Being A Good Steward With All God Gives Us Series

Series Faith without works is dead

Being a good steward with all He has given us

Luke 12:16-21

Good morning everyone- glad that you have joined with us today.

WE began last week a series called “Faith without works is dead”

I professed that we cannot earn our salvation.

It is by the grace of God that we are saved less anyone should boast. but, we can be saved and not amount to a hill of beans for the kingdom of God because we do not understand the responsibility we hold by being called children of God.

Being saved should come with a warning label that says “Working for Jesus” it is like the label that is on pillows that says what…”do not remove this label under penalty of law”. Well, it is your pillow you can do whatever you want. As a child of God, the label should be working for Jesus and the only one who has the authority to remove that label in your life is the maker of your life and His name is Jesus!

Last week we looked at surrender…not hap hazard surrender but total surrender.

The kind of surrender that says I throw the white flag as you being in control of my life and my life is now in Christ Jesus and the life I now live is directed 100 % by what Jesus tells me in His word and my heart is no longer doing my own thing but doing what the Lord has directed me.

With that kind of faith, my works won’t be dead, but it will be alive in Christ Jesus and it will accomplish what Jesus wants because He is running my life. Amen.

If we have surrendered to the Lord that way, then we are able to find the second piece of the puzzle and that is that everything we have and will have belongs to the Lord.

If we have not totally surrendered our lives, we will not do what the Lord requires in that everything has been turned over to Jesus and what He gives us and what we get has been acquired because of the goodness and mercy and grace of God.

You been to college…PTL

You have a nice home…PTL

You drive a nice car…PTL

You are a stay at home mom raising two wonderful kids PTL…it all belongs to the Lord

Illustration

When I was a kid, I didn’t know I was poor. Everyone around me seemed the same as I was.When I was growing up what I needed was there. I didn’t have the best. I HAD TO WEAR CONVERSE sneakers because they were only 10.00 at Atlantic Mills stores in Milwaukee and now those same shoes cost 100.00 dollars so I guess I had the best before society knew it was the best.

I learned to be thankful for what I was given because I saw some who had it worse than I.

Wearing clean hand me downs everyday was better than those who only had one change of clothes for the week.

You get where I am going? I was thankful to my family for providing me with what I need.

Then I met Jesus and Jesus taught me surrender and I learned a lot of it the hard way because I was a slow learner…ANY SLOW LEARNERS IN THE HOUSE THIS MORNING!

He is teaching me and continues to teach me all that I have is His and comes from Him.

The second piece of puzzle- Being a good steward of what the Lord has given you.

Now if you began to get uneasy because you think this is another tithing message coming your way than you will miss the big picture of the lesson this morning.

Tithing is a thing but it is only a portion of the thing. You have to put a couple things together to get the whole lesson.

Are you willing to have an open mind to the word of God this morning for your life? look at me and say Amen.

Let me show you how most Americans handle money-

The average credit card debt in America is 5,733 dollars for each household adult. Which means when two working people are in a family they are over 10,000 in debt.

I think that is a low national average because most I talk to in conversation are double or triple that amount.(THAT IS NOT COUNTING SCHOOL LOANS) which is your responsibility- you took the loan out, you pay the loan back you don’t want to pay it back then you should not have taken the debt. (That is a godly principal- pay back what you borrow and do not be a slave to the lender)

The average credit score of Americans is 650-675