Calvary Road Baptist Church

“SET THINE HOUSE IN ORDER”

Second Kings 20.1 

The beginning of financial stewardship and the end of financial stewardship both occur in one place, the heart of the child of God. Proverbs 4.23 tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence. You don’t have to guard your heart unless there are things trying to get into your heart that doesn’t belong there. Amen?

Proverbs 4.23 goes on to declare that from our heart proceeds the issues of life. If the Hebrew word for “issues” in this verse of Scripture were being translated in a geographical context, it would read “boundaries” or “borders.”[1] So, the extremities and the boundaries of your life are matters of the heart. It’s your heart, then, that determines how far you will go, that determines what kind of steward you are of God’s resources.

If you do not guard your heart, the enemies of greed, covetousness, and stinginess will move in and begin to control your stewardship. Those intrusions will result in the boundaries of your life extending only into those areas that offer the promise of personal gain. Protecting your heart against those types of things, however, and allowing things like generosity, diligence, and giving to fill your heart will result in the borders and boundaries of your life extending into these areas with their resulting benefits. One of the things that will guard your heart and ensure that your stewardship stays on the right track is an understanding of the purpose of stewardship. Stewardship has a threefold purpose, that, when carried out, accomplishes much good in God’s economy and the life of the believer.

The threefold purpose of stewardship is as follows: First, stewardship should honor God. Second, stewardship should glorify God. Third, stewardship should secure God’s blessings. Let us look at each of these three purposes in greater detail:

Turn with me to Proverbs 3.9-10: 

9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the first fruits of thy increase:

10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 

Ask you self the question, “Does the stewardship of my finances at present honor God?” As you contemplate your overall plan for managing your money (and you should have such a plan), do you consider that plan prayerfully, giving priority to God and the things that are of interest and importance to Him?

For many people, the thought of taking your personal or family budget to God in prayer is foreign indeed. Many don’t do it because they either feel that God takes little or no interest in their finances or they’re afraid He’s going to want them to do something they don’t want to do. Or they don’t have a budget. The fact that God notices the sparrow that falls to the ground and numbers the hairs on your head indicates His concern over the smallest details of your life.[2] And the passage that teaches us that “perfect love casts out fear” lets you know that fear about God asking you to do something you don’t want to do is unfounded.[3] Praying over your finances and asking God for wisdom and guidance as to how those finances are managed is one way you can honor God with your substance.

In addition to honoring God with your substance, you can also honor Him with the first fruits of your increase. This refers to taking a certain portion of your finances to actually worship the Lord with it. Let’s find out how this works. The way most of us receive increase in our lives is through our occupation. We work, and for our efforts we receive financial compensation. Out of the increase that comes to us in the form of a paycheck, the Bible teaches us to give the first fruits to God. God is to be considered first before anyone and anything else. Why is that? It’s a matter of honor and respect. To Whom? To God.

In the Old Testament, God established this pattern of giving to Him first in order to honor Him as a way of remembering His miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. In the New Testament, this pattern of giving to Him first to honor Him is our way of remembering our redemption from sin’s bondage and rejoicing in God’s goodness to us. In this way, giving from our finances to God truly becomes an act of worship. We honor the Lord, then, with our substance by worshipping Him with the first fruits of all our increase and by seeking His wisdom and direction as we manage the money and material blessings He has entrusted to us.

The second purpose of stewardship is to glorify God. Ephesians 3.21 declares this purpose in these words: “Unto him (God) be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus....” This correlates with our first purpose, for as you honor God with your substance and with your firstfruits, He then takes that and uses it for the furtherance of the Gospel. When you value and appreciate the importance of spreading the Gospel, that understanding should motivate you to do all you can to ensure that the work of Calvary Road Baptist Church advances by being financed.

Whether you ever give much to the Lord’s work through Calvary Road Baptist Church or not won’t keep you out of heaven. But let me share a sobering thought with you: On the human plane, if you don’t give, that affects our ability to make Christ’s name known among the nations. I don’t tell you this to lay a guilt trip on you or to shame you into giving. It’s merely a fact. It takes finances to support the effort of giving out the free Gospel of salvation.

It takes money to spread the Gospel. If the Gospel doesn’t go forth, people are hindered from coming to the Lord Jesus, and God is not glorified in the Church. Your giving, then, is a means through which God affects people’s eternity and our capacity to glorify God through the winning of lost souls. While no dollar value can be placed on a human soul, consider this: How would the stewardship of your finances be affected if you knew that for every dollar (or five or ten) you gave, one person would hear the Gospel who otherwise would not have? Our perspective on money changes when we think of it in terms of people’s lives.

In Luke 12.16-21, the Lord Jesus told the story of a wealthy man who showed no concern for eternal things, neither his own life nor the lives of others. The wealth he had gained in his life was lost along with his soul when he died. What a waste. Your stewardship has an eternal purpose: the work of God. The second purpose of stewardship, then, is to glorify God in the Church by furthering the work of Christ.

