Stewards in God’s Economy

God has put something valuable in your hands, and it’s not actually yours. That’s the tension Jesus targets in Luke 19’s Parable of the Minas, where servants receive a small sum, a clear command to “engage in business,” and a coming day of accountability when the King returns.

We kick off our “Thriving In God’s Economy” series by getting practical and personal about biblical stewardship and Christian finances. We talk about why waiting for “more” is a spiritual trap, how faithfulness with little reveals readiness for greater responsibility, and why the danger is not only wasting resources but doing nothing with them. Along the way we apply the parable to real life: money habits, investing and saving, generosity, influence and leadership, family faithfulness, and the overlooked wealth of time.

The hardest turn is the heart. The servant who hides his mina blames fear, but the story exposes something deeper: what we do with God’s gifts reveals what we believe about the King. We end by looking to Jesus, the perfectly faithful Servant, whose obedience did not “pay off” in comfort, yet produced the greatest return. If you want a clearer, gospel-shaped approach to money, work, and purpose, listen now, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Parable Of The Minas

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Which this morning is found in Luke chapter nineteen, beginning in verse eleven, the word of God reads this way. As they heard these things he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then return. Calling ten of his servants he gave them ten meanas, and said to them, Engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your Mina has made ten meanness more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your Mina has made five Minais. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your Mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, Take the Mina from him and give it to the one who has the ten Minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten Minas, and I tell you, to every one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. This is God's word. Thanks be to God. You may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word. A few years ago I did an expensive kitchen for a family in Hyde Park, and this was they they were a little bit older than me. Um this was gonna be their forever home, and this was their first and their last kitchen remodel that they would do. And during the planning process, I'll never forget the homeowner said something to me, just sort of uh as a passing statement. They said, you know, this is really our one chance in our life to do the kitchen remodel that we want to do. And then they took took their money that they had worked for and saved for for years, and they handed it to me, they entrusted it to me to build them their dream kitchen, they're the one chance they would have in their life. And I I thought, I don't know, I don't want this. Don't tell me that. No pressure. It's very it's very humbling and honestly very nerve-wracking position to be in because I'm not I'm not working with my money, I'm working with their money, and I'm expected to use it wisely and with integrity, and at the end of the project, I will give an account. And in some sense, my future depends on whether I handle it well. Have you ever been entrusted with something of real value? Because in the parable that we read just now, Jesus is teaching us this. He's teaching us that every one of us has been entrusted with something that does not belong to us. And just like that homeowner, God has placed his resources into your hands, which means that you should feel the weight of that, you should use it with wisdom, you're expected to use it with wisdom, and we also must give an account. At the end of our time on earth, we will give an account to the Father from whom all gifts come to us. And today we're we're beginning a series after Easter. Uh, and we are doing a series on biblical economics, and I'm calling it thriving in God's economy. We may not be thriving in the American economy, but at least we can be thriving in God's economy. Uh, the Bible spends uh a crazy amount of time talking about money, lending, investing, wealth, poverty, sowing, reaping, giving, generosity, all of these things. Uh, it has been rightly said that Jesus talks about money and about economic issues more than he talks about any other subject. But before we talk about any of that, we have to start here where we're where we begin this morning with this parable and realize that who we are in God's economy, that we are not owners, but we are stewards in God's economy. So we're looking at stewardship this morning, and what we learn from this passage is that stewardship is universal, that stewardship is active, and that stewardship is revealing. So, first, stewardship is universal. We are all stewards of the king's resources, and so we must be faithful with what we have been given. We're all stewards, and so we must be faithful. Stewards are expected to be faithful. This parable that we read here is often compared to the parable of the talents in Matthew. It's a very, very similar, there are some differences. Luke's Luke emphasizes something slightly different than what Matthew does. In Luke's gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and his disciples expect that when he arrives in Jerusalem, that the kingdom will appear immediately in its fullness, that he will be crowned king, and that the kingdom of Jesus will officially begin as he arrives in Jerusalem. Luke tells us why Jesus gives this parable in verse 11. It says, because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So this parable is either affirming that assumption or correcting that assumption, and actually it's correcting that expectation. The kingdom will not appear immediately, as they suppose that it will, but there will be a period where the king is absent, and during that time his servants are entrusted with great responsibility. There's three groups in the parable. Uh we have the nobleman who becomes a king, we have his servants, whom he entrusts with his wealth, and then we have his enemies. The king is clearly Jesus, and the uh the presence of his enemies who send a delegation after him and don't