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Back to the Series  Stewardship

This morning is the first Sunday of three Sundays where we’re going to be looking at stewardship.  Of course as soon as we say “stewardship” the first thing that comes to mind is what?  Money.  “That was the best sermon on giving that I’ve ever heard.”

We’re not going to be looking at money today.  That’ll come on the third Sunday of this series.  So, if you miss a Sunday miss September 5th - which is Labor Day weekend.  A great time to plan a family vacation to Firebaugh or someplace.

Admittedly stewardship - as a topic - generally sounds about as exciting as yesterday’s cold oatmeal.  Been there - done that - 10% - yadi yadi yada.  And - to make things even more interesting - what we’re about to look at is some of what we looked at last fall when we looked at stewardship.  So there is some repetition.  But, repetition is the key to what?  Learning.  And we need to get this.  God wants us to get this.

I don’t think any one of us gets this - not to the full extent of what stewardship is.  I don’t.  I’m sharing this morning from weakness - not strength. 

Stewardship is a whole lot more than 10%.  Stewardship touches the core of our adventuring through life with God.  Stewardship is integral to who we are.  Who we’re created to be.  When we come to understand stewardship - when we come to live as stewards of what God entrusts us with - stewardship brings us to the kind of life that - at the core - we’re all craving to live.

I pulled this quote from a recent article by Mark Labberton - who’s a prof down at Fuller Seminary:  [We] “have often done a better job cultivating Christian consumers with well-developed musical tastes than nurturing battle-ready disciples.”  (Mark Labberton, Leadership, Summer 2010)

One of the things we’ve shared - on other Sundays - one of the huge problems in the church in America - perhaps the core problem - why the church in the US is in serious serious trouble - is that we’ve substituted serving God with serving ourselves.  We’ve become consumers of a Christian religious experience where the bottom line is not how I can serve God - how I can sacrificially follow Jesus - but how God through His church can serve me - meet my needs - my family’s needs.  Great worship - youth ministry - reasonably entertaining sermons - whatever floats our boat.  If not - then I’m out of here - I’m on to the next church.

When we live in sin we’re focused on ourselves and not God.  Sin is self-destructive behavior.  Sin - this self-focused - self-destructive - meet my needs or I’m out of here - attitude is destroying the society we live in and is dragging us down as well.  Gnawing at our marriages and families - even our own feelings about ourselves.

Stewardship is the complete 180º opposite of all that.  Stewardship forces - disciplines us - to focus - not on ourselves - but on God.  Stewardship teaches us to live life where the only explanation for how our lives are lived and sustained - whatever is produced - experienced - enjoyed - whatever the reality of our lives - stewardship brings us to the reality that the only explanation for all that is God.

And that is the great adventure.  The  kind of life that we were created by God to live.  The only life where true security and peace and the fulfillment that we crave - the only life where all that is found.  Life where we’re trusting God for everything and God is glorified.

Over the next three Sundays we’re going to focus on The Big Three of Stewardship - which are?  Time, Talent, Treasure.  Have heard those before?  Those three - time - talent - treasure - cover the bases of what we need to be looking at when it comes to understanding stewardship - how stewardship can radically change our lives for the better.

This morning we’re going to start with the stewardship of time.  Let’s say that together:  “The stewardship of time.”

Please turn with me to Psalm 90 - starting at verse 1.  If you need a Bible there’s one under one of the chairs ahead of you.  We want to encourage you to bring your own Bible on Sundays.  But if you need one there’s one there for you to use.  And if you don’t have a Bible of your own feel free to take that one home with you.

Would you read verses 1 to 6 out loud with me?  You can see these up here as well.

Psalm 90 - starting at verse 1 - looking at the stewardship of time.  Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.  You turn man back into dust and say, “Return, O children of men.”  For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.  You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.  In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades and withers away.

Isn’t that an incredible affirmation of the awesomeness of God?  Can you say “Amen”?  There are three truths here in Psalm 90 - about God and time - that we need to grab on to.  The first truth is here in verses 1 to 6.  All Time Is God’s Time.  Let’s say that together, “All time is God’s time.”

