Stewardship A steward (according to the dictionary) is one employed in a large household to manage domestic concerns such as servants, accounts and collecting rent. A steward is a manager. A manager is one who handles or directs. The bible explains the spiritual meaning of a steward. A steward is the ruler of the household that must provide meat in due season. Luke 12:42 “And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season.” The meat in due season is the word of God. The bishop or minister is the steward of God. Titus 1:7 “For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God…” I Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Faithful means conscientious and firm in the adherence to promises or duty. A steward has to be someone you can depend on to do what they are supposed to do. They abide by their moral duty which is to obey the law of God and to be diligent in their calling. A steward is not only the minister or leaders of the church. Each one of us was given a portion of the grace of God. We all must be faithful, conscientious stewards or managers of the grace and calling, to minister or perform the thing that God has given us to do. We must all, who have received the gift of the grace of God, minister the same one to another as good stewards. I Peter 4:9-11 and Romans 12:5-13. Hospitality is a generous and cordial welcome. Hospitality is how we receive each other and how we receive strangers. It is more than being friendly. To show hospitality in our own homes we smile, invite someone in, ask them to sit down and offer them something to drink or eat. In the church we do the same thing. The food that we offer is the word of God. It is the meat in due season. Smiles and a gentle manner and friendliness means nothing if you are offering someone only something that could make them sick or harm them. A false prophet who is kind and who makes you
feel welcome and comfortable is like a person that invites you in, and serves you soup with stool in it or poisonous mushrooms. Remember that the strange woman taught them very well how to entice the foolish. The smiles and gracious manner is deceit. A steward is one employed to manage a large household. The household is the house of God. It is the church. The Lord of the house is Christ. He has given each and every one of us a particular calling and a purpose. The leaders in the church are given a lot of responsibility. A leader may not work up to their calling. A person with a title may not do the amount of work, or be as diligent and conscientious as a person without a title. We should not get hung up on titles. It is the work that means everything. A title given or assigned by man is one thing, but a stewardship given by God is something else. God does not look at titles. He looks at the heart and he looks at the work of each individual. A person who does not work up to their calling or who is not a good steward of the grace that God has given them is like someone who buries their talents in the sand. Let us read Christ’s parable about the talents to help us understand how important it is to be good stewards of the grace of God, no matter how small or how large it is. We will also go back into our history and study about Joseph, one of the most perfect examples of a steward in a great household. He was first in the household of the captain of the guard, and finally he was Lord over all of Egypt. Joseph was blameless and faithful. He provided meat in due season giving food to not only all of Egypt, but to the world during the years of the drought and was therefore able to feed his father and his family. Please read---the parable about the talents, Matthews 25:14-30, Joseph, the faithful steward, Genesis 39:1-9 and Genesis 41:14-57 (70 verses)