want him to reign over them, uh that reminds us that our stewardship takes place in a world that is hostile to the king, and then we are his servants, living between his departure and his return. And every Christian, when you read this parable, should see themselves as the servant who has been entrusted with the king's resources. As the king departs, he calls his servants and he gives each of them a mina. Luke chapter 19, verse 13 says, He gave them ten minas, saying, Engage in business until I come. In Luke's version, each servant receives the same amount, whereas in Matthew's version they receive different amounts according to their different capacities. But in Luke's version, they receive the same amount, and that is significant. A mina, as opposed to a talent, is a much more modest, much smaller amount, and what they are given later is called very little. The master says, You've been faithful in very little, and it's a little amount, and it's not because it's unimportant, but it's because this is a test of their faithfulness. They're each given a small amount to test their faithfulness. The king expects to receive a kingdom, and those those servants who were faithful will will manage much more in the kingdom when the kingdom comes in its fullness. When the king returns, his servants must give an account, and the faithful servants who did well with the little money that they were entrusted are then entrusted with much more. Verse 15 through 17 it says, When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants whom he had given money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him saying, Lord, your Mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. So the idea is that in God's kingdom, all of us are stewards, all of us are entrusted with God's resources, even if it is a very little. And it's a it is it's a sort of test of faithfulness, and we are expected to be faithful with whatever it is that God has placed in our hands, whether it feels like a lot or a little. When I became a Christian in high school, I knew that I wanted to go into ministry. I didn't know what that would mean yet, as I first had that inclination, but I knew that was the direction. But my first role in ministry was not being a pastor. Being a pastor is not a good first job in ministry. I was a volunteer youth leader in college. That was one, that was my first role. I get as a college student, I gave my time to minister to a very small group of high school students who didn't even want me to be there. And that was it. There was no title, there was no paycheck, there were no accolades, it was very small, it was very simple, but it was also very revealing because how I or anyone would handle that uh humble responsibility, that small responsibility, said something about what I might do if I ever had greater responsibility, as you have probably often heard before, that how we do anything is how we do everything. So if I'm able to be faithful in a little, perhaps I will be faithful in more, but if I can't even be faithful with a little, then I probably cannot be faithful with more than that. From there, God opened the door to campus ministry. Uh there I had a modest salary. I made$15,000 my first year in campus ministry, working full-time. Um and I thank God my wife was my wife was working at that time as well. But there were more people. Some of them are sitting in this room today, uh, and I'm grateful for that. There was more responsibility. And then eventually down the road that led to the big bucks, to church ministry. And now, almost 20 years later, um planting this church and pastoring, pastoring here. And even now, it's still modest and small, but this is the most responsibility that I have ever been entrusted with, with the responsibility of caring for your souls. And this is what I have seen over that trajectory. God entrusts us always at first with something small. And it's not because it doesn't matter. The small things do matter. They matter very, very significantly, because it reveals whether or not we are ready for more. In any season of life, the most important question is never how much do I have or what am I lacking? But the most important question is what am I doing with the little things that God has entrusted to me? Many economists have pointed out we like to talk about different social classes or wealth classes or income brackets, and we imagine different income brackets to represent different groups of people. But in reality, different income brackets, when when studied in depth, don't represent different groups of people. They represent the same people at different points in their lives. Um this is true for all of us that I mean anyone sitting in this room who has a little bit of wealth, who has done well, will be able to tell you about the days when they were flat broke. And that was probably that was probably most of their life as a as a young man or as a young woman. Um there there are some who uh who inherit wealth or who have generational wealth, but honestly, most of those who who do have wealth have have made it on their own, and uh it didn't come easy, and it came after a long period of being faithful with a little. It is important that we are faithful with a little. So there are two mistakes that we can make with stewardship, and I'm gonna mention one now, and I'll come back to the other later. But the first mistake is this. The first mistake is that we are so focused on what we wish we had, and this is when we're when we feel like we have a little, when we're struggling. We're so focused on what we wish we had that we neglect to be faithful with what we have been given, with the little that we have been given. And so I want to press this on us this morning to be faithful in the little things. And I'll just give a few examples. First, talking about money. All of us want more money, and I want for you to have more money, and I want more money, and as Ecclesiastes tells us, money answers everything. It's wonderful to have money. We tell ourselves, when I have more, then, when I have more, then I will save money, or when I have more money, then I will uh invest and prepare for my retirement, or when I have more, then I will give, then I will tithe my income to God's church, or then I will be generous, then I will uh be more uh