First that means that God is the God of history.

Moses composed Psalm 90 during the Exodus - out in the wilderness - for Israel to sing as a praise to God - to remind God’s people of Who God is.  Moses begins with “You - God - have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

A dwelling place is a place where people… dwell.  Its where we live.  Since man has been on earth man has dwelt with God.

Before Moses there was Jacob and Isaac and Abraham.  Before Abraham there was Noah and Adam.  Read the genealogies in Scripture.  Take the time to work through mispronouncing all those names.  Dry Scripture.  But while you’re reading be thinking that these were real people - who were born to mothers and fathers - into families - and who lived their lives as we live our lives - who had hopes and dreams - and they died.

Generations.  As long as there have been generations God has been there.  People come and go but God remains generation after generation dwelling with His people.

God is the God of man’s history.  And, second, God is the God of creation.

Before the mountains were - God was.  Before there was an earth - God was.  Before anything - God was.  In Genesis God speaks all things into existence by the authority of His word. 

Whatever understanding we may have of natural law is limited to the perspective of the created not the perspective of the creator.  We can speculate all we want about how all this came into being - how long it took - even the method God may have used to bring all this into being.  But, ultimately we don’t know.  But, God does.  Because God was there and we weren’t.  By His word - out of nothing - God created everything.

Third, God is the God who’s eternal.  God exists from everlasting to everlasting. 

God exists outside of time - before time - after time - and during time - simultaneously.  God has always been God.  God will always be God.  God doesn’t owe His existence to anything.  He is.  The great I Am.  Coming from our perspective of birth - life - death.  Beginnings and endings - linear time - that’s a mind blower isn’t it?  God exists.  Period.

Fourth truth, God is the God who uses time.  Time is God’s.  He created it.  Time does not bind God.  God binds time.  God uses time according to His purposes.

Moses writes, “You turn man back into dust.”  We’re created from dust.  We return to dust.  Earth to earth.  Dust to dust.  Ashes to ashes.  Dust is like a vapor.  Poof.  Gone. 

Maybe you’ve heard the story about a little girl who learned in Sunday school that man came from dust and eventually returns to the dust.  She looked under her bed one morning and said, “Mother come quick!  There’s someone under my bed.  But, I don’t know whether he’s coming or going!”

A thousand years - a millennium of man’s time - think about all the history that’s gone on in the last 1,000 years - the dusty ages of antiquity - the empires - the lives lived and gone - and all that those people experienced - history unknown to us - all that is as familiar and as recent as yesterday to God.  God brings the years into existence.  Before Him they flourish.  When their time is done - toward evening - they fade and wither away.

Twin brothers live on Earth.  One brother takes a trip to a distant star traveling at a high percentage of the speed of light.  Sorry - reality - no warp speed.  A high percentage of the speed of light.  When the twin returns he’ll be younger than his brother who stayed on earth because for the twin traveling near the speed of light time slowed down during the trip.  Are we together?

Remember what that effect is called?  “Time dilation.”  It helps explain why the speed of light is the same no matter how fast we’re going.  As a traveler accelerates time slows down for him. This, in turn, affects his measurements.  Still together? 

The passage of time is relative to our own perspective of passing events.  When we’re anticipating something we’re really looking forward to - like a vacation - or a concert - or a sporting event - our birthday - generally the anticipation takes longer than the actual event.  Right?  That’s the experience of time altered by our perspective.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Galatian believers - Galatians 4:4,5 - Paul writes, “When the fullness of the time came - “fullness” in Greek is a word that has the idea of a ship being prepared to set sail - provisioned and crewed.  When its ready, it sails.

Ever pack for a vacation - cram everything in the car - and 3 hours into the drive realize you forgot something?  Not that the Muncherian family has ever done that.  That’s not fullness.

