The Stewardship Of Life

The Stewardship of Life

II Cor 8:1-7

You have seen the title of this message, now you have put your earplugs in and are ready to go to sleep. Stewardship has never been a popular teaching of the Bible. But there is no way that we can get around this important doctrine. Jesus talked more about money than any other single subject. This morning I want to talk about the stewardship of life. The stewardship of life includes money but is hot limited to money. We are talking about all of life.

A sideshow strongman was exhibiting his strength and as a final trick he squeezed the juice from a lemon between his hands and then offered ten dollars to anyone in the audience who could squeeze a single drop out of it. Several husky men tried, to no avail. Finally, a small frail looking man came forward. He took the lemon in hand, and to the delight of the audience, managed to squeeze one more drop from the lemon. As the strongman paid out the ten dollars, he asked the man, "What is the secret of your strength. How did you manage to get that last drop?" "Oh," the man replied, "I was the treasurer of the Baptist church for 30 years."

Several scriptures 1. II Cor. 8:1-7

2. 1Co 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

3. Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Prayer:

I. Before I can talk about stewardship I must talk about relationship.

A. If you have no relationship then stewardship is meaningless.

1. The relationship is between you and God.

2. If you give time money and talent they mean nothing if you don’t know the savior.

3. Believe it or not I have heard of people who will faithfully give 1/10 of their income to the church and never darken the church door.

B. Relationship with God means that:

1. You have realized that you are a sinner and know that sin must be forgiven

2. That you have repented of your sin

3. That you have received Jesus into your heart.

4. By that action you have become one of His sheep.

C. Once that relationship has been established your stewardship becomes meaningful.

1. People who practice stewardship before they become Christians are trying to buy their way into heaven.

2. They are trying to make their good deeds outweigh the bad.

3. Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

4. Your money is a poor substitute for the blood of Christ.

Since we are talking about the stewardship of life I will start with the stewardship of time.

II. The Stewardship of Time

A. All are given the same amount of time. We must use it wisely Paul said, Eph 5:15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk--not as unwise people but as wise--

making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

B. What is a Tithe of Time? We have 24 hours a day 1\10 of that is 2.4 hrs. or 2 hrs and 15 minutes.

1. Our time, our life is but a – dash - between our birth and death

2. We must be accountable for all of our time

3. All of our time is given to us by God

See chart of time spent. Some of the things we spend time on:

Hours per day

Personal care and activities 9.43

Sleeping 8.63

Household activities 1.82

Shopping .80

Working 7.04

Leisure and sports 5.14

Religious and spiritual activities .12

Telephone calls etc. .18

I know that most of you are above average and that you spend more time than the average bear on spiritual things. If you attend all the services of the church plus 2 hrs of committee work per week that equals 6 hrs per week. The tithe is 16.8 hours per week. Even if you spent 1 hr per day in prayer and devotion that equals a total of 13 hours per week. My point is that most of us do not even give God a fraction of our time.

The Bible says, “To every thing there is a time”

To every season there is a rhyme.

Time goes on with a relentless pace

Our lives are spent before we erase