free with how I am generous to my friends and my neighbors when I have more money. But most of the time, these things are not an income problem. In my line of work, both of my lines of work, both in pastoral ministry and in um in building things, I often see people's finances because we're talking about how much they can afford for a project or uh doing financial counseling on the church end. I see people's finances, and I can tell you over the years that there are people who appear to have an abundance, who have very nice cars, who have big houses, they appear to have an abundance, but they are just as broke as you are, and sometimes even worse off. There, as we will learn in this series, there's a difference between income and wealth. Income is how much money passes through your hands in a year, and wealth is how much money you retain over time, or how much you know, abundance you retain over time. There are people who are appear to have an abundance who are just as broke as you, and there are people with modest incomes who do not appear to have abundance, who live simply and who give generously and have tremendous margin in their financial life. So the question is not what would you do if you had more? We all like to think about that, but the reality is we already know the answer to that. The answer to that is you would do exactly what you're doing now, only at a greater scale. So the real question is, what are you doing with what you have right now? That's money. Another example, influence. Some of you want more responsibility, whether that would be professionally or in the church or uh in whatever arena you want to lead, you want to have influence, and that's a good desire. Uh Daniel had a great amount of influence. We just finished studying Daniel, and influence is a good thing. But no one is going to entrust you with more until you have shown what you will do with what's already in front of you. So, for example, and I heard this a lot coming up as a young pastor, do you want to pastor people? That's wonderful. No one is going to hand you a ministry. No one is going to hand you a church or a Bible study or a men's group. No one will hand that to you. Um, how are you shepherding your family? How are you leading your children spiritually and encouraging your spouse? Have you ever opened the Bible with a friend or with a neighbor and just invited the person next to you to read the scriptures with you? Things that seem small, things that seem invisible. Um, but a lot of times young men who want to get into ministry don't have any of that going on in their lives and they're waiting for someone to hand it to them. God has already given you people to care for. Do not wait until someone hands you a church to pastor. Start pastoring now, start leading now in little ways with the people right in front of you. And then finally, family as an example. Some of you want to be married or to have a family or to have children, and that's a good thing. That's a very weighty responsibility. There's nothing more significant that we could do with our lives than to build a family. But ask yourself: if you want that, how is your self-control now? How are you handling temptation now? How is your faithfulness to God now? Because if you cannot be faithful now, what makes you think that you will be faithful when the stakes are higher? Thank you for that feedback. Um God withholds more, giving us more, not because he's stingy, uh, but because he is merciful. And it is a good thing that we do not yet have more responsibility because we wouldn't be able to handle it. The reality is that you are a steward of God's resources right now. So don't worry about what God might give you later. Focus on being faithful with what God has given you right now, and be faithful in the little things. That's point one. Point two, stewardship is active. God intends for his kingdom to grow through what he entrusts to us, and so we must be engaged in his business. The nobleman is about to go on a long journey, so we read in verse 13, calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten meanings and said to them, Engage in business until I come. Notice that they're not told to preserve or to protect the money. He doesn't just say, Keep it safe, keep it secret, keep it safe. He says that they are told to put it to work, to take this money and to engage in business. The nobleman receives the kingdom and then he returns, and when he returns, he calls his servants to account. We read in verse 15. It says, When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business. So this is not optional. They are expected to act. They're expected to answer for what they did and what they made. And two servants come forward. One has made a thousand times increase on the investment. He has uh he's gained tenus, another has made a, I guess, a 500% increase, he's gained five. Both of them are celebrated, both of them are rewarded. Uh the results don't matter as much as what's most important, what's most important is that they tried. What's most important is that they put their master's resources to work like he said they do. We could imagine someone who only made one other Mina, and then they're given authority over two cities. I mean, still, it's like the the results don't matter as much as the fact that they that they gave it their best shot. But there is another servant, and he has done nothing. He hasn't stolen the money, he hasn't lost the money, he's kept it safe, he put it in a handkerchief. He simply refused to put it to work. He refused to take the risk and to engage in business. The king condemns him not because he tried and failed. That's not the story. It's not, Master, I tried my best, but I lost all that you gave me. It wasn't that, but it is, it's because he refused even to try. So the point is this is that God does not entrust us with his resources so that we would preserve them, so that we would keep them safe throughout life, so that we would be able to return them to him in the end in pristine mint condition. That's not what God cares about. He entrusts us with his resources so that we would put them to work in hopes of making a return. Stewardship is not passive, it is active. And the danger is not just in misusing what God has given. The danger is doing nothing at all with