“Fullness” means when all the preparations were completed - fully - completely - without leaving anything out - when the time was right to move forward - when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son - Jesus - born of a women, born under the law, so that He - Jesus - might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  (Galatians 4:4,5)

Where Jesus was born - when Jesus was born - how Jesus was born - those are not coincidences.  Right?

When Alexander swept out of Greece - conquering the middle east and beyond - he gave the world a common language for the first time in history since Babel.  The vast extent of Alexander’s empire made commercial and cultural relations possible that linked together people in a way that had never happened in history.

The Romans came in and absconded with all that - adding to what the Greek’s had done - the Romans added their road system.  “All roads lead to... Rome.”  Their subjugation of Europe - North Africa - the Middle East - the Near East - parts of central Asia - provided a transportation infrastructure never before seen in human history. 

The Greeks and the Romans gave us our first Global Village.  A time of common language - culture - transportation - commerce - and the ability to spread the Gospel that hasn’t been seen since - until today.  Imagine if they’d had the internet - Facebook - texting the Gospel.

The date of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem - Palm Sunday - that timing was fixed centuries earlier - through the prophetic word - and even - Scripture tells us - before the creation of the world.  If He’d gotten there just a few years earlier the Gospel would never have made it out of Palestine. 

Jesus arrives on the scene when God’s people were searching - desperate.  Their religious leaders had failed them.  Their politicians were abusing them.  The gods of the cultures around them had come up empty.

Its no coincidence that Jesus enters Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles - to enter in triumph before millions looking for a king.  To arrive at Passover - to present Himself as the sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sins of mankind.

The Apostle Peter writes, “The Lord....is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)  God is long-suffering toward rebellious mankind.  The Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)  Men are “dead in their trespasses and sins.”  (Ephesians 2:1)  Everyone deserves hell - eternal conscious punishment and eternal separation from God. (Romans 6:23)  And when Jesus returns - that’s it.  Judgment and Hell and eternal separation for those without Jesus.

But, God is patient toward us that we might be saved.  God loves our family members and friends - our co-workers - who have not trusted Jesus.  He is patient - perhaps working through us - to share the Gospel and bring them to salvation.

Point being - bottom line - God transcends time.  He created it.  The God of man’s history - the eternal God is using time - it’s a tool in His hands -  that He’s using according to the purposes for which He created it. 

Grab that for yourself.  When we look at how the events within the time of our lives - how those events unfold - they may seem random - senseless - lurching along into an uncertain future.  We need to be reminded that time - and the events within time - they progress according to God’s will.  God knew - before we knew - the events around us of this last week - and how those events connect to what’s coming this week.  He knew which of us would be here today - even the message we need hear.

All time is God’s time.  That truth needs to get in to our hearts and rattle around and shape the very core of who we are and our willingness to trust not ourselves - but to trust God with our lives.

The second truth we need to know about time is that Our Time Is God’s Time.  Let’s say that together, “Our time is God’s time.”

Let’s read together starting at verse 7:  For we have been consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath we have been dismayed.  You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.  For all our days have declined in Your fury; we have finished our years like a sigh.  As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;  for soon it is gone and we fly away.  Who understands the power of Your anger and your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

A few years back some workers were digging in a basement in Salzburg, Austria - and they heard a scratching noise just under the ground.  As they dug down they discovered the lost grave of the famous composer Mozart.  When they opened his casket - Mozart was inside furiously erasing all of his compositions.  They said, “Mozart, Mozart, what are you doing?”  Mozart replied, “I’m decomposing.”

Heard that?  That’s bad.  Isn’t it? 

Its so easy for us to get caught up in our own self-focused vision of our lives - of who we are - our priorities - our dreams - our hopes - our desires - our vision of where we’re going in life.  Those things aren’t necessarily bad.  But the greatest men and women of history share one common reality.  They’re all dead.

With all of our arrogance and pride - all our accomplishments - with all our medical knowledge - we still can’t conquer the grave.

I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago.  5 more years and I get senior discounts at Denny’s.  How many of you are already enjoying that privilege.  Something for me to look forward to.

