Stewardship goals

Tonight we want to look at stewardship goals, and there are outlines at the back if you happen to have missed getting one. There should be one back on the back there. I'm going to read a few verses in Philippians chapter 1, first of all.

Philippians 1 and verse 6 says, Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it, that is, he will perfect it or accomplish it, until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is meet or just for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. Now notice verse 9, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment or discernment, that you may approve things that are excellent or things that excel, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Now he mentions his circumstances of being in prison, and drop down to verse 20. He says, According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Now we'll notice again over in chapter 2, where he says in verse 14, Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. Now we'll notice a little bit here, maybe I should read in chapter 3 as well, because there's some very precious things taught in Philippians chapter 3. He gives his pedigree, his background, all that he had going for him in the first few verses of the chapter.

In verse 7 he says, But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung or garbage, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

One of the things that I appreciate about the Philippian Epistle is that it really is about focus. And we learn in this Epistle that focus is the key to overcoming discouragements. It's the key to overcoming bitternesses.

It's the key to overcoming strife and conflict. And the Apostle Paul uses his own example, his own circumstances to teach the saints to keep their mind focused upon the Lord Jesus and upon God's purposes. Now, tonight in taking up the idea of stewardship goals, we've been covering quite a range of subjects over the last few nights, and it seems like we're kind of jumping from one area to another, and we just sort of get into one area and we shift gears and go into another area.

But there is something that integrates all of that together, and that is really our goal of becoming like Christ. Everything that we are to be involved in in life should be leading towards this final purpose. Otherwise, it could be a distraction from that true goal of life.

Now, for some reason, whenever I look at Philippians 1, and I think of this idea of focus and the future and Paul's ability to overcome his present circumstances and to have joy in jail, to be in very difficult circumstances, not knowing what his earthly future is going to be. He didn't know whether he was going to live or die. Yet he is filled with joy, filled with confident expectation.

And I think of the contrast with King Solomon as we find him presented in the book of Ecclesiastes. You know, Solomon's life would be the envy of many people today. Did he have it made? The wealthiest man in the world? The wisest man in the world? The greatest opportunity to discover life? Nothing was outside his reach.

The book of Ecclesiastes traces his search for life and meaning, for purpose. And it's a pretty melancholy book. And I can just imagine him in his old age, in his palace with everything golden around him, everything ivory, everything just splendid.

And he's absolutely dejected. He says that life is just a futile pursuit, just chasing the wind. And he was successful, very successful.

And that leads us to this problem that even success itself can become a failure if it distracts us from God's eternal purposes. And Paul touches on that in chapter 3, but I want to look at chapter 1 first of all to draw attention to this important recognition that God has a goal. And that goal is summarized in the expression the day of Christ.

Now the day of Christ is the day when we are going to be presented to the Lord Jesus, when we are brought into his presence and in all the completeness of the work of redemption and all the accumulated gain of benefit of our spiritual transformation, we are brought to him for his joy. The day of Christ is linked with two other expressions in the Bible, the day of the Lord and the day of God. And sometimes it's difficult to be sure, to be dogmatic on the distinction of the terms, but just an overview of it would suggest that the day of Christ is the heavenly aspect when we are taken to his presence, redeemed, liberated, perfect, as he has intended us to be.

And then from there it's the asserting of his sovereignty over the earth in the day of the Lord when he judges the world and crushes all of the present world systems. That's the day of the Lord. That probably extends right through the millennial kingdom.

And then we have what is called the day of God, which is what we might call the eternal day, when eternal perfection is everywhere in all of God's creation, and God is all in all. But the day of Christ is, you might say, the first stage of that irreversible triumph of Christ and his glory being manifested everywhere, and we're going to be part of that. And so the emphasis we need to grasp is this.

God has an interest in you and in me as a Christian. And there's an even better interest than just me or you. It's his day.

It is the day of glory for his son. And so God is zealous for the honor of his son. He watched his son crucified on earth.

He watched him being rejected and despised and made as nothing. And God is never going to rest until his son is absolutely supreme and honored and worshipped in all of his creation. And we are an integral part of that because we are also going to be in that day of Christ.

And so the apostle says, the confidence I have towards you is that God has begun a work in you. It's a good work. And he's going to perfect it.

He's going to bring it to its completion. And the challenge that each one of us has in our personal stewardship as a Christian is this. Do you want to be part of God's work? He intends for you to be part of it.

