October 30, 2014

 

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends,

 

Hebrews 13:15: "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name."

Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

  

When we think of stewardship, we often reduce the concept to the use of our time, talent and treasure as a means of response to God's grace and a way to support efforts to participate in the growth of God's kingdom in the world. That, in fact, is a good definition of stewardship. But something must come before the simple giving of our 10%, or the commitment to spend time in ministry/leadership or the intentional decision to use our talents to serve God, Christ, and the church.

 

That "something" that comes prior to a full life of stewardship is worship. We worship because we realize that God is God, we are humans, and God is worthy of both honor and thanksgiving. Worship is the posture we take when we realize that God is unfathomable and we are in reality minuscule. Worship is also the posture we take when we realize that God is unfathomable, but He still values us enough to send His Son to die on a cross to win us. Both realizations should result in a common expression: falling to our knees.

 

When we fall to our knees and come to grips with the thought that God created the ends of the earth and gave every star its name (Psalm 147:4), we likewise come to grips with the thought that God possesses everything, and what we possess is in our possession only because God has allowed us to borrow it. Then a new thought enters our minds.

 

If God possesses everything, He likewise possesses us-our minds, souls and bodies. There is no part of our selves or our temporary possessions that fall outside of God's authority or outside of the loving and steadfast faithfulness of the covenant made in Jesus Christ.

 

There is nothing we can do to earn or somehow own the salvation God has given us through Christ. We simply receive it by grace, through faith. And a life of stewardship is the natural outcome or natural response to being lovingly ceased by God's grace. Stewardship, founded in a grateful, worshipful heart, is simply doing for God and others what God has already done for us-with one caveat. What we give to God and others cannot even appear in the same category as what God has given to us.

 

Please join us this Sunday as I preach and as we explore these concepts in deeper ways.

 

Love in Christ,

 

Pastor Steve

 

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