Stewardship: Managing God's Creation

Just share. I prayed for Ann and you. All right, thank you. I don't know how to spell your name, but I guess. Prayed for me and Ann? Yeah. Yeah. So you hear those prayer requests, and I know that in your own heart you have prayer needs. There are those on our prayer list that are desperately in need of prayer, desperately needing a touch from God. Need to pray for those that we've been praying for, for Ron and Carol. Had a good visit with them this past week, as many of you have had. And I know in your heart you have many things that you need to pray for. Pray that God would hear your cry. Pray that God would speak to us during this time in our prayer time. The altars are open if you want to come and pray with me. Debbie will come in a moment to pray. But above all, whatever you do, would you pray? So let's go to the Lord in a time of prayer. Amen. Father, I just pray that you would. Amen. Amen. Father, we come to you today, and we ask for your guidance, and your love, and your presence. Father, we learned in Sunday school today that everything belongs to you. So I pray, Father, that as we come before you, we ask the gift you might give us is the gift of wisdom, that we become wiser in your ways. Lord, I lift up Brother Keith as he delivers the message. May he be a conduit for you, Father. May he give the words that you impress upon his mind and his heart. And may we internalize it, Father, and be obedient to what you want us to know. We thank you, Lord, for all you do for us. I ask this in your Son's name. Amen. Amen. Amen and amen. Well, we're in week nine of our study of belief. Last week, we talked about compassion. This week, we talk about stewardship. And I already know some of you are thinking, Keith, all you talk about is money, money, money, money, right? No. I've been here less than two months, and this makes the second sermon on stewardship. So I've preached at least six other things since then, but I don't just talk. And I want you to know that stewardship is more, much, much more than just talking about money. We want to talk about today what that really means and how that word is defined. Our author did a really good job of defining it as someone who manages a house. And so we want to talk about it in those contexts of being a godly manager. God owns everything, right? Everything. And He has given us the opportunity and the privilege to be managers of this creation. What an awesome thing that God gives us to do. Now, like all the things that I've started with when the Baptist Faith and Message has something to say about that, I want you to hear that and to see that, and again, remind you that you can go to sbc.net, and you can look and search for the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and you'll be able to see these same things, what we as Baptists generally teach and adhere to in our faith. So let me read to you that, if you don't mind. There it is right there, and that may be a little hard to see, but follow along if you can. I'll read it to you. God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual, all that we have and all and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship. It's a lot of ships, isn't it, in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions, and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionally, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth. Last week, as we talked about compassion, we were in Luke chapter 15. It looks like it's going to be a water day for me, so please forgive me if I do this. My voice is struggling just a little bit this morning. Last week we talked about compassion, and we used the story from the prodigal son. I had a lot of good comments about that. I had one this morning from a gentleman who talked about, I'm still struggling with one of those three persons. We both said, as we go through this life, we all go through being one of those three persons sometime or the other, sometimes multiple cases where the father or the son or the older son. Ultimately, what we were talking about was that compassion, that love that the father had, and that he brought that son back into his family, and he gave him everything that he needed to be a part of the family again. The older son was a little angry because he thought that the son shouldn't have anything, the younger son. The father says, I love you as much as I love the other son, and everything I have has always been yours. Again, that picture of the father gives us a picture of the Holy Father. The father has placed us in the world, and he says, here is creation. You are managers. That's what we want to talk about today. We're going to move to the next chapter, actually, in Luke chapter 16. Jesus gives the disciples a great story. Honestly, it's a difficult story. It's not an easy one to understand because I think Jesus uses a teaching technique saying, here's a dishonest manager, and he did some good things. If a dishonest manager can do good things, how much more can you do as followers of me? That's the context that we're going to be doing this morning. Before we read the text, let's have a word of prayer, and we'll get right into it. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the blessings of life. Father, teach us what it means to be good stewards. This church has exhibited stewardship throughout its history. It's something they do well. Father, may we continue to do well in this area. May we continue to manage the resources that you give to us for kingdom purposes, and we'll give you praise and honor. In Jesus' name, amen. Follow along with me, if you will, in the Bible. I'm reading from the English Standard Version this morning, chapter 16, verse 1 through 13. Verse 1 says, He also said to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager, or a steward, if you will. Same word in the text. And charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. And the manager said to himself, What shall I do, since my master has taken the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I've decided what to do, so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So my summoning this master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred measures of oil. He said to him, Take your bill, set down quickly, and write fifty. Cut it in half. Then he said to another, How much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill, and write eighty. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If you then have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. The real point is found in those last few verses there. When we talk about being honest managers, or we're talking about being godly managers, or we're talking about being good stewards, we're really talking about being good servants. We're talking about what has God given us that we can serve. Also, what we're talking about are kingdom principle things. We need to be asking ourselves constantly, is this going to make a difference in the kingdom? Is what we are investing our time, our energy, our resources, going to make a difference in God's economy, in God's kingdom? Are people going to come to know Jesus Christ and spend eternity in heaven as a result of what I do today with my resources? That is what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples. He's trying to say the world knows how to deal with money. A shrewd manager knows how to deal with money. We as believers need, whatever resources we have, need to be doing a good job with our resources. Now, here's what Jesus taught us. Because of his example, because of the life that he lived, Jesus taught us when it comes to stewardship, what he really wants is just not part of us. Here's a hard teaching. He wants 100% of us. He wants all of me. He wants all of you. We sometimes think that all we have to give to God is 10%, what we call the tithe. We'll talk about the tithe in just a moment. But that's not what God wants. God, when we surrender our lives to him, he wants us to be 100% sold out to him. Now, our author that we read this morning, he made it clear that when we talk about stewardship, that God is the owner of everything and that we are the managers. And in that, we need to be a manager of God's creation. Let me stop there just for a moment, let me just read all of them. We are to be managers of God's creation, a God of our children, excuse me, managers of our children, a manager of our homes, a manager of our bodies, manager over all that we do. God has created creation. He has created this earth and He said, here, you manage it. You till the ground. You produce food. You do these things. You take care of it. Again, as Debbie said in our Sunday school class, I'm not a tree hugger, but I can remember a time, and maybe some of you will remember this too, but years ago, when we would go on vacation, my mama, every now and then, this was a real treat because she didn't always do this, but dad would come home and we would leave straight to go to Oklahoma where my grandmother and granddad lived and we'd spend two weeks fishing on Lake Texhoma. To get there as quick as we could, sometimes mama would fix us up hamburgers and she would wrap them up and she'd put them in a paper bag. Our water jug was a big old mason jar. That's where we got our water from, and we'd take off on vacation. A few minutes or a couple of miles away, we'd all eat our hamburgers and then we would put all of our trash back in that paper bag. You know what we did back in those days? We rolled down the window and we chunked that paper as far as we could on the side of the road. That was okay to do back then. It was an acceptable thing. Nobody thought anything about it, remember? And then in the 60s, we had this campaign, and I'm grateful for the campaign. Everybody remember the Indian crying, this is my America, let's make America beautiful again. We used to talk about what we were doing and how we were ruining our land, and we became better stewards by taking our trash and placing it and putting it in proper places, and now the sides of our roads look much cleaner. Now there's still some trash there for one time or another for one reason or another, but overall we have done a good job. Now let me tell you, go to a third country world and see how they deal with trash and see the filth and some of the things that you just have to walk through to get from one place to another. I'm grateful, but I think as Christians, we need to understand that God has given us this earth. It's the only earth he's given us, and he's given us a responsibility to take care of it and to take care of it in our own home, and we need to be good stewards of it. Now that's free. That's really not part of the sermon. We're going to get to the text here in just a minute, but it does give us an illustration about being good managers of what God has given us to look at and to do. The first point that I want to share with you this morning is simply this. As an honest manager, we will focus on kingdom results, and godly stewards are more effective than worldly managers. God's managers, holy managers, godly stewards, are more effective than worldly managers. Look at verse 9. I think this is a difficult verse to interpret, but let's look at it. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. What this gentleman did, he went to all those vendors, all those guys that owed his boss some kind of resource, oil or wheat. Now he did that for two reasons. Number one, he was selfish. He wanted to be on the good side of those people and that they might invite him maybe for a job or food or housing or whatever. He was looking after number one. But in the process, he was also making his boss look good, and that's why his boss committed to him, says, These guys are coming back to me, and you made me look good because you cut their bill, and you made THEM like me, and that they're going to continue to do business with me. So it was a very shrewd move on his part. Now it may help you to understand this passage of scripture by reading it from another translation. Let me read what the New Living Translation says. Here's the lesson. Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. Here's what I think Jesus is trying to teach. That when we think about stewardship, when we think about resources, we really do need to think about kingdom results and what it's going to do to impact God's holy kingdom. God's people should be dedicated to living out kingdom principles, so that when people in the world look at what we're doing, they can say, Yes, that's important. They see those values, they see the advantage of living in this world as godly followers of Christ. When we're being generous with our secular resources, particularly in sharing them with the poor and with the blind and with the lame and the crippled, we actually begin to store up treasures in heaven because it makes a difference eternally when they begin to see Jesus living in and through us. We've been studying Deuteronomy on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, and in chapter 12, Moses begins to talk about this principle of the tithe. And then in chapter 14, which is where I want to read, he begins to make some practical application as to WHY we give money. Why are we going to give tithe? Now let me make sure you understand, the tithe means 10%. Everybody say 10% with me, 10%. That when we say the tithe, that translates to 10%. So that means if you have $100, 10% of that is $10, right? And so it's not $1, it's not $1.50, it's not a couple of bucks, it's 10% is $10. And that's what God expects at a minimum, but He expects much more than that. We'll talk about that in a minute. But let me read why God wanted us to tithe. Deuteronomy 14, 22. Each year you are to set aside a tenth of all the produce grown in your fields. This is Deuteronomy 14, verse 22. Now verse 23. You are to eat a tenth of your grain, your new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, in the presence of Yahweh your God, at the place where He chooses to have His name dwell, so that you will always learn to fear the Lord your God. Let me stop there. The process was, as you came back for holy celebrations, as you came back to Passover, no matter where you leave, you would come back to the temple, wherever that would be located at, because they still don't know yet, but eventually that was Jerusalem. And people would come back during Passover and they would bring a tenth of their offering and at other times they would bring offerings to the Lord. And here's the main result. So that you may learn to have this awe about God. Now what does that mean? I am coming to say, thank you God, that I've got this 90% that you've let me live with. And I'm going to come and give you this 10%, but in the middle of all that, it's not just for the family. The family's going to get to use some of that, the church family, but so are other people. And so He gives them a rule and says, now if you live so far away that you can't bring your stock and your 10% of all your tithes, bring that same amount of money and you'll be able to purchase those things and still be able to buy what you need to have to go through that time of remembering and to be in the presence of God and to be in awe of His goodness and mercy and all that He's given you to manage. Now at the end, let me read verse 27. Let me jump there. It says, Do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or adherence among you. Now what they were really saying was that those Levite, the Levitical priests, the ones who did all the things that needed to be done in the temple, they did not have an inheritance. They did not get land. They did not have the ability to grow and make their own living. They counted on part of that 10% coming in so that they could have food, so that they could have resources that they could manage to do the godly things that they needed to do as they would celebrate and preach the gospel. Read verse 28. And at the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and store it within your gates, then the Levite who has no portion or adherence among you. But listen to this. The foreigner, the fatherless, the widows within your gates may come, eat and be satisfied and the Lord your God will bless you and all the work in your hands that you do. What that translates to us as a New Testament church is that as we tithe, there's a couple things that we need to do. Number one, take care of the preacher. That's what part of your tithe does. It pays for those. Paul would say it like this, in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, do you not know, in verse 13 it says, do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? He's talking about the old covenant. But then he says in verse 14, in the same way, we've got the new covenant now, the Lord commended that those who proclaim the gospel get their living by the gospel. So when we give our 10%, part of that portion goes to take care of those who have been called to proclaim the gospel. Now let me tell you something that's not unique among any pastor. I don't know any pastor that goes into looking to be a pastor of the church to say, I want to become a millionaire by becoming your pastor. Money has never been the issue in any case that I know. As I've interviewed pastors, as I've been in view of calls before, we start talking about salary and every one of your pastors and your former pastor was the same way. It wasn't about the money. Never has been, never will be. It's about the call. God calls your pastor. God has called me to help you during this time. I believe that with all my heart. I believe God has called me here during this time that I have with you. But I'm here to tell you, God is going to call another man to be your pastor in the days ahead. And when He does, He's not going to be here for the money. He's going to be here because God Himself has directed Him. But your responsibility is to tithe so that He can eat and so that He can have a place to live and so that He can serve. But that's not the only thing. Go back to that Old Testament thing. It's there also so that we can help the fatherless, so that we can help the widows, so we can help those who have been orphaned. It's there to do ministry in the community. That is why we tithe. Tithing is important. And let me tell you, folks, it is a spiritual issue. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. It is a spirit. God wants that out of us. He expects that as being good stewards, as being managers of what God gives us. Second point this morning. An honest manager will focus on kingdom results. Godly stewards establish healthy habits. Look at verse 10 and 11. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to do the true riches? Most of you here are not called to be vocational, full-time ministers. You work in the secular world, but here's the point that Jesus is making. Are you being good stewards with the money that is given to you to spend in the job that you have? If you can't do that, how can you expect to be good stewards in the church that God has called you to serve? We need to have some good habits. How many of us had New Year resolutions this year? Come on, let's be honest. Come on. Nobody? Y'all don't believe in New Year's resolutions? Okay. How many of us have already broken those New Year's resolutions? Maybe that's why nobody wanted to raise their hands because they knew I made a resolution, but I didn't keep it. Okay. I don't want to embarrass you in any way, but we've discovered over the years that habits takes a while of doing over and over and over again until it becomes a practice. That's what the word habits really mean, a practice, something that I do. I know for me, and I will just confess. I've not been real good on the diet that I that I started okay had too many relatives here and too many sweet things in front of me I've been tempted but I know I know from past experience that if I will do a diet for for eight weeks for me if I will do it for eight weeks I will keep on and keep on keeping on and so it becomes a practice it becomes a way of life it's like one guy who's who made a New Year's resolution he said this year I have joined a support group for procrastinators we haven't met yet but anyway we join the group Paul gives a great example of a church that developed a great habit of giving it's found in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 you know the story many of you will know the story it's about the Macedonian church when the church in Jerusalem was suffering because of a drought and there was much need for that church and it is a new New Testament Church Paul begins to talk about several things about how this church gave willingly and they they were not a rich church they they had very little to give now I'm read I'm not gonna read the whole chapter but but I want to read part of it our habit or our practice of giving first of all should be sacrificial giving in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 verse 2 for in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part they didn't have much but they gave out of what they had to give to that church in Jerusalem we studied about the widow's might this morning we talked about how Jesus gave that as an example you know the story she put in two coins worse worth less than a penny and and I've heard this sermon before for many that as as the Pharisees came by who had a lot of wealth and they gave out of their wealth but they probably didn't even give a 10% but what they did is they brought a lot of coins knowing that if they put in a lot of coins it would make a lot of noise and because it made a lot of noise it would look like they had given a lot of money and then they would look self-righteous look at me I gave a bunch it's really not about how much they gave but how much they gave here did they give it all in this Jesus said this lady she gave everything she gave everything and said such a huge example for the disciples and for the days to come that that sacrifice comes along with our stewardship and that we ought to be willing to give everything I have a quick story to share with you centers around my dad again back in the 60s the company that he worked for he was a union employee and strikes were a common thing I can remember two or three strikes that the company went on or that the employees went on and during those times we would have very difficult times dad would just do odds and ends Joe jobs run pumping route he would work at a gas station he would pour cement he would he would do whatever he could to provide for his family and I remember my mother stretching hamburger a lot of different ways and we had a lot of red beans which my my sister can't stand so she went hungry but but that's the way it was it was just difficult and I remember this one Christmas season we gave our Christmas offering like we all do here and but this particular year the the church had decided that every Sunday school class would set a goal and then that would be the church's goal and then at the end of the time that we were going to collect this giving each class would get up and announce where they were and they're giving well I meant my dad were sitting in the choir and I could see the little sheet of paper he had their goal was $100 and they had received $80 out of his class the first class got up and said we had a goal of so-and-so and we met our goal and went over it the second class got up