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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/bruce-rodgers/introduction-to-stewardship/
Genesis chapter 1, and we'll read verse 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. A little further down the chapter we have repeated references to God's creative acts, and it mentions over and over again that it was after their kind, or after its kind.
And then when we come to verse 26, it says, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Now when looking at a subject such as the Christian life as a stewardship, you have to start at the foundation. And if you just want to notice the outlines that I've given you today, the first page is really just giving an overview of the material that I hope to cover over the next two weeks.
And today we're going to look at the introduction, God as the owner, and our relationship with God. And then, and this will just follow kind of night by night, tomorrow night will be the stewardship of spiritual gifts, and then the following night the stewardship of the truth of God, that is the pattern given to us in the scriptures concerning the truth committed to us.
And then there are going to be four sessions on stewardship of relationships, and we're going to be looking at foundational relationships, and I'm going to give you a personality study to look at. And then from Ephesians 4 and Ephesians 5, we're going to have the stewardship of godly relationships, both in marriage and in the body of Christ, and then chapter 5 on marriage itself.
Now that's going to be probably taking us into the start of next week. And then we'll have the stewardship of possessions, there will be two sessions on that. And first will be principles and spiritual issues, and then practices.
And then one on stewardship goals, and finally the last two nights are going to be taken up with the judgment seat of Christ. And there's a lot of important material to think about, and unfortunately in trying to give an overview of the Christian life as a stewardship, it is going to be an overview and not exhaustive in these areas.
And so I hope it will be stimulating to think about and put your life into the perspective that we really are stewards of God. Now, the reason why I started here in Genesis chapter 1 is that ownership has to have a basis.
If somebody simply claims that they own something, well, you would say, well, okay, how do you prove that you own it? What's your right to ownership? Well, you can't get any more authentic right to ownership than to be its maker, its creator.
If you can say, look, I made this, and hopefully if you're smart enough to make something, you're smart enough to patent it, so that somebody else can't steal it from you. But God holds the patent on life.
God is the creator, and that's one of the most important foundational truths for us to think about. Now, in just asking the question, what is stewardship? Really, we don't use that word a lot today. I noticed it on a building on the way to meeting today, so I guess it does get used somewhat.
The word stewardship really just means management. The word steward means a manager. It means something has been entrusted to me by the owner, and I'm responsible for it and accountable to the owner for my management of it.
Now, I'll just give you a few details from other scriptures, without necessarily referring or going to them all. It's interesting that a word that we hear over and over and over again, the economy. That overused English word, economy, actually is this same word, stewardship.
So the word stewardship literally is, it's got the word house in it, and it's got the word rule. And so it's really managing a house. Managing a household is literally what it means. And there's a word again in the scriptures, which some of us who've been raised in the assemblies and have been around teaching all our lives, relating to the word of God, we've heard the word dispensation and dispensations.
And I remember growing up, whenever I would hear the word the dispensation of grace and the dispensation of law, I always just took it, and the sense in which it was generally given was a time period.
But that's a secondary sense derived from its real meaning, which is, if you take the word dispensing, then you'd be understanding what it's really saying. So the dispensation of grace is the dispensing of grace, or the administration of grace, a ministry of grace.
And so there's a number of very familiar verses in the New Testament that to me have more strength in them, more significance when you put the word stewardship in rather than just using the word dispensation.
Now, then a steward is simply a manager and must manage in consciousness of the rights of the owner. So then thinking about Genesis chapter 1, you know, evolution is not just something that you ignore as a Christian.
Evolution has become the foundation for knowledge for many people. But the source of that wisdom is a totally false source. It is not just another theory. It is actually a deliberate slander against God.
And it's not hard for a Christian to say, well, it's diabolical. But I'm not saying that just in a way of expressing contempt or anger about it, but to recognize that there is a spiritual source for that kind of idea because it derives from Satan, who is seeking to deny God of his essential glory in relation to creation.
We derive our significance, our value as people from having been created in the image and likeness of God. Now, let me just make a couple of comments about why it is so important to acknowledge God as the creator.
Everything that we see has the stamp of design and intention upon it. Evolution denies that there is any intended design in what exists. And yet, it's such an absurdity that if you listen to them speaking or read their writings, they're continually talking about evolutionary development and evolutionary progress.
And they keep attributing to chance a God-like characteristic of having an ultimate goal, which is by very definition what they're trying to deny in the first place. And so they want to deny it of God and then attribute it to something that is totally fictional.
If you ask yourself, what is chance? Well, chance is just a conventional term that actually means nothing. Because chance has no intelligence, has no will, has no energy, has nothing to ever cause anything to happen.