These 70 or 80 years go by really quick.  We all return to the dust.  No amount of liposuction or Botox or Rogaine is going to add one micro second to the length of our lives.  When our number’s up.  Its up.  And the clock is ticking. 

The point of verses 7 to 11 - these cheery verses about God’s wrath and God’s fury and being consumed by God’s anger - the point is that we’re accountable to God for how we use the time He’s given us.  Whatever length of time that may be.  Life is about Who?  God.  Our time is God’s time.

We need to let that truth rattle around in our minds and hearts.  We need to admit the frail and finite nature of our lives and to realize that we’re here because God has put us here - for His purposes - for what He desires to do in us and through us.

The third truth we need to know about time is that God’s Time Isn’t Wasted Time.  Let’s say that together, “God’s time isn’t wasted time.”

Let’s read these verses - verses 12 to 17 - together and then we’ll come back and look at what Moses is saying here.  Verse 12:  So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.  Do return, O Lord; how long will it be?  And be sorry for Your servants.  O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.  Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil.  Let Your work appear to Your servants and Your majesty to their children.  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;  And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands. 

How valuable is time? 

(Cartoon:  “While looking on my Facebook account I noticed the staff is spending too much time looking at Facebook.  I could see some of the staff on there for hours.  In fact - during the nine hours I was watching I think the whole staff may have been on at some time just wasting time.” )

How valuable is a month?  Ask a mother who’s given birth prematurely.  How valuable is a week?  Ask the editor of a weekly magazine.  How valuable is a day?  Ask a day laborer with kids to feed.  How valuable is a minute?  Ask someone who’s late for class.  How valuable is second?  Ask someone who just avoided a car accident.  How valuable is a millisecond?  Ask the runner who came in second.

Numbering our days means to count them - learning the value of each moment given to us by God.  Wisdom from the heart - means that at the core of who we are we’ve learned from God how to use our days according to God’s purposes.

That - by the way - is the stewardship of time.  Using our God given time according to God’s purposes.  Let’s try that together:  “Using our God given time according to God’s purposes.”

Look at verse 13:  Do return, O Lord; how long will it be?  And be sorry for your servants.  A rough translation is:  “God, don’t leave us hanging while we’re numbering our days.”

Verse 14:  O satisfy us in the morning with your lovingkindness - fill us full with your goodness - stuff us to overflowing with your faithful love - that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days - that we’ll be so overcome with joy that we’ll explode with praise for You.

Verse 15:  Make us glad according to the days you have afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil.  Life has enough hard stuff in it.  Life is full of drama.  God balance it out.  Let the good times roll.

Verse 16:  Let Your work appear to your servants and Your majesty to their children.  Lift the curtain.  Let us see behind the scenes of history - your purposeful orchestration of history.  Let us see what you’re doing - the awesomeness - the splendor - the glory of Who you are.

Verse 17:  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands.  Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Roughly paraphrased:  O Lord our God - may you be so pleased with us that you will make our endeavors successful.  What endeavors?  The one’s which You God have purposed for us to do in the time You’ve given to us.

Did you catch that verses 13 to 17 are a result of learning how to do verse 12?  Verses 13 to 17 are the expectation of what happens to us when we use our God given time according to God’s purposes.  Which is all good.

How incredible it is to experience the joy of God’s presence - even in the midst of hard times.  To live experiencing God’s faithful love.  To be more and more aware of God at work in our lives and how He weaves us into His purposes.  To anticipate success in our endeavors.  To know that our lives have purpose.  Wouldn’t it be great to live that way?

God gives us time - not to waste it - not because God has time to burn - but because each moment is valuable to the work He desires to do in us and through us.

Thinking about time - the stewardship of time - adventuring through life trusting God - let me share two thoughts to hold on to as we go out from here to what God has prepared for us this week.  How do we live stewarding time?

First - grab this:  Time isn’t a birthright.  Together:  “Time isn’t a birthright.” 

