XIII: Stewardship

1st Corinthians 4 verse 7 for who makes you for who makes you different from anyone else. What do you have you did not receive if you did receive it. Why do you post it? So you did not. Particularly that middle phrase. What do you have that you did not receive the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be unto God you may be seated.

Concept of stewardship as you can see by the title up there. My surprise to you what it is. I think it's in your bulletin as well stewardship is not a foreign strange or weird concept at something that from a young age with your child babies teenage years specially something that you know, inherently what it means if you're at the mall and you're eating food at the food court rip those early days that the mall no longer exist anymore in general, but if you're at the food court, you were friends a lot of times for whatever reason when people are at the table where they do put your phone on the table. And what are you do I got to use the bathroom? Can you watch my phone really quick? I'll be right back. That is called stewardship. Right? If you're still at the table, this phone is not yours or just simply their you're watching over at you're guarding it until said individual returns and more extreme example, if he will ever house that before or house sitting right, you know, that that is not your house, even though the owner may have told you feel free to choose whatever bad to sleep in and turn the TV on here is the password to Netflix and all this kind of stuff feel free to eat any of the food in the pantry in the fridge. You may be able to enjoy all of that but you know good and well that house is not your house at the end of the day. You're simply watching it for a short time until the owner returns. So as we as a church, if you weren't aware, he just be aware and we are walking through what's known as the Baptist faith and message. This is a doctrinal statements that's different churches individually have corporately said hey, this is what we believe this is what we confess and in the Baptist faith and message we're walking through it. What is it? Say, what what do we believe is a church? What should we believe with some things that we can rally around? There's an entire section. They're devoted to stewardship. It's kind of weird when I think of a doctrinal statement. I usually don't think what does the church say about stewardship stewardship is really I believe foundational to the Christian Life whether or not a pastor says it every Sunday from the pulpit the concept of stewardship really is an underlying current throughout all of the Christian Life. Because it's all about leaving a Godly life to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what a good Steward is as we'll see you in just a few moments and what the Baptist faith and message says we're going to read it together collectively at the end. It's not exhausted. It's not complicated. It's not rocket science. It's very simple and even from a secular standpoint as those example. I just gave it's easy to understand on an intellectual level. What stewardship is never the less as we close out this year my hope and my goal is that weasel Church use individuals would be more faithful in our stewardship of what God has given us in 2024. My Hope and I are goal is to be more faithful to be more biblical as God stewards in 2024 and yes stewardship is very simple to understand the essence of it God owns everything I'm his Steward are you got that pretty simple to get that right but isn't it the simple things in life that we need to be reminded of the most often the things we take for granted the things that yeah. I know I'm supposed to love God and I'm supposed to read the word. Well, you need constant reminder. I do two we need constant reminders of these basic things in the Christian Life and also applies with stewardship. If you've heard countless sermons on stewardship generosity money all that in general or if your new Christian and this is new to this concert this phrase stewardship. If you really believed it, if you really believe what the Bible says about this your life would be radically transformed by the way, you live. So our goal if you know, it wasn't believed if you believe it live it out pretty simple. Total stop right in the sermon in a sentence is this the three points are packed into this one statement? All right. Number one. God owns it all. We are his Stewart Stewart his gospel X true love. What's the term in the sentence? God owns everything? We are his Steward's Steward his gospel. Well to multiply true wealth and package of those phrases one by one number one God owns everything. He owns at all. We find this at the very beginning in Genesis 1:1 in the beginning. God created the heavens and the Earth. This is what's known as in a Christian since the intellectual property. Right God is the creator. He owns it. He owns what he created us for a little bit about the Bible Leviticus 25 verse 23 Israelites God's people, they're preparing to enter the promised land and God speaks to the Israelites and tells them the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners if strangers. That's right. Sometimes we talked about hear about God's giving the promised land to Israel. Is that true? Yes, but technically fundamentally, what did God say this land is mine. I'm leasing it to you. If you will you're going to live there. You're supposed to take care of it Deuteronomy 10 verse 14 Moses tells all of God's people all of the Israelites to the Lord your God belong the heavens. Even the highest Heavens the Earth and everything in it. 1st Chronicles 29 versus 11 12 listen to what the king said yours Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory in the majesty and the Splendor for everything in Heaven. And Earth is yours yours. Lord is the kingdom you are exalted as head overall wealth and honor come from you. You were the ruler of all things in your hands and strength our strength and power to result in give strength to all God owns everything Joe 41:11 the grand conclusion of that book God is correcting Joe about his faulty warped thinking his warped heart correcting Joe basically by saying Joe, I'm The Sovereign. I'm the one in charge. I'm the one in power. Not only that I'm good. And God is instructing reminding Joe with this basic truth and then a joke 41 verse 11. God tells him this. Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under Heaven belongs to me. Another words got a thing. I am in debt to no one. I don't owe anybody anything because I own everything. Psalm 24 verse 1 says a famous one of his specially if you've known it in the King James version the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and everything in it. Not a little bit. God doesn't own a little slice of Earth. It doesn't own the USA or the nation of Israel or fill in the blank. He owns the entire or if you can own a couple of people handful of people it says everyone is the Lord's Psalm 50 verse 10 and 12. God says every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all that, isn't it? Church, do you get the picture right now? But it is fundamental to the Christian Life. Okay, God owns everything. He owns absolutely everything. I need the number to the concept of we are stewards workout Stewart. Well, I own my shoes. I own my my clothes are the deed to my house in my name. My Bible has my initials on it. What are you talkin about? God owns everything I own this kind of stuff. Oh, yes in a sense you do own stuff. Okay, Shirley your license that has your picture and your name on it? Yes, that's yours. That is not mine. Okay, it's pretty simple, but fundamentally you do not own a dime. You have nothing to your name fundamentally what I mean by that you are Steward of everything. God has blessed you with what is a steward the steward is simply someone who faithfully and diligently manages someone else's stuff. Taylor Stewart as someone who faithfully and diligently manages. What is not theirs? We see this throughout the Bible beginning all the way back in Genesis. I think most every sermon I preached on the Baptist faith and message different doctrines. I've alluded to Genesis in one point or another because Genesis is so important to our Christian walk and Christian understanding of in Genesis what happened God created the heavens and the Earth particular he created the Garden of Eden you set up Adam and Eve as the property managers if you will take care of the garden Stewart it manager, it's not your garden. It's mine. This is not your Earth. It's mine. You're just taking care of it. We see this in with you later on in Genesis with Joseph and Joseph in Egypt Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat right before that Joseph was the manager for the steward of Potiphar's House part of his belongings. He was supposed to manage it Stewart it well, then Luke 19 you want to turn there just so you can see with your eyes. Luke 19 I verse 11 and following. this is when

right on the heels of Jesus. Having that encounter with Zacchaeus who Zacchaeus is a greedy money-hungry lustful tax collector who is oppressing people are charging them crazy enormous fees for paying your taxes and stuff. They're greedy man. Nonetheless has repented before Christ repentant before the others. God saved him. Jesus saved into the work in his heart. So on the conversation the topic that the idea of money Jesus continues with this parable of the 10 - it's called So it look 19 Jesus tells about a man of royalty. He's going away to be crowned as king. the wildest man of royalties away He calls 10 of his servants to himself. With a gift and responsibility are 10 servants here. Come here. I want to give you something but I'm also calling you to do something with it. So that the man of royalty he gives each of them a mine which is one minor is about three months wage. So let's say today's world. Let's say you're making fifty thousand a year. That's roughly $12,500 cash. I'm giving you 12 $13,000. Here you go. Put this money to work for it to work invest it and then when I come back, we'll settle up. We'll see how things went will see what how you have spirited what I've given you Luke 19 verse 15 tells us that the king returned home and since for the servants to whom he'd given the money in order to find out what they gained with it and listen to the very precise wording of how the first servant responds to this man. Sure, you're mine. Has earned 10 more. Another word. She sang this 12,500. I've made it earn $125,000 thousand percent return on investment. Sure all of us would like to invest a high-yield savings account something like that crazy. But what does he say your minor your money even say my money earned you this he said your money orange you this this man understood what's stewardship was? It was entrusted to it for short time. This money is not his but he was entrusted with it for a short time. He has called to invest it or the multiplier do for you and I today. Everything in your life. Absolutely everything the $50 bill in your wallet $1,000 in the bank the stove in your house the Toyota RAV4 you're driving way, which was why do we park in driveways and drive and Parkways? You don't know but anyways everything you have everything you have is his you don't own it. You didn't buy it fundamentally right again. It's his you were stupid eating it until he returns. But then it's not just about objects. It's not just about your money. It's about your very own life your own body in today's world. We live in a culture in America. It's all about that autonomy. My personal bodily autonomy. Nobody tells me what to do with my own body that's champion in two ways with regards to abortion and with regards to kind of vaccines and medicine right? Nobody tells me what to do.

But even biblically speaking what does 1st Corinthians 6 19-20 Ellis God is speaking to his people and what does he say? You are not your own you were bought at a price. In other words your own body isn't even yours. Technically. It's God's on loan to you and you were called to Stewart it use it well for his purposes. Was that mean that means your health your talents your energy your voice your ability to think your eyesight your ability to walk your ability to hear your spiritual gifts your salvation everything in your being it's not a tangible object. You're called to use all of these things just store them for the glory of God until he returns. A simple way to categorize it in terms of stewardship. You probably heard this before but it's your time your talents and your Treasures. Those are the three big categories that you're called to Stewart your time your talents and your Treasures or your possessions. I think about stewardship. You think these papers I gave you earlier like when you're at the mall, you're watching somebody's phone or you're at somebody's house. You're house-sitting. What does that entail? I think often times when you might think of stewardship at least on the surface you think about the concept of guarding right? You guard something you hunker down you hold on to it. You make sure nobody else touches it make sure nobody else can harm it, right if there's high winds and heavy rains outside. Hey, can you hold my bag hold my purse while I run back to the car. What are you doing? You hold on to it? That's what a good Steward does. Okay, you just hold on to it. Make sure it doesn't get damaged Blown Away. But that's not the biblical concept of stewardship per se but I'm just not hungry down holding on everything with a tight fist making sure nothing can damage it. But if that were the case, well, then I'm just going to put as much money in my bank account as I can. I'm not going to give to the church get to anything. I'm just going to hunker down. Hold on guard it. 1st Peter, 4:10 gives us an understanding of what we're supposed to do. 1st Peter 4 10 each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. Biblical stewardship is about serving others. And if you combine that truth the 1st Peter 4:10 with the truth in Luke 19. You could say the biblical stewardship is about serving others by multiplying true wealth. Okay stewardship is about serving others by multiplying true wealth that leads us to the third and final thing Stewart his gospel to multiply true wealth. You might be asking. All right, how do we serve others What you talkin about truewell, 40 talk about X. True wealth. Where do you get that from? What you talkin about? What you say? It's important to ask that because there's a lot of people in the world that ask or if they'd like to say this statement. I just want to serve people. I just want to help people. Are you ever heard that before? What's the best thing to say it right. That's a good to even secular atheist to say that's a good thing for them to say I suppose you this whole life is about me. I want to self serve myself right? It's good and okay, if people say I want to help others. But the real question is what do you mean by that? What you talkin about? Help it help in what way you want to serve others. That's great serve them and what way to what for what purpose to what end do you want to serve them? So, how do we serve others? What is true wealth? How do we multiply it? Let me work in Reverse right? See if I can help you here firstly. What is true wealth. Forgotten to y'all. What is true wealth?

So we take a stab at it. What is true wealth?