what God has given to us. God intends for his kingdom to grow through what he has entrusted to us, and that means that we must engage in business until he returns. Soon our son Henry will be driving age, and so we've been perusing. Facebook marketplace, just just looking for what might be a nice first vehicle for him, and uh maybe and maybe another vehicle for me as well, but but mostly for him. Um and as we've done so, we have fallen in love with pickup trucks from the the 80s and the early 90s, the golden age of the American pickup truck. Uh we discovered that there are some beautifully preserved trucks that are on the market right now. Uh low mileage, original paint, clean interior. I cannot believe that they exist. They look like they've never seen a job site. And that's probably because they never have. These trucks have spent their lives looking pretty, sitting in storage, being driven a few hundred miles a year. They're gorgeous. And I can't wait for Henry to be the inheritor of one of these. But honestly, that's not what they were made for. That's not why the manufacturer made them. They were made to get dinged up. They were made to haul lumber and and and concrete. They were made to drive through the mud and to do truck stuff, all of the stuff that trucks do, to work and to be engaged in business and to make a return. God has given you some gifts. He has handed you the keys to his 91 Ford F-150 Lariat with the red velvet interior. And his expectation is not that you would keep it safe and return it to him in pristine condition and keep it in the garage and only take it out on Sunday afternoons to the car wash, but his expectation is that you would put it to work. We are not to preserve and keep secure kingdom resources. We are to put them to work with the hopes of multiplying them. So the question for you this morning is what are the resources that God has placed into your hands and are you putting them to work for his kingdom? And let's just consider a few examples. Knowledge and wisdom. Maybe God has gifted you with knowledge and wisdom. You can quickly and easily understand Scripture. You have a good grasp on theology. You are discerning. You can listen to a preacher like me who 95% of the time says accurate information, but you can pick up on that 5% that's inaccurate or that's just slightly off. It's a one wonderful gift of discernment. You can articulate the faith with accuracy and with precision. Good. I love it. Are you putting those gifts to work? And what would that mean? Taking the risk of defending the faith to your non-Christian friends and neighbors in a respectful way, making a risky investment in people, seeking to deposit the faith in others, reading the Bible with your children, with your neighbors, with your friends, with whoever would be willing to do that. It's a risk to do that. Is it all kept in pristine condition in storage in your mind? Or are you actually putting it out there into the world, putting it to work? Hospitality, another gift that God gives. Maybe God has gifted you with a beautiful home or beautiful property, space to host people, space to welcome people. You have a wine cellar that would be the envy of Bilbo Baggins. Is this home, these comforts, these resources that God has entrusted to you, is it being put to use for kingdom purposes? How often are your neighbors invited to your table? How often do you hop open your home to your church family? That can be hard work. And it's annoying. It means more wear and tear on all of our nice things. It means that we can't, our couches can't be covered in plastic, that we have to take the plastic off so that people can sit on them. It means having to be inconvenienced by others. But this is why God gave it to you. He doesn't give it to us. Every gift that God gives to me, I realize it's not just for me. I wish it was, but he gives me these gifts. I benefit from them, but he also desires that I would put them to work and that I would share them with others. Not to keep it safe, but to put it to work. Or maybe it's time. Maybe God has given you the gift of time. Your life is fairly simple. You work, you come home, your kids are grown, or they're older, or maybe you're not yet married. So the vast majority of your wealth is in time. You have lots of time on your hands. You're very wealthy. How are you putting it to use? Does your free time get spent on yourself, protecting your schedule, entertaining yourself, carefully guarding your schedule so that it cannot be interrupted? Or are you investing it? Investing time discipling younger believers, investing time preparing yourself to be of even greater use in the future, possibly pursuing training or further education, investing time being available for your church family and the needs that they have that might come up. God has entrusted something valuable to each of us, and our job is to steward whatever it is that He has given to us in this season by putting it to work. Stewardship is active. And then finally, stewardship is revealing. How we steward what the King has given to us reveals what we truly believe about the King. And at the end of the day, stewardship is an issue of the heart. Let's look again at the third servant, verses 20 and 21. Then another came saying, Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. So the servant has done nothing with the Mina entrusted to him, and his excuse is that it's actually the king's fault. The king is a harsh and severe man, and the servant is scared of him. That's what he says. So so putting the money to work was simply too risky. That's what he's saying to him. If he had tried and if he had failed, he would face a severe consequence, because the king is a severe man. So out of fear, he did nothing. But the king cross-examines him. He's a wise king. Verse 22, he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest? So the king is saying, Is that really what you're concerned about? If you were really concerned about the risk, then why didn't you put deposit my money with a moneylender or with a banker? Both in the ancient world and today, loaning our money to bankers or moneylenders is the safest investment. The return is very small, but it is virtually guaranteed. If the servant were really concerned with safety, then surely he would have just chosen