And you can have the joy of being a partner in the work of God that he is doing to bring, not only to see people saved, but to bring them to that perfection that corresponds to the Lord Jesus. Now there's a saying that I used to hear repeated many times from the platform, and it's still perfectly true. Only one life shall soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. You know, that's a sobering recognition. We can be busy, we can be occupied, we can be successful in many pursuits of life.

But is death going to be the end of it? The end of its value? The end of its meaning? The end of its purpose? Or what you have your life focused on, does it have an eternal value and purpose? God intends that our lives would be directed towards what is eternal. Now I remember being in a Christian's home a number of years ago, and I saw this little quote that I have on the top of the outline, that the smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.

Now my wife would say amen to that, because just reverting back to the temperament sheets, being of the phlegmatic persuasion, I have often had good intentions that I haven't fulfilled. As I look back over life, there are regrets, that there are areas of service that I had ideas, I had dreams of becoming useful to God in, or of accomplishing certain things, and they've never been fulfilled. So actually getting to the point of doing something is worth so much more than good ideas, good intentions.

So are we focused? Are you focused in your life? Or are you just kind of drifting along aimlessly? You know the mark of a good manager is when the manager is talking about the business as if it's his own, and he takes it to his heart as if it's his business. That's the stamp of a good manager, a dedicated manager. Basically what I want to show you from the book of Philippians is simply this, that the Apostle Paul, as a dedicated steward of God, he lines himself up perfectly with God's goals.

He understood God's goals for himself personally, and for the people of God, and he set his life to be that steward of God. Verse 9 of chapter 1 draws attention to the reality that it is in the element of love that we are going to achieve this. Without love, we will never mature as Christians.

We might get old, but we're not going to mature and develop in a true spirituality unless it is in the element of love. And what is being taught here is that his prayer is this, that their love would develop, that it would abound, that it would really grow, and yet not in an undirected, uncontrolled way, but with wisdom and discernment, so that their love and interest and care for one another and for people who weren't saved would be an effective love, a beneficial love. So we need to ask ourselves the question, am I choosing things that are excellent? Am I choosing things that are better? Now, when you get the idea of excellent or the things that excel, and that term comes up in a number of verses in the Bible, it's not so much a contrast between good and evil, right and wrong.

That should be a bottom line for every one of us, that we're going to live in the realm of what is good and right rather than in the realm of what is wrong and evil. But yet, there are many things of life that are sort of neutral in themselves, and we can be occupied legitimately in them. But we have to ask ourselves, is this the best use of my time, my energy, my opportunities of life? You know, when you start out in life, it seems like you have so many opportunities.

As life goes on, those opportunities start diminishing. The choices that we make through life, as they begin to determine our character of life, where we're at, where we're going, then we start reaping the benefit or the consequence of the series of choices that we've been making through life. And so, make good choices now.

And I would suggest in this, I'm going to get to this toward the last part of the meeting on establishing goals and so on, so I won't say any more about it for now. But I want to just point out these purposes that are given to us that are in harmony with God. And in verse 19 to 21, where we have this familiar prayer and hope that the Apostle has that Christ would be magnified in my body.

Now, what does he mean by that? Is that a goal that you should have, that I should have? Well, actually, yes. And basically, the simplest way that I think of this is just to say my life should be a magnifying glass so that other people can gain a better appreciation of Christ. But if we are living our life wanting people to be looking at us for our gain, our glory, we're not going to be a very good magnifying glass for Christ.

Paul says, whether it's by life or by death, my ambition is to bring Christ closer to other people. A magnifying glass simply brings distant things closer and makes small things appear larger. Now, Christ cannot be made any greater than he actually is.

But there's a lot of room for him being magnified in me, in my body. What do people really know of Christ through me? What do they know of Christ through your life? There are a lot of people who will never pick up a Bible. They will never seek to know who Christ is.

They won't even think that he's relevant. But is your life going to present a message to them, a challenge to them, that Christ is real, that he's significant, that he's essential to life? He is going to rule everything. Every person's destiny is going to be dependent upon Christ.

He will decide the destiny of every human being. He is actually the most essential person in existence. And yet many people don't know that.

Is my life and my witness going to be something that will increase their awareness of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what he's getting at in this passage. And underlying that commitment and that focus of life is this, what he says, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now, if you have someone with this kind of a mentality, it's pretty hard to scare them with the threat of death, isn't it? Someone who actually believes that if I die, it's going to be wonderful perfection.

