Biblical Stewards

Biblical Stewardship

Thesis: The American Christian is in financial crisis because they have not stopped, looked and listened to God’s teaching from the Bible on Giving.

Text: Book of Malachi

Outline of Book:

I Love You 1:1-5

I See You 1:6-2:9

I Know You 2:10-4:6

Key verses:

1:2, “I have loved you, says the Lord…”

1:6, 7, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “You place defiled food on my altar…”

2:17, “You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

3:6-12:

6“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Opening Illustrations about giving:

A preacher stood before his church and said, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the church has all the money it needs... The bad news is that it’s all still in your wallets.”... Contributed by: Jason Cole

LET THE CHURCH WALK

There is a story about a church in the south with a small but vocal “Amen Corner.” especially vocal was Deacon Jones, who led the “Amen Corner.”

So one day when Preacher Brown began his sermon with the words, “Let the church walk,” Deacon Jones shouted in response, “Amen! Let the church walk!”

Preacher Brown continued “Let the church run!” and Deacon Jones followed along with “Amen! Let the church run!”

Preacher Brown got even more wound up and exclaimed, “Let the church fly!” And Deacon Jones almost jumped out of his pew in crying “Amen! Let the church fly!”

And then Preacher Brown looked at them earnestly and said, “And if the church is going to fly, it will take money!”

Whereupon Deacon Jones replied, “Let the church walk!” Contributed by: Glenn Queener

A one dollar bill met a twenty dollar bill and said, "Hey, where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you around here much." The twenty answered (as the dollar bill listened enviously), "I’ve been hanging out at the casinos, went out on a cruise and did the rounds of the ship, back to the United States for a while, went to a couple of baseball games, to the mall, that kind of stuff. How about you?" The one dollar bill said, "You know, same old stuff, church, church, church." Contributed by: Victor Yap

Introduction:

I recall from the past and old song that went something like this “What the world needs now is love sweet love.” I hum it every once in a while and think but today I they would say, “What the world needs now is money sweet money.” Scott Titus said, “Its been said that the average American spends half his waking hours thinking about money.”

Finances – money – cash – the green stuff have torn apart many relationships in our culture today. There has been misunderstandings of financial resources and misappropriation of financial resources. This preoccupation with money has created some startling results in our world today listen to just a few that where mentioned by Scott Titus:

Nearly 80 percent of all divorced couples between the ages of 20 and 30 list financial difficulties as the primary cause of their separation.

Consumer debt is at an all time high-currently over 1.4 trillion dollars.

Us Credit card debt is over 500 billion dollars, and according to the Federal Reserve, American consumers add almost $5 Billion dollars a month to their credit card debt.