Week 1 — It Was Never Mine

HIS, NOT MINE

Week 1 — It Was Never Mine

The Foundation of Stewardship

Main Scriptures: Psalm 24:1–2; Matthew 25:14–30

Big Idea:

Stewardship begins when I stop seeing myself as the owner and start seeing myself as the steward.

Introduction — The Problem With “Mine”

Have you ever noticed how often we use the word “my”?

My house. My car. My money. My job. My family. My time. My plans. My future. My abilities. My life.

And really, there's nothing wrong with saying “my.” But sometimes that little word becomes more than just the way we talk.

It becomes the way we think.

My money means I decide what to do with it.

My time means I decide how to spend it.

My abilities mean I decide what I want to do with them.

My future means I'm in charge of where my life is going.

But what if something can be “mine” without actually belonging to me?

Think about renting a house.

A good landlord doesn't just look for someone who can pay the rent. They're looking for someone who will take care of the house.

Because the landlord knows:

“You might be the one living in the house, but it's still the landlord’s house.”

And you can usually tell pretty quickly who understands that and who doesn't.

A good tenant takes care of the place. They clean it. They tell the landlord when things are broken. They treat it with respect.

Because they understand:

“It's not my house, but I'm responsible for how I treat it.”

That's the difference between being an owner and a steward.

An owner says:

“It's mine. I decide what happens to it.”

A steward says:

“It's been entrusted to me. I'm responsible for what happens to it.”

And that's where this new sermon series begins.

What if your home, your money, your time, your abilities, your relationships, your opportunities—even your life—aren't ultimately yours?

What if God has entrusted them to you?

That's why we're calling this series:

HIS, NOT MINE

Living like managers instead of owners.

Over the next several weeks, we're going to look at what it means to steward our time, our gifts, our treasure, and our influence.

But before we talk about any of those things, we are getting starting with what sound like a simple question.

And the question is: Who actually owns it?

And Psalm 24 is about to give us a very clear answer.

1. IT BELONGS TO HIM

Psalm 24:1–2 says:

Psalm 24:1–2 NIV

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.

Everything belongs to God.

It doesn't just say some of the earth belongs to God.

It says:

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.”

But, the thing is, God doesn't own creation because He went and bought it from somebody else. He owns it because He created it. And everything we have comes from what God has made and provided.

And this isn't just an idea we find here in Psalm 24. In 1 Chronicles 29:11–12, David says:

1 Chronicles 29:11–12 NIV

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Think about your house.

You may have your name on the deed. You worked hard for it. You make the mortgage payments. You take care of it.

And that's real, practical ownership.

But Psalm 24 is talking about something deeper. It’s talking about Ultimate ownership.

You may possess something without being its ultimate owner.

And that's true of our stuff, but it's also true of our lives.

We say: My money.

But ultimately, it's His money.

My time, is His time.

My abilities are His gifts.

My opportunities are His opportunities.

My family are people He's entrusted to my care.

Even My life comes from Him.

Now, I know that this concept can make some people feel a little uneasy.

You might be thinking, I worked for my money.

I bought my possessions.

I developed my skills.

I built my career.

I made my plans.

And so it’s pretty easy to think, “I worked for everything I have, so that makes it mine.”

But the reality is, before you ever earned a dollar, God gave you the ability to work.

Before you ever accomplished anything, God gave you the breath to live.

He gave you a mind to think.

He gave you abilities to develop.

He gave you opportunities you didn’t create on your own.

And even the things we say we’ve built ourselves were built using resources we first received.

We don’t create everything from nothing. We create from what God has already created.

So yes, you worked for it.

Yes, you made decisions.

Yes, you put in the effort.

But ultimately, everything we have traces back to a God who gave us something to work with in the first place.

And that changes the way we see everything.

Instead of saying, “Look at what I’ve earned,” stewardship teaches us to say, “Look what God has entrusted to me.”

And that changes the question from “What do I want to do with it?” to “God, what do You want me to do with what You've given me?”

That's a completely different way of living.

Think about your time.

Instead of only asking:

“What am I going to do today?”

Start asking:

“How does God want me to spend the time He's given me?”

The thing we need to remember, is that God's ownership is actually freeing.

Because if everything is mine, then everything is my responsibility.

I have to protect it.

I have to control it.

I have to make sure everything works out.

But when I recognize that God is the Owner, I can faithfully manage what He's put in my hands without pretending that I'm God.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:31–32 that we don't need to live consumed by worry about what we'll eat, drink, or wear, because:

“Our heavenly Father knows that you need them.”

This doesn’t mean that we don’t have responsibilities… we do. And God's ownership doesn't make us less responsible, but It does make our responsibility clearer.

We’re not responsible for controlling everything.

We’re responsible for being faithful with what God has placed in our hands.

Because ultimately, stewardship is about being able to look at what God has given us and say:

“God, this is Yours. Show me what You want me to do with it.”

You can't steward something properly until you understand who owns it.

And if God owns everything, the next question is: What does He expect us to do with what He's entrusted to us?

2. What's in your hands?

Because, the second truth is that: God has entrusted something to you.

Jesus tells a story in Matthew 25 about a wealthy man and three servants that really encapsulates this idea. it begins like this:

Matthew 25:14–23 NIV

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

What each servant received, was a significant amount of money. Even the servant who received one bag had been entrusted with something incredibly valuable.

And notice the language Jesus uses:

“He entrusted his wealth to them.”

He gave them responsibility for something that still belonged to him.

That's stewardship.

God gives. We manage.

