Rose Ave Baptist Church

WHAT IS BIBLICAL STEWARDSHIP?

We make a living by what we get,

we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill

Many Christians limit their concept of stewardship to hearing sermons on tithing and calls for church building programs. That barely scratches the surface of God’s clearly expressed concept of stewardship for us. Biblical stewardship is so much more than your wallet. It is a whole-life responsibility that is a part of being a follower, a disciple, of Jesus Christ.

A steward in Old Testament times was a person who assumed responsibility and authority over the affairs of the household. It started with Adam who was given the command to be productive by being fruitful and multiplying. Next, Adam and Eve were given full dominion over everything created. Genesis 1:26-30. That is stewardship.

Perhaps the best example of true Biblical stewardship is Joseph when he became a steward over Potiphar’s household. He was given authority over everything in the household. See Genesis 39. He was responsible to manage, he could not waste the household resources of the family and had a duty to make wise decisions for the overall good of the family and property of Potiphar.

Those examples of stewardship show that stewardship is vastly more than just money management. They included Adam and Joseph’s ’s time, family, home, work, day and even night. Adam and Joseph’s stewardship were whole-life responsibilities. Our stewardship is as well.



Stewardship is commonly described as including your time, your talents and your treasures, an excellent way to alliterate a truth. But even those terms could be said to understate the reach of stewardship as a whole-life responsibility.

R. C. Sproul has pointed out that “stewardship is about exercising our God-given dominion over His creation, reflecting the image of our creator God in His care, responsibility, maintenance, protection, and beautification of His creation.”

1. The Principle of Ownership

Simply put, it is not your stuff! Our world is consumed with the idea of ownership, possession and having a little bit more. Perhaps Paul said it best, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? “ 1 Corinthians 4:7.


The more we take credit for what we have, the more we deny God’s part in our lives. Since He owns it all, that part is a very large part.

It was His before creation, it was His at the time of creation, it has been His since then and it will always be His. God owns everything; at most we are stewards, managers or workers serving His purposes. That is true whether we recognize it or not. Therefore, stewardship is the commitment of all of our lives, time, family, home, and work to God’s service.

The expression of God’s ownership is not limited to just the Psalms. 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 says it with equal clarity:

2. The Principle of Responsibility



This goes far beyond your finances because it is a whole-life responsibility, although stewardship certainly does include your handling of money.



A. In the area of your time, stewardship means scheduling time to meet with God in the Bible and to pray – as an individual and as a family.

It is so easy to get busy.

B. Stewardship includes giving time to the family God has given to you. It means being faithful and a servant to your spouse. Ephesians 5.

C. Stewardship also means making certain that the spiritual gifts God gave to you are used to serve God faithfully.

D. It means giving God from the first fruits of your earnings His part – and all you are able to give.

E. It means working at your job and at all that you do as “working to the Lord.” Colossians 3:23-24.

F. And it means treating others as your neighbors because you are a steward over the relationships and people God has given you. Luke 15:11-32.

3. The Principle of Accountability

This principle takes us back to the Parable of the Talents. The steward who failed in his responsibility over what God entrusted to him was stripped of the talent he had been given.



Similarly, we will be called upon to give an account of how we have served as stewards of the many areas of our stewardship; our time, money, abilities, skills, talents, knowledge, information, wisdom, relationships, family, work and even our opportunities. We will all have to give an account to the rightful owner, God, as to how well we served as stewards. Our lives and our actions are being measured.

Given the fact that here at Idlewild it takes the time of over 200 members to bring in a new member, one area of accountability in our whole–life responsibility we might fear is in the area of witnessing or even inviting people to worship with us. Areas of accountability are, like this one, very personal and highly dependent upon our personal situations and circumstances. But note that Jesus did not give the steward an opportunity to attempt to justify his failure to manage well.

4. The Principle of Reward



First, consider who you are a steward for, who you are serving.

You have to love and respect that last sentence. “It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Second, it is also what you are working for.

We obtain rewards for doing good works (Ephesians 6:8, Romans 2:6, 10), persevering under persecution (Luke 6:22-23), caring for the needy (Matthew 25:20-21), and treating our enemies kindly (Luke 6:35). God also graciously gives us eternal rewards for generous giving: Go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven (Matthew 19:21).



Your salvation is not a reward you are given for efforts, work or service. It is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8-9.