Opening And Series Setup

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Happy New Year to you. I'm glad that you're here with us, especially for our guests. Extra special welcome to you. I'm Barkefo Segan. I'm one of the pastors here. Okay, everybody stand back up. You know how I like to do this. Come on, stand up. You can do this. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to him. Let's say that together. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to him. Do you believe it? You do? Okay, then you can be seated. Today we're starting a four-week series on stewardship. What does God say about stewardship? And everybody got so excited when he said stewardship. We have a tendency to think that stewardship is all about money. Now that is one aspect of it, but there's a whole lot more involved in good stewardship. We might ask ourselves a question what is stewardship? Well, here's what uh Miriam Webster says: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him. Stewardship. The whole idea of stewardship is somebody owns something and they've put you in charge of it. And they said, handle this well. Now, one of the strangest of all the parables that Jesus told is the one about the wicked steward. And as we read about it, we learn that there's a steward of a household, and his master has put everything in his control. And

What Stewardship Really Means

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it comes back to him that he's misusing the master's stuff. So the master calls him in. He says, What is this I've heard? Get your things in order. I'm kicking you out. You don't get to manage this anymore. So the steward thinks to himself, I'm too old to dig and I'm too proud to beg. I gotta do something about this. So he gets in his mind his idea. I know, I'll ingratiate all of my master's debtors to me. So that once I'm kicked out, I'll have favor in their eyes. So he starts calling in the debtors. He says, What do you owe my master? And they give him a number, he cut it in half, sign this, get out of here. Next one, what do you owe? Cut it in half, sign this, get out of here. The master finds out about it, and strangely he lauds him. And by the way, so does Jesus. How shrewd, how wise this one is. In the paradigm in which he lives, he was being very wise to take care of himself because the day is gonna end. And so we read in Luke chapter 16, verses 1 and following the New King James. Jesus also said to his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So Jesus says, the master called him in and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship. For you can no longer be steward. You don't get to take care of my stuff anymore. I'm not entrusting my stuff to you anymore. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I've resolved what to do. That when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of the master's debtors to him and said to the first, How much do you owe my master?

The Parable Of The Unjust Steward

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And he said, A hundred measures of oil. So he said to him, Take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your bill, write eighty. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. Jesus now says, For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. Jesus is not lauding him, nor is the master lauding him for being a cheat and a steal. That's not he's he's lauding him, for in his paradigm this is all there is. And if this is all there is, then it's all about money and stuff and serving myself. If this is all there is, for this man, that's all there was, and therefore he was shrewd in taking care of himself. Those of us who know this is not all there is, now we're only here for a short time. And yet we're not as shrewd as the wicked steward. We're not acting shrewdly, wisely concerning what God has entrusted to us in the here and the now, even though we know this is when we get to serve. This is when we get to serve our Savior as a thank you offering for what he's done for you and for me. So we're gonna be in a series about stewardship. And as I said, stewardship is not just about money. I'll cover our introduction this Sunday. Next Sunday, we're gonna find out that stewardship also is about our spiritual gifts for service that have been entrusted to us. And Michael will be up here. And here's what 1 Peter 4 10 says as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The moment you place your faith, your trust in Christ alone as Savior, you're not only sealed by the Holy Spirit, but you are gifted, supernaturally gifted by the Holy Spirit, that you would serve others in the name of Christ, in his strength and not your own, for God's kingdom purposes. And so we're going to talk about that stewardship. Where are you serving? Not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Not I ought to, but I get to. See God use me in the lives of others for his kingdom purposes and experience him supernaturally speak through me and serve through me. And I look back on and say, God, how glorious you are that you would use even me. The following week, we're going to talk about the stewardship of the gospel message that's been entrusted to us.

