Stewardship: Learning to Lean -Part 3
The Neccessity of Stewardship
Intro:
Illus:
A little child in church for the first time watched as the ushers passed the offering plates.When they neared the pew where he sat, the youngster piped up so that everyone could hear: "Don’t pay for me Daddy. I’m under five."
This morning I would like to continue on with our series on Stewardship…Learning to Lean.
Once again I would like to begin with the definition that I have been using for stewardship… “someone is responsible for another man’s property.”
The last two Sundays we have established our need to put our Trust completely in God. By trusting Him we are establishing His Lordship within our lives.
It is important for us not to just give “Lip Service” to the Lord, but also live out that Lordship in our lives.
Isaiah 29:13The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
When we become stewards and actually begin to live our lives as stewards of God, we go beyond the lip service and put into action His Lordship in our lives. This morning once again we are going to look at the area stewardship…specifically this morning, the necessity of stewardship within our lives. Now when the word stewardship is mentioned from the pulpit, many people scram because they say “Oh the preacher is after my wallet again.” -Now financial giving is a very big part of our stewardship. If we are having a hard time returning to the Lord a portion of the finances He has
blessed us with, we probably are having a hard time trusting Him in other areas of our life as well.
Next Sunday we are going to be going into greater detail the biblical instructions and promises concerning Tithes and Offerings.
But there is so much more to stewardship besides money.
We have so much more to offer the Kingdom of God besides a check. Areas of Time, Resources, Prayer, and Support are just as crucial. This morning we are looking at the Necessity of Stewardship within our lives.
?Does the Lord Need our Money in order for the Kingdom of God to be built?
?Does the Lord Need our Time in order for His Kingdom to prosper?
?Does the Lord Need our Resources in order for His name to be spread?
?If He doesn’t then why does he ask us to contribute these things?
?Why doesn’t he just leave well enough alone?
Now this morning I would like to go back to Gideon once again to get the answer to the question.
Judges 7:2 “The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her…”
God tells Gideon that He is going to scale down his army of 32,000 men…WHY… because he did not want Israel to boast in her power.
He wanted the Children of Israel to know that it was the power of God that delivered them and not their own hand.
One of the descriptions that is given of God in the bible is that He is a jealous God. In fact in Exodus it says that one of His names is Jehovah Kanna (qannaò) or Jealous God. Ex 34:14
?What does this mean?
Now when we think of jealousy we automatically think of a little child who selfishly is upset when he does not get his way or can’t have what somebody else has.
God form of Jealousy must not be defined or even compared to the sinful version we know.
The motivation is much different.
God is Jealous when we do not put our trust in Him for victory because He knows that only in Him and trust in what He has to offer will we truly be successful in our lives.
Only in his power and might will we live abundant lives.
Zech 4:6 “Not By Might Nor By Power But By My Spirit Says the Lord”
MIGHT: chayil a force, whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength:—ability, activity
POWER: koòach
capacity, means, produce; strength, substance, wealth.
SPIRIT: ruòach
A sensible or even violent exhalation; figuratively life, anger, Insubstantiality;
We see in this passage that we are not going to be able to build the Kingdom of God, or have that abundant life by our ability, activity, strength, means or wealth.It is only by God’s sensible and sometimes even violent expression of His spirit that we will be successful. Otherwise we would take credit for it.
Now how does this apply to stewardship?
In Gideon’s Case He was calling Him to lead and army.
He purposely scaled the army down from 32,000 to 300 so that Israel could not take credit, they had to put their trust in God. Now understand they were behind the eight ball before the battle began.
Judges 8:10 says that Gideon was up against 120 thousand swordsmen.
That means that he was outnumber 4 to 1 before the Lord cut their numbers.Most definitely they were already and underdog.
Illus: You Know It Is Going To Be A Bad Day When...
There is a ’60 Minutes’ crew your driveway when you look out the window.
You put both contact lenses in the same eye.
Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles.
Your income tax rebate check bounces.
Your four-year-old tells you that it is almost impossible to flush a grapefruit down the toilet.
But God was not satisfied with that. He wanted no doubt that He was able to strengthen His people to do something that was absolutely impossible. He did not just want a win for Israel, but also for His Kingdom.
Everything He does is ultimately done to strengthen His Kingdom. So if we want to see God at work in our lives, we must get our lives wrapped up in his
Kingdom.
How de we get involved in His Kingdom…through Stewardship. By putting ourselves in a place where God must move or act. By putting ourselves in place of Trusting Him. It is necessary for us to be in the position stewards so that we do not think that any
success comes from our efforts.
James 1:16,17
Now if this is true, everything that good that happens to us is first caused by God. Do You Believe that?
?What about the Whole Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps Philosophy?
It is God who blesses, equips, talents, and strengthens. If we get anything from scripture at all it is that “Man cannot be His own Savior.”
Titus 3:5
PH 3:9
1 Cor 3:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect…”
By the grace of God, I am what I am… The place of stewardship is necessary in our lives so that we will continually put our trust in God. God shaved down Gideon’s army so that Isreal would know that it is God that saves. God asks us to return unto him our finances, time, and resources, so that we will know
that it is God that provides. Does God want to just keep us under his thumb?
No, God’s Lordship does not work that way in His chidren. He wants us to put our trust in Him so that we will truly know where our provision orginates.
He knows that once we grasp this a whole knew understanding of supply and demand will rule in our lives. When we bring ourselves into conformity with His Kingdom, it is God who will supply our every need.
He then can pour his provision and blessing out upon us, because we are moving the same direction as Him.
this is an exciting place to be.
Illus: Exit Doors at Metrodome…Blow you out.
Conclusion
The necessity of us to be stewards of what God has blessed us with is that we understand “who butters our bread” so to speak.
Those who have declared Christ as Lord,
Those who have put their Trust fully in God
Those who have stepped fully into the role of a good steward.
Understand that it is God who supplies.
this is an exciting place to be.
1 Sam 14:1-15
Are you willing to say…come lets see what the Lord is willing to do?
Are there areas in your life that are contrary to the Kingdom of God?
