Stewardship, Generosity, and Giving
Tom Shrader frames stewardship and generosity around five gifts God has given every believer: salvation, eternal life, the peace of God and ministry of reconciliation, the Holy Spirit, and spiritual gifts suited to each person. Rather than focusing on how much to give, he argues that giving begins with gratitude and shifts when believers understand themselves as stewards rather than owners of what God has entrusted to them. The practical turn of the teaching is this: an owner asks how much to give, but a steward asks how much of God's resources to keep — a reframing that applies equally to time, energy, and money.
“God doesn't want just your money. God wants you, your heart — your time, your energy, your effort, your money is part of it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Standalone Teachings
Recorded: 2017 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 43 min
Themes: stewardship, generosity, giving, gratitude, money, time, ownership, spiritual gifts, struggling with generosity, financially stressed, new believer, young adult, breadwinner, questioning tithing, feeling ownership over possessions, seeking purpose in giving
Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 6:23, Luke 2:14, Romans 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Romans 12:1-2, Romans 12:18, John 14:27, 1 Corinthians 12:7, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, 2 Corinthians 9:15, Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1, Psalm 50:10, Haggai 2:8
Theological Themes: stewardship, sanctification, reconciliation, pneumatology, holy spirit, soteriology, salvation, grace giving
Full Transcript
Introduction
This morning I want to teach on the topic of stewardship, generosity, and giving. Let me explain how I got here. My phone dinged with a text message from Tim that said, "What are you doing Sunday, the 31st of December?" I answered, "Watching football — what else would any normal person be doing that day?" He said, "Do you have any interest in teaching at Gilbert?" and added that it was a one-off — meaning it's a single message, not part of a series — on an assigned topic: stewardship, generosity, and giving. I said sure, always a privilege, and that's how I got here.
Beyond getting here, I got the topic. I didn't receive from Tim or Neil or anyone else any limits, guidelines, or direction beyond those three words: stewardship, generosity, and giving. So I sat down, and my mind did probably what yours would do at that point — I focused on giving. That raises all sorts of questions: How much should I give? Where should I give? Who should I give to? How generous should I be? I decided not to go down that line.
I have a ministry I've had for about 30 years called Priority Living of Arizona. The website is prioritylivingaz.org. There you'll find a series on financial foundations, and within that there are sessions on giving — where to give, how to give, why to give. It's a big deal. What I did for today was break the subject into two parts: the stewardship part and the giving part.
Why Do We Give?
When I looked at giving, rather than ask how much to give, I asked a different question: why do we give? I came up with answers, and I assume they're many of the same answers you would have. Out of duty — which never sounds very flattering. Out of desire — I want to give, which seems better. To give back — you hear people say all the time, "I want to give back, I've been given so much." To support a cause that's meaningful to you. The American Cancer Society is running an incredible series of ads right now with men and women who have had cancer, and the basic theme is: "I heard of the Cancer Society, but I never experienced it. Now I've experienced it, and I want to give." You might give to support a friend, or because you're involved in a cause. There's a whole list of those.
But when I ask people why they give, one of the things I kept hearing was this: "I'm giving in response to somebody who has given to me. I want to reciprocate." That's a delicate balance, because when somebody gives you something, you want to give back — not more than they gave you, not less than they gave you. You try to find that sweet spot.
My mom was like that with Christmas cards. I love Christmas cards, Christmas letters — even if you don't know me, you should send me one, just because I love Christmas. I may be the one person on the planet who loves Christmas letters. My mom would collect the cards we received and tape them on the mantle of the fireplace or around the door frames. Then about the middle of January, she'd take a day while we were all at school, pull out the stack of Christmas cards we'd received alongside her list of people we'd sent cards to, and check them off against each other. If she had sent you a Christmas card and you didn't send her one back, you were never going to hear from her again. She was only about this tall, but she could take you right off at the knees.
Gifts are a lot like that. When someone gives me a gift, I feel obligated — or, more positively, I want to respond enthusiastically. So I thought it was worth going back and asking the question: what gifts have you received as a Christian? And then considering how we respond to those gifts. Having been around this for years, I also understand that many of you in the room are fairly new to faith — perhaps in the last month, through Advent and this time of year, you've been in church and hearing about some of these things. My hope is that today we can fill in some of the blanks.
The First Gift: Salvation
I have five gifts that we as Christians have been given. Here is number one — the big one: salvation. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." I don't know how long my ever-growing list of significant verses is, but this might be the most significant one of all.
I'm winding my watch. She said, why do you wind your watch? And she said, so it keeps going. And Haley couldn't quite process that. But I thought, that's a picture of physical death. My mom's winding down, and one day she's going to stop. It's appointed to man once to die. And then there's eternal death. Revelation 20, verse 14 calls it the second death, the lake of fire, eternal separation from God. And the gift of God is eternal life in contrast to all of that. Eternal life begins the moment you trust Christ and never ends.
