Stewards of Time, Ability, and Opportunity I. Prayer II. Introduction A. Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:12-27 1. Parables involving servants and resources 2. What is Jesus trying to communicate to people? 3. We are the servants; He is the master 4. How are we using that which He has given us? B. Stewardship 1. As servants being entrusted with a charge, we are stewards of God's blessings 2. Promotion of the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 1:16) 3. Representing the love of Christ to men (Matthew 5:13-16) 4. Encouraging the saints (1 Corinthians 14:23, Hebrews 10:24-25) 5. Other charges with which we are entrusted C. Stewardship normally considered in terms of objects 1. The word "stewardship" normally involves things that can be maintained or managed in a physical way 2. Stewardship of money, as in the parables in Matthew and Luke 3. Stewardship of the earth, or other things are also spoken of 4. We must learn how to properly handle and use these things D. Yet stewardship can be more than just about things 1. God has not just blessed us with things, has He? 2. We also have other things which we must learn to properly manage 3. Three such things are time, ability, and opportunity E. Let us consider how to be better stewards of our time, abilities, and opportunities III. Stewards of Time A. Ephesians 5:15-16 1. One of our responsibilities as Christians is to properly use our time 2. How do we put our time to the best use? B. Time: the grand equalizer 1. People may have different amounts of money, or different levels of abilities, but we all share the same amount of time 2. For better or worse, we each have 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, 365/6 days a year 3. We cannot just say that we are too poor or too incompetent to manage our time; it is a skill we must all develop! C. The Problem of Time 1. In general, what's the big problem with time? 2. No one has enough of it; we are all so busy anymore! 3. Even though we have all of these time-saving pieces of technology, we seem to be than ever before D. When we have so many possibilities for spending time, and so little time with which to do them, what are we to do? E. We must prioritize, and prioritize properly! 1. In reality, we all do make priorities 2. What is it that we choose to do with our time? Those are our priorities! 3. If we are going to better manage our time, it means that we must better manage our priorities! F. Matthew 6:33 1. Jesus encourages us to keep our proper priority in place 2. The first priority is seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness! 3. When we do that, everything else falls into place G. Necessary functions 1. As humans, we have some necessary functions that take up a lot of time 2. We need to work to survive, or go to school to learn to be able to work later (1 Timothy 5:8) 3. We need our times of rest and our times for eating 4. Out of the 168 hours in a week, these activities take up roughly 100 of them! H. Other God-mandated functions 1. God charges us to spend time assembling with the saints and encouraging them (Hebrews 10:24-25) 2. There is an expectation for husbands to spend time with wives, and parents with children (Ephesians 5:23-6:4) 3. We are to be otherwise busy with study and good works (James 1:27, 2 Timothy 2:15, Titus 3:8) I. Taking Inventory 1. We can best manage our time when we take inventory and see where we have placed our priorities 2. Where do we spend our time? 3. Beyond work and sleep, do we spend time with brethren? Family? 4. How much of our time is occupied by various forms of entertainment? 5. How much of our being busy is due to prioritizing things that are really not as important as things God has commanded? J. Are we making the best use of our time? III. Stewards of Ability A. Romans 12:3-8, 1 Peter 4:10-11 1. An unfortunate misconception that often exists is that since God has given everyone the same set of commandments, we all are to be the same 2. While it is true that we all have obligations that we must all work to fulfill, that does not mean that we are all the same! 3. As Romans 12 indicates, God did not make us all the same; we are all different, and are able to bring different abilities to the table! B. Church as body 1. Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 2. God often describes the church as a body 3. Consider your own body: while it may seem to be a single being, in reality, it represents a lot of different parts that have different functions 4. Some functions are more obvious than others, and some functions are more pleasant than others, but all are equally necessary for the body to function properly! 5. Such is the way it is with the body of Christ 6. Different people have different functions; some are more obvious, some are more pleasant, but all are equally necessary! C. Humility and Joint Participation 1. Our bodies work because each part does its own thing in its place and it works together with the other parts 2. So it is with the body of Christ! 3. Humility is necessary for each part: it must not think of itself as any better or worse than any other part, just different in its function, and just as necessary (Romans 12:3)! 4. The different parts must work together: joint participation (Greek koinoinia, also "fellowship, association"; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27) D. God, therefore, has given you abilities, and expects you to use them! 1. Back to the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30 2. What is the message of Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Peter 4:7-11? 