"Stewardship--It's An Attitude"
Rev. Thomas J. Kok
Sept. 14, 1997
Text: Genesis 4:1-12
In his book entitled "The Grand Essentials" Ben Paterson who is both
an author and a pastor writes the following words, "I have a theory about
old age. I believe that when life has whittled us down, when joints have
failed and skin has wrinkled and capillaries have clogged and hardened,
what is left of us will be what we were all along in our essence". He goes
on and says, "Exhibit A is a distant uncle. All his life he did nothing
but find new ways to get rich. He spent his final years very comfortably,
drooling and babbling constantly about the money he had made. When life whittled
him down to his essence, all that was left was raw greed. This
is what he cultivated in a thousand little ways over a lifetime. Exhibit
B is my wife's grandmother. When she died in her mid 80's, she had already
been senile for several years. What did this lady talk about? The best
example I can think of was when we asked her to pray before dinner. She
would reach out and hold the hands of those sitting beside her, a broad
smile would spread across her face, her dim eyes would fill with tears
as she looked up to heaven and her chin would quiver as she poured out
her love for Jesus. That was Edna in a nutshell. She loved Jesus and she
loved people. She couldn't even remember our names, but she couldn't keep
her hands from patting us lovingly whenever we got near her. When life whittled her down to her essence, all there was left was love. Love for
God and love for people". Those are some pretty powerful words and observations and they ought
to cause all of us to pause for a moment and consider what our essence
is. What is left of us when life whittles us down? What will be left of
us? Will it be something attractive like love? Or will it be something
loathsome, like greed? I guess only time will tell. However, there may
be those of you here this morning who don't want to wait until life whittles you down to find out what your essence is. For those of you who want to
find out sooner than 75 years from now or whenever that may be, I'd like
to suggest to you that there is another way for us to discover our essential
nature. There is another way, for I believe that our essential nature revealed
time and again through a very simple act in which we engage in a regular
basis. That is the act of giving.
There's something about the act of giving, especially giving to God
which bears the human soul. It opens a window to our hearts, if you will,
and reveals what's really inside. When we give, not only of our financial
resources but also of our time and our talents, our true nature is revealed.
At least to God and often to us and sometimes to those who are around us.
Our true nature is revealed when we give, not in how much we give, how
large the check is and not in how often we give, making sure that we drop
something in the plate every time it comes by. But our true nature is revealed
in how we give. The attitude that accompanies our giving speaks volumes
about who we are. I believe that fact is made plain in our text for this
morning, from Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel.
The story of two brothers whose essential nature is revealed to
the act of giving, to the act of an offering presented to God.
I'd like to take a few moments with you this morning to look at this
story and what it has to say to us under the heading of stewardship. It's
an attitude. For many people, their first reading of the Cain and Abel
story or their 2nd reading or maybe even their 3rd or 4th , presents a
bit of confusion and the confusion centers around this question. Why did
God favor Abel and not Cain? After all what we have here is a story of
two brothers bringing an offering. There really seems to be very little
difference, so why is one accepted and one rejected. As you might well
imagine, down through the years there have been a lot of people who have
speculated on this subject. A lot of ink has been spilled, a lot of paper
and books has been used up trying to figure this whole thing out.
Some people have made some pretty wild speculations. One speculation
is that Abel's offering was a blood sacrifice and Cain's was not. God prefers
blood sacrifices to grain sacrifices. But that is proved untrue if you
read through the book of Leviticus. There are as many grain sacrifices
as there are blood sacrifices.
Another theory comes along and says, well this is just proof that God's
ways are inscrutable. That is, we don't how or why God works. God chooses
some people, He doesn't choose others and with the story of Cain and Abel
is meant to show us is that we never know. We simply have to live with
God's choices. That's a possibility. Still others come across with this
theory. That God prefers shepherds to farmers. I would have loved to say
that in Quincy. I want to go back there and preach this sermon, where I
had 90% farmers in my church! God prefers shepherd to farmers. I would
have been out of my ear in no time. They point to the fact that David was
a shepherd and Moses was a shepherd and that whole picture of shepherding
in the Bible. But again, God speaks in terms of offerings of grain and
Christ uses all kinds of imagery of growing wheat and so on and so forth.
There's no real preference there.