And so to proclaim that the universe and that we ourselves exist with all our capacities, with all our functions and abilities, that all of that has arisen by some chance development is simple absurdity.
Well, what's the alternative? The truth. Which is that there is a being who in himself is uncreated, has no origin. It's not that we believe simply that God was first and then he somehow arose into being and then he made everything else.
The scriptures use a name for God, Jehovah, or the Lord, in all capital letters, about 6 ,000 times in the Old Testament. And that declares his eternal being. Now that's beyond our ability to contemplate.
We can't think of anything that doesn't somehow get made or get started. But God, and this is one of the simple evidences that the Bible is of divine origin itself, because way back before all these scientific discoveries as we talk about them, there is this declaration of one who is eternal.
And so in the beginning, then, God created the heavens and the earth. And that immediately tells us that there is knowledge, there is wisdom, there is intention, there is amazing power and energy involved in the creation of everything being brought into existence.
But I just want to, again, draw attention to the contrast that is made between all of the rest of the created animals and ourselves, in that in each one it repeats this expression, after its kind, after their kind, after their kind.
Now that implies a pattern, a blueprint. And again, that is very, very evident, self-evident today, genetically, that every different kind of creature has its blueprint. Well, what's our blueprint? What kind did God use when he made us?
Notice carefully the words, verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And I have come to appreciate that this is one of the most significant statements in all the Word of God.
It establishes our connection to God in a unique relationship. We have been designed after the blueprint of God himself. What does the word image mean? Well, in the outline that I gave you for the message today, I draw attention to Luke chapter 20, verses 20 to 25.
And maybe it would be good just to read it, because the Lord Jesus had such an amazing way of turning a situation into a powerful revelation. Luke chapter 20, and verse 20. And it says, And they watched him and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, and that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?
But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. So you can just imagine them digging out this little coin and bringing it to him. And then he asked this further question.
Whose image and superscription has it? They answered and said, Caesar's. He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's. Image is something physical that represents someone who is either invisible or not there visibly.
Now, if I was to pull out a little photograph of myself and another person beside me, my wife, and I would say, That's my wife. Well, you know that that piece of paper is not my wife, but it's an image.
It is a representation of her face. And so this little coin that has an emperor's name on it and his face on it, the Lord Jesus says, It must be his. Give it back to him. So, yeah, you have to pay your taxes.
What is the value of that little piece of metal? Well, there might be some intrinsic value in the metal itself. But whatever currency it has is dependent upon who it represents. So that coin represented Caesar in both his authority over, his jurisdiction over, and his provision for the people.
And so the Lord, in applying this back to ourselves, is saying very simply, and this is a very, very powerful imagery, You are the image-bearer of God. You carry the image of the eternal God. That is your dignity.
That is your calling. And so, as we go back to Genesis chapter 1, and we see that when God made man in his own image and according to his own likeness, where did he put him? He had already made all the rest of creation.
It's all existing there. He places him in as head over the creation. He puts him in authority over to manage his creation. And so he gives to him a capacity to manage. And so, as you'll see in the outline, I really raised three questions, and those three questions really draw attention to this relationship that we have with God.
First of all, what were we designed like? Well, we were designed like God. Now, what do we mean by that? God is invisible and we're physical. So what does it mean? Well, actually, if you even think about the fact that we have hands, that we are upright, even our physical being corresponds to spiritual capacities and abilities.
We are equipped even physically. Don't ever underestimate your own mind. Why did God give to man the highest capacity intellectually? It's because he was to rule over everything that is under his jurisdiction.
But it goes deeper than just saying that a capacity to create hands that can make things corresponding to God's capacity to make and create. It also relates to character. God designed us to represent him in his goodness, in his love, in his righteousness.
And so when we consider ourselves as made in the image, in his likeness, we are recognizing that we are designed to act, to live, to fulfill responsibilities as representing God in a very direct way. Now that also brings us to a point which I'll probably emphasize more even tonight, possibly in the gospel, that this is what gives sin its true measure.
A lot of people think today, well, it's not causing anybody any harm. It's not hurting anybody. The first measuring stick of sin is what does this say about God? If I am representing God in my human relationships as a man, as a husband, as a father, whatever my work may be, I am representing God.
So my failure is a slander of what God is like. And that is the first and greatest measuring stick of the guilt that we have before God. But as we think about our design, not only do we have this pattern, but there's always a capacity that goes along with it to be able to fulfill what our intended purpose really is.
And so the second question is, what were we designed for? Now it's very clear from chapter one that we were designed to rule, designed to manage, to have authority over, have dominion over. Now this is one of the sad reflections upon our fallenness that many people cannot even manage their own lives.
