- Stewardship Defined
Psalm 24: 1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof
Psalm 115: 16 The heaven’s belong to The Lord, but he has given the earth to humanity.
Genesis 2: 15 – 17 God’s goal for mankind was not just to play forever in the garden, he intended them to have responsibilities.
tend = labor and work, to serve another by labor.
YOU WILL SERVE ME BY TAKING CARE OF THE GARDEN
Keep = watch observe
Genesis 1: 28 Blessing of God
Word we use for this is stewardship.
Webster = activity or job of protecting and being responsible for something.
Training for responsibilities in heaven.
Matthew 25: 21 Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things,I will make you the ruler over many things; enter into the joy of The Lord.
2. It’s all God’s stuff
Not only are we to be stewards to take care of things, we have to remember it’s all God’s stuff
Ecclesiastes 5: 19 It is good to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life–this is indeed a gift from God.
- Wealth is from God
- Health to enjoy it
- The ability to work and take care of the things God gives us is from God
- Place God has placed us and the jobs we are to do is a gift from God.
Christ wants to be center of our lives, but these possessions take that place. This is where problems come into our lives.
Hebrews 10: 34 when everything was taken away from you you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.
3. Two battles over stewardship
- Fear over losing stuff
2Timothy 1: 7 God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline.
Stress is thinking fear based thoughts over a period of time.
EXAMPLE: did Jesus ever stress out over how to feed people? Storms? Money to pay taxes? How much time thinking about negative thoughts?
Fear based or faith based thoughts.
b. Who is taking care of our stuff?
1 Kings 3: 9 give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people…
When we move God out of the picture, we want to take over.
Proverbs 3: 5, 6 Trust in The Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding and he will guide you in all of your ways.
4. Christ centered living
1. meditate on Bible Psalm 1: 2 Meditate on word of God.
Fear based thoughts have to be replaced with faith based thoughts.
Romans 8: 6 mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.
2. Jesus custom was going to the synagogue
Luke 4: 16 went tot he synagogue as was his custom
3. Jesus prayed.
Jesus got up early before sunrise to pray and climbed a mountain to pray, and spent all night praying (Luke 6: 12, Mark 1: 35)
No shortcut or pill to take these things on, eternity depends on our attitude in these areas.
Solomon full of wisdom Steve jobs and wrote books on it ended up with thousands of wives Hugh Hefner, incredible riches, warren buffet unspeakable power, President Obama
Solomon 2 Kings 4: 32, 33 He spoke of trees…of hyssop that comes from the walls…he spoke of the beast and of the fowl and of creeping things and of fishes
and said it is all worthless and meaningless.
The answer is not in having more so I can really do something because Solomon had unlimited supply of everything.
Compare that to David
David dying and speaking to Solomon
Secret of it all. 2 Samuel 23: 2 The spirit of the Lord speaks through me, His words are on my tongue
When start doing these things?
Questions for Life Groups
1. Read Genesis 2: 15 – 17 There is no way of really knowing, but what responsibilities do you think Adam and Eve had in the Garden? (EXAMPLE: Was there photosynthesis? Did leaves change colors or pruning needed for fruit to grow? Keep watch? was satan there and they had to keep guard of his coming into the garden?) This is all theory. The important part is to know that there were responsibilities for Adam and Eve to take care of.
2. Read Ecclesiastes 5: 19 How does it change focus to know that everything we have is from God and we are called to enjoy our lot in life? How does living like this help us if we lose something? (See Hebrews 10: 34 as the Hebrews lost everything but they were still joyful.
3. Pastor talked about two things that war against our ability to remember God owns everything.
a) Fear = We fear over what will happen to our things we are in charge of. Stress is defined as living in fear over a period of time. 2 Timothy 1: 7 states God did not give us a spirit of fear. Did Jesus ever experience fear? If we do, where is it coming from if it is not from God? (flesh or satan)
b) we want to take care of things on our own and crowd Jesus out. Solomon did this when he prayed asking God to give him the power to lead the people of Israel. How can we be good at something and still keep the focus that we need God to be able to be a good steward? (See Proverbs 3: 5, 6, We have to be able to allow God to interrupt our routine to do something a different way)
4. Becoming a Christ centered Christian by Jesus example.
1. We need to meditate on the Bible (Psalm 1: 2) What is the difference between meditating and reading? (Meditating means to read a portion of the bible and think about it. Maybe write it down and take it with us throughout the day. Memorize part of it.
2. Jesus went to the synagogue as part of his routine. (Read Hebrews 10: 24, 25) How is coming together in a group like this able to help us become good stewards? (We need each other to help us overcome fear, to be able to be encouraged that we are going to make it)
3. Jesus spent time praying (Luke 6: 12, Mark 1: 35) Jesus got up early and prayed all night. How does prayer help us in the area of stewardship?
When are we going to start doing these three things and committing to them?
5. Solomon was committed to knowledge
Solomon 2 Kings 4: 32, 33 He spoke of trees…of hyssop that comes from the walls…he spoke of the beast and of the fowl and of creeping things and of fishes
His life ended in disaster
David was committed to the word of God. 2 Samuel 23: 2 The spirit of the Lord speaks through me, His words are on my tongue
His life ended in a legacy
We have a choice.