Rather than going off into some wild tangent and trying to figure out
the purpose for the story, what I want to do with you is I want to direct
your attention to the text. I want you to look at
verses 3 and 4 of Genesis 4. We read this; "In the course of time, Cain
brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, but
Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock". Right
here we find an essential difference between the offering of Abel and that
of Cain. I want you to note that Cain's offering is referred to as simply
being some of the fruits of the soil. But when we get to the description
of Abel's offering, we are told that it is the fat portion of the first
born of the flock. In ancient middle East, the fat portions of any animals
were the very best.
They did not have a pathological fear of fat like we do today. They
didn't want their meat lean. They wanted it fatty. Fat meat was the best
part and so what we're told is that Abel offers the best part. Not only
the best part of an animal, but he offers the best part of the best animal.
We're told that he gives the fat portions of some of the first born. The
first born of any flock were a sign of prosperity. They were a hope for
the future. When your sheep gave birth to those first few lambs, you said,
"good, now I can continue to make a living". To give those things up was
a great sacrifice. What we're told is that Abel gives of the fat portions
of the first born. He gives of the very best and the interesting thing
to note here is that even though we have this rather detail about Abel's
offering, Cain's is simply referred to as being some of the fruits of the
soil.
There's an implication here. There's a message being given here that
is this. While Abel brings the very best, Cain brings simply what he has.
Certainly it's possible that the grain or the fruit or whatever it was
that Cain brought was wonderful to look at. I doubt whether Cain brought
something that was filled with worms or some wheat that was moldy. He probably
brought some beautiful looking fruit and to the casual observer, Cain's
offering must have seemed wonderfully acceptable. Here is some great fruit
from the ground that he offers to God, yet the fact that Cain gives less
than the best, reveals his essential nature. It reveals his attitude toward
God and it is Cain's attitude that God finds unacceptable. That fact is
made abundantly clear at the end of verse 4 and the beginning of verse
5. Listen to this. It says, "the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his
offering but on Cain and his offering, He did not look with favor".
I want you to notice that God's favor is not directed first of all to the
offering. It does not say, God did not look with favor on Cain's offering.
No. It says God did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. The individual
comes first, even though the story is built around an offering and all
of the action spins out of this time of offering, it's really not the gift
that is important here. In fact, the gift is immaterial. What is important
to God is the individual. What is important to God is the heart.
Abel comes to God bringing his offering as if it were a birthday present.
He brings it because he wants to being pleasure to God. He says, "God,
I'm here to give you the very best because you are worth it". Cain comes
with his gift as if he's meeting with the local IRS tax man and he offers
it as a sense of obligation or some other underlying motive. There's a
vast difference. By his gift, Cain demonstrates his true heart as well
as does Abel and Cain's heart is one in which God does not have first place.
What we see here is we see Cain falling into the sin of his parents.
Just one chapter back in Genesis 3, there's a story of Adam and Eve
eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The reason they
ate from that tree was not because it looked good, not really. That was
a secondary purpose. The real reason that they ate from that tree was to
be like God. They wanted to be first. Many theologians agree that the first
sin of mankind was the sin of pride. They put themselves before God and
that's exactly what happens here with Cain. Cain comes first, God comes
second. Pride is the sin which God refers to as crouching at Cain's door
in verse 7. Pride is the sin that causes Cain to give God some of his fruits
instead of the very best. In Cain's heart and mind, it is not God that
comes first, but Cain. It is therein that God rejects Cain and his offering.
This revelation which is made through Cain's offering causes us to pause
for a moment and examine our own patterns of giving and what they reveal
about our essential nature. Talking about stewardship, it's not infrequent
for a pastor to stand up in front and say how much do you give? I'm not
going to ask you that question. I'm going to ask you how do you give? What
kind of attitude do you have as that offering basket passes by? People's
reasons for giving are many. Some people give out of a sense of obligation.They
feel like the church is a club and there are dues that are owed and so
when you come to church, you pay what is necessary. I pay to have my place
to sit in the pew. I pay so that I can have a right to be heard when I
complain to the council or whatever else it might be. Other people pay,
other people give out of a sense of fear. They say, if I don't give to
God, God is somehow going to punish me. He's going to send a curse upon
my business or upon my home and so I give sort of as an insurance policy.