3. Find what you can do and do it! E. Discovering Abilities 1. To use one's abilities, one must first know what one can do 2. What are you good at? What are your weaknesses? 3. Experimentation is often in order: try different things! 4. If you are good at them, then use them! 5. If you are not good at them, either work on them or leave the function to others! F. Using Abilities 1. As the one talent servant indicates, it does not matter what you have if you are unwilling to use it properly (Matthew 25:14-30)! 2. God has blessed you so that you can be a blessing: use what you have! 3. That is the message of Romans 12:3-8, 1 Peter 4:7-11, and many other passages G. Matthew 25:29 1. A complicated principle 2. What does Jesus mean? 3. Recognition that God has given everyone abilities 4. If we use them, God will bless us bountifully 5. If we do not use them, even what we have will be taken away! 6. A sober warning! H. Let us learn to recognize our talents and use them for God's service! IV. Stewards of Opportunity A. Galatians 6:10 1. What is the old adage: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade? 2. We are given opportunities many times in life to do good things 3. Will we recognize those opportunities? Will we be ready to take advantage of them? B. Recognition and Preparation 1. Many times opportunities are fleeting; you may only recognize the potential when they are gone, and/or you were not prepared to take advantage of them 2. To be good stewards of opportunities, we must first be able to recognize them and take advantage of them! 3. Are we aware of times when we could do good for people, to promote the Gospel in some way, or other such thing? 4. Can we tell when a friend or an associate needs someone to be there for them? 5. Even if we could discern such things, do we know what to do or say? 6. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10, 1 Peter 3:15 7. We need to be prepared with a good knowledge of God's Word and a good eye to see when we can do the things God would have us to do! 8. We need to have the knowledge beforehand to say the right things at the right time! 9. We need to be constantly practicing God's truth to be able to show it (Hebrews 5:14) C. Execution 1. All the recognition and preparation in the world will be of no value if we do not take the opportunities given to us and use them! 2. When we have opportunity to do good for others, we must take it; to not do so is sin, and would be as bad as doing evil (James 5:14; cf. Luke 10:25-37)! 3. When we have opportunity to teach about the Gospel, we must take it; otherwise we act ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and we may never have another such opportunity (Romans 1:16)! D. We may not always succeed; we may make mistakes; but we must try! E. Will we be able to stand before God as good stewards of the opportunities He gave us to advance His Kingdom? V. Conclusion A. Stewardship involves more than just things! B. We must strive to be good stewards of not just the things with which God has blessed us, but also the time, abilities, and opportunities He gives us! C. We must make the best use of the time, for the days are evil D. We must use our abilities for God's purposes E. We must take opportunities given to us and use them to advance God's cause F. Let us strive to be good stewards of God's grace! G. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God (1 Peter 4:10). Jesus and Peter both spoke of Christians in terms of stewards. A steward is given responsibility over a specific domain and will be held accountable for how resources were leveraged and for what was or was not accomplished. God has given us many gifts and wants us to use them to serve and benefit others. We will be held accountable for how we have used what God has given us. How can we be good stewards of God's varied grace? 2: Therefore consider carefully how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16). Time is a gift from God. We may not all have the same gifts or access to resources, but we all have the same twenty-four hours in a day. Paul would have us consider how we use our time, and whether we have redeemed it well. We do well to take every opportunity to glorify God in Christ and further the work of His Kingdom. How can we prove wise stewards of time? 3: And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us (Romans 12:6). While every person has equal value and importance in the sight of God in Christ, we all do not have the same abilities, or even the same number of abilities. God has given different people different skills and differing levels of competency in various skills. He did not do so in order to engender competition, rivalry, and strife; instead, we are to humbly serve others with the skills God has given us. How can we prove wise stewards of the abilities God has given us? 4: So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith (Galatians 6:10). What happens when people with abilities well consider how to redeem the time? Opportunities to serve God in Christ and advance His purposes in the Gospel. Paul exhorted Christians to do good to all people, especially fellow believers in Christ, whenever we have opportunity. Opportunities, though, are only as good as our ability and willingness to look for them. How can we prove better at consciously looking for opportunities to encourage others in Christ?