home. Then the jailer entrusted Joseph with his jail. Eventually
Pharaoh entrusted the entire nation to him. Servanthood and
stewardship go together,^6 since God expects us to be trustworthy
in both. The Bible says, “The one thing required of such servants is
that they be faithful to their master.”^7 How are you handling the
resources God has entrusted to you?
To become a real servant you are going to have to settle the
issue of money in your life. Jesus said, “No servant can serve two
masters.... You cannot serve both God and Money.”^8 He didn’t say,
“You should not,” but “You cannot.” It is impossible. Living for
ministry and living for money are mutually exclusive goals. Which
one will you choose? If you’re a servant of God, you can’t
moonlight for yourself. All your time belongs to God. He insists
on exclusive allegiance, not part-time faithfulness.
Money has the greatest potential to replace God in your life.
More people are sidetracked from serving by materialism than by
anything else. They say, “After I achieve my financial goals, I’m
going to serve God.” That is a foolish decision they will regret for
eternity. When Jesus is your Master, money serves you, but if
money is your master, you become its slave. Wealth is certainly
not a sin, but failing to use it for God’s glory is. Servants of God
are always more concerned about ministry than money.
The Bible is very clear: God uses money to test your
faithfulness as a servant. That is why Jesus talked more about
money than he did about either heaven or hell. He said, “If you
have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust
you with true riches?”^9 How you manage your money affects how
much God can bless your life.
In chapter 31, I mentioned two kinds of people: Kingdom
Builders and Wealth Builders. Both are gifted at making a
business grow, making deals or sales, and making a profit. Wealth
Builders continue to amass wealth for themselves no matter how
much they make, but Kingdom Builders change the rules of the
game. They still try to make as much money as they can, but they
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