Because Of You

BECAUSE OF YOU,
OUR CHURCH CHANGES LIVES!

Sufficiency:

When the time comes for us to determine what part of our material blessings we should return to the Kingdom of God to help glorify His presence in our lives, we find it difficult to come up with an amount.  Hopefully this activity will result in a substantial amount of prayer. 

We need to keep in mind everything we have has been given as a gift. Everything. This includes the car you’re driving, the house you live in, the job you have and the family you were born into. God knew what He was doing in placing you in this time and in these circumstances.

The dictionary tells us a steward is “a person who manages another’s property or financial affairs.” In the parable of the talents, a man asks three servants to steward his property. Each one responds to this call according to his character. Two servants increase their master’s investment, bringing him greater wealth and honor, and the master rewards them for their faithfulness. But one servant acts foolishly and hides the master’s money. He is rebuked and punished. The little he was entrusted with is taken back, and he is abandoned.

Stewardship takes the idea that everything we have is a gift to its logical conclusion. If all that I am and all that I have is from God, then how should I care for and use it? Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”, Therefore, I need to consider why God gave me what I have and use it to those ends. We have been given body, knowledge, resources and relationships, not to squander as we wish, but to glorify God. Acts 17 says, He gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children.

How do I spend my wealth so it honors God?  How many more lives can be changed because you and I decided to grow in our own giving?  Imagine more people being able to say, “Because of you, our church changes lives”.

-Valerie Payne
(Stewardship moment from Sunday, October 22nd)