Stewardship

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Stewardship–A Story about a King and Three Servants.
The king gave three servants a talent. The first servant earned 10x what the king had given him. The second steward had earned 5x what the king had given him. And the third servant, buried the talent and gave the one talent back to the king. The king got very mad at the third steward and told him what little had been given to him would be taken away. What in the world? What does all this mean for us?

What’s a good steward?
The message God wants us to take away from this parable is to be a good steward. What does that mean? We are to be good managers with what God have given us. Our resources are not only monetary, but our time, abilities and everything. If we have a car that seats 5 people, we had better be filling up those seats. If you have a house for 10 people, you should have 10 people in there. Got a big yard? You had better be using that yard a lot. That seems kind of strict. Doesn’t it? You can see that God is very strict with this.

Look at the cross. God required every drop of Jesus’ blood. He required Him to give it all. To give up His mother. He had nothing left while on the cross. He had to give us His all.

The Lord is a very strict steward. He didn’t make all this for nothing. Everyone—every hair on our heads are numbered by God. How many tears have I shed? God knows. God is all powerful, very specific and purposeful—every detail He has down. How many bugs are there? God knows. He created all things. He’s on top of it.

So I thought well Lord, I’ll give you a some of my money. I’ll give you a little bit of my time. When God creates something he wants it used properly.

Making Stewardship Real in your Life
The first step to stewardship is when I realized is I had to face the fact that God owns everything. He owns everything doubly first, because He created it and secondly, because he redeemed everything. He’s all powerful. So once we get this from God’s perspective—he cares, he made everything, and made it purposefully—the key is to recognize this.

1 Chron. 4:14 says Giving God time, talent and treasure back to Him is what stewardship is all about. Stewardship is not a matter of contribution, it’s a matter of justice.

1 Cor 6:19 says, “You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not your own. Glorify God with your body.” Ultimately God owns it all.

Finally, Gal 2:20 says ‘Your life is not your own. It is a life of faith in the Son of God who laid down his life for me.” This is what stewardship is.

(This teaching is by Father Al Lauer, Founder of Presentation Ministries, Cincinnati, OH. To listen to his full teaching on Christian stewardship listed to his radio broadcast Daily Bread  CLICK HERE)

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