The Gift We Have Been Given
Now, if you're thinking about responding to a gift you've been given, don't know what you got for Christmas, but it's unlikely you got a bigger gift than salvation. That's a big one. With it comes eternal life. The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. If you're one of those hardcore Americans who says, I just want what I've earned, I want what I deserve, there's no free lunch — well, here's what you deserve: death. And it's what you would have received.
When the Bible talks about death, it talks about three types. One is spiritual death, the second is physical death, and the third is eternal death. Spiritual death is separation from God. I taught at the beginning of the Christmas season at Scottsdale Bible Church, and the first song they sang to launch the Christmas season was "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" — glory to the newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild. What's the next line? God and sinner reconciled. If I were to say to you that Sarah and I had been reconciled — and this is entirely fictitious, so please don't start posting that there's trouble — just from that phrase, if you knew nothing else about us, you would know there must have been a preexisting hostile condition. God and sinner reconciled implies a preexisting hostile condition. That is how we are born into the world: spiritually dead.
I mentioned Christmas cards earlier. The Christmas card that seems iconic to me — I have no idea why — is a blue card with silver speckles and stars on it that says "Peace on Earth." We probably received half a dozen of those this year. Attached with that sentiment, we typically think of "peace on earth, good will toward men." But the verse that phrase is derived from is Luke 2:14, which says, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men with whom He is pleased." It is not peace to everybody. God is not at peace with everybody. I would argue that the vast majority of this world is at war with God, because they are spiritually dead.
Then there is physical death. It is appointed to man once to die, and then judgment — and we know that. I don't know if it was the last time or the time before last that I was home to see my mom, but Sarah, her sister Haley, and I were sitting with my mom when she took her watch off and wound it. This blew Haley's mind. She said, "What are you doing?" My mom said, "I'm winding my watch." Haley said, "Why do you wind your watch?" And she said, "So it keeps going." Haley couldn't quite process that. But I thought: that is a picture of physical death. My mom is winding down, and one day she is going to stop. It is appointed to man once to die.
And then there is eternal death. Revelation 20:14 calls it the second death — the lake of fire, eternal separation from God. The gift of God is eternal life in contrast to all of that. Eternal life begins the moment you trust Christ and never ends.
Saved by Grace, Not by Works
I was born and raised Catholic — grade school, high school, college — and I heard over and over again: you need to be good, do good. It is a little like the message embedded in Christmas music. I got into Christmas music in a big way this year. I haven't been able to hear for a while, but now I can — some of you can see the implant. I look like I fell into a tackle box, with things hanging off everywhere. When I had the surgery in August, my doctor Lindsay Schroer — the greatest listening doctor of all time, and if you need someone to help you, I cannot recommend her enough — asked me what my goal was. I said I wanted to hear Christmas music. And this year, for the first time in maybe two years, I heard it.
On satellite radio I found a traditional Christmas music station. There are maybe twenty-five songs, and they cycle through the same twenty-five. They play "Silent Night" with Andy Williams and then Frank Sinatra. But then they play "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" — you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. And then comes maybe one of the creepiest lines in all of music: he sees you when you're sleeping, and he knows when you're awake. That is not comforting to me. But the implication embedded in that song is that God is like that — He sees you when you're sleeping, knows when you're awake, knows if you've been bad or good, and you had better be more good than bad.
But the Scripture says no. I am not saved by being good. I am saved by grace. I have received the gift of salvation. Jesus was His name, and Joseph was told to name Him that because He would save His people from their sin. That is the whole point of Christmas. Christmas launches a rescue mission for you and me, and it is a beautiful picture of love — perhaps the strongest picture of love in all of human history.
Max Lucado writes about Christmas with this simple sentence: the story of Christmas is the story of God's relentless love for us. For God so loved the world that He sent Jesus so that you could be saved. The simple statement we use often around here is this: God saves sinners. The triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — works together. The Father chooses, the Son redeems, the Spirit regenerates. He does everything from rescuing us from sin all the way to glory, and He rescues people like you and me.
What Launches Everything
This matters because it launches everything else. I'm saved — delivered from what? Rescued from what? The bondage of sin, the love of sin? I am born naturally separated from God. That is how I come into the world. And I need to be saved from the wrath of God, because He is going to judge sin and sinners. I have been saved by grace — unmerited favor, not a result of works.
This is something that perhaps spoils the peace and serenity of Christmas for some people, but it is the truth at the heart of it. The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And if I have received a gift of that magnitude — salvation, reconciliation with God, and eternal life — then everything that follows in how I live, how I give, and how I hold the things of this world is a response to that gift.