It's going to be with the Lord Jesus. It's pretty hard to terrorize someone by threat. But is it true in your life? Is it true in mine that Christ is at the center of it? That Christ is the essence of it? And that if you took Christ out of my life, I would really have nothing to live for? The center of my life would be gone? That is the challenge that is presented to us.

But I want to just say this before I go on any further. If Christ is the center of our life, that is the best preparation for living life now. To please God, to honor God.

And it is certainly the best preparation for the life to come. Now let's go into chapter 2 and chapter 3 for a few brief comments here. Again, he refers to them in chapter 2 in reference to the day of Christ.

That they are to be like lights shining, and they are to be holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Now this certainly reminds us that it is possible to run and to labor in vain. That is, fruitlessly, without effect, without benefit.

And Paul was longing that they would be successful so that he could look forward to being in the presence of God and to see the blessing and benefit of his labors in relation to the Christians at Philippi. Now in chapter 3, he very clearly identifies his own goals as perfectly fitting with God's goals in Christ. And he mentions in chapter 3 the things that were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

Now do you understand what he's getting at here? What he's getting at is that there is a cost to serving the Lord Jesus, to living for him, to please him, and to become like Christ. And that cost could be a very personal cost. Now Paul lost everything when he got saved.

He lost his place in the nation of Israel. He lost his reputation. He became a hated, hunted man.

He gave up everything that meant everything to him up to that point. He gave up everything that was to his credit and honor among his fellow Jews, and even what he was counting on for being right with God. He let it all go for the sake of Christ.

That's what he saw in Christ. But I want to apply this to ourselves. Whatever you may have lost the day you got saved, there is a cost that goes on through life, and that cost basically is this.

You've got to let yourself go. You've got to let your own personal glory go. If you could realize that the things that are naturally your best assets could be your greatest liabilities in achieving this goal of God.

Just let me give you an example. If you happen to be a popular person, that can control your life. Because to be popular with other people, you have to be a certain kind of person that other people admire, appreciate, and want to follow.

It doesn't go very well with being a faithful witness of Christ. Having a name, having a reputation, you have to be willing to let it go. The Apostle Paul was willing to sacrifice everything that was a plus for him personally, naturally speaking, for the sake of getting close to Christ and being faithful to him.

He had a tremendous appreciation for the greatness of Christ and for the value of getting to know the Lord Jesus as he is. So he says, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Now if you could just take your life and just look at your potential, what you could live for, what you could devote yourself to, what you could pour your energy into, what you could spend your time at, and just put it in a comparison with pursuing the goal of knowing Christ and of living for him, and ask it whether he's worth sacrificing whatever else you could be, achieve, and have that is going to be lost the moment you leave earth.

It's really the choice between the temporary present and the eternal, what will endure forever. And in this passage, there is this, again, the emphasis on perfection and the reality that Paul longed now to be able to live in the power of a resurrected Christ and to live a life that was beyond the power of evil, that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. He is not talking about that there was a question in his mind that he was going to be raised from the dead.

No, this is to live the kind of life now where sin is not in control and I am living in the power of that life beyond death. Now, I'm just going to leave that because Colossians chapter 1 presents the complementary aspect of his ministry to the saints. And this, again, links with some of the material we've looked at in the stewardship of the truth of God.

I'll just point out that there are two aspects of the work of Christ that is mentioned in Colossians chapter 1. And I will call it this way. There is the finished work of Christ and there is the unfinished work of Christ. The finished work of Christ is what he accomplished on the cross.

And it says in verse 21, and you who were sometime or one time alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. So by the sacrifice on the cross, by his death, the Lord Jesus has accomplished this work of making us perfectly presentable in the sight of God. And we can look forward if we have put our trust in Christ to be able to step into the presence of God and to be holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

That is a perfect absence of evil that is accomplished by the sacrifice of the cross. We have been reconciled to God and there is a day when we will be perfect in his sight in the sense of the perfect absence of evil. But what we have in contrast from verse 24 down is the ministry committed to the stewards of God.

Verse 25 he says, Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God. Now I reminded you back at the very beginning of this series that the word dispensation when we have it in the New Testament is really the word stewardship. And so, I have been made a minister according to the stewardship of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints to whom God would that is he willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Whereunto I also labor striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily. Now would you allow me to call this the unfinished work of Christ? The work of Christ which is being fulfilled through his servants. Paul had a stewardship of God to fulfill or to fill up and complete the revelation of God in the New Testament and that centers upon what is called the mystery.

