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"STEWARDSHIP IS A MATTER OF TRUST"
MESSAGE # 3 OF 4: "THE TRUST TEST - PART 1"
OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE TEXT: PSALM 139

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 1, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: Psalm 139 (King James Version)
1O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
5Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
13For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
19Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
20For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
21Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

MESSAGE: Two weeks ago we began a series of messages on the core issue of Christian stewardship: Trust. In the first message of the series, I explored with you the first and foremost trust question: "Can I trust God?" I shared with you why I am not a person who extends trust easily. Notwithstanding, I believe that I can, you can, we all can, trust God completely.
Last week we dealt with the flip side of the first question, i. e, "Can God trust me?" Can God trust me? Can God trust you? Can God trust us? That's a more difficult question to answer, but for those of us who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ, the answer should be "yes." It had better be yes, because the fact is that God has entrusted us with an entire world to care for.

Today, I want us to begin moving from the abstract to the concrete. Let's put God's trust in us - and our trust in God - to the test. What do I mean by that? A vintage illustration will probably say it best: Years ago, there was a famed high wire walker who strung a cable across Niagara Falls and, daily, performed the feat of walking across that cable, just above the raging torrent of water, to the delight of crowds of visitors who gathered to watch him. One day, after walking the wire, he asked the crowd: "Do you think I could walk the wire pushing a wheelbarrow?" The gathered throng cheered him on, "Yeah! Go for it!" So he did. He walked the wire across Niagara Falls pushing a wheelbarrow. He then asked the crowd, "Do you think I could walk the wire pushing that wheelbarrow with a person in it?" The gathered throng again egged him on, "Yes! You can do it!" But then they grew very silent as he asked, "Who will volunteer to ride in the wheelbarrow?" That, my friends, is putting trust - to the test.

We all use memory devices to help us recall information of importance, and the older I get, the more I need such devices. Let me introduce to you a "Trust Acrostic."

"T", the first letter, says this: "Take an inventory."
"R", the second letter, says: "Recognize God as your source."
"U", the third letter: "Understand God's stewardship principles."
"S", the fourth: "Surrender everything to God."
"T", fifth and finally: "Test God's promises."

For the remainder of this message, I'm going to begin fleshing out this "Trust Acrostic" with you. When we run out of time, we'll leave it unfinished - to be continued and completed next Sunday.
Psalm 139 is our text, and verses 23 and 24 of that Psalm, in a more modern translation, say, "Look deep into my heart, O God, and find out everything I am thinking. Don't let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true." Let's look deep into the typical Christian's heart, and root out those thoughts that prevent us from really trusting God.

The first such trust-preventive thought is fear. For example, many Christians don't think they can give a tithe to God and still meet their own needs. When I gave up a lucrative engineering job to become a preacher, that was one of my fears. But guess what? I'm still eating regularly and well, as you can easily see. God provides for those who trust Him.

The second trust-preventive thought in many a Christian's heart is simply a lack of real understanding of how to give. Many Christians are clueless -- they don't know how to give. And the third is related to it - a lack of planning to give. A lot of us, financially and otherwise, perennially live in "emergency" mode. The solution to both the "how to give" and the "planning to give" problems is simple: Put aside a tithe-of time, of talent, and of treasure -- first -- first and very regularly. Monetarily speaking, write that check first, put that amount of cash in a jar and hide it in the closet until Sunday, put your tithe to the church on electronic auto-debit - whatever works best for you. But do it first and do it systematically every time you receive income.
Do the same with planning out your time commitments, as well as the sharing of the many gifts and talents with which God has blessed you. Plan ahead - allocate in advance 10% of everything to God. It's amazing how many folks who couldn't manage on 100% of what they had find that, when they set aside 10% first for God, they're able to do better with the remaining 90%. It's not explainable mathematically - because the blessing of God is the incalculable, hidden factor. God blesses tithers. You can trust Him on that.

What I've just said, in summary, is this: Start with the first "T" of trust: Take an inventory of all you have, and set aside10% or more of it for God. Then trust Him that He'll sustain you with what's left.

The second letter of our "trust acrostic" is "R." Recognize God as your Source. Since most of us closely identify with tangibles, I ask you a financial question: If you received a check this month for $2000.00, how much of it is yours and how much is God's? If you just did a quick exercise in your head and came up with the answer that $200.00 is God's, you're pretty good at math. But you're not so good at Christian stewardship, because the correct answer to that question is $2000.00. All of it is God's.