The Gift of Peace
I have peace because I've been reconciled with God. Romans chapter five, verse one: "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." I also have the peace of God, a peace that passes all understanding. Here is my definition of peace — and I don't think it's the dictionary definition: it's not the absence of turmoil. It's the presence of God.
Turmoil is not going to disappear from your life until you die. I'm going to have turmoil. I'm going to have circumstances like this. But in the midst of it, I know God is there. That's why you can go through some horrific things and people will say to you, "I don't know how you did that," and you say, "Well, I don't know how I did either, except God did it."
The Ministry of Reconciliation
And that's not the end — He's giving you the ministry of reconciliation. GCU is running a billboard right now, one of those flip billboards, which means you have eight seconds to read it, which is not enough time. If God has invented anything to drive me nuts, it's these flip billboards. GCU's running one that says "Discover Your Purpose," and I don't know if you've been out to GCU, but it's absolutely amazing — you ought to think about it for higher education.
But you don't need to go to GCU to discover your purpose. I'll help you out: you have a ministry of reconciliation. Paul writes about it in 2 Corinthians 5 — God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and given you the ministry of reconciliation. So you go into the world as a peacemaker.
There will be turmoil around us, but it is turmoil limited to our defense and explanation and apologetic of the faith. Paul says in Romans 12, "As far as it depends on you, live at peace with one another." I don't know if it's because I'm getting old, or because I'm tired and weak and frail, but I am sick of fighting. Everybody is fighting about everything. You turn on sports and it's two guys arguing — indisputable evidence. You turn on the news and there was a show the other night with four people on it and all four were talking at the same time. If I turn on the cooking channel, we've got Cupcake Wars. We are fighting about everything. You and I are to be instruments of peace in the middle of that — to disengage from that — and to bring reconciliation. That is the part of Jesus in all of this.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Here is the third gift: the presence of God — the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the one Jesus had promised: "My peace I leave you, My peace I give you — not as the world gives." He said, "I will give you another. I will give you a Helper. I will give you the Holy Spirit." God comes to live and indwell you. You have God with you. God is in this room right now, and I don't mean that in some strange, eerie way. I mean that you are here as a child of God and the Spirit is indwelling you.
The Gift of a Spiritual Gift
Here is the fourth gift you have received. These gifts are staggering, by the way — after the first one we said it was impossible to reciprocate. Here is the fourth: you have a special gift. Each believer is given a spiritual gift — a God-given ability received at the moment of conversion.
The purpose of a spiritual gift is to use it in the body of Christ. We are a body, and God has allocated to this body — this Redemption Gilbert body — all of the pieces we need to function as a body. If you don't use your gift, we as a body are hurt. Ray Stedman calls it a capacity for service — something you have that allows you to move with efficiency and effectiveness, an ability God gives you to do something.
I was teaching one Wednesday night and there was a man who came up after the lesson and said he'd like to meet. I asked why, and he said he wanted help figuring out his spiritual gift. Now, this man was the first one there every single week. He set up all the chairs. He made sure there was water. He turned the air conditioning on, and the heating in the winter. He was always asking, "Do you need anything?" This man was perfect — he clearly had the gift of service.
So I said sure, and we sat down for lunch. After we ordered, I said, "I've been really thinking about this and praying about it. I think you have the gift of service." He said, "No, I don't." I said, "Yes, you do — you have the gift of service." He said, "I don't." I said, "You do. You get here early, you set up the chairs, the air conditioning, the water." He said, "I don't have the gift of service."
The Gift of Working in Your Sweet Spot
Someone once said to me, "It can't be service because I like it so much." We have it in our heads that if God gives us a gift, we'll have to get a passport and a visa and shots, and it will be something we never want to do. But that is not how spiritual gifts work. The gift is when you are, to use a sports term, in the zone. It is when you are in your sweet spot, when you are working and people around you are saying, "Man, you do that really well," and you respond, "It's nothing." It is nothing to you because God has given you a special enablement, a capacity for service. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:7, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." You need to find that sweet spot, get in it, and camp out there.
The Gift of Contentment
The last gift we find in Ecclesiastes 3: "I know of nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. This is a gift from God." It is the ability to enjoy life — not to trivialize it by simply calling it fun, but to find satisfaction, to find contentment. I may not have met every need I perceive I have, but the word I wrote on my sheet of paper is contentment. It is not just striving and clawing.
I acknowledge this is a delicate balance. I spend enough time with athletes and coaches that when you start talking about contentment, the fear that comes up is, "I'm going to lose my edge." But you do not lose your edge. You may practice just as hard, but you practice for a different reason. You are not looking for the Lombardi Trophy, the World Series Trophy, or the Masters Green Jacket to provide you meaning in life. Your meaning, even in winning a trophy, is that you glorify God in the process. Whether you are salesperson of the year or a champion in your field, the opportunity is to glorify God in the process, not simply to accumulate more. That is a gift from God.