the safest investment. But the this tells us something. The servant's excuse is not the real problem. His excuse is a pretense. The issue is not a lack of opportunity or even a fear of failure. The issue is this. The issue is that he has no concern for the king's interests. His words reveal how he sees the king, and his actions reveal what he values, and the two line up. He does nothing for the king because he does not truly care about the king or about his kingdom. And he might have even doubted that the king would ever return, would ever have received the kingdom. So this is the point. Stewardship reveals the heart. If we consistently refuse to use what God has given us for his purposes, if we let our gifts lie dormant, it reveals something deeper than busyness or caution. It reveals what we believe about God and what we value the most. Because when we value the King, we will seek to use whatever he has entrusted to us for his purposes. And when we don't, when we don't value him, then we will find ways to justify doing nothing with the resources he has given us. Would you like to know what I have seen in my own heart, as the Lord has given me illumination and shined a light in my own heart at certain times? This is what I have seen. Pastoring can be difficult and discouraging, and sometimes it feels like you pour your heart into it, and there's very little return. And when that happens, I can start to get bitter. And I can start asking, after all of this work, why isn't the church bigger? After all of this work, why isn't there more provision? Why don't I have more influence? Why aren't other presbyters calling me and asking me for advice? Why am I not more revered? I am the Reverend Billy Audten after all. I've put in so much. Where is the return? And when the thought and then the thought creeps in, you know, what will I do, Lord, if this church plant doesn't work out? What will I do? I know what I'll do, Lord. I'll just be done working for your kingdom. I'll focus on making my money and enjoying my life and my family. I'll buy property in the country. I'll go on more vacations. I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name. I'll go sit in a pew somewhere and I will be retired. I've seen that in my heart. But what does that reveal? It reveals that in that moment, I don't just want to serve the Lord because he is so worthy, because he is so good and so worthy of my service. It reveals that I serve him because of what I gain from serving him. I serve him because I want something from him. And when I don't get it, it makes me want to just take my ball and go home, and it makes me want to use my gifts only as long as they benefit me. But this parable exposes that stewardship is not about what we get in return. It's about faithfulness to the king who is worthy of our best efforts. And the reality is, is that Jesus is not worthy of our Jesus is worthy of our service, not because of what he gives us in the moment or how our life is playing out in the moment, but he's worthy of our service because of who he is all the time. So even when there is no visible return, even when it feels costly, we keep putting what he has given us to work because he deserves it and because we belong to him. So if you're like me, and if you struggle with bitter thoughts like this, the antidote to that is love. We've lost sight of the Savior, and we must find him again and fall in love with him again and remember the love that we had at first. When we draw near to the Savior and when we are refreshed by him, we cannot help but love him more because he is so lovely and because of his great love for you that we experience when we draw near to him. Jesus Christ was fully engaged in the work of his Father. He was faithful with everything that God entrusted to him, and he was faithful to the very end. And what was his earthly reward for his faithfulness? He was not rewarded with comfort, with riches, with honor, and with influence on earth, but his faithfulness led him directly to poverty, to humiliation, to pain, and ultimately to death. You know, I'm pretty good at being obedient to God when obedience pays off, especially when it pays off in the short term. When life is not difficult, when money is not tight, when I do something and I get applauded or recognized for it, I could be obedient for a long time when there is an immediate reward. But when I'm expected to be obedient and it doesn't pay off, when I obey and my life gets worse, when I obey and think and life is frustrating and it's not working out how I want it to, I must admit that I don't last very long. Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient to the Father. He was faithful to the very end. He was faithful when nails were being driven through his hands, and he cried out from the cross, not vitriol, but Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And because of his great faithfulness to the Father, he produced a great return. Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. When you are refreshed and renewed by what Jesus has done for you, you will be inspired to put all of your resources to work for him, not because you gain anything from it in the short term, even when you don't gain anything from it in the short term, but because he is most worthy of our best efforts. Glory be to God. To this end, let us pray. Our Father, we ask that you would add your blessing to this uh this new sermon series that we will be uh in for the next seven weeks or so. Lord, as we study these issues of wealth and uh money and generosity and poverty and investment and all of these things, Lord, we pray that you would help us to see that this is just a very tangible reflection of our relationship with you. Help us to see your grace in these things, help us to see our sin in these things, help us to see your mercy and your forgiveness and how we can be restored uh to relationship with you, especially just in the brass tacks of life. Lord, we pray that this uh this study for us would be practical, that it would be helpful, uh, that it would, above all else, draw us to a deeper love and appreciation of your Son Jesus, that we might imitate him uh even in the little things, in the minutiae of the day to day. All of this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand and sing together.