We were given the capacity, the character to manage everything for God. And we can't even manage our own lives. That's how far we have fallen. But I'll just bring you to chapter two, and we see that not only were we designed to rule, but we are also designed for relationship.
And in chapter two, there's reference to Adam and Eve's creation. And in contrast to chapter one, where if you just had the record of chapter one, you would think that, well, God just made Adam and he made Eve, and they were just both there.
In the first moments of consciousness that they would be aware of anything, they're just both there. That's no excuse to take your wife for granted. But that's not the way he made Eve. He created Adam.
He established in his headship over the creation. He allowed him to recognize that there was something missing. Everything else that God had created had a completeness. But for him, there was no one corresponding to himself.
And he allowed him to experience that lack. And then he forms Eve out of himself so that she literally was part of himself and yet now made into an independent being, answering to him face to face. And I believe personally that when we talk about the image and likeness of God, and going back again to chapter one, it mentions, So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. That there is a sense in which it requires the male and female relationship of oneness in marriage to express what God is in his being.
Now we believe that God is a triune being, don't we? We believe in the Trinity. And while there are those who deny that, the scriptures actually express this very clearly. And I'm sure you've seen it and recognized that even the very first time God is used, Genesis 1 and 1, the word used for God is a plural form of the word God, used with a singular verb.
And then it's put into language in verse 26 where it says, God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And so there is a plurality and yet unity. I remember noticing some years ago that when you come to that great declaration in the book of Deuteronomy, that great statement of belief that the Jews repeat over and over again, The Lord our God is one Lord.
That word for one actually means a compound unity. They have a different word that would mean just a solitary unity, a being. But even again in that declaration, prior to the New Testament revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are given these glimpses that the nature and being of deity has a fullness, a completeness in that there is three persons in one wonderful being.
And so then in human relationships, in human existence, God made as the foundation of human life, male and female. Oneness, she was taken out of Adam and then as another person presented to him. And together they rule.
Within that relationship, there's headship and submission. So all the elements of the nature and being of God are brought into focus in the very first man and woman that are made. Now, the sad reality is that it didn't stay that way very long.
I remember reading a book. I'm sure you've heard the name Stephen Hawking. He's one of the famous theoretical physicists who has brought out the idea of the Big Bang Theory. And I saw a little blurb online about his latest declaration that he doesn't really think God was necessary to the creation.
That's his grand opinion. But in a book that he wrote some years ago, it was called A Moment of Time, From the Big Bang to Black Holes, he was basically wrestling with the whole concept of the universe, its origin, and so on.
Now, he never ever attempts to explain the actual origin of matter. The Big Bang just simply says that all the matter of the universe was compressed into an infinitely small space, whatever that's supposed to mean.
And they admit that all the laws of the universe would have to be suspended for that type of existence. And then it just burst out into the universe as we know it in the familiar expression, the Big Bang.
But after going through all of this book and trying to suggest how that explains all the present laws of the universe, which it really doesn't, he then asks us one simple question. He says, Why? Why should it exist at all?
Why should it exist? There is nothing from the physical origin that you could ever discuss that would be a reason why it must exist. He says, if we knew that answer, we would know the mind of God. Now that was the best thing he said in the whole book.
Do you know that the simplest Sunday school child who knows John 3 and 16 knows more than that brilliant man, that God, so loved. It is in the nature of God, because he is love, to desire, to create, to make someone and people who would correspond to himself.
Not that he needed us. Not that he was lonely and had to have a companion. As I try to emphasize, he is perfect and complete in all the glory of his being. But he has out of the love and goodness and greatness of his being created human beings who actually correspond to him in nature of character and being as God except limited in capacity so that we might know him and enjoy him and glorify him forever.
So our true relationship then is that he is the creator and thus the owner of all things. But we have been brought into a special, unique relationship to God as the physical, visible representation of the creator himself as stewards.
Now there's tremendous truth for us to appreciate in simply recognizing that a tremendous dignity conferred upon us. And so everything else that I'm going to try to teach in this series is going to be built upon this fundamental reality, shall we pray.
Our blessed God and Father, we are grateful that it has pleased thee to make us, to bring us into being so that we might experience life and know thee as thou art. We recognize from our present standpoint that there's been a tremendous rebellion, a tremendous rift between us and thee which thou hast bridged by the wonder of the Redeemer.
And today we have a double cause to serve thee, to honor thee, to glorify thee. For thou hast made us and then thou hast redeemed us. And so we would commit ourselves to thee and pray that as believers in our Lord Jesus we might have a love and devotedness and a faithfulness to the one who has brought us back into a meaningful life and meaningful relationship with the eternal God.
We bless thee, giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.