Where Your Treasure Is Study #5

David Staff   -   February 15, 2021

MY TREASURE: The Rewards of Stewardship Investing

Luke 12:41-48, 19:11-27, Matthew 25:14-30

This teaching series has raised a number of important questions:

  • Am I investing more “here” (on earth) or “there” (in heaven)?
  • Does God get the first and best from me, or what’s left over?
  • With what I have been given, am I serving God or serving money?
  • Is generosity the set of my heart?

Yet another important matter our Lord’s evaluation.  Jesus called his disciples to be “faithful and wise managers” of what the Master has endowed.  In your group, explore this parable:

Luke 12:41-48  Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”  

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?  Blessed is that servant  whom his master will find so doing when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.   

But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 

And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. 

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

What do you observe here?

  • Describe the stewardship arrangement between a “master” (i.e., God) and his “servants” (i.e., people, and more specifically, disciples).
  • Who owns what is being managed?
  • What is the master’s expectation?
  • In what ways can servants respond to his expectation?
  • How does this parable reconfigure your understanding of what’s ahead for the Christian?
  • How do 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 help explain this parable?

In the devotional reader Where Your Treasure Is, Pastor David Staff observes:

Admittedly, passages like these can be more than a little unsettling.  Many Christians – perhaps most – have been taught in essence that nothing truly negative lies ahead for the one whose sins have been fully forgiven by the blood of Christ.  Such full forgiveness, to be sure, is what God promises to every one who places faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross.  No child of God will suffer any of God’s wrath which our sinful condition and choices deserve.

However, this solid assurance should not mute what the Spirit through Scripture also teaches about the rewarding of those disciples giving obedient faithfulness to the Master’s kingdom business.  The Bible is clear that the Lord will evaluate faithfulness and fruitfulness.  And, some servants will be honored with reward in a future age while others will suffer the loss of commendation and reward in failing to take seriously the Master’s endowment and expectation.  Indeed, Jesus speaks of this rewarding vividly, the experience of great joy for faithfulness vs. the experience of significant shame.

HEEDING THE MASTER’S CALL

Randy Alcorn quotes Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1649), who asked —

If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it? One would think, if a man did once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, and speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or labour for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.

then adding, “May we joyously believe. And then may we live as if we believe!” [Money, Possessions, and Eternity, Kindle Edition. p.138.]

For more on this, read chapter 8  in the CCC Devotional Where Your Treasure Is.

REFLECTION and DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. What new discoveries about your stewardship did you make during this discussion and study?
  2. Understanding that a future age will be the time when disciple-servants will be awarded for faithfulness, how does it deepen or expand your view of what’s ahead for Christians?
  3. Are you clear about the difference between God’s giving us eternal life (freely by faith) and God challenging us to earn reward for faithfulness? Could you explain this to someone else?  Which passages of Scripture would you use to demonstrate the difference?

CONNECT GROUP PRAYER

  • Pray for wisdom for those leading Christ Community Church. Our Missional Leadership Board will be engaging in “advance” planning days (Feb 26–27), seeking the Lord for the year ahead.
  • Pray for those considering stepping forward to be baptized on Easter Sunday morning, that they will have the Spirit’s leading and courage to take this important discipleship step. (Have you taken this step? 😊)
  • Pray for the Lord to continue to grow Christ Community Church as we share Christ’s love and gospel with others.
  • Pray for our brothers and sisters who have experienced significant personal losses in recent weeks, for God’s perspective and grace.
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