According to the US Census Bureau, almost 30 percent of the people living within five miles of our church do not have the ability to paint their own home. If population projections are correct, that number will grow to nearly 35 percent by 2011. These folks are not impoverished or disabled, yet they do not have the ability to drive a nail to hang a picture, cut down a tree in their yard, or have a pet in the house. I am one of them! And have been all my life. I rent! Ronda and I have never owned a home. We are not opposed to home ownership; we just have never bought a house. For the nearly 30 years we’ve been married, we have rented or lived in a church-owned parsonage. It’s just always worked for us.
Now I know you might say, “Well, Pastor, you’re just throwing good money after bad. Don’t you realize that had you bought a home when you got married, you could soon be burning the mortgage! Besides, you can’t do what you want. You have no way to build up equity. You are simply helping someone else get rich!”
I know all that to be true, and maybe I’m stuck in the rent mode because my parents rented all their lives.
Yet there is some other statistics about the people who live within a five mile radius of our church that you need to know. Everyone who lives within five miles of our church is a renter! In fact, everyone who lives in Bossier City, and Shreveport, yea in Louisiana, the United States and the whole world:
EVERYONE IS A RENTER!
We have always been renters. We came into this world renting. When you were born, you owed nine months rent! Maybe that’s why babies are evicted!
1 Timothy 6:7
7 For WE BROUGHT NOTHING
into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
(NIV)
The Bible tells us that none of us are owners, all of us are renters:
Psalm 24:1-2
1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and
ALL WHO LIVE IN IT;
2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
(NIV)
RENTERS ARE NOT OWNERS!
The basic difference between renters and owners is this:
OWNERS HAVE RIGHTS.
RENTERS HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES.
As a renter I cannot call in Ty Pennington and “EXTREME MAKEOVER HOME EDITION” to remodel the home in which I live. Only my landlord has the right to do that. I don’t have the right to paint the girl’s bedroom walls purple and the ceilings pink! My landlord does, though. Now if she chooses to do that, she may have to look for new tenants. I cannot install a Jacuzzi tub in my bathroom. I don’t have the right! However I do have the responsibility to let my landlord know when the pipes break and flood the bathroom.
RENTERS ARE RESPONSIBILE
TO TAKE CARE OF WHAT BELONGS
TO SOMEONE ELSE!
THAT’S WHAT A STEWARD DOES:
HE MANAGES
WHAT DOES NOT BELONG TO HIM!
All of us are renters, stewards.
WE ARE TO BE GOOD RENTERS OF OUR BODIES!
These bodies in which we live belong to God. We are merely tenants in the flesh and blood God has given us!
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
(NIV)
We have no right to treat our bodies just any way we desire! What we inhale, ingest, or inject, and expose ourselves to is entering into God’s property, not mine! As a good renter, we dare not destroy God’s house!
What if we had entered this sanctuary this morning to find it filled with cigarette smoke? Yet we fill God’s house with it! What if you found a spittoon ate the end of each pew? Yet God’s house is filled with tobacco juice every time we put just pinch between the teeth and gum. What if every Sunday School class were a bar and the alcohol flowed freely for every student? Yet we fill God’s House with it! What if we came here today and pornographic movies were playing on the screen? Yet we fill the sanctuary of God’s house, our minds, with these images. Why do I compare this church building to our bodies? Friends, God does not live in this house (the church); He lives in THIS house (our bodies)!
WE ARE TO BE GOOD RENTERS OF OUR CHILDREN!
Our children are not owned; they are loaned! If you think you own your children, wait a little while, you’ll see! We only rent them! And that rent is expensive, in more ways than money! The Bible says:
Psalm 127:3
3 Children are A GIFT from the LORD; they are a reward from him.
(NLT)
We only have them for a short while! We must be good steward of them because they will grow into what we plant into their lives. What are we teaching our children by our actions in front of them?
WE ARE TO BE GOOD RENTERS OF OUR TIME!
Everyday we live, even the extra hour you received because of falling back in time, is simply rented to us. We do not own even that extra hour. All we can do with the days leased to us is manage them well.
Ephesians 5:15-16
15 Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise,
16 MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY….
(NIV)
When it comes to time, everyone gets the same amount. What are we doing with it? Are we using it to give God glory or to get ahead? When the Giver of Life asks for an accounting of the life we have been given, will He find that we have nothing to show for the time we spent on this earth?
WE ARE TO BE GOOD RENTERS OF OUR JOBS!
Our jobs are only rented to us! Even if you are an entrepreneur, you have no business or service unless someone is using it. The money you earn could be taken away in a moment! We must be good stewards of our jobs.
Colossians 3:23-24
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. IT IS THE LORD CHRIST YOU ARE SERVING.
(NIV)
WE ARE TO BE GOOD RENTERS OF OUR MONEY!
Who gave you your job? When you look back at it, wasn’t it the Lord who made the arrangements, gave you ability, put you in the right place at the right time with the right people. While some other renter signs your paycheck, it is God who owns the bank on which it is drawn.
Deuteronomy 8:18
18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you
THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE WEALTH,…
(NIV)
The question is not really, “What’s in your wallet?” but “Who has your wallet?”
Luke 12:15
15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in
THE ABUNDANCE OF HIS POSSESSIONS."
(NIV)
We will leave this world renting. It really doesn’t matter how many pieces of property we hold title to, our how much money we have in the bank. When a billionaire dies, how much does he leave? He leaves it all!
Matthew 6:19-21
19 "Do not STORE UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES ON EARTH,
where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(NIV)
How do we pay the rent? Since our hearts will always be where our treasure is, let’s make Jesus our prized possession. He is our landlord! Commit your life and all that is loaned to you to Him!