Other people give out of a desire to be seen. They may not really like
working with Sunday school age children, but they do it anyway because
they want people to know how good of a Christian they are. There are still
others who give out a desire to manipulate God. There is a lot of current
thought that says, if you give generously, God will give generously, so
we give to get. We pay in so that we get more out. (Topic:
Giving)
All of these reasons for giving are found, I believe, throughout the
length and breadth of the church of Jesus Christ. Throughout the length
and breadth of those who occupy the pews of the church and all of these
reasons, and maybe there are a few others that I can't think of, all of
these reasons boil down to one thing. Selfishness. Far too often we give
in order to help ourselves. We give in order to advance our own agenda.
We give in order to protect ourselves. We don't give out of gratitude.
We don't give out of joy. But we give out of selfishness. Too often we
are like Cain. Our sin is the sin of pride and it reveals our essential
nature and the picture is not a pretty one. Yet before you despair and
have nightmares of sitting in a nursing home some day drooling and babbling
like Ben Paterson's uncle, I want you to notice something about the text,
about the story this morning.
You know what intrigues me about this story? Cain comes to God with
an offering that is unacceptable. He comes revealing his inner nature.
He comes and God knows his heart for exactly what it is and yet the very
next thing we read about is that God gives Cain a second chance.
Notice what God says to Cain in verse 7. He says this. "If you do what
is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right,
sin is crouching at your door, but you must master it". The selfish pride
which causes us to put ourselves before God can be removed. That's what
God says. That's what God says to Cain. He says, it doesn't need to be
this way. We don't need to have this kind of relationship. It can change.
It doesn't necessarily change by Cain redoubling his efforts and going
about things a different way. It changes because God is opening himself
to Cain and saying, "Cain, I'm willing to be here for you. I'm willing
to help you change your heart and to change your life".
The saddest thing about this story is not the fact that Abel is killed.
The saddest thing about this story is the fact that Cain has a chance here
to make things different. He has a chance to change the story. He has a
chance that is given to him by God and he doesn't take it. We know the
rest of the story. He goes off and kills his brother and then ends up living
out his days under a curse.
Well, it's too late for Cain, but it's not for us. As we examine our
own lives, as we examine our own giving patterns, we see in there the seeds
of pride that lie there. God says to us, this can be overcome. That we
can come to Him giving in the right attitude and it all begins with repentance.
Repentance for our selfishness.
Repentance, as many of you know, is not just saying that we're sorry.
Those of us who have children or who are children know that it's very possible
to say sorry and not even mean a word of it. Repentance is saying your
sorry and then changing your actions and doing something different. That's
what God is talking about here. He's saying, "Cain, you've got a second
chance". He's saying to each and everyone of us, you've got a second chance.
Turn from the way that you are living and you will be able to able to master
that sin that crouches at your door. Repentance, if you will, is the first
step in mastering that sin. It's the step in which we say, "I've been living
wrong, I've been giving wrong, my attitude has been wrong and I want to
make it right". That's the first step.
The second step to mastering the sin that crouches at our door, that
sin of pride, is to give God first place in your life by giving Him time.
Those who work with marriage and family counseling will tell you that there
is no better way to convey your love than through time. This whole conversation
that's been going on in the past dozen or so years about quality time with
your children is bologna. What counts is quantity. How much you give is
a demonstration of the love that you have. Really that's the only thing
that you have to give. That's true with respect to your family, but it's
also true with respect to God. When I'm talking about giving your time
to God, I'm not talking about giving time to serve, though we'll talk about
that in a moment, rather I'm talking about time for you to just be with
God, to refocus your heart.
We live in a world that's filled with neon lights and music videos and
radios and television and what not and so forth of all different kinds
and the whole world around us is designed to keep our minds so busy, to
keep ourselves so surrounded by noise, that we don't have an opportunity
to hear the still small voice. All the advertising, all the stuff we see
on television directs us towards ourselves. If we will consciously look
at our schedule and say, I'm going to block out this time whether it be
everyday or three times a week or whatever else it might be to be with
God. That enables us to reorient our heart so that God takes that first
place where He belongs. That we can combat all of that, all of that noise
and all of the advertising that comes in the ears and through the eyes.
