1 File: Believe Ch.9 Stewardship Good morning, I want you to know that you are awesome for coming to worship today, the weather outside is definitely frightful but inside the Son S-O-N is always shinging. And I am EXCITED because we continue our BELIEVE: THINK ACT BE series. And here s the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of this whole BELIEVE series are you ready? We all have opinions about what we think the Bible says about stuff but the BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL IS to know what The Bible actually says about core Christians beliefs-to then know what we should be doing with life and then to know what God wants us to become. That is a pretty Big Hairy Audacious goal don t you think? And I m convinced that if you follow along on this journey that by the end it s a very real possibility that God will stir some things in each one of us and we might begin to see some things differently. I think that s pretty exciting. The key question for today is What is God s Call on My Life? We all have to go to work pay bills go about our routines try to carve out some kind of a career but Anybody interested to know what God s call on your life is? That s pretty exciting, for some it might also be a bit scary. But by the time I m finished I hope if you re one of the people who think it s scary will come to find it exciting.
2 Anybody know what the title of chapter 9 is where the key question is What is God s call on my life? That s right Stewardship. If you heard that word and mentally clicked to the off setting please click back to the on setting for I think you ll be surprised. I meet with a group of pastors regularly and one of them told me that a few weeks back he received a call from a guy in church who comes once every couple of years. He said to my friend (true story) hey Pastor I m bringing a couple of friends to church this Sunday and I want to make sure it s not the Sunday when you get up there and talk to us and try to make us feel bad about how much we re not giving to the church. My friend assured him it wasn t one of those Sundays. What s sad about the conversation is that the guy never really grasped the true Biblical meaning of stewardship, he limited it to only money and possessions---and yes, money and possessions are part of it but it goes way deeper. But the money and possessions part of it is where a lot of us get hung up and we click to the off position. Martin Luther when he talked about conversion said the wallet is always the last thing to be converted. That s why Jesus talked so much about our use of money and possessions. But As I said the biblical concept of Stewardship includes money and possessions but goes way deeper than that. In fact I believe to the very core of my being that if we get a true Biblical understanding of Stewardship it really can change our life.
3 Our key idea for today and it s right there on page 142 in your BELIEVE book is I BELIEVE EVERYTHING I AM AND EVERYTHING I OWN BELONG TO GOD. Wow that s a big statement. Do we really believe that? The passage from Psalm 42 read The earth is the Lord s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it on the waters. It harkens back to the creation account in Genesis when God created not just everything we see but also all who live in it and that includes you and me. In other words everything and everyone belongs to God. There s a spiritual transaction that takes place and it s our Key Idea for today I believe that everything I am and everything I own belong to God. That is a big step and it s a big step to actually live that way and it begins by stepping off the throne of our life and deeding everything back to God. In this transaction God becomes the owner of everything and do you know what God does? The Lord turns it all around and gives it right back to us to manage for God s good purposes. It truly is an amazing and big transformational transaction. Do you know why God gives it all back to us to manage, because God doesn t need it. Listen to these words from Psalm 50 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the
4 insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it. So if The Good Lord doesn t need what we have why does he invite us to give a portion back for His work and for those in need? Because of the incredible sense of peace that comes from serving and partnering with God. If you ve never experienced that I know it s hard to believe but it s true A biblical understanding of stewardship allows us to partner with the God of the universe because we get to be part of God s work. And it all begins by understanding that God is the owner and we are the managers. Read Matthew 25 14- the line on page 146 of Believe. Notice the passage begins with the word again this means it s a lesson Jesus has taught over and over to his disciples. It goes on to say the guy entrusted his servants with his wealth, note it s not their wealth but the Master s again underscoring the point that all we are and all we have belongs to God. The one guy gets 5 bags of gold and puts it to work and makes 5 more. The guy who gets 2 bags of gold makes 2 more and the master is really happy with both of them. They ve been really good stewards or caretakers of the gold and they ve put them to work and the master says to them Well done thou good and faithful servant.
5 But what about the guy who received one bag of gold? Read from the line on pg. 147 of BELIEVE BOOK. The point of this is not that God is asking people to be wealthy or accomplish great things but rather to be faithful and invest what he s given us for him. Some have been given a lot, some a little and some hardly nothing. Some have influence over hundreds and others maybe over just one it s not about what we have, the biblical concept of Stewardship is about what we do with it and it includes our time, our gifts, our possessions and money and all that we have and are. The third guy in the story who went and buried his bag of gold is like the person for whom nothing in their day is motivated by God or by what Christ has done for them. You see, the beauty of a Biblical understanding of stewardship is that it turns the conventional wisdom of the world upside down where enough is never enough, where we are only out for ourselves, where our money, our passions, our talents all become our master. And when they are our master we become a slave to them and they control us.
6 But when we understand biblical stewardship we begin to see that all of those things are no longer our masters but God s servants. That they no longer control us but rather God s call on our life does