Servant Stewards (2)

Life after Pentecost (III)

 

1 Corinthians 4

 

Doug Meland and his wife of Wycliffe Bible Translators went into a village in Brazil. The inhabitants were Fulnio Indians. These Indians called Doug the “white man.” They had all experienced what white men had done to their homes and villages.

When Doug learned their language and began helping them medically and in other ways, they called him “the respectable white man.”

As time went by, he learned more of the customs of the village and became a part of its life; he was called “the white Indian.”

One day when Doug was washing a dirty, bloody foot of an injured local Fulnio boy, he heard an elderly man saying, “Who has heard of a white man washing an Indian’s foot? Certainly this man is from God.”

From that day on the tile was changed to “the man God sent us.”

 

Paul is interested in this kind of serventhood in the church of Corinth. His writings are instructing us today. The story that just I told illustrates how the “white man”s title was changing day-by-day. Eventually the words: “white,” “respectable,” “white-Indian,” were dropped. The most important word stayed: God sent us.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt 5: 16). Our deeds should lead people to glorify God. Humility is a key word here. To be “under-rowers” is not an easy job. It needs discipline, humility and obedience.

 

2- Stewards

 

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (2)

NIV translated the Greek word oikonomos (which means steward) to “given a trust.” What does steward mean?

Someone who is in charge of the master’s household or business to run the daily life when the master is gone.

Although to be a steward bears great responsibility, yet the steward is accountable to his master who entrusted him with his “home.” Therefore, Paul adds another important word, to be FAITHFUL (to be trustworthy).

In Matthew 24:45-51 Jesus talks about unfaithful stewardship:

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The way I understand is that God entrusted us with a ministry, and we should be faithful in managing that, whatever it is we are involved in. It reminds me of the talent proverb. The one who received one talent did not use it but kept it underground. That is not good stewardship. When we are entrusted with something, we need to be faithful to what is given to us. Each person should use her/his gift in the right attitude and goal: to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Charles Swindoll illustrates this point by a story.

“Once in Springfield, Oregon, a newsletter published an article about a group of animals that decided to do something that can make a difference in this modern world. So they decided to build a school. They included swimming, running, climbing, and flying in the curriculum.

The administration encouraged all animals to take all the courses.

The duck was a great swimmer, but got a low grade in flying.

The bird did great in flying, but hardly got a passing grade in swimming.

The duck decided that he should improve his running. He took extra lessons in running. Unfortunately, his feet hurt badly and he could not achieve much. The squirrel was good in climbing but got frustrated during flying lessons.

Do you see the picture? This is bad stewardship. We cannot do all work in the church. We read in 1 Peter 4:10

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.”

Beware of programs in the church. We should not be the slave of programs. We should examine and see if we are serving people and not programs.

I heard from Sevan that in the 1980’s, when she was a Sunday School teacher in the First Armenian Evangelical Church ofBeirut, the Civil War was devastating and less people were coming to church. Some were wondering why they were serving a real small group of young students in Sundays School and Badanyatz (Youth Group). Then it was required to be faithful stewards, which meant to do your best. We look back and we see that of those 6-7 people we now have committed people: a pastor, a youth worker, a Christian social worker, a Sunday School teacher, and an Armenian evangelical school principal.

 

The bottom line is be faithful to do the ministry. It’s not important how many converts you got! Maybe one person, or maybe many that you don’t know about. The important part is be faithful in your work.

 

3. Finally Paul talks about another topic that we need to learn about- the topic of judging.

 

Three kinds of judgers:

a-     People will judge you. “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court”(3). People are going to talk, to judge without understanding what you are doing. If Paul cared about their to judgment he would never become an apostle.

b-    Self-judgment. “I do not even judge myself”(3). One cannot measure himself or herself by standards we put by ourselves. That is the reason he says, “my conscience is clear.” Why?

c-  Because only “it is the Lord who judges me”(4).  God’s Judgment is what matters.  Paul writes in  2nd Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”                                                                                                       

 

The bottom line is as long as one stays faithful in obedience to the Lord it does not matter how people will judge you. Watch it now; this should not make us arrogant Christians who are not in touch with God’s will. When we abide in Him, and when His Holy Spirit is in us, we learn how to be servant-stewards of Christ.  Remember both the servant and steward serve the MASTER.   

At the end of this passage, Paul says, “learn from me by imitating me”. It is a chain. We imitate Paul; Paul imitates Christ; Christ reveals the Father. 

The question, whom do you imitate?

 

Once I heard that a church adopted a phrase as a slogan: “Changing lives one person at a time.” Just be available and trust the Lord.                                                           

 

Let me finish with this illustration:

Once there was a water bearer who carried two large water pots. One of them had a crack. He carried water everyday on his two sides. One pot was very proud that he did his job very well carrying the full amount of water to its destination. The cracked pot though felt very bad, because it carried only half of the water to its destination. The water bearer looked kindly at the cracked pot and said, “Do not feel bad. As we go back to the master’s house, look at the flowers on the sides of the road.”

As they walked, the cracked pot did what the man asked him. And what a surprise! There were beautiful flowers on his side of the road. Without realizing, he had provided water to those flowers. The water bearer said to the pot: “For last two years my master had wonderful flowers on his table because of you.”

 

Each has a role in the church. If your feel weak, that is great. Just be sure to know that God is going to use your weakness somehow. But, but there is one thing: BE FAITHFUL to Jesus. Be a servant steward for His Glory.

 

After years of ministry, Billy Graham said,

“You see, we are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful.”