1. Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is the second week on the theme Everyday Stewards. Our text for today is taken from 1 Corinthians 16:1 “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.” I hope and pray that the message today titled “Stewardship as a Way of Life” will help us become Everyday Stewards.
2. Unfortunately, some people feel uncomfortable during stewardship sermons. Many Christians have misunderstandings about what stewardship is, so they often react negatively when it’s spoken about. One of the major misconceptions is that it deals strictly with money or the church’s lack of money and how it can get more. Some think stewardship is just a polite way of asking for a new roof… or hinting that your coffee mug collection should be downsized! As I speak to you today, it is my hope and prayer that I can help you disconnect stewardship from the idea that it is only about “paying the bills.” At the heart of stewardship is a personal relationship with Jesus. I’m convinced that there is little in life that can help us grow in our relationship with Jesus more than good Biblical stewardship. The goal of the stewardship ministry in our church is to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus through the use of the time, talents, and treasures that God has entrusted to us. Today let us put all of our ideas about stewardship aside. Let us start all over with our understanding of stewardship by getting back to God’s Word.
3. First of all, God has called and chosen us to be His stewards. He has placed us in the role and has given us our identity as His stewards. It is first being a steward before it is doing stewardship. Who we are determines what we do. Everything we do and say, and everywhere we go comes from our sense of identity. Understanding whose we are and our identity as God’s stewards, we seek to please God by faithfully doing His will.
4. As stewards, we manage everything that the Lord has given us, which is everything that we are and have. Then we are to see what we do is done in the most useful manner possible according to God’s will to help build His kingdom. Stewardship, then, is service to God from the perspective of being a manager or steward of what He has given us. In the words of Dr. Walton Greever: “Christian stewardship is what I do after I have once said, ‘I believe!’ It is the response of my entire life to Christ out of gratitude for amazing love that meant death on the cross. It is the giving of everything I am and everything I have to Him, as He directs. It is total commitment. It is the fruit of my life. It is faith in action.” And yes, that includes the times when your faith is tested by the thermostat, your Wi-Fi, or your teenager asking for yet another snack. You can see from that definition that what you give to the church financially is only a small portion of the overall stewardship picture.
5. Second, by our text we note that Paul gave instructions to the churches of Galatia concerning the stewardship of that portion of money to be used for the Lord’s work and that in our text he is extending those instructions to the Corinthians, and us. How do you determine how much of your time, abilities, and resources you will give back to the Lord for work in his kingdom? We look at the guidance from God’s Word. Paul gives some information in a very precise way in the verse following our text. “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collection when I come.” Then in chapters 8 and 9 of his second letter to the Corinthians he expands on that verse, starting at the very beginning, with the reason we give, with what our motivation should be.
6. St. Paul spends almost the entire chapter before our text in 1 Corinthians 16 sharing what Christ’s death and resurrection means to us: the fact that all Christians, you and I, will one day rise from death to new life. This is what motivates us to be concerned about the spiritual and physical well-being of others which will result in generous offerings of all we have. We love because God first loved us. Responding to His love and sacrifice, we live each day as God’s stewards. With changed hearts, our identity changes from being self-centered people to being God-centered. Our lives are lived out in a grateful response to Jesus’ sacrifice.
7. The following story is an illustration of what Christ has done for us. A boy who lived by the Atlantic loved sailboats and decided to build his own model. He spent the entire winter carefully crafting it, and by spring it was perfect. Excited, he took it to the bay and set it afloat—only to watch it drift away, out of reach. Heartbroken, he realized he had lost something he loved so dearly.
8. A few months later, he saw the same boat in a hobby store window. The merchant had bought it from a sailor. The boy worked all summer to earn the money to buy it back. When he finally held the boat again, he said, “Now you are twice mine: first I made you, and now I have bought you back again.”
9. Brothers and sisters, we are twice God’s. First, He made us, and then, by the holy precious blood of his only Son, Jesus, Who shed His blood and life on the cross of Calvary, He bought us back again. The price has been paid, and He has forgiven us all of our sins. He’s forgiven us for all the wrongs we have done against Him and one another. He has given us a new identity: He calls us His children (John 1:12)! That love of God which we see in that forgiveness is where Christian stewardship begins. With God’s love is connected the first of four basic principles of Christian stewardship—that we, with God’s help, give ourselves to the Lord. That we give Jesus the first and foremost place in our lives, that we make Him the focal point of our lives. Everything we are and do we do with eyes fixed on Him.
10. We do that because of the second principle of Christian stewardship which is that we know the grace of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul says we know, “that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” We know the great love our Heavenly Father has for us by the very fact of our salvation brought about by his Son Jesus. So, if we give ourselves to the Lord because we know the grace of Christ, then we will recognize the third principle of Christian Stewardship—the needs of ministry in extending God’s Church and the needs of those around us, and we will cheerfully seek to meet those needs.
11. That brings us to the fourth principle of Christian stewardship—the promise, the blessing that comes with it. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:7 writes: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Did you hear that? “God loves a cheerful giver.” And honestly, who doesn’t like being cheerful? Except maybe before the first cup of coffee on Sunday morning—but even that counts as a tiny act of stewardship if you offer it up! When we give cheerfully, we give joy to our Heavenly Father as we display His image and likeness. The prophet Malachi wrote of that blessing almost as a challenge to us. “’Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need’” (Malachi 3:10).
12. That is a challenge for us. How much should you give to the Lord Who has given you all things? The Old Testament law was the tithe or 10%. But, over a three-year period there was a second and third tithe, which made God’s people give as much as 23 1/3%. But that was the law. Christ fulfilled the requirements of that law for us, so now we give as the Lord has given to us, as we have prospered. We are no longer bound by the Law, for the Gospel has given us a new identity. We live under grace. As new creatures, we are not limited to ten percent. As a matter of fact, real giving starts after 10%. Consider this. As such, we are channels through which God sends His blessings out to those around us, to meet the needs as they exist, according to His will! The more we give to meet those needs, the more God will bless us that we may give even more. “Put me to the test,” says the Lord. So that He can show us His love and faithfulness, God wants us to test Him as people who live as Everyday Stewards. What are you waiting for? Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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