All We Have Belongs to God: Practicing Stewardship

``And depending on how you read it, it's easy to kind of think that we just kind of chop off that little bit from whatever we earn, and we give that away, and that's it. The rest is ours to do what we want with. But if all we have belongs to God, then a 100% of it is his, and we're to steward it well. So it's not all about giving. It's about how like, it's kind of the wrong question. It's about how much do I keep? How much do I give? How much do I save? How much do I spend? How do I even do that? How do I make those decisions? [01:27:04] (30 seconds)  #GodOwnsItAll

Watchfulness in all we have, whether it's our time, our relationships, our forgiveness, our attention, our power, our influence, and even our money, results in happiness. It's part of living the good life. And it all belongs to God, and we're entrusted to steward it well. [01:22:54] (18 seconds)  #WatchfulStewardship

Second thing for biblical theology of stewardship is that we are entrusted by God with resources to do good. Most of us falsely assume that whatever money we receive from work or an inheritance or even the lottery, if you're that lucky, if you are, hit me up after, that whatever we get is asked to do what we want, whatever we want with. But if all we have belongs to God, the way we use it has to match up with his ideas for it. [01:24:17] (31 seconds)  #EntrustedToDoGood

I don't know what orange juice you buy. It's up to you to decide which one fits into the kingdom, but we do need a theology of orange juice. We need a theology so big that it impacts our decisions even when it comes to shopping in Tesco. We need a theology of orange juice because Gospel of Jesus is big, and it really does impact everything. And our practice this week is all about beginning to listen to God in money and generosity. [01:28:17] (29 seconds)  #TheologyOfOrangeJuice

But if you want a theology of orange juice, you need to grow in your familiarity and your recognition of God's voice. Practicing discernment in your everyday ordinary life. You're sleeping, eating, going to work, walking around life. Taking it and placing it before God as an offering. [01:30:54] (17 seconds)  #DiscernGodDaily

Once we truly embrace God's stewardship God's ownership, it's a small step to regularly ask him what he wants us to do with his money and possessions. Until we get to that place of laying before him all that he has entrusted to us, We cannot be true disciples of Jesus. [01:26:12] (20 seconds)  #StewardshipEqualsDiscipleship

And the third thing for biblical theology of stewardship is that God blesses us to give more, not just to have more. And that idea is repeated again and again in Jesus' teaching. If we do well with what we have, we are given even more to do good with. [01:25:18] (17 seconds)  #BlessedToGiveMore

God is the owner, and we are the caretaker. And it's a thing that runs all the way through scripture. So even on the very first page, God speaks the universe into being. He creates all things. And we were seeing it earlier. He's planting a garden. He breathes air into Adam's lungs and gives him the gifts of life. The very breath in our lungs is a gift from our generous father. [01:23:40] (20 seconds)  #CaretakersNotOwners