Now in the book of Ephesians the mystery is a very prominent term referring to Christ and the church Christ and his bride Christ and his body here it is made more directly personal it is Christ in you the hope of glory. Now you really ought to think about this Christ in you so do you think your life matters? Christ in you the hope the prospect of glory the prospect of perfection the prospect of finally being a perfect representation of the glory of God what God had intended for us to be by creation as designed in his image and likeness as 1 Corinthians 11 mentions in relation to the man and headship he is the image and glory of God we have been given a tremendous dignity to represent God to reflect God so now we are not looking just at the perfect absence of evil but the perfect development of good and that is not guaranteed in the same way as the perfect absence of evil he is saying here I am laboring I am striving in my ministry to be able to present every man perfect in Christ now I just want to ask you for any who take part for any of you who involve yourself in the teaching of the word of God do you have this high of a goal in your mind that you want to see the believers developed in their spirituality so that they become fully like Christ you see it is interesting that in the realm of goodness there is an infinite range of development and the Lord taught that there are different levels of fruitfulness 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold and that is up to you that is up to you and your response to God this passage teaches there is no limitation on God's side of the resource to develop us in qualities of Christ-likeness and Paul could say that he was working to his full potential as a steward of God now how is it to be accomplished well he says this Christ in you is the hope of glory whom we preach again if we are going to truly benefit one another we are going to have to be ministering something of Christ to one another in our stewardship warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom obviously this means that we have to give counsel we have to warn faithfully one another and that is the part we don't like but the truth of God not only needs to be taught and explained there also needs to be counsel and warning against what is not of God and so in this combination of counseling, warning, and instructing you notice that he doesn't just say some of the people a few that I appreciate that I have interest in he emphasizes every man each one so he had a personal interest in every one of God's people and sought as far as he could lead them and bring them into the completeness of what they are in Christ that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus were unto I also labor striving or agonizing according to his working which works in me mightily now I should make reference to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 where we have Paul's goals concerning the gospel and really the whole chapter is taken up with his stewardship of the gospel but in verse 17 he says for if I do this thing willingly I have a reward but if against my will a dispensation or a stewardship of the gospel is committed unto me now that's a bit of a strange verse isn't it if I do this willingly I have a reward but if against my will I've got to do it anyway it would be a shame to do the work of God and fail to get a reward for it wouldn't it and so here's an element of willingness that is necessary for God to reward and so it matters what attitude we take towards the Lord toward the responsibilities that he has entrusted us with and in this context he's talking about the gospel and he is talking about present reward that he might be able to preach the gospel make the gospel of Christ known without charge but then he talks about verse 19 down he says for though I be free from all men yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain them more to the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under law as under law that I might gain them that are under law to them that are without law as without law and so on that I might gain, that I might gain, that I might gain what he's getting at is that he was willing to devote himself to get close to people to understand them to be able to connect with them in order that he might gain some for Christ and then he speaks about the race and the prize the mastery and the corruptible crown that they go after but we an incorruptible and verse 26 is I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air but I keep under my body that is I subject it bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway and that's a very sobering end to that chapter that warns us that it is possible for us to be successful as to our stewardship of evangelism and of helping other people and yet become disapproved of God because we haven't overcome an enemy and the enemy that he is dealing with here what opposes him is not other people it's his own body and this is a sobering reality for all of us that we could be gifted we could be capable we could reach people we could have influence with people and bring blessing to other people and yet we could personally fail to control the passions of our own body and end up being set aside rejected a castaway that's a very sad sobering thing to contemplate how sad it would be to look forward to the judgment seat of Christ and to see Paul's converts there in all their perfection and to see the one who brought the gospel to them himself suffer loss before the presence of God because he didn't behave himself it's serious business being a servant of God a steward of God and every one of us must meet this challenge if we are going to be useful servants now and be able to be crowned by him we are going to have to meet the challenge of conquering the passions of sin within our own bodies that is part of the challenge that is touched on in this passage now in the last few moments I want to just look at what we have in the establishing of goals the importance of doing this is that it helps to give focus to our life it helps to prioritize our time our energy and so on and I remember an illustration one time where a fellow who was trying to teach setting priorities in life and he had a big glass jar up at the front and he fills it up right to the top with rocks and so he asked his audience is the jar full? well some of them said yes and some of them said well not quite and so he pulls out another bag and he starts pouring sand in it and he pours it in until the sand fills in all around the rocks and he says well now is it full? well most of them said yeah it's full can't get any more than that and then he drags out a jug of water and starts pouring water in it and of course the water will go through and then finally it's right up to the top saturated well it's full then now I suppose you could always put some dye in it or something like that and get something more yet so then he said well now what do you think is the object of this lesson? well your logic would tell you it's that you can always put you can always put something more in, right? but it's actually the opposite that he was wanting to teach and it's simply this if you don't put your priorities the things that should be priorities in first there won't be room for them if you filled it with sand you wouldn't be able to get the rocks in we need to set priorities of life we need to recognize the need of giving certain things first place and setting those priorities making sure they are in our schedule in our focus of life now when I was teaching on relationships I emphasized the principle that foundational relationships establish priorities of life and the foundational relationship first of all is our relationship to the Lord that is the foundational relationship that needs to be first and yet isn't it sad that our relationship to the Lord often gets neglected and the pressures of life the busyness of life crowds out the priority of devoting ourselves to him and his presence spending time consciously in his presence and letting our relationship to him control our purposes ambitions and pursuits of life we have to let what is truly the real priority the real focus have the effect of controlling our life marriage should have precedence over career and yet again many people make that mistake of letting financial pressure create such a burden that they are letting go their focus upon the marriage relationship and then they wonder why at some point the relationship breaks because something of lesser importance has been allowed to supersede what must be the first priority and again if we recognize what is taught to us here as Christians our true future is with Christ it's all to do with him so are we letting that establish the priority of our life what we spend our time at what we devote ourselves to are there other things that have taken over that have crowded out and so we say I wish I could help but I just, you know, I can't well, we have allowed something of lesser significance to overtake what should be first priority now one of the things that for myself and again getting back to temperaments for a moment some people are goal oriented and seem to instinctively every day just have a goal or two in mind and get it done in the day some of us aren't goal oriented and unfortunately I have always worked better under pressure I have always worked better under external pressure of a schedule and I think I mentioned this already I grew up on a dairy farm and I had no idea how undisciplined and unfocused I could be in myself until I was removed from that environment and put in an environment where I could decide whatever I wanted to do through the day and I really messed up lost time, wasted time and I had to actually create a structure for myself make a schedule for myself and to begin to put into my time priorities that were important for me now, long range goals consider God's goals short term goals are the small steps that we need to take to get to those valuable long term goals now very simply if you want to be able to help the Lord's people in teaching the word of God it's not going to happen overnight and it's not going to happen automatically you have to devote yourself to a discipline of studying the scriptures putting your heart into it on a consistent basis one of the things I have found over and over again in my life is that I call it inertia I have a lot of inertia it takes quite a bit for me to get into something but once I get into it and get enjoying it then it's perpetuated and I can keep going in it and I want to keep going in it and so that's one of the problems we have is that we recognize we should be developing in something but we don't get to the stage where it becomes self-perpetuating and there is a process there is a time element some people say about three weeks that it takes to establish a pattern a habit until it becomes something that you just automatically go and do whether you happen to be feeling like it at the moment or not and that's the kind of discipline of life that we need to have and I just have suggested here the different areas that we could look at and think about in our own life studying the scriptures prayer shepherding public teaching visiting counseling gospel outreach hospitality showing mercy to believers or to others marriage family financial all these different areas of life we need to think about it and ask ourselves am I being successful in this or do I need to start developing more in it one of the things that I have certainly realized and is commonly recognized is that accountability is one of the keys to establishing and maintaining goals and the familiar example is Weight Watchers how many diets have you tried how many times have you dieted well many people have gone over and over and over on diets and just keep bouncing back and bouncing back and Weight Watchers is a system of accountability where you have to weigh yourself and give a count weekly or something and so it's that ongoing monitoring so there's a suggestion is to make a plan and a way of monitoring it either daily or weekly and keeping track of your own progress in it challenge yourself don't just let your life drift by are you focused or unfocused have you thought of God's goals for your life God's goals for the saints of God and set your life in harmony with God's and seek to fulfill the will of God shall we pray Our Father we come to Thee in recognition that our vision is often very clouded we are often distracted so badly that we have forgotten what we are called to we pray that Thou might teach us to lift our vision to the glory of our Lord Jesus and the purposes that are going to overtake not only our lives but this world as well and to recognize that we can live today in light of eternity and we can make progress in our spiritual life in view of a day of glory and honor and fellowship with the Lord Jesus in His kingdom prepare our hearts and minds for the day of glory in Christ Our Father we look to Thee now that Thou would bless Thy people guide us and help us to to accept the challenges that Thy word brings before us that we might genuinely have in our hearts the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and we commit ourselves to Thee and seek Thy blessing in our Savior's precious name Amen