The third purpose of your stewardship is, with the help of God, to bring increase and blessing into your life. Turn to a familiar passage, Luke 6.38, and read with me: 

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” 

According to the words of our Lord in this verse of Scripture, it is the will of God for you to receive a financial return for your giving. Why would God want to do that for you? Because He loves you and cares about the needs and desires you have, and because He wants to train you to honor and glorify Him. So, He reinforces your generosity with rewards.

Someone may say, “You’re just giving to get.” No, you’re not just giving to get. You are giving to honor God with your substance. You are giving to see Him glorified in the Church by financing your Church ministry to see people saved and discipled. He, in turn, has promised to bless your obedient financial stewardship so that you will be able to continue to fulfill His purpose for stewardship.

Notice that the Lord Jesus said God’s blessing in this area of your life will be in proportion to the measure you give to Him. Paul said it this way: 

“If we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly. If we sow bountifully, we will reap bountifully,” 

Second Corinthians 9.6. With this Scripture before you, what kind of steward should you be?

God’s blessings will come back to you any one of a number of ways. Wisdom to manage your finances better, perhaps a promotion at work, or maybe a new job. But its coming is as sure as the Word of Jesus Christ. God wants you to be blessed so you can be a blessing.

Stewardship: It’s heart work. It causes us to examine the purpose for which we manage our money. When our purposes come in line with God’s plan, our stewardship becomes a great blessing to God, to others, and ourselves. I hope you will give to the cause of Christ through Calvary Road Baptist Church. Stewardship is, indeed, a matter of the heart. But stewardship is by no means confined to things material, to things financial. Stewardship has to do with everything about your life that is related to time, talent, and treasure.

One night I was wrestling with a message I was preparing, praying to God and asking Him what He would have me to preach, what truth from God’s Word would best meet your needs, when my mind settled on the picture of my wife sleeping, and of my daughter sleeping. God brought to my heart the words spoken to good king Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah: 

“Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” 

At that moment, I took to heart a passage containing the words Paul spoke to the Ephesian pastors on the occasion of his last meeting with them this side of glory. He said to them in Acts 20.28, 

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His Own blood.” 

You first, preacher.

I recall sitting down at my computer and pulling up my Family Lawyer program. Then, over the span of an hour, I produced a document suggestions report, input a bunch of information about me and my family, and then I prepared a will and a document stating how I want my funeral service to be conducted. Why did I do that? Did God tell me that I’m going to die shortly? No. But what He told Hezekiah is good advice for anyone to follow. Set thine house in order. You need to set your house in order, friend. But since I’m the pastor I took to heart the command to take care of myself and my family before I concern myself with you. Though I love you dearly, my wife and my daughter are more important to me than you are, so I wrapped up some things that night I should have taken care of a long time ago.

It is appropriate that I now turn my attention to you. Turn in your Bible to Second Kings 20.1: 

“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” 

Some background and then some foreground. The Assyrians had attacked and defeated the northern kingdom of Israel. When they attacked the southern kingdom of Judah, with good king Hezekiah reigning, God turned the Assyrians back. But the next event in Hezekiah’s life after this great victory was the announcement from God’s man that he was about to die. “Set thine house in order,” Hezekiah, “for thou shalt die, and not live.”

What would you do if such a pronouncement was delivered to you by the undisputed messenger of God? Here’s what Hezekiah did. First, he cried and begged God to extend his life. God granted his request and gave him fifteen more years. Second, he hosted the ambassadors from Babylon and bragged of his wealth and treasure, thereby guaranteeing that the Babylonians would invade in the years to come to take that great treasure. Third, he sired and then turned his kingdom over when he died to his son Manasseh, the wickedest king Judah ever had. So wicked was Manasseh that he burned his children alive in his worship of false gods.

In short, when God told good king Hezekiah to set his house in order in preparation for his death, even though God gave him fifteen extra years to set his house in order, he did not set his house in order. I want to challenge you to set your house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

Please, do not think I am suggesting that you go out and make out a will, as I did, or that you begin to arrange your funeral, as I also did. When I did those things, I was not seeking to take care of myself, but those God wants me to watch over and take care of. Before you should ever concern yourself with such things as a will or a guardian for your children, you need to take care of your own relationship with God.

There are four things that need your attention right this very minute: 

THE FIRST THING THAT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION, RIGHT NOW, IS CONSIDERATION 

It amazes me the number of people who will not consider, for even a moment, the state of their eternal soul. They will plan their vacations. They will plan their families. They will plan their career moves, oh so, carefully. But they will not consider their eternal destiny.

You should consider your eternal destiny, the state of your soul, however, you may want to phrase it, because you do not know what’s going to happen tomorrow. You don’t know what’s going to happen today. Remember the man who had planned to build barns to store his wealth in? Oh, he had great plans for the future. But the Lord Jesus tells us that the man was a fool because that night his soul was required of him.[4]

You should consider your eternal destiny, the state of your soul, however you may want to phrase it, because your life may end in moments. James asked, “What is your life? It is but a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.” You may live for 60 more years. You may live for five more minutes.

You should consider your eternal destiny, the state of your soul, however you may want to phrase it because, finally, when you die you will stand before God in judgment. Hebrews 9.27: 

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” 

Consider whether or not you have set your spiritual house in order, the Bible way. If you have not, do so now. 

THE SECOND THING THAT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION, RIGHT NOW, IS COMPARISON 

Comparison is an evaluation between two things, setting them side by side, and seeing how they look next to each other. Let’s compare what God demands of you and what you can deliver.

First, what does God demand? God’s requirements are very simple and straightforward. Again and again, in the Old Testament, He commands, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” In Hebrews 12.14, a New Testament passage, we read that without holiness, “no man shall see the Lord.” So, God is consistent. Saying essentially the same thing in a different way, the Lord Jesus Christ declared, 

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”[5] 

God’s requirements are not at all complex. When you die and stand before God in judgment, to determine whether you spend eternity in heaven or Hell, the sole criteria for judgment will be whether you are holy or not, whether you are perfect or not. Those who are holy in the sight of God go to heaven. Those who are not holy in the sight of God do not go heaven when they die. They go to Hell forever and ever and ever.

God demands holiness. God demands moral perfection. What can you deliver? You can deliver nothing. Instead of holiness, you have only sinfulness. Instead of moral perfection, you are a catalog of moral, ethical, and spiritual imperfection. The reason for this shortcoming is obvious in the Bible. You have an inherited sin nature that has been passed down from father to child since Adam fathered his children. You have inherited Adam’s sinful shortcoming. Romans 5.12 is very clear about this: 

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 

But let’s say that you want a fresh start. Let’s say you want to be good. Let’s say you suck it up and decide that you are going to clean up your act completely. Isaiah 64.6-7: 

6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

7  And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. 

Don’t you see? The very best you are capable of isn’t nearly good enough. There is a great gulf separating God’s requirements of you from your capabilities, as any objective comparison reveals. This means you are in deep trouble. 

THE THIRD THING THAT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION, RIGHT NOW, IS CONVICTION 

Does the significant disparity between God’s demands and your capabilities bother you at all? Are you concerned at all about the unpredictability of life and the possibility of eternity facing you much sooner than you might have expected? How about the judgment? Are you wise enough to weigh the seriousness of standing before almighty God and responding to the demand that you give an accounting of yourself?

When a man or woman begins to ponder spiritual things and realizes that he or she is in dire straits, when a person who has passed for a Christian comes to recognize that pretending to be a child of God while living in wickedness fools God not at all, when a sinner begins to comprehend the enormity of his sins against God, perhaps the Holy Spirit is convicting him.

In John 16.8, the Savior spoke of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to sinners: 

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” 

The Lord Jesus went on to say that the Holy Spirit would also “guide you into all truth.” Has that begun to happen in your life?

No one can, and no one will set his spiritual house in order until the Holy Spirit begins to awaken that sinful person to spiritual things. He begins to fear God. He begins to see that his sins are offensive to God. He begins to see himself as God sees him, wicked, defiled, immoral, spiritually unclean, and deserving the worst of God’s punishments.

Is that happening to you? Do you see yourself as God sees you? Do you fear God and the consequences of sinning against Him? And do you recognize that being a sinner, being dead in trespasses and sins, you cannot save yourself? If so, perhaps you are being convicted by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you are being made aware of the condition of your eternal soul and your desperate need to be saved from your sins. 

THE FOURTH THING THAT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION, RIGHT NOW, IS THIS MATTER OF CONVERSION 

Jesus Christ said to His apostles, “Except ye be converted ye shall all likewise perish.” Conversion is necessary. Conversion is not optional. But conversion is not something you do. It is something that is done to you. You do not need to convert yourself. You cannot convert yourself. You need to be converted. And unless you are converted you shall perish. Unless you are converted, you will spend all eternity suffering the torments of Hellfire for your sin against God.

What is conversion? Conversion is what occurs when a sinner, absolutely convinced of his sinfulness in the sight of God, absolutely convinced of his helplessness to save himself, looks to someone else to save him from his sin. If that sinner looks to Jesus, the Son of God Who died on Calvary’s cross and shed His precious blood to wash away our sins, and recognizes in Jesus the only Savior of sinful men’s souls, he can trust Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Conversion is what happens when the sinner trusts Jesus Christ for salvation. 

“Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” 

For whatever reason, Hezekiah did not heed God’s warning. Though given fifteen additional years, the man, for some reason, did not set his house in order.

My friend, you need to set your house in order. The one night I made out a will and wrote down my funeral instructions, I did those things because I have already set my spiritual house in order. When I die, because I am trusting Jesus Christ, I will go to heaven. For me, my Lord Jesus has met all the conditions God requires for entrance into heaven. In Christ, I am both holy and perfect. In Christ.

What about you? You know that life is short, shorter than many people think. And you know, most of you, that life sneaks past you much faster than you’d ever have realized when you were young. So I urge you to set your house in order now. See to the salvation of your soul by trusting Jesus Christ ... today ... now!

__________

[1] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver & Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew And English Lexicon, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), page 426.

[2] Matthew 10.30; Luke 12.7

[3] 1 John 4.18

[4] Luke 12.16-21

[5] Matthew 5.48

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church