The master is the owner. The servants are stewards.

One of the things I love about this parable is that every servant received something.

They didn't all receive the same thing, but they all received something.

And that's a picture of our lives.

God doesn't give everyone the same abilities, resources, opportunities, or circumstances.

Some people have gifts I don't have. Some have more resources or greater influence. And it's easy to look at somebody else's life and think, “Why didn't God give me what they have?”

But Jesus isn't telling this story so that we can compare what we've been given.

He's teaching us to ask:

“What am I doing with what I've been given?”

Just like each of these servants, we are being asked to be faithful with what is our hands.

And once we see what is in our hands we can do like the first servant does.

Jesus says he “went at once” and put the money to work.

The second servant does the same.

They didn't simply preserve what they'd been given.

They used it.

They invested it. They put it to work.

And when the master returned, they could say, “You entrusted me with this, and look what happened.”

And the master's response is important.

He doesn't say:

“Well done. You made the most money.”

He says:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The issue wasn't simply what they received.

The issue was what they did with what they received.

And that principle goes far beyond money.

God has given you time and abilities to use.

He’s given you opportunities to step into.

He’s given you relationships to invest in.

He’s given you influence to use it to point people toward Jesus.

Peter says in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.”

What you have received, you're now being called to use.

That's stewardship.

Maybe you're good at encouraging people.

Maybe you're good with kids, creative, organized, generous, good with your hands, or a natural leader.

Those things aren't insignificant.

They're things God can use for His purposes.

And what God can use is going to look different for everyone. But each of us can look at what we have or what we can do and say:

“God gave this to me. How can I put it to work for Him?”

That's the heart of faithful stewardship.

But then Jesus introduces us to the third servant.

And his problem isn't that he didn't receive anything.

His problem is what he did with what he received.

3. DON'T BURY IT

Let’s read again from Matthew 25. The story continues by saying:

Matthew 25:23–30 NIV

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus says that when the third servant came to his master, he said, “I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.”

He had been given something valuable. But instead of putting it to work, he buried it. He was Afraid.

And I think that’s something we can all understand.

Because fear doesn’t always make us run away.

Sometimes fear stops us in our tracks.

And our minds go into overdrive:

“What if I fail?”

“What if I’m not good enough?”

“What will people think?”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

And sometimes we convince ourselves we’re being careful or responsible, when really, we’re just afraid.

But, the thing is, God hasn’t given you what He’s given you so that you can just protect it.

So, If you feel like this third servant, don’t let fear convince you that doing nothing is faithfulness.

The question is, why was only one of the three servants afraid?

Listen to his words... He says, “I knew that you are a hard man…”

The way he saw his master affected the way he responded to what his master had given him.

He saw his master as harsh and impossible to please.

And I think there’s a lesson here for us:

The way we see God will shape the way we respond to what God has given us.

If I believe God is angry with me, waiting for me to mess up, I’m going to live defensively.

But if I know that God is good, generous, faithful, and trustworthy, I can step out and trust Him.

That doesn’t mean everything will work out the way I want.

The first two servants didn’t have a guarantee that their investment would succeed. They acted because they trusted their master.

And that’s what faithfulness looks like.

Faithfulness isn’t controlling the outcome. It’s taking responsibility for the opportunities you’ve been given.

You don’t have to know exactly what will happen.

You just have to be willing to say, “God, You put this in my hands, so I’m going to use it for You.”

And notice something else.

The first servant had five talents. The second had two. The third had one.

Different amounts. Different assignments.

But the first two received the same response:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

God doesn’t ask me to be faithful with what He gave someone else. He asks me to be faithful with what He gave me.

But there's one more thing Jesus wants us to understand. The Master doesn't just give us something and walk away forever. He's coming back. Matthew 25:19 says:

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.”

The master returned.

And one day, our Master will return.

Everything we have ultimately belongs to Him. And one day, we’ll give an account for how we used what He entrusted to us.

The goal isn’t to have the most.

It isn’t to accomplish the most.

The goal of stewardship is to be found faithful.

Because it was never mine.

It was His.

He simply put it in my hands for a little while.

And I want to be faithful with whatever He’s given me.

CONCLUSION — HIS, NOT MINE

So as we close today, I want to go back to that little word we started with:

“Mine.”

My money.

My time.

My abilities.

My family.

My plans.

My future.

My life.

But what if, every once in a while, we stopped and reminded ourselves:

“It’s not mine. It’s His.”

Because everything I have is something God has placed in my hands.

And here's what makes that so important:

And at the end of the day, nothing we have will be ours forever.

There will come a day when we won't have another dollar to spend.

A day when we won't have another hour to use.

A day when our opportunities are over.

A day when our influence is finished.

A day when our time on this earth is done.

And when that day comes, we won't take any of it with us.

We'll simply hand back to God what He entrusted to us.

And we want to be able to look at Him and say:

“God, everything I had was Yours all along. You gave it to me. You trusted me with it. And I did my best to be faithful with it.”

That's the goal.

Not to have the most.

Not to build the biggest.

Not to accomplish the most.

To be faithful.

So this week, think about one thing God has placed in your hands.

Your money.

Your time.

Your family.

Your gifts.

Your opportunity.

Your influence.

And ask:

“God, what would faithfulness look like here?”

Because one day, the Master is coming back.

And when He does, I don't want to have to explain why I buried what He gave me.

I want to hear those words:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Because it was never mine.

It was His.

He just trusted me with it for a little while.

And I want to give it back to Him having been faithful.

Let’s pray.