As we have been addressing in our study this year, a large part of the teachings in Scripture about righteousness are on management—being a good steward of what we have been entrusted with. It is for this reason that most of the earthly wealth and riches are presently in the hands of heathen. Why? Because they have more "common grace" in the areas of management than believers. We may have been quoting the verses about how the wealth of the wicked will be given to the righteous, but because good management is also a part of righteousness, the ones we were probably thinking of as the wicked may be more righteous than we are in the area of common grace, and therefore have been trusted with more.
Great wealth will destroy those who are not prepared for it. The statistics are pretty clear that even seemingly strong Christians have had their lives wrecked by winning the lottery. The wealth of the wicked will be given to the righteous who are prepared to handle and manage it rightly. It is one of our priorities to see this changed in the church, while also fortifying the other basic issues of righteousness such as morality, integrity, and the devotion to truth.
Before continuing, I must warn you that I am about to start offending many people with what I am going to say. This is not my purpose, as I really do not want to offend anyone, but there are some things which must be said if we are going to be prepared for the time to come.
I think anyone who has read much of what I write about or heard what I speak knows that I am devoted to the local church. I have always known, but am even more convinced now, that there is a severe limit to our spiritual maturity if we do not have a vital local church life. In the time to come, I do not believe it will be possible for people to remain faithful to the Lord without this vital relationship. I am sharing what I am about to share out of love, not trying to be critical of the church, but to address some issues which must be addressed for the very survival of the church in the time to come.
There are some churches and ministries which are very well run and managed. However, in general, the church, many ministries, and many charities which have Christian foundations are as poorly run and managed as just about any entity on the planet. This must, and will, change. Not only the wealth of the wicked, but the wealth of the nations will be coming to the Lord's people. Those who are not ready for this will be destroyed by it.
As we have covered before, there is a reason why the mark of the beast is an economic mark that determines whether we can buy, sell, or trade. However, the sin is not taking the mark, but worshiping the beast. The mark is just evidence that this is what they are doing. This beast in the Book of Revelation comes "up out of the earth" (see Revelation 13:11), and speaks of earthly mindedness. It is the ultimate maturity of the seed of Cain, who was "a tiller of the ground" (see Genesis 4:2), which also speaks of earthly mindedness. Earthly mindedness is the primary spirit of this beast. If this still has a grip on us when great resources start coming to us, we will be destroyed by them—they will seal our fate as worshipers of the beast.
Those who do not take the mark of the beast are the ones who take the Lord's mark which God gives to His bondservants (see Revelation 7). The only thing which will keep us from worshiping the beast will be to become true bondservants of the Lord. We may think that all Christians are bondservants, but in fact very few are. Most go on living for themselves, thinking that the Lord is more of their servant than they are His.
True bondservants wake up daily asking their Master what He would have them to do because they know they were bought with a price, and their life belongs to the One who purchased them with His own blood. True bondservants do not freely spend the money they have because they are well aware of the fact that it is not theirs, but belongs to their Master, and they are just stewards. Because we have been trusted with the King's own resources, we must do the best that we can to manage them well. As He made clear in the Parable of the Talents, this is a basic issue that determines whether we will hear "Well done, good and faithful servant" (see Matthew 25:21 NIV), or "You wicked, lazy slave!" (see Matthew 25:26).
In I Timothy 3:5 Paul wrote, "but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?" Presently, there are not many Christians who are managing their own households well. In general, Christians are as entangled by the things of this world as non-Christians. They are in much debt, and serve mammon more than God. If we took the time to learn a few basic management principles, and then lived by them, we would not be serving mammon as much as we are now; rather, it would be serving us and our purpose in the Lord.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to get much more practical, and if we will start applying these basic principles by the end of this year, we can be in a radically different financial state, which would automatically help many be in a much better spiritual state. In two years, we can be twice as well off as we are now, and I think that needs to be a personal goal we have. Remember, the good steward multiplied what he was entrusted with. We should have a vision for doing the same, not to increase our standard of living, but to increase our standard of giving, so that the Lord can use us as stewards for even greater resources.
Shortly, we can be financially independent, which should be the condition of every Christian. To be financially independent does not necessarily have to do with how much we have, but it means that we should never have to make a decision on whether we have enough money or not, but simply on whether it is the Lord's will.
Right now most of the stress on most people is financial. This is just as true of Christians as non-Christians. We can and must get completely free of this stress. There is only one yoke that we are supposed to have on us—the Lord's yoke, and His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Resolve right now that you are going to get free and you are not going to get entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
During this past Christmas shopping season, I went to one of the largest shopping malls in the region looking for a specific store that I knew was there. When I went to the information map that told where all of the stores were, it was much more difficult to use because it did not have the usual star or dot that says "You Are Here!" Any map is useless if you do not know where you are on the map. This is where we are going to start next week, seeking to determine just where we are so we can determine the course we need to take. This is actually a part of the highway we must build to help prepare the way for the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment