ABC’s of Giving: Attitude

Lk 10:25-37

I came across a series of lessons about stewardship by Jeff Strite. I felt it would be a great series for us as we begin thinking about what we will do with our commitment to the church in 2005. The basis of this series comes from a book entitled “Take God at His Word” by Kregg Hood.

Eric Hulstrand wrote about an incident that happened to him in Leadership Magazine a few years back: While I was preaching one Sunday, an elderly woman, Mary, fainted and struck her head on the end of the pew. Immediately, an EMT in the congregation called an ambulance. As they strapped her to a stretcher and got ready to head out the door, Mary regained consciousness. She motioned for her daughter to come near. Everyone thought she was summoning her strength to convey what could be her final words. The daughter leaned over until her ear was at her mother’s mouth. My offering is in my purse, she whispered.

That elderly woman was a remarkable person. Her last words showed what was of highest importance to her – to be a steward of gifts God had given her.

Usually when we think of stewardship, we think about the money we give or the ministry we do, but while those are important parts of stewardship, they aren’t stewardship. Stewardship means using God-given abilities to mange God-given resource, to accomplish God-ordained results. We can give money to God with a wrong attitude and not be a good steward. We can even do ministry with a wrong attitude and not be a good steward. Stewardship requires the right attitude to go along with our actions.

In this parable, there are 3 attitudes about stewardship shown and most of us can see ourselves in one of these three attitudes.

PRAYER

I. What’s Yours is Mine and I’m Going to Take It.

A. The Thieves

1. READ vs 30 - In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. NIV

2. Now of course we would never approve of this attitude, even the world doesn’t approve of it. We have laws against stealing.

3. Yet Mal 3:8-10 has an interesting passage. READ

4. I know this is dealing with the Old Testament, but think about what God is saying here. Remember that attitude we were talking about. Do you think we could still rob him today in our attitude about giving?

B. Let’s give a scenario in today’s setting.

1. When we eat at a decent restaurant, we almost always leave a tip. Usually 10%-20%. If we leave less or none it’s an indication we were very unhappy with our service. Do we owe the waitress the tip? No, but a tip is a show of appreciation for how she served us.

2. We aren’t commanded to tithe anymore, but shouldn’t we show the same appreciation for what God has done for us as for what a waitress has done for us?

3. Church members come dangerously close to being like these thieves by robbing God and the church when we don’t give back to God some of what he has blessed us with.

II. What’s Your is Mine and I’m Going to Keep it.

A. The Levite and Pharisee

1. READ vs 31-32

2. It’s interesting that Jesus chose these two men to pass by.

3. These guys were trained for ministry to others.

4. They were the doers of the church.

5. Here was their chance to do real ministry!

6. But they weren’t going to do anything for this beaten and bleeding man.

7. It would mean giving up their resources and personal comfort, and they had better things to do than help him.

8. They were going to keep what God had given them. They weren’t good stewards.

B. Look at us

1. How many of us can see ourselves in these two men.

2. We’ve gone to workshops about ministry

3. We’ve had classes in church or are involved with various ministry committees, but when it comes to doing actual ministry, we always find a good reason not to do.

III. What’s Mine is Yours and I’ll Share it with You

A. The Samaritan

1. He probably wasn’t and wealthier than the other two, he wasn’t trained in ministry, he probably had other things to do as well

2. Yet, he stopped where the others walked by.

B. What made the difference?

1. He overcame his prejudice.

a) His people and the Jews hated each other.

b) But he saw a person in need and did the right thing.

2. He ignored the inconvenience

a) He went out of his way to take care of this man.

b) But he did the right thing.

3. Gave up his possessions to take care of this man

a) It cost him extra time, extra money, and extra effort.

b) But he did the right thing

4. His attitude is what made the story worth telling

C. What’s the right attitude for a good steward of God?

1. A steward in ancient times was a person who took care of someone else’s property.

a) A good example is Joseph who was the chief steward for Potifer

b) A steward doesn’t own his property it belongs to his master. His job is to make sure that property is best serving his master.

2. We are stewards of God blessings. It isn’t our time, wealth or property, or relationships, it’s God’s.

a) We need to be using it to best serve our master.

b) We’re managing these things for God!

3. When this attitude really sinks into us, then we can become good stewards for God.

D. Conclusion

1. Albert Schweitzer the famous missionary had a man who supported his missions in a big way. In fact this restaurant owner, Emil Mettler did a lot for those in the missions field. One day a fellow church member was talking with him as he rang up a meal order. He was astonished to see a large six-inch nail holding down the bills. He asked the owner what that nail was doing there. Mr. Mettler replied, “ I keep this nail with my money to remind me of the price that Christ paid for my salvation and of what I owe Him in return.”

2. We need to grow to that level of stewardship and over the next 3 or 4 weeks of lessons I hope we’ll all come to that point.

3. Remember the Malachi passage? If God would make that promise to those under the law, don’t you think he’ll be just as faithful to us under his grace?