Now mind you, this idea that God owns all things stands in stark opposition to the secular thought of our day which tells us that we are self sufficient, self-made men and women who have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps.īut we must ever be mindful of the truth that Christians walk by faith, not by sight. I mean, if you have been bought with a price, namely His blood, and you belong to Him, then it stands to reason that everything you have belongs to Him as well. This means that you are a trustee or a steward of that which belongs to someone else He has left it in your care, but He has retained ownership. So God owns it all and has entrusted what is His to you. And the things you have prepared – whose will they be?’ That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.” Take it easy eat, drink and enjoy yourself.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. Then I’ll say to myself,’ ‘You have many goods stored up for many years. He thought to himself,’ ‘What should I do since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? I will do this, he said, I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. You remember the story, “Then He told them a parable: ‘A rich man’s land was very productive. Jesus makes this point very clear in Luke 12:16-21 when He told the parable of the rich fool. In the system of the world you may have legal rights to those things which God has entrusted to your care, but make no mistake about it, you don’t own them, God owns them and can demonstrate that ownership at any time. To put it very simply let’s just say that if you are a Christian, not one in name only, which is the definition of a nominal Christian, but an authentic born again, regenerated person in whom the Spirit of God dwells, then everything you think is yours is really God’s. It is using all of our God given resources to accomplish God’s purpose and desires here on earth. Stewardship includes our thought life, that is, instead of much of the mindless entertainment with which our culture tells us we must amuse ourselves, we were to think upon and focus upon the things of God, how much more like Jesus would the Church in America be? You see, stewardship is comprehensive. If all the money American Christians spend on sports and recreation were given to further the kingdom of God, I wonder where our missions’ endeavors would be? Americans are obsessed with things that in the eternal scope of things are a waste of time. This obviously includes missions and evangelism, but it also includes benevolence, for Jesus is clear in Matthew 25 that when we help those who have nothing, it is as if we are helping Him. In other words, the purpose for which God has entrusted to us, that which He owns, is so that we can be busy about advancing His kingdom. What is that purpose? Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 where, after telling us not to chase after the things the world chases after, we are to rather seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto us. It all belongs to Him and He has entrusted it to us for a specific purpose. This would be our salvation, the gospel message, our churches, our education, our time, our energy, our thought life, the words we speak, the house in which we live, the cars we drive, our children, our spouse, our finances, our job. These resources would be anything and everything He has given us. When we talk about stewardship within the context of the Christian life, we mean God is the owner of all things. 137) “Stewardship involves relations between and owner, a steward, a resource and the purpose for which that resource is to be used.” Ron Blue, who wrote Master Your Money, defines stewardship as the “use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given goals.”Īnother scholar says that (Barry Creamer, Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Blount and Woodell, pg.
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