and said we had a goal of so much and we went over that goal and had this much it was time for my dad to stand up and in tears and trembling he said our Sunday school class met its goal of $100 now you need to understand that I'd already given money that mom and dad had given me I was a kid my sister had given money that mom and dad had given her my mom had given money to her class my dad had already given money to that class $20 was all we had left to live on the rest of the month that's all we had and my dad gave it to missions now what does that do to a young man and watches that the rest of the church had no clue the rest of church had no idea that my dad had sacrificially given the last $20 that we had does that have an impact on stewardship in your life absolutely we have to be managers of our children teaching them the right things to give sacrificially not only should our habit be sacrificial but our habit should be spontaneous verse 3 and 4 of that 2nd Corinthians 8 says for they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints now I think this church does extremely well at spontaneous giving and meeting the needs of people it's one of the things I love about First Southern Baptist Church you are constantly meeting the needs of giving spontaneous to meet those needs and I'm grateful for you that because I've been the recipient of it already and you give it and I've heard testimonies of people who have received because of your giving and I would just encourage you keep on doing those kinds of things it is evidence of a good steward the third thing oh let me just say this we've always heard this this commercial it's my money and I want it now everybody heard that commercial what if we change our battle cry to I want to give and I want to give now man if the Holy Spirit of God prompts you and directs you to give then give not just money your body your soul your spirit your time give third point of this of this segment here's a point to our habit of giving should be spiritual I told you this is a spiritual thing verse 5 and this of 2nd Corinthians 8 and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us you see the pattern is not give just for the sake of giving the pattern is that the Holy Spirit of God has directed us to give now make no mistake it is God's will that you tie if you have a problem with tithing you have a problem with the Bible you have a problem with God's Word and if you are not tithing that is a spiritual issue and you need to settle that with God not with me not with me this church is doing well financially and if nobody gave this week this church would still do well and I'll be able to pay the bills but we would do well it's not about giving money to the church it's about being obedient to what God has told us to do it is a spiritual issue and a New Testament framework though we don't stop there God wants a hundred percent of us our habit of giving is full of grace it's full of unmerited favor it ought to be outward focus it's not about us it's about our community and if we see a need in the community what do we need to do to go out there and reach that need it ought to be about church planning again something your church has done well by by planning the church at Hoisington by continue to support the mission but let's not stop there let me cast a vision for you and say what's next God where do we need a plan a church next because we know that when churches are in communities it makes a difference when Bible preaching churches are in communities people lives are changed the communities are changed we need to be engaged in church planning constantly and the last thing is it needs to be our habit needs to be Commission minded it needs to be out there it needs to be to the uttermost part of the world and if you've never been on a an international mission tip my prayer is that everybody get an opportunity at least once in your lifetime to be on mission internationally or at least Texas maybe I don't know same thing right we need to be thinking outward and and and reaching people for the gospel and let me tell you that an international trip you'll touch some people and some people will be grateful for there but you'll come back a changed person when you go on an international trip I promise you now that doesn't mean we can't do missions here we should we should plant churches that doesn't mean we can't do missions here in great bed yes we should those things are all part of being good stewards and being honest managers focusing on kingdom result again why did I go to India why did I go to South Africa why have I gone to Mexico so that I might share the gospel and praise God and every time I've been to one of those places somebody it's been a kingdom result somebody has come to know Jesus Christ is real and personal Savior that's why I go not for the experience but because God said go make disciples that make disciples third point I've gone to meddling this morning as honest managers will focus on kingdom results godly stewards must be trustworthy let's read verse 11 again and then read 12 and 13 if then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth who will entrust to you the true riches and if you've not been faithful in that which is another's who will give you that which is your own no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted the one and despise whether you cannot serve God and serve money to here's the point it's about serving what why are our students doing this banquet for the church Jody mentioned this to me earlier it's not so that we can have a good banquet it will be a good thing it'll be fun it'll be a great time God will move but we want our students to have an opportunity to serve what a great opportunity for them to serve the church to learn what it means to serve if God wants 100% of us then we should be giving ourself to serve the Lord for kingdom purposes you can spend your time doing a lot of things a lot of things and they may not be bad things and we can have a lot of excuses for not serving James D Kennedy used to share this story he said if a neighbor came by and said can I borrow your lawnmower he said I'm sorry I don't have a rake he said no I need to borrow your lawnmower I'm sorry I don't have a power saw no you don't understand I need to borrow your lawnmower oh I'm sorry I don't have a shovel and the neighbor said no what are you doing I need a lawnmower he said well I've discovered over the years when you really want to don't want to do something one excuse is just as good as another we make up excuses for not serving God and I would hear to tell you that none of them are adequate can I suggested you something that would be easy when it comes to serving in the church we need there there are opportunities galore in this church for you to serve. And that's part of stewardship is serving and being a godly manager of your resources, your time, your gift, your spiritual gifts. You may say, well I can't teach, I can't preach, I can't sing as well as I like. It's great. It's not all about that. We have somebody greeting every Sunday. You can hand out a bulletin. Some of you love children. What a great opportunity to be in preschool and children's department. Some of you even love youth, and I don't know why, but God bless you. You love youth, and you should be there serving. Now those who are serving, they serve more than just three hours a week. They serve a lot. They give a lot of time, but what if everybody in the church did these three things? Spend one hour a week in small groups, Sunday school or another small group. Spend one hour in worship. That's here, what we're doing right now. And spend one hour serving the church outside of yourself. Boy, that would meet a lot of opportunities in our church, wouldn't it? There's a lot of things you can do in this church that not just in front, teaching, singing, and those kind of things. We need people just to maybe pick up stuff, or just to clean up stuff, or to do some work in the church. Whatever your giftedness is, God wants you to use, and He wants to use a hundred percent of you in doing that. Probably the most excuse I hear, well, I just don't have time. You don't make time. That's kind of in your face, isn't it? I learned that at a time management course one time. Who's in control of your time? Well, ultimately God is, isn't He? He can call you home anytime He wants. But while we're on this earth, we are managers. Who's in control of your time? And how much of that do you use for kingdom principles? We need to ask ourselves as a local church, is what we're doing going to make a difference in heaven? Are people going to come to know Jesus because of what we're doing? And folks, let me tell you, there's nothing more precious than teaching our children, our babies, and teaching our youth, our young people, the Word of God, so that they can be the next generation to go and teach others about Jesus Christ. God expects us to be involved and to serve. I want to close. I reread this passage again last night, and I didn't go quite far enough. I want to read you verses 14 through 16. Pharisees were listening in to what Jesus said. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed Him. And Jesus said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your heart. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Those were some tough words that Jesus said. When it comes to stewardship, it becomes a matter of the heart. When I came to know Jesus Christ as my real and personal Savior, I gave Him my life. He gave His life for me. I gave Him my life. Wherever, whatever He wanted me to do, I was committed to do it from that moment on. And I cannot see myself outside. I've been serving in the local church ever since, because that's what God has established to do His kingdom work, is the church. Why do you serve? Why do you do what you do in this world? Is it for the pleasure of man, or is it because God has given you a privilege to be a steward? Now I know this sermon has not been for lost people. This sermon has been for us. And by and large, many of you have heard this sermon before. Many of you are already good stewards. And so I do not mean to condemn you at all. I mean to say, way to go. Yay. Many of you in this building are some of the best managers of God's Word that I've ever seen, by the way you live. Bless your hearts. But today, some of you are struggling with that principle. Some of you don't understand that principle. Some of you don't even understand that it's a spiritual issue. But it is. Do business with God today, will you? Whatever He's telling you, be obedient. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your words. Speak to our heart now, Father, as we have a time of invitation. Father, somebody may have heard the Holy Spirit say that I'm a lost person. I've focused on this world so much, I don't know what it means to think about kingdom things, and to think about eternity, and to think about what it means to know Christ. Father, you would have done that today. You would have convicted them, not me. Lord, if there's someone here today, may they simply ask Jesus into their life. May they simply trust you as the resurrected, living Christ. May they pray a prayer of faith and surrender to you today, Father. Father, perhaps today there just needs to be a new commitment to serve, to serve on purpose, to serve on mission, to be what you've called us to be, to be good stewards. And we will give you praise for that, Father. Lead us, guide us, direct us as we have this time of invitation. In Jesus' name. If God has spoken to you this morning, would you respond? Let's stand as we have a time of invitation. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus.