Christian Stewardship, a Gospel Affair - Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent, March 9^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Christian Stewardship, a Gospel Affair

Christ Jesus and His Christians Steward the Gospel,

by Rejecting Temptation and Rejoicing in Our Father’s Care

 Audio of the Sermon is available HERE

·      Fully rely on your heavenly Father for all things,

trusting in Him as a little child trusts her dear father. 

·      Bring an offering and come into His courts.  

·      Bring the first-fruits of the harvest which the LORD has provided you. 

·      Worship the LORD God, and Him only,

for He is your Creator, Provider, and Redeemer. 

·      Set not your heart on the passing things of this world,

for your Savior is preparing a place for you,

an eternal home in His presence, in His glory. 

   I noticed that our Old Testament reading for this first Sunday in Lent teaches us a lot about stewardship, about properly receiving, understanding and using all the good and perfect blessings the unchanging Father of lights pours down upon us.  Christian stewardship is important, and so I try to teach about it when our readings provide opportunity.  During the last couple months of every calendar year, I normally try to spend a Sunday focusing on Stewardship, and then also share with you our “Cheerful Giver’s Annual Reflection Guide”, to help you be intentional about your stewardship in the coming year.  But in 2024 I did not get that done. 

   Should I do it now, as we plunge into Lent, the six week pilgrimage to the Cross which we walk together, every year?  Maybe?  But it doesn’t seem very “Lent-y” to me. 

   Then I realized that Jesus also teaches us about Godly stewardship through His fasting and temptation by the devil.  And, we are called to be good stewards of all that the LORD gives us, every day, including during the season of Lent.  So, why not?  Let’s do it.   

     In our Deuteronomy reading, Moses is giving final instructions to Israel, before his death and Joshua’s taking the wheel.  Specifically today, Moses is telling Israel how to receive and utilize the fruit of the harvests the Israelites would soon be collecting in the Promised Land, and that “how to” instruction starts with first-fruits giving, giving to the LORD first, before using the harvest for anything else. 

     You remember that Israel’s harvests had been a daily miracle, for 40 years.  Each morning while Israel wandered in the wilderness, God provided Manna, a fine, flaky bread-like wafer, with a hint of honey flavor.  The Israelites were to collect just enough for their daily bread, and not keep any for the next day.  On the day before the Sabbath rest, they collected twice their daily need.  And so, for 40 years, God’s people had a daily demonstration that He was the Provider for their every need.  Israel was not always thankful for the Manna, but they at least couldn’t easily forget that God was the One providing for them.

   Now, as they entered the Promised Land, the Israelites daily miraculous reminder would end.  As God drove out the wicked pagan inhabitants before them, Israel would again be planting and cultivating crops, and collecting harvests, in the normal farming process. 

   I’ve heard that farming is a lot of work.  It is certainly a task that one might take pride in accomplishing, or conversely complain about, especially when it goes badly.  As they returned to farming, God was concerned that Israel might forget that He is the LORD who provides their harvests.  God would still be providing, only now through regular farming, instead of miraculous Manna.  So Israel would remember this truth, Moses instructs them to bring the first-fruits of every harvest to God as an offering, before they used it for themselves. 

   It wasn’t that the LORD needed their wheat and barley, their grapes and olive oil.  No, Israel needed to understand God’s provision correctly.  First-fruits giving is for the good of the believers, for the health of their faith, for the good of their spiritual life.  Israel needed first-fruits giving, and so do we.  Even though God does not give His New Testament Church the same specific rules and details about our giving that He gave to ancient Israel, first-fruits giving is just as important for us today.  We have never seen miraculous Manna.  And most of us are far removed even from the growing and harvesting of crops.   We can easily forget that God is the One providing for us, day by day. 

   Most of us receive cash wages or salaries, and buy our daily bread at Lynn’s, or Krull’s, or Walmart.  How often do we stop and consider that God is still the One providing our every need?  He does this through the work of other people: farmers, food processing plant workers, truck drivers, store clerks, and dozens of others who contribute to the provision of our daily bread.  God works through all of these folks, to provide for you. 

   First-fruits giving, setting aside our gifts to Lord before we use our money for our other needs, is a wise spiritual practice.  Regular, weekly or monthly giving, done as we gather for Divine Service, is a healthy way to be reminded that God is our Creator, our Redeemer, and our daily Provider.  The miracle of forgiveness that the LORD gives us in these gatherings will give us eyes of faith.  Eyes of faith see clearly, and appreciate more fully, all the blessings God showers on us.   

   Whatever we have, we receive from God, and as His children, we are called to steward it well.  Stewardship includes receiving your gifts thankfully, and using them wisely and well, as a child of God, as a believer in the Giver of every good and perfect gift. 

   In His 40 day fast and His temptation by Satan, Jesus shows us what such Godly stewardship looks like.  And the shape of Satan’s temptations teach us a lot about the bad stewardship that we are so prone to, that we are called to avoid. 

   Satan’s first temptation is for the very hungry and physically weakened Jesus to use His divine power to turn stones into bread to fill His belly.  This connects closely with the first-fruits giving Moses instructed ancient Israel to do.  If we forget about God, life can quickly devolve into a lowest-common-denominator existence, which is to worship the god of our stomachs.  If, as much modern economics assumes, we think of ourselves as nothing more than consumers in a system, striving to maximize our consumption, we might build an impressive market society that drives us all to work hard and be very productive.  But the stuff of this world cannot fill the God-shaped hole that is in the heart of every unbeliever. 

   Jesus knows and shows us the better way.  The Son knows that His Father understands His physical needs as a human being, and Jesus trusts His Father will provide.  It was, after all, the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to fast.  Jesus trusted that God had a good reason for His hunger, and knew the Scripture that taught the higher priority: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deuteronomy 8:3) 

   Failing to recognize that the support of the physical needs of this life comes from God is dangerous, for it can lead to forgetting and falling away from the one true God.  He is the One who truly loves you and provides for you, in the way He knows best. 

   Satan’s temptation for Jesus to gain earthly power and glory by worshiping the evil one brings up a point I like to make about Christian stewardship: When the New Testament speaks of stewardship, it is usually speaking about stewardship of the Gospel, of the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, for the salvation of sinners. 

   God does provide for our physical needs, as He also does for the unbelieving world.  But the treasure, the one gift that Christ Jesus left to the Eleven Disciples, and to His Church, was not wealth, or abundant food, or beautiful buildings.  The only treasure Jesus left was His Word, His Truth, the Law and Gospel message of salvation.  Pastors are public stewards, administrators of this Gift.  Every Christian also shares a part in the stewardship of the Gospel.  As important as care for the body is, the Church’s top stewardship priority is to receive, understand and use the Gospel rightly. 

   Satan tempted Jesus to forfeit the true Gospel in order to gain earthly glory.  Jesus easily defeated this temptation.  But this has always and continues to be a temptation for the Church.  To compromise God’s Word for the sake of getting more people in the door, to shade the Truth in order to appear successful to ourselves and the world, is the worst possible betrayal of God, and of each other.  Such false church growth is enticing, in particular for the servants of the Church, who often can enrich themselves and inflate their egos in the process.

   The compromises Satan and the sinful world demand are well known.  God in His Word is very clear about what thoughts, words and deeds are sinful.  But the world and the sinful natures of members of the Church love to whittle away at this list.  They like to remove certain sins, in order to make Church comfortable. 

   And while we’re at it, isn’t the Bible’s teaching about the utterly sinful nature of every descendent of Adam counterproductive?  Couldn’t we attract more people if we allowed that our sinfulness is not really so bad?  Why don’t we instead say sin is a problem, but one that we can overcome, if we really try. 

   And does the Christian Church have to insist that there is only One True God, and that there is only one Way of Salvation, through Jesus Christ?  Wouldn’t we get along better, couldn’t we collaborate  and help more people if we allowed that other religions offer salvation as well?   

   Sadly, far too many preachers and churches have succumbed to these temptations, which in truth are the worship of Satan, dressed up in Church-y clothes.  God grant that we never succumb to these lies.   

   Jesus shows us the better way: His firm clinging to the Truth of Scripture, even when it was unpopular, caused many early followers of our Lord to walk away.  In the end, His faithfulness to the Word and the Gospel plan are what got Jesus killed.  But in this faithful stewardship unto death, Christ won new life for us dying sinners.   

   Jesus’ final temptation shows us the importance of stewarding our status as children of God.  We should cling to the details of God’s Word, accept His definition of sin, and the exclusivity of salvation through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.  Very well.  The sinner who trusts this Gospel from the heart receives forgiveness, life and salvation.  He is adopted by the Father as His beloved child, for the sake of and through Jesus Christ.  But children of God can still be tempted to unbelief. 

   In the third temptation, the Devil was not suggesting a formal denial of God and His teaching.  Rather he subtly promoted an unbelief which seeks to manipulate God.  Dear children do not treat their dear fathers like candy dispensers.  Likewise, Christians don’t put in a quarter’s worth of prayer and pious words, in order to then feel justified to demand the sweets that we want from God.  As Jesus said, “It is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ (Deuteronomy 6:16) 

   Thanks be to God, we are not saved by our own good stewardship.  Jesus’ stewardship is our salvation.  He refused to worship His stomach, or anything else but His Father.  He made good use of God’s Word, and the life He had the Son of God and the Son of Mary.   His perfect stewardship of God’s gifts led Him to be faithful unto death, for us. 

   We should be, and we want to be good stewards of all the gifts Christ died to gain for us.  But we rely not on our good works, not on our good stewardship.  No, we rely on God’s super-abundant grace.  God has even connected the power for good stewardship in our lives with the very reception of Christ’s forgiveness.  As we confess our sins, many of which involve bad stewardship, the Lord both forgives us, and renews our hearts, so that we can be better stewards going forward.

   Bad stewardship is the failure to rightly receive, understand, give thanks for, and use well the myriad gifts the LORD showers on us.  Bad stewardship leads us into a destructive cycle, a downward spiral, as the sinner tries harder and harder to find love, satisfaction and peace in things which cannot offer them.  Bad stewardship leads us farther and farther from God, who is One true source of love, satisfaction, and peace.

   But good stewardship leads us in a virtuous, blessed cycle, as the saint, the holy child of God that is every believer, rejoices more and more each day in all the blessings our Giving God showers upon us, and uses them to promote the growth of God’s Kingdom and love the neighbors God has given us. 

   Through it all, most especially we rejoice in the gift of Christ Jesus and His victory over sin, death and the devil.  Jesus started that battle with Satan at His temptation, and finished it, won the battle, on His Cross.  Jesus is the ultimate Good Steward, for our salvation, and for His Father’s glory, Amen.