Knowing god it is right and true wealth is knowing god, it's having that personal friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ. True wealth is not about money. It's not about the size of your house or the new your car is with the size of your retirement account. True wealth is about the Lord Jesus Christ the most valuable thing you have is that relationship with him. Is 1st Peter 4:10 tells us that we are called the steward God's grace Steward God's grace a rhetorical question. What's the clearest expression of God's grace in your life? The clearest most precious valuable gift of Grace that he's giving you the gospel. It's that friendship that part the connection that relationship with Jesus. To the man or the woman who does not have a house who does not have a car who does not have any savings doesn't even have food, but who has hope in Christ? They are truly wealthy. Biblically speaking. So then to help others to serve others the greatest way that we can do that is by helping them have true wealth you follow that you follow that the flow of salt are the greatest way that you can really help others and serve others is by helping them experience and enjoy true wealth. This is both for Christian and non-Christian. I like right biblically speaking to serve others. That means helping those who have no relationship with Jesus who have no friendship no connection with Jesus helping them to have that true. Well first and foremost, this is Christ. Here's a relationship with him. Here's the gospel message about Christians as well and helping Christians. Enjoy that true out they have is your Christian today. You have that true wealth. It's in your heart. It's in your soul. It's stored up in heaven for you and a large part of the Christian Life is encouraging one another and reminding each other. Hey rejoice in your salvation. Be joyful, because of your salvation. So it's about helping those have it who don't know helping those who do have it. Enjoy it. This has many different faces to it. This looks is so all-encompassing stewardship means sending $50 a month to Vita impact missions to facilitate their work and planting churches stewardship means using your time to advocate for the sanctity of life for those who have pain during abortion stewardship means supporting the local church and its Endeavors to proclaim the truth and be a beacon of Truth. Stewardship means using your mind to learn a new language with the intent of translating the Bible into that new language, right? You see what I mean? Stewardship is far more than just about your wallet. It's far more than just about your money. It's about your time your talents and your Treasures right stewardship. If you will as the foundation and then any kind of storm ends or topics on the topic of giving that's a fruit. That's a not working of what stewardship is it in the doctrine of what it is the entire sermon preached on each of those rounds. How do I store my voice? Well for God's glory well sing songs as unto the Lord speak truth and love how do I store my home for the glory of God practice Hospitality open up your home on break bread with others. How do I store the money that God has given me well, there's wisdom behind tithing I give generously to the local church in the Bible centered Ministries. So on and so forth. Did you get that? brothers and sisters as we wrap up Please remember stewardship is about using. His gifts your time your talents and you Treasures to multiply true wealth. It's not about holding on to it hunkering down. It's about using everything. God has given you too invested in others to help others experience and enjoy true wealth, which is what a relationship with a true Giver of all good gifts the Lord Jesus Christ.

in conclusion how many Buford of John Wesley before? So John Wesley, if you're unfamiliar with him, he's an English preacher from the 1700s. He was the founder of the Methodist movement and consequently the Wesleyan movement Nazarene movement that these are all kind of subsets of the Methodist movement. A John Wesley's brother Charles Wesley was the author of or the he wrote Christ. The Lord is risen today, and we just sang it a couple weeks ago. He also wrote Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The John Wesley a 1-day his house burned down to the ground. This is in the 1700's some people found John said to him. Hey John. We're sorry. We're very sorry to tell you this but your house just burned down to the ground. John Wesley replied that's impossible. No, John your house burned down to the ground. Again, that's impossible John. We saw it with our own eyes. Your house is gone. That's impossible. You see I don't own a house. God gave me a place to live in I only managed that house for him. If he didn't put out the fire within that's his problem don't have to put me somewhere else. Brothers and sisters wonderful testimony of this truth. I'm talking about God owns everything your very life your house your home your my everything. He wants it all we are his stewards and as we enter 2024, I hope that we all will be better stewards of what he's giving us. So bad, we can multiply true wealth stated differently. We can spread the gospel can enjoy the gospel more in our own lives and around the world. The church if you will go to go to the next slide. This is what we is in the bf&m about what what many churches many individuals many people confess about stewardship. Recite this with me if you will. God is the source of all blessings temporal and spiritual all that we have and are we owed to him Christians have a spiritual leadership to the whole world a holy trusteeship in the gospel and a binding stewardship in their possessions there therefore under obligation to serve him with their time talents and material possessions and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others according to the scriptures Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully regularly systemically proportionately and liberal for the advancement of the redeemers cause on Earth.

final prayer Our Father please help us to know your word. Please help us to love your word. Please help us to live out your word. Jesus precious name we pray. Amen.