C.S. Lewis - writing in The Screwtape Letters - Screwtape - a high ranking demon - is giving advice to Wormwood - his novice demon nephew.  Screwtape is giving his nephew Wormwood advice on how Wormwood can really mess up the faith of a young man:  “You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own.’  - Hear that?  Birthright. - Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.  Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of his property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties.  But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”

When we view time as our birthright we begin to think that all those interruptions to our plans - someone showing up unexpectedly - the driver going really really slow in front of us - the phone call in the middle of the game - people who never stop talking when we’ve got places to go - people to see - things to do - we start thinking that all that is an imposition on “our” time.  Easy to do.  Yes?

Remember I’m sharing out of my weakness not my strength.  I’ve got a ways to go on this.

When we view time as our birthright we start thinking that we’ve earned the right to our own recreation and leisure.  It’s my time.  I get to buy a Winnebago - driving all over the place stopping at Starbucks.  You can come up with your own retirement plans.  Mine is in the San Lorenzo Valley - a cabin in the redwoods with a stream running by.  It’s the George Bailey thing.  Remember George?  I want to do what I want to do.  Pretty frustrating.

God gives us the time and privilege to join with our siblings in Jesus - here for worship - but we feel we a have a right to be elsewhere.  God gives us the privilege and time to meet together with Him and our siblings in Jesus - for prayer or Bible study - and we have other priorities.  God calls us to witness for Him - “Go into all he world” - that’s proactive - direct - requires commitment - dedication - not “go and do what you think is best and when you feel like it throw My name into the conversation.”   “Go witness” - and we allow other things to organize our time.

Time as a birthright is all about me, myself, and I.  Self.

Remember Family Beach Day?  Don’t you just love Facebook?

Ever build a sand castle?  Imagine our world as adults - using time to serve ourselves - building things out of nothing.  Answering phones - keeping up with emails - texting - chatting - taping schedules into organizers - commitments and obligations - running from place to place - never really catching up - hoping we don’t forget a child someplace - not that we’ve ever done that.  Trying to control our lives.  Building our carefully constructed little worlds.  Monuments to ourselves.  Living in fear that something will happen to all that. 

In time what happens?  The tide comes in - washes away our little castles. 

When we see time as a birthright - holding on to what we think is ours - life slips through our fingers like little grains of sand - and for what?

Maybe we need to view time differently.  God owns the sand.  He controls the waves.   While time isn’t a birthright - second thought - time is a gift of God.  Together:  “Time is a gift of God.”  Time is a well thought out gift that God purposefully gives to each one of us - to be used according to His purposes.  How do we do that?

Do you remember the movie “Dead Poets Society” - Robin Williams portraying John Keating?  He quotes the Latin words, “Carpe Diem” - which means what?  “Seize the Day.”  It was a way of energizing his students.  Rise up and grab hold of life.

About 100 years ago Christians signed their letters with the postscript “D.V.”  D.V. stands for the Latin words? “Deo Volente” - which means?  “God willing.”

“Carpe Diem” is arrogant.  “Deo Volente, Carpe Diem.”  “God willing, seize the day!” puts us under God’s sovereignty - understanding that time is God’s gift.

Kent Hughes describes us this way, “So pervasive is our culture's arrogant independence of God that even many (most) Christians attend church, marry, choose their vocations, have children, buy and sell homes, and numbly ride the currents of culture without substantial reference to the will of God.”

We need to turn from our arrogance of faith in our own knowledge and cleverness - our own self focused priorities and planning - our own self focused vision of our future.  We need to daily - minute by minute - if not second by second - learn to enjoy the process of discovery, submission, and faithful dependence on God.

Everything we do needs to be first taken before God in prayer.  First thing in the morning thank God for giving you a new day.  Ask Him to lead you in His purposes for giving that day.  All that we do needs to be evaluated by His word.  Are we living by what He says.

We need to learn to live life - a life in which, from the core of our being, our passionate desire is to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness - the accomplishment of His will in us and through us.  For us to lay our lives down before the sovereign God of time - so that if any vision is given - if any direction is given to our lives - it must be coming from Him.

Why has God given you today?

_____________________

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.