The Ultimate Ownership
Notes
Transcript
The mention of the word Stewardship often makes us feel uncomfortable. The reason is usually because most people associate stewardship with money. Most become quite defensive when a minister starts to talk about money, especially if it is their money. Then brace themselves for the pastor’s annual sermon on tithing, and then when tithing/stewardship promotion is over.
Stewardship is a biblical concept that far exceeds money.
The farmer must be a good steward of his/her soil, the rancher must be a good steward of his/her cattle, the employer must be a good steward of the potential labor output of his/her employees. To avoid these areas and many others make for disaster.
Christian stewardship goes much deeper, it is far more inclusive.
It is giving openly what you have without any regard of how it will affect you. Generousity.
Gander 911 illustration - gave a tray of sandwhiches which made a lifetime impact. This is something that would normally be done and is an automatic response for many but to those stranded from away this was not an automatic response and they were blessed beyond measure.
How do you translate this time of generosity in giving to God? I am not talking money here I am talking time, thoughts and talents.
How quick we are to criticize what is being done or not being done in the church, but how quick are we to volunteer our expertise?
God has given each one of us so much. We all have talents how are you using yours?
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Pray that God would soften the hearts and open them to receive His command.
This morning we are going to look at:
The basis for our stewardship
The reason for our stewardship
The expression of our stewardship
The Basis of Stewardship
The Basis of Stewardship
Nowhere in all of scripture will you find stated in simpler or more beautiful terms of the sovereignty of God over His creation than Psalm 24:1-2
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.
These verses take us back to Gen. 1
“In the beginning God created the heaven’s and the earth.”
God blessed us with the earth and this began a chain of events that would tranform our lives and our thoughts around giving. There are no limits to God. He cannot be contained.
In Ps. 24:1-2 we find that David is dealing with a troubling problem that had developed among his people. There are overtones of protest against the idea that God can be limited to a certain area - like in Jerusalem or the sanctuary - the people believed that God could be confined. They had closed God up in the Holy City or in the holy of holies, and they came at stated times to pay homage to Him. They thought they were taking care of Him with their ritual and ceremony and formal worship.
Do you see where we are at risk here again. Many times we come to our churches or go to do our devotions and go through the motions and rituals of doing so. Taking care of our duty or what is expected of us.
Perhaps David’s message would be equally as appropriate today was it was in his day, for people have always preferred to contain God and then dictate God’s involvement in human life. That is why we hear such things as:
“Well I think religion has its place but I don’t think you ought to let it make a fool of you”
Often people would rather “lock God up” in the church.
Christian stewardship tears that door down and lets God out of the prison people would make for him. Christian stewardship declares that God is totally God EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME!
There is also a majesty in David’s concept of total stewardship.
David makes a broad and sweeping confession that God’s dominion is UNCHANGEABLE!
Bu the right of creation, the entire earth is his, and furthermore, those beings who inhabit the earth are also within the scope of his sovereign governorship. There is an added dimension here that staggers the human mind. This almighty God, with full and complete power and authority to exercise His rights as Creator, has given people freedom to choose their destiny. People are free to rebel against or obey.
The Reason for our Stewardship
The Reason for our Stewardship
I believe that Paul understood Christian stewardship as no other Bible writer did. He wrote to the Corinthians:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
How are you honoring God with what He has given you?
How are you serving Him?
Are you containing yourself to a given day of the week?
Are you containing yourself to only a certain time and place?
All through scripture we find that God works through a human body. It was in a body that man sinned; it is in a body that we sin. It was in a body that Jesus came to earth; it was a body that He lived triumphantly and overcame sin; it was in a body that He died and rose again.
Now by His spirit He comes to live in the bodies of His people.
Here’s the key: if Christians are truly joined to Christ in daily submission and obedience, they are therefore enabled by God’s grace to control their bodies. But this does not happen automatically.
Christians are predestined to arrive one day in heaven, to stand in God’s presence.
That was settled once and for all when we rested our souls in the finished work of Christ on the cross. But still we are stewards of what goes on during the journey.
Also because we still reside in unredeemed bodies which are subject to temptation and sin, our daily lives become battlegrounds where we must fight and strive every day.
This should be the motivator to drive us to our knees to pray for strength from God and for submission to his indwelling spirit.
The Christian body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit.
Take a moment and think about that.
The sanctuary of the Holy Spirit is our body.
The building in which the church assembles is not a sanctuary. It is merely an assembly room for the people of God.
A sanctuary is where God’s spirit abides!
Ask yourself this question:
What is going on today in your sanctuary, Christians?
The Expression of Our Stewardship
The Expression of Our Stewardship
Peter summed it up perfectly in 1 Peter 4:10
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Peter said that every person has received this gift of grace. But this gift is useful and fulfills its purpose only as it is given away.
Just as the manna that fell in the wilderness was not to be hoarded by the people so it wouldn’t spoil, so the gift of grace God gives to each of His children so it cannot be hoarded.
What are these gifts?
They differ from person to person thankfully. They are varied as the ability to sing or play or preach, to communicate the gospel to children, to be a peacemaker, to be able to say the right word at the right time to sooth a troubled heart, to make money and use it for God’s glory - and we can go on and on.
It is totally unscriptural for one to say he or she has no gift. God has expressly declared that He has bestowed on all of His children a gift to be used, to be given away, for His glory. This, then, is how we express our stewardship - by giving ourselves away in the name and for the glory of Christ.
Peter adds that we are stewards of the “manifold” grace of God.
This could be translated “the many colored grace of God”.
This means that God’s grace fits every possible human need. It expresses itself in an infinite number of ways. There is no need that cannot be met by the grace of God. And think of it - we are stewards of that grace!
Conclusion:
What do we have?
We have the blessed and profound truth of the ultimate ownership of God!
As creator He owns it all; but in His sovereign purpose, He chose to give people freedom to be His stewards or His enemies.
What kind of steward are you?
Now that this message has been shared what are your next steps?
How do you plan to honor Him because of this reminder today?
Make me more like thee