The second thing is to give God your time with respect to service. Again,
take a few moments to look over your schedule and block out your time,
consciously block out some time that you will give in service to God. When
I say that, when I talk about service to God or service in the Kingdom,
I'm not just talking about service in the church. The kingdom is much larger
than the church. Kingdom work goes on at Roseland Christian Ministries
Center. Kingdom work goes on when people are willing to help others to
read and to do so in the love of Jesus Christ. Kingdom work is a very large
definition. Some way that you can serve in the name of Jesus Christ. Block
out some time in your schedule. Don't let service in the kingdom be a matter
of leftovers. If I have the time, then I'll do this, but make it a priority.
Plan time for service.
The next step is to give God your talents. It's very hard to talk about
time and talents separately because if you're going to give your talents,
you have to give your time. They're related to each other. But I want to
say this. In Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 and other places, especially in
the New Testament, we are told that all of God's people receive gifts from
the Holy Spirit. That those gifts are given for the upbuilding of our brothers
and sisters in Christ. That those gifts are given for the advancement of
the kingdom. You have been gifted and what you need to ask yourself is
this. What has God gifted me with? How does He want me to use it? Again,
deliberately schedule the use of your talents. By that I don't mean so
much sit down with your calendar and block out some time. What I mean more
by that is recognize that God has gifted you for some very specific tasks.
There's a lot of work to do in the church. There's a lot of work to
do in the kingdom and you can't do it all. One of the ways that you are
going to get burned out quickly in the kingdom is to take on a task that
is not for you. Recognize that there are times when it is okay to say no.
You heard it from the pulpit, so now you can quote me! There are times
when it is okay to say no. That's not where I'm gifted. If you are gifted
in the area of administration and somebody wants you to lead a Sunday school
class, that could turn out to be a disaster. Recognize that you have certain
gifts. The fact that you have certain tasks that you are not suitable to
you means that there are specific tasks that you are called to. So take
some time to evaluate your talents. Where does God want me to be used?
If you don't know what your talents are, I'd like to encourage you that
within the next month or two, we're hoping to put on a discover your gifts
workshop. Not only discover your gifts, but discover your gifts and how
to use them. Tack that on the end. So that you have an opportunity to say,
where am I talented and what can I do? That enables you to schedule your
talents. It enables you to say, this is where God has gifted me to serve
in the kingdom.
Another step to mastering the pride that crouches at our door is this.
Give God your money. Give it all. By saying that I don't mean to apply
that you should go home and check the balance on your checkbook and write
a check for the full amount and bring it here tonight. I'm sure the deacons
would appreciate that. I'm not telling you to sign over your paychecks
to the church everytime they come in. What I'm telling you is this. Follow
Abel's example and give the fat portions. What are the fat portions of
your finances?
The fat portions of your finances are the first monies that you spend.
When you get that cash in hand or when you get that check from your employer,
the very first monies that you pay out go to God. That's a powerful thing
in our lives because what it declares right upfront is that it all belongs
to God. It's all His. I give to Him. The very first check that you write
when you sit down to write the bills is a check that can be used in the
work of the kingdom. I'm not going to say specifically for the church.
It can be used in the work of the kingdom to proclaim the name of Jesus
Christ. Make a determination in your mind to give a certain amount every
time you get your allowance or every time you get paid and don't let unexpected
bills, don't let tempting expenditures stand in your way. When that comes
first what happens you begin to see the rest of your finances as God's
and not yours. The amazing thing is when we give it all to God, God gives
better than we do. That's a basic statement in scripture. You can't outgive
God. He not only uses what we give for the work of the kingdom, but He
uses the rest of it to help us to meet our needs and to prepare us for
ministry. So give that money away. Release yourself from that pride that
is associated with all of that money that comes in.
The final step to mastering the pride that crouches at our door is this.
Never forget that you are a steward. Last week we talked a little bit about
what it means to be a steward. A steward is a house servant or a house
keeper. A steward is a servant. A steward is someone who does not own any
thing but uses all that he has on behalf of his or her master. If you can
keep that attitude of stewardship in mind, what that will do is affect
the way you give. It may not affect the amount you give. You may be giving
as much as you need to right now, but it will affect the way that you give.
This is not an obligation. This is not an insurance payment, this is not
a club dues, it's my response to God. If we, throughout our lives engage
in the practice of responding to God as servants, what's going to happen
is that's going to affect your very essence. It's going to affect who you
are and it's going to make your beautiful and acceptable in the eyes of
the Lord.
May we be such be such people. Let's pray.
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