Shrewdness, Paradigms, And Eternity

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Here's what 2 Corinthians 4 7 says. But we have this treasure, that is the knowledge of Christ, some translate it, the message, the good news, in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. You've been entrusted with the gospel message. That same message by which you went from death to life, from darkness to light. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life? For God did not send the Son to the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. That message that's been entrusted to you. What are you doing with it? You don't have to have the gift of an evangelism to do the work of an evangelist. Larry Morrier, Dr. Larry Moirer, who has been a training, an evangelist and training Christians literally around the globe for nearly 50 years is going to come up here and he's going to share with us the importance of our stewardship, you personally, of the gospel message that's been entrusted to you. It breaks my heart to think how few believers have had the glorious opportunity to see someone through their testimony, their sharing the gospel message, see someone go from death to life, from darkness to light. That's a stewardship that's been entrusted to you and to me. And in the following week, we're going to see the stewardship of our material blessings entrusted to us. We have the example of our great father of the faith, Abraham. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. You have been blessed to be a blessing. Here's what James says every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, the creator of the stars of the sky, with whom there is no variation or shifting of shadow. He has never changed. He always gives good gifts. And so one of our elders who's rotated back on is serving on the board again. He's been chairman of the elder board in the past, and he's going to come up here and he's going to share stewardship concerning our material blessings on the fourth week. Now, we had talked many times before in the Elder Board about the fact that, you know, when it's in the passage, we pastors will cover it. We don't go special pick our little uh pony show. We preach through the scripture. But if we're going to do a topical and we're going to talk about stewardship, financial stewardship, that ought to be one of the lay elders to do that. They're capable of preaching and teaching. Let them come up and do it. Because no matter how graciously a pastor gets up there and shares it, you think to yourself, self-serving, self-serving. He wants a bonus. He needs something. Nothing could be

Four-Week Roadmap Of Stewardship

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further from the truth. This church is extremely gracious to me and the rest of us who make our living on the gospel. God's desire is that you would hear from one of your own, a fellow believer who sits in a chair just like you on a Sunday morning, what God has to say from His Word. And that day will come on our fourth message Sunday. But here's the problem. The problem is when we share about stewardship, whether it's your giftedness, whether it's your ability to share the gospel message, your desire to do so, or whether it's your handling of the material blessings that you've been given, we could easily tip over into confusion and it become illegalism. If at the end of this series you have in your head, I ought to, I ought to, I ought to pull myself up from my spiritual bootstraps, then we have completely failed. Because we want you to understand that's all grace from beginning to end. Grace upon grace upon grace. So first we need to be established. We need to remember first and foremost the gift that we have received of eternal life. Again, if you've just walked in our doors and you're wondering what these people believe, we want to tell you what we believe. That we are saved by grace, unmerited favor. Jesus paid it all. He didn't make a down payment, he made a full payment. And all who place their faith, their trust in Christ alone as Savior belong to him forevermore forever. John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have currently possess eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2.8 and 9, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift from God, not as a result of works, that no man should boast. God's desire is that we would fully embrace this reality. And if you haven't embraced that reality yet, we ask that you would do it today, right where you are. You don't have to walk an aisle or raise a hand. Just talk to Him in the quietness of your heart. Lord, I trust you at your word, and I receive salvation, forgiveness for all my sins through Jesus Christ, the Savior. Now, once we've done that, Romans 12, 1 and 2 tells us what to do. It says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. It's your thank you. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The whole idea is that we have an instruction manual. Now that we have this new life, what do we do with it? How do we operate in this new paradigm? Here's how we operate. So we come together on a regular basis to learn together. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, This, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. One scholar that I was studying this past week as I was looking through this passage in 2 Corinthians 5.17, the New Century Version puts it this way: if anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone, everything is made new. Here's what that scholar says. The believer enters into a new creation. In this new creation, all things have passed away, and all things, old things have

Grace Not Legalism

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passed away, and all things have become new. The believer belongs to a new family, the Church of the Living God, should have a new way of looking at people with love, the love of Christ, and should be driven by a new motivation. In other words, the believer's perspective should have dramatically changed. However, Paul is not suggesting that Christians will automatically have this perspective or will live accordingly. He is talking about positional truth, and now it's time to grow up. Perhaps you've been a believer for many years, and perhaps you've never even heard a message on stewardship. What it means, what you've been gifted with by the power of the Holy Spirit, what you have been entrusted into your care, not just the preacher's care, not just the evangelist's care, but into your care, the message, the good news, the gospel concerning Jesus Christ. And that everything you have was given to you by God Almighty, you're to be a good steward of all that you have. This world is passing away. So there's a few things I want us to remember together. First and foremost, I want us to remember that God calls you beloved. Did you know that? Here's what uh Romans 9, 25 and 26 says. I will call those who are not my people, that would be you and me before we place our faith, our trust in Christ, my people, and her who is not beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there shall be called, they shall be called sons of the living God. God calls you his beloved. Did you know that? Look, until you embrace the reality, as a believer in Christ, you are beloved of God. You are the apple of his eye. Until that happens, everything's an ought to rather than a get to. God's desire is that we would understand what we get to do with what He has entrusted to us. Now, in order for that to happen, we need to we need to grow up. Here's what Peter says in 1 Peter 2 2 like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow and respect the salvation. In 2 Peter 3 18, but Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and the day of eternity. Amen. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 4.15. We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. See, I love what Ken Boer writes. He says this we cannot consistently behave in ways that are different from what we believe about ourselves until you believe that you are God's beloved. There's no way that you will live a consistent Christian life. That doesn't mean you're not a Christian. Just means you're not representing him well until you fully