Responding to God's Gifts with Generosity
So those are the five gifts, and now we tie back into generosity and giving. How do you respond to them? The answer is simple. If you are a parent or grandparent, you have said to your grandchildren in the last week, "What do you say when somebody gives you a gift?" You say thank you. 2 Corinthians 9:15 says, "Thanks be to God for His incredible gifts." Freely you receive, freely you give.
All those questions about how much to give and where to give — you work those out. How much should you give? My best guess is more than you think. Where should you give? We are sitting in a place that should be a recipient of your gifts, but it is not the only place where you are taught, nurtured, and where you see God working.
Giving Is Far More Than Money
Here is the critical point: giving is far more than money. God does not want just your money. God wants you — your heart. Romans 12:1–2 puts it this way: "I urge you, brethren, by the mercy of God, present your bodies" — and encompassed in that is everything you do: your time, your energy, your effort, your money. Money is part of it, but it is a part, not the whole. Shame on us for every time giving is mentioned, we reach for our wallets as though that is all it means.
I would rather have your service and involvement, because in a straightforward sense, your money will follow. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Eugene Peterson's paraphrase puts it this way in The Message: "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering." And then verse 2: "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God and you'll be changed from the inside out."
The mantra we have used here for decades is this: we want a transformed heart and an informed mind, which will lead to a radical life. The giving life, the generous life, is a radical life. And at the center of it is this truth — giving is way more than your money. It is everything.
Stewards, Not Owners
I want to give you something that will radically change your thinking and therefore your life beginning today. Here it is: God has transferred possession of resources to you, but not ownership. Therefore, you are a steward, not an owner.
Take my car, for example. It is a nice car. The seats are heated, the mirrors move — I like it. But what God says is that this is not my car. It is His car, entrusted to me. He has transferred possession but not ownership. The same principle applies to all of your life — your time, your energy, your effort, your money. They are not yours. They are God's.
This even applies to how I think about my daughter Sarah on her birthday. I say "my daughter," but she is not mine. She is God's child, entrusted to me to help her become independent of me and dependent upon God. That understanding drove how I approached parenting entirely.
God's Ownership Over All Things
God claims ownership over the entire universe. Job 41:11 declares, "Everything under the heaven belonged to me." He also claims ownership over the entire earth: "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, all who live in it." Every living thing belongs to Him. "Every animal in the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine." And every asset as well: "The silver's mine, the gold's mine." God retains ownership of everything.
Consider the difference between two ways of transferring resources. If I hand someone $100 and say it's theirs, I'm done with it — I have no further relationship with it. I've transferred both possession and ownership, and they can do whatever they want with it. But if I say, "Here's $100, and in about three years I'm going to want it back, plus anything you've done to increase it through interest, investment, or whatever it might be," then I am the owner and they are a manager.
So if today is the day you are getting a tattoo, here is a suggestion: get the word "steward" — not "owner." Because God is the owner. We are responsible to Him as trustees.
God Determines the Scope of Your Portfolio
God has determined the breadth of your portfolio — the time, the energy, the effort, the money. Some of you, God has given a great amount of cash. Others of you are wearing your net worth. It is not the size of the pot that matters; it is what you are doing with it.
God is not going to judge you by how somebody else managed their portion. He will judge you by what you did with what He entrusted to you. This applies not only to money but to time as well.
Having spent a great deal of time over the last year studying and living alongside aging, and spending time with very old people, one thing stands out: they have time. And without a plan, without a strategy, you will waste time. That is just as sinful as wasting money. Someday there will be a full accounting for it.
The Question That Changes Everything
Here is the summary: God has transferred possession of these resources to you, and that is a game changer — a life changer. And here is how simple this is.
If I am an owner and it is time for giving, I will typically ask, "How much money should I give?" But if I am a steward, look at how the question changes: "How much of God's money should I keep?" Those two questions will produce two very different answers.
The same shift applies across everything. How much of God's time should I keep? How much is mine? How do I steward this? The purpose of this lesson is not simply to prompt a year-end gift, but to have you rethink your entire relationship with your time, energy, effort, and money.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for this amazing truth. It is a life changer. All of a sudden, we look at the gift of salvation and eternal life and the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts and just the ability to have satisfaction, and we respond — not by presenting You ten percent of our time or ten percent of our energy or ten percent of our money, but by presenting our whole life to You. It is what Paul calls a living sacrifice. God, accept that. We offer it to You in Jesus' name. Amen.