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| Stewardship |
| Introduction Read Proverbs 22:1 Read Deuteronomy 8:17-18 Read Matthew 19:23-24 Levitcus 19:13 Ephesians 5:15-16 Read Genesis 1:28 Conclusion |
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| So often our actions in life solely benefit ourselves. When we become Christians we gain freedom. But with freedom comes responsibilities. Many feel that the word Stewardship only involves money, but as we will see the responsibilities that we have are much greater than that. When we are born, people may form opinions of us because of who our parents are, where we are born, our gender, our race, or any other number of factors. But our reputation is a clean slate that we build over a life time. We have the responsibility to be stewards of our reputation and we should strive to keep it a good one. We see in these verses that all we earn is because God has given us the abilities to do so. Each one of us is given different abilities, talents, and interest. But by themselves they produce nothing - we must put them to work before we are able to produce anything. Since God has given us the abilities we have the responsibility to use them in a pleasing way to Him. Therefore we must be good stewards of the abilities that God has given us. Many in the world equate wealth with success and happiness, but the bible warns us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10) and that we will never have enough money (Ecclesiastes 5:10). At the same time, we should not think that being rich is a sin since many of the great Bibical characters where rich (Abraham, Jacob, Job, David, and Joseph of Arimathea). What ever amount of money or wealth that we have, we have the responsibility to manage it in a Godly manner. The more that we have the more responsibility we have to be a good steward of that wealth. Jesus shows us in the New Testament that everyone we meet is our neighbor. In our business dealing we should never take advantage of others because they are our neighbors. At first glance, many of us might only think of ourselves as an employee and not an employer. Yet each one of us at some point hires someone to perform some task, such as someone to work on our car, or plumbing, etc. etc. Also, Paul teaches in 1 Timothy 5:17-18 that everyone is worthy of their wages. When we hire someone we are to pay that person in a timely manner and should reasonably expect that person (or company) to make profit. How often do we say "If only I had more time?" Yet too often we are unfocused and lack goals to accomplish with the time we have. It has been said that we find the time for the things that are important to us. If we look at what we do throughout the day, what would it say about what is important to us? But as a warning we must also be on the guard to ensure that we don't take on too much - that we have so many task and not giving the proper amount of time to any one of them. We must also remember to rest. God rested after the creation (Genesis 2:1-3) and Jesus went off by himself to pray (Luke 5:16). Therefore, not only must we be stewards of our time in the things we do, but we must also be stewards of our rest also. We have been given a responsibility to govern over this world. Certainly we should not destroy it but we must always keep things in perspective. How often do we see someone showing more concern about their pet than their fellow man? How often do we see someone more concerned about saving a tree than saving someone's soul? As stewards of the Earth that God created, we are to manage the resources of the world but we must never lose site of our priorities. In Biblical times, a steward was a servant or slave who had earned the respect and trust of the master of the house. A steward might only have charge over a few small things, such as a wine steward, or they might have had great powers to spend the master's mony. When we became Christians, we were placed as stewards over many things that God has given us - our time, our talents, our money, etc. etc. If we grow in faith and maturity, we can expect to be stewards over more and greater things. |
