Small Things (2)

People of the light

Stewardship in the little things is more than wise financial choices.

Being faithful may not lead to worldy abundance, but a life that embodies the kingdom will be marked with generosity, present-day spiritual fruit, and eternal reward. Small actions can meet big needs.

Introduction:

honoring women in the ministries of the church.

Mika

Rachel

Larra

Sara

Josie

Jennifer

Inez

Amanda Roberts

Sheryl

Amanda Smith

Cierra

Alicia

Joan

Easter announcement

Leadership Inititative reminder.

Were in the series called small things, and last week we discovered that if we dont allow God into the bread crumbs of our life than we wont allow God in the whole piece. …change that please…..

Were all comfortable acknowledging and explaining the big things in life. The cars broken, the house is messy, the job isnt going the way we thought it would.

But we dont like getting down to the smaller details. Like, Being addicted to pain meds, that dark sense of humor you hold onto, or how you occasionally light up a blunt, or have a girls night out, where you expect not to run into anyone from your local church body.

Its easy to think as long as your covering the Big/main things of God’s decrees and commands then your good.

You say, God is your God, there is no others before him, you go to church and participate in the calling of a sabbath, you dont have any crystals, or no satanic symbols in your bedroom with your sage rack or incense burners.

These are those bigger commandments we MUST follow, along side, not murdering, , but you know those small ones, which everyone falls into. Lieing, having lustful eyes, or wanting what someone else has, we all fall into that one…it seems all but natural, even with stealing, who hasnt stolen a pencil eraser, or a pen from a waitress before.

You know that one stealing has some depth to it, Stealing is more than theft, or armed robbery, stealing is tax fraud, lying on how many hours you worked in a week, according to the teachings we have in Luke 16, we can even consider being late, or breaking your word as stealing.

Breaking just the 7th commandment is great evidence of breaking the first. You shall have no other Gods before me, and The parable of the dishonest manager is an excellent example of this principal.

Luke 16:1–15 NIV

1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

This is one of the hardest parables to understand, and thats understanable, at first glance its a straight forward situation, but then it gets complicated in the second half, but break it down.

We see a theme between the worldly systems of wealth and security and those of the kingdom of God.

First Section, Jesus is telling a story of a rich man and the manager of his possessions. Where accusations are implied that the manager was wasting the rich man’s wealth (vs1-2). So the rich man was going to fire the manager. The manager, seeig that his position of power and status would be gone soon, sherwdly canceled portions of the debts he oversaw hoping he would be in good graces of those who he had helped. Attempting to ensure a place and people that essentially owed him for his favor.

Then Jesus Shifts the conversations. “children of this age, he says, understand how the world works and use it to their benefit. why do children of light not understand the ways of the kingdom of God?

So we have two question we can ask, one How do we handle ourselves in this age? and then Are we primarily motivated to live according to the Kingdom of God or by the rules of the world?

See in this passage Jesus opens the door to speak about some kingdom values.

its the battle between fight or flight, you either fight for you position, or you prepare for the flight.

In this scenario the manager prepared for the flight through a tool so often used when it comes to self-preservation, he used dishonesty to gain rivals. Rather than fighting the injustices of his mind and taking back control of his improper stewardship.

maybe you have found yourself in this situation, it doesnt ahve to be this managers position, but you have improperly handled what God has given you, this could be applied to relationships, to faith, but in this talk, its about finances.

If only God had allowed Dave Ramsey to write a book in the bible, well on the contrary any great fiancial organizer today has implimented biblically rooted principals.

God gives us a structrue of proper Stewardship.

There’s this idea that I think is a symptom or rather evidence that a household isn’t properly biblically organizing or stewarding there finances, its this, “that once you have something you should never let it go.”

once you have cable tv its a disgrace to not have it

Once you have 5 acres of land you should never go down to 2.

Once you have bought a new car you should always buy a new car.

Three Points underneath this line.

Put God first financially

This is part of the structure of proper stewardship.

Leviticus 27:30 NIV

“ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

It’s further given in 1 Cor 15 20

1 Corinthians 15:20 NIV

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 16:1–2 NIV

Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

When you give, Paul teaches us that giving with the right attitude matters. Listen to what he says.

2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Your offering to the Lord must be from a place of the heart, not out of obligation,

Obligation bears witness to religion, heart posture displays relationship.

This world sells you on subscriptions, Gods sold on sacrifice.

Can you give 10 dollars? If that’s what you can afford than do it, if you can give 20 than do that, but allow your heart to sit right with it.

Deuteronomy 15:10 NIV

Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

There’s a promise of God, when you give with the right heart posture, he will bless you, his favor will lay out over you like a blanket of protection, but not only that, there’s a promise in Philippians.

Philippians 4:19 NIV

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

You know the world draws us to subscriptions, while God is draws us to sacrifice.

So when you open up your budgets, lay out your spreadsheets and go over your finances you lay out from the top your offering to God. Before you balance that checkbook, before you worry about tomorrow, you deal with today.

First, and it’s first, is your tithe, we learn from the the widow’s offering in luke 21 1-4. 2 pennies.

Can you give God 10 dollars? If thats what you can afford than do it, if you can give 20 than do it.

But what you can afford and an offering are two different things, God calls for an offering of first fruits, he doesnt say of last fruits.

this world sells you on subscriptions, God sells you on sacrafice.

Second, stewarding is taking care of your household.

Manage your Household

1 Timothy 5:8 NIV

8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

this means you better be paying your bills before you buy new fishing gear.

or better yet, this means you better be feeding you family before youre feeding your habits

The bible teaches how much more will he provide for you, God does that through what he gives us.

We treat God like were buying anew car. We cant say well i can afford this downpayment and God’s gonna have to make the other payments, no, just like the repo man God will recognize unfaithfulness in stewardship.

Stewardship is taking care of beneficially what God has given.

This comes when we take our wealth, big or small and make the most out of it.

Over stimulated spending leads to a overworked man.

and for providing for the essential he will provide for the existential

thirdly we learn that we ought not to pay attention to the storehouse, but to the poorhouse.

Ditch self-preservation and focus on needs

Matthew 25:34–36 NIV

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

The largest battle in properly stewarding fiancials is the challenge of social status, wealth become barriers to truly loving and serving God. We live in this tension between an earthly and a heavenly kingdom.

when have you sacraficed what you hold most precious, for those who are most in need.

someone in this room has the ability to fulfill someone elses need.

that will be a testimony from the needy they will say, “ that was my God who provided”

proper stewardship is a call and assigment to the christian.

What little you may experience today is enough with these biblical principals, and to the one that has much that you experience now, is nothing compared to the True Riches of the Kingdom.

To sit in the lies that we dont have enough to be faithful, is a lie, and a devious one from the devil at that.

This passage challenges the devil, challenges his idea’s that bigger are always better, but in reality, faith is better than any sizeable income, faith is greater than any price, possesion, or property. Faith is all we need, he will provide the rest.

When you take what you have and operate it in faith, THAT, will always out weigh something toiled for.

Proverbs 13:11 NIV

11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.