Saved By Grace: Core Scriptures

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embrace the reality that you are beloved of God. In this realm, there are three things that I want us to know about the love of God concerning each one of us. Here's the first God's love for you is personal. It's personal. Here's what Jesus says in John 15, 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one laid down his life for his friends. He's laid down his life specifically for you. The psalmist, Psalm 139, 17 says this, the New Living Translation. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God, they cannot be numbered. Last week, as we stepped in, getting ready to step into the new year, we talked about the fact that one of the things we want to pray about is, God, may I, may I pursue you daily. The idea of having a quiet time where you get alone by yourself with the Bible in hand, maybe a little notepad. 10, 15, maybe, maybe God will bless you with 20 minutes of reading a few verses from Psalms or a few verses from Proverbs, or perhaps you want to read the Gospel of John, or maybe you want to read out of Philippians and you start with God, speak to me. You tell me that your word is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing as far as the vision of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of my heart. I'm asking you to do that very thing right now.

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Speak to me.

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As I read your word, may it jump off the page at me. May you incline my heart to you. I want to hear from you today.

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God's love for you is personal.

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How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered. Jesus' disciples came to one day and they said, Hey, will you teach us to pray? Okay. Okay. Matthew 6, 9. Pray then in this way, Jesus says. Our Father.

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Need we go any further? Our Father.

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Personal relationship with Heavenly Father. The Creator of all things, our Father. What a privilege! How personal. Romans 8 15 puts it this way, for you have not received a spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba Father. Now, if you live during the time of the Apostle Paul or the time of Jesus, and you're in Jerusalem, and you'd see a little toddler running past his dad and running after him and say, Abba, Abba, Daddy, Daddy.

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That's the picture. That's the picture.

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Not just father, stern one, correcting one, endearing.

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Abba, father.

Renewed Minds And New Creation

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Listen, until we embrace and hold on to the reality that we are his beloved, that he is in a personal relationship with each one of us through faith in Jesus Christ. Until we hold on to that, everything else in this book becomes an ought to. A drudgery. Pulling myself up by my bootstraps of I gotta make it happen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Abba. Father. You know, when I was uh when I was a kid, uh there was one one day a year that I could guarantee you I would actually straighten up my room and actually make up my bed. Even as a teenager, only one day. It was Mother's Day. You know why? Because I knew that would please my mother. I didn't make up my bed and straighten up my room in order to make her my mother. Because I already knew she was my mother. And I already knew what would please her. And so that'd be especially that day, at least on that day. She'd look forward to me making up my own bed and straighten up my own room. Then she'd have to look under the bed and see where everything got straightened up to. But that's the point. That's the point here. Listen. We have been so gifted by the power of the Holy Spirit that we have been entrusted with the very message of life. Everything we have has come down from the Father of lights, and he's never changing. And until we embrace that reality, even as believers, until we hold on to that reality, remind ourselves of that reality, things will quickly become an ought to. And misery will ensue. And we'll be a bunch of miserable little Christians. That's not what God intends. God's love for us is not only personal, but it's generous. First John 3 1 says this NIV. See what great love the Father has lavished, lavished, I love this word, lavished on us.

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That we should be called children of God. And that's what we are.

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Craziness. Paul says this, he just breaks out into praise. Ephesians 1 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

You Are Beloved: Identity First

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Look, we're talking about stewardship.

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Talking about the fact that everything in the world belongs to God, even the people. And he has stewarded that to his children, those who have placed their faith, their trust in Christ alone as Savior. And we have an opportunity to be used of him powerfully for his kingdom purposes. But first we must embrace the reality that we are his beloved, otherwise, it'll all turn to legalism. Jesus is teaching about God's incredible generosity. In Matthew chapter 6, he says this do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But I was straightening up, picking up leaves. They weren't our leaves, by the way. They belonged to our neighbors. They didn't belong to us. We have evergreens in our yard. We got two live oaks, but all of these leaves are coming up. Look across there, and their lawn is beautiful. Because the wind has blown them my way. Everything funnels down and catches that grease. And every now and then you have to pull that out and clean it out and open it up. And the grease pan had rusted and fallen down and made a mess