If you look back at verses 13 and 14 of Psalm 139, you'll find that even you are God's - He formed and shaped you; He made you. Nothing that you have, nothing that you receive, nothing that you are is really yours. It's all God's. But God graciously allows you to use 90% of what He's provided you. He asks only 10% back - as rent for the use of the rest. In today's world, that's not much. Why, if I dare to tip the waiter at a restaurant less than 15%, my wife is all over me. God's rate is 10%. That's a bargain - especially considering that our very lives are His to give and take as He pleases.

Verse 6 of Psalm 139 tells us that God's omniscience - God's total and complete awareness of everything, including our own private thoughts, is beyond human ability to grasp. That's obviously true. But much of what God has done for us here on earth is within our human ability to understand - if we apply ourselves to do so. God didn't create us to be mindless robots. Neither did He intend us to be "know-nothings" who play dumb in order to avoid responsibility. And that brings us to the middle letter of our "Trust Acrostic," the letter "U". We can and should understand God's stewardship principles.

I'm now going to share with you ten stewardship principles that make significant differences in the lives of Christian disciples. These are deliberately "stolen" from my long-time mentor in the faith, Dr. John Maxwell. They're each and all solidly based upon scripture.
The first of them is the "Who's in Charge" principle. It's simple - God's the owner, I'm His manager. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," to quote Psalm 24, verse 1. It's not mine - it's His. But I'm responsible to Him to take care of it. He holds me accountable.
The second stewardship principle that matters is the "Give and Grow" principle. It says this: Practicing stewardship produces Christian growth. It's an observable principle: Show me a non-giver, and I'll show you a stunted, incomplete, baby believer. Show me a tither, and I'll show you a mature Christian disciple who's probably a recognized leader in both church and community. Christian stewardship really isn't about raising money or finding volunteers for the church. Rather, it's about developing growing Christian disciples. I rarely, if ever, need to look at people's giving records to see whether they tithe or not. It's written all over their lives.

The third stewardship principle that makes a difference is the "Do It Now" principle. Christian stewardship deals with our present resources. Folks often say to me, "I can't tithe now, but when I get on my feet, I'll tithe." No, you won't. If you can't tithe now, you won't tithe then. Occasionally someone even asks me, "Preacher, pray that I win the lottery, because if I do, I'll give half of my winnings to the church." I won't waste God's time with such a silly prayer. The "Do It Now" principle says that we give from what we have today, not what we fantasize about having tomorrow.

The "I'm in Debt" principle is number four, and it's based upon Romans 1:14 and 15. From the moment we're born, we're "under obligation," to use the apostle Paul's words. We're in debt - and no, I'm not referring to the huge national debt we're passing on to our children and grandchildren. Rather, we're in debt to God - for life itself. And we're in debt to those before us - for keeping the world in shape for us to use it. I'm personally in debt to the man who witnessed Jesus Christ to me. And how do we discharge that debt? By being effective stewards of what we've received. My job is to pass it on, to the next generation of believers.
The "Fountain of Youth" principle, number five, is this: Christians live forever through their giving. Yes, I know that all Christian believers live forever in heaven, but I'm talking about leaving a lasting legacy on this earth. I personally never met Robert Oppenheimer, but despite being long-deceased, his name is still prominent all over this town. So I feel like I do know Oppenheimer. Many of us are here, directly or indirectly, because of him. The same is true of Norris Bradbury. Los Alamos today is their legacy.

Christians leave a special legacy, and it's most often through our giving. Annually I travel to Waco, Texas to the Methodist Children's Home there. There I encounter the legacy of families like the Perkinses and the Prothros. They're gone from this earth, but they still live through the children whose lives their giving touches today. Someday folks who aren't even born yet will be blessed, in this church, by the legacy of Alice Carter, of Jim Little, of Pat Mendius, of Nels Hoffman. Some will be blessed by your legacy. Jesus put it this way, "What you keep you lose, but what you give away you keep." Or, to make the same statement from an oblique perspective: "Have you ever seen a hearse with a luggage rack?"
That's all the time we have for our message today. We'll continue this sermon next Sunday.

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