STEWARDSHIP: Taking Care of Treasure

Matthew 6.19-21 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

[[Matthew 6.25 ““Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?”]]

Stewardship of our treasure is important, because the Bible says things like:

1 Timothy 5.8 “But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

For us to rightly take care of our treasures we need to...

Remember that God Owns Everything We ‘Own.’

1 Corinthians 10.26 “since the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it.”

Psalm 24.1 “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;”

Exodus 19.5 “Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine,”

Prioritize Giving as an Act of Worship

Philippians 4.18 “But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”

Proverbs 3.9 “Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest;”

HONOR= To be weighty, significant; to ascribe such to someone.

Give, Showing Faith in God’s Provision

Mark 12.41-44 “Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.””

Do we always have to give everything? NO, but what kind of heart to we bring to giving as our act of worship?

See Giving as an Appropriate Response to Immediate Needs

Immediate= Tangible, Real; Supplies (clothing, furniture, food); Funds (Red Cross… Ukraine, Haiti, VBS Offerings)

Acts 2.43-45 “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

Joplin Tornado Relief Supplies

Graceway Baptist Church, OKC...

Give From a Heart of Love, Not Legalism

2 Corinthians 9.7 “Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.”

2 Corinthians 8.1-5 “We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia: During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints, and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.”

We must all give…we are called to start from our heart…not anyone else’s standard…

CONCL—

I believe God set forth the habit of giving as a part of stewardship because…

Matthew 6.22-24 ““The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Matthew 6:24 CSB

“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

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