Years ago multitudes read the book, "The Total Woman." That was the book that suggested that wives meet their husband at the door when he comes home from work, dressed only in saran wrap. That book was followed by one called, "The Total Man." I don''t know if the author had a comparable suggestion for husbands or not. Our concern for the day is not about the total man or the total woman, but about "the total steward."

So often Christians reflect the values of society. If materialism is in--driving the finest car, living in the swankiest house, sending your children to the priciest school--then we embrace materialism. If living together before marriage is generally acceptable in society, then we live together before marriage. If moral relativism is the ethic of the time, then we live accordingly. We too easily reflect the values of the society around us. The total steward begins not with society''s values but with Jesus Christ. Out of that relationship he lives and acts toward God, self, and others.

What is a total steward? David''s prayer, here in I Chronicles, is a guide to some answers.

IN THE FIRST PLACE, A TOTAL STEWARD AFFIRMS THAT GOD OWNS ALL THINGS. In verses 10 through 13 from our Scripture lesson David affirms God''s greatness. God, he says, is the source of past and future blessings. Psalm 24 reflects this great truth: "The earth is the Lord''s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." God doesn''t have to be helped, supported, or subsidized. He made and owns all things, and that includes your life and mine. A Christian steward simply acknowledges what is already true. We show both our sinfulness and our ignorance by living under the illusion that anything on this earth really belongs to us.

Wallace Hamilton once noted that the Communists say the world belongs to the workers, the Socialists say it belongs to the State, the Capitalists say it belongs to those who are smart enough and strong enough and free enough to take it. All are wrong. The Bible says, "The earth is the Lord''s." That''s not good advice--it''s a great truth. We must adjust to it. Without acknowledging that, nothing else will come out right.

Luke 12 records the parable of the rich fool. This man felt all he had was his own, but Jesus called him a fool. Fay Summers says the person outside Christ will look at the world and laugh and say, "Mine." The Christian will look at the world and his own life and say, "Thine."

J. B. Phillips tells a parable about some little field mice who settled in a field of corn. Everything they needed was there. One day the farmer who owned the field came to reap his harvest. This turn of events meant tragedy for the mice. What seemed so snug and secure suddenly came crashing down around them. It never occurred to them that the field didn''t belong to them.

So it is with many of us. We work, play, get married, raise families, all in the belief that this is our world. And we give no thought to the harvest time. This is God''s world. Everything in it belongs to Him.

A TOTAL STEWARD ALSO ACKNOWLEDGES HIS ACCOUNTABILITY TO GOD. We see this truth in verses 14 and 15. The other side of God''s ownership is our stewardship. Throughout the Bible in passages such as Genesis 1, Psalm 8 and in other places we are told that God gives us dominion over the earth. However, we are managers, not owners. A steward is entrusted to manage what belongs to the owner. With that trust comes accountability.

In these verses David confesses the brevity of life. Life is not permanent. He points to a day of reckoning. He says, "For we are strangers before Thee and sojourners, as all our Fathers were; our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding."

Paul in Romans 14:12 echoes the same reality: "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." At birth we do not emerge on a giant playground for playboys and playgirls where we can frolic and indulge our appetites and desires without regard for God and humanity. We are responsible. We are accountable.

Many parables of Jesus deal with trust and accountability. The parable of the talents reminds us that however little or however much we have, we are accountable for its use--all of it. We must give a final answer to God. Our auditing day is coming and the report must be filed. Reckoning is on the books. The faithful steward will not view this showdown with God with dread but with joy and peace as he thinks on the reward.

We are accountable not just for physical and financial resources; we are accountable for life itself and the experiences that come with it. We are responsible to God for what we let sorrow and suffering, happiness and joy, do to us and through us.

Daniel Webster, Secretary of State under President Fillmore, was moody and withdrawn when he had a dinner gathering at the Hotel Astor in New York City. One man tried to draw him into conversation by asking, "Mr. Webster, what is the most important thought that you ever had?" Webster''s answer made them all think. "The most serious thought that has ever occupied my mind," he replied, "was that of my individual responsibility to God."

Because many of us have never seen or acknowledged our accountability, our lives are almost useless in the cause of Jesus Christ. We are like the character Pierre, played by Henry Fonda in the movie WAR AND PEACE. After a night of misdoing Pierre shrugs his shoulders and prays, "I have sinned, Lord, but I have several excellent excuses."

W. E. Hinson said, "The unused ability of the church is the exultation of hell, the surprise of Heaven, the loss of man, and the grief of God." The total steward realizes and acts on his accountability because it matters in this life and in the life to come.

FINALLY, THE TOTAL STEWARD ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE OF RESPONSIBLY MANAGING GOD''S GIFTS. We see this truth in verses 16 through 19. David recognizes God''s priceless gifts and asks help in managing them for his son''s benefit. C. H. Spurgeon once said, "Much of the unhappiness and discontent in the lives of many Christian people is their basic dishonesty when it comes to their honoring God with their substance." Our substance is money, but much more.

The total steward seeks to use his time wisely. He will ask God to teach him to number his days so he may get a heart of wisdom and make the minutes, hours and days count. Procrastination, giving ourselves to petty and selfish pleasures, keeping others waiting needlessly because we dawdle and arrive late robs us, others and God of something that can''t be repaid or made up. The poet says, "The restless millions wait the light whose dawning makes all things new." Christ also waits, but people are slow and late. Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you?

A steward will use his body wisely and care for it. Immoralities and excessive habits that degrade and weaken the body will be refused and disdained. The Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God''s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God..."

The total steward will use his spiritual gifts for the sake of others. He will believe with the Apostle Peter this truth, "As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God''s grace."

Bruce Narramore tells about visiting some Christian friends one Friday evening with his wife. The conversation turned to the church as the body of Christ and their individual gifts or roles in the total ministry of the church. As they began to discuss I Corinthians 12:12-31, which says that each person has a different function in the body of Christ, they decided to go around the circle and see what role each of them fulfilled.

They quickly agreed that Bill would be a good mouth. He was never at a loss for words. Fran would make a good foot. Energetic and lively, she was always on the go. Sandy, they decided, would make a great ear. Many people came to her to "get things off their chest" because she knew how to be a sympathetic listener.

Finally they had gone around the circle, except for Bea who sat quietly in her chair. A shy yet talented person, Bea lacked self-confidence. "O.K., Bea," someone said, "what part do you think you play?"

"I don''t know," Bea replied. Then, thinking hard, she finally replied, "I guess I''m just a little toe."

They all laughed, and then joked a bit about the value of a toe. "It gives the toenail a place to stay," Bill suggested quickly. "You couldn''t count beyond eighteen without it," another added. Then their discussion grew more serious. While they didn''t fully understand what they might be, they all knew that God had His reasons for creating little toes. They, too, have an important function for the body.1

Each of us has differing gifts, but as stewards we will seek to use those to God''s glory and the service of humanity.

The good steward will also share the gospel, remembering that Jesus said, "You shall be my witnesses." By word of mouth and the life he leads, the good steward will say to others, "Jesus Christ is the most important priority in my life, and I want you to know him and love him as I do."

To a man who once testified that he enjoyed his religion too much to tell others about Jesus, Dr. D. L. Moody declared, "Man, sit down. You are wasting the time of this meeting. The man who enjoys his religion so much that he has no interest in saving souls has a poor kind of religion."

Equally as important, the good steward will give his financial resources with compassion. He will give, invest, and spend to the glory of God and out of gratitude.

Years ago the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, was approached by a man wanting him to help figure exactly what a tithe of the man''s income should be. The pastor said wisely, "Mr. Anderson, I am not interested in helping you figure what your tithe is. Every time you figure, God loses. Excuse me, I have something more important to do." The man left, but the seeming rebuff kept eating at him. Finally he came back and told the pastor how he felt. "I knew you''d come back, Brother Anderson," said the pastor. "I wanted to tell you that it''s not Jim Anderson''s tithe that God wants. He wants Jim Anderson. He wants you to give yourself to Him. He wants you to give yourself in the Sunday night service and the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. He wants you to give yourself through that Sunday School class the superintendent has been asking you to take. Brother Anderson, when you give yourself you will have no trouble figuring your tithe." The outcome is that the man and his wife did give their lives to devoted Christian service and for many years they gave eighty percent of their income.

My friends, you are either controlled by God''s desire for total stewardship or by the world''s materialistic selfish outlook. Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones says, "If a materialistic outlook is really controlling us, we are godless, whatever we may say. Our Lord tells us...that even worse than atheistic materialism is a materialism that thinks it is godly. `If the light that is in Thee be darkness, how great is the darkness''...The man who thinks he is godly because he talks about God and says he believes in God and goes to a place of worship occasionally, but is really living for certain earthly things--how great is that man''s darkness."

Dear friend, what do you really live for? Where does Jesus Christ and service for him fit into your concerns? Does he have your heart, your pocketbook? Don''t trifle away your life and opportunity; give yourself and all of life completely to him, and take the high road of faithful stewardship.