutionary implications 1. God, as owner, has rights I, as a steward, have only responsibilities. 2. Every spending decision is a spiritual decision. (Your checkbook is a theological document) 3. You can’t fake stewardship.

5. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate • Money is a test. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? • Luke 16:11,12

6. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate The Tithe is: • The starting point • The minimum • The spring board • The historic benchmark

7. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate • …Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law…. • …That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.. • And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. Gal 3:13,14,17

8. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. • Matthew 23:23

9. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate • The tithe is the Lord’s And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord. • Leviticus 27:30

10. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate 1. The tithe is the Lord’s 2. The tithe is holy

11. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate For if the firstfruits be holy, the lump is also holy. • Romans 11:16 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. • 1 Corinthians 15:20

12. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate I have given into thine hand Jericho. • Joshua 6:2 All the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. • Joshua 6:19 …keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. • Joshua 6:18

13. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate …for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Joshua 7:11 We NEVER benefit from use of withheld tithe! We can always afford to tithe.

14. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate …prove me..if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:10 (God’s Guarantee) Withheld tithe closes the windows of heaven and opens the door to Satan.

15. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” • Jim Elliott • The tithe stands in the midst of our stuff much like the tree of forbidden fruit stood in the midst of garden… • We make the choice.

16. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate • Scriptural Pattern for the Tithe: Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. • Proverbs 3:9,10

17. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate • The Tithe is 10% of our increase, FIRST. • The question is what is the increase? • Because the tax is based on income, is the increase after the tax? • Because the tax purchases quality of life, is the tax part of normal living expenses? • Merely because our government has legislated itself into first place is not a legitimate reason to place God second.

18. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Is income tax a penalty on increase? OR Do taxes buy quality of life? • FDA Safe medicine & drugs, inspected food • WS Weather Service • FAA Safe air travel • FTD drug enforcement EPA safe water • Interstate highways, National Defense, 911

19. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate First means First • $3,000 gross monthly increase -300 first 10% • $2,430 net monthly increase - 243 net tithe • $300 gross tithe -243 net tithe • 57 difference for a gross blessing vs. net blessing • Less than 2% of gross increase.

20. Stewardship: A Biblical Mandate Increases not included in income: • housing, utilities • car • health insurance • scholarships • gifts

21. Blessings of Biblical Stewardship And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: • II Cor 9:8 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. • II Cor. 9:7

22. Blessings of Biblical Stewardship But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. • Philippians 4:19 …no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only. • Philippians 4:16 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. • Philippians 4:17

23. Blessings of Biblical Stewardship I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. • Philippians 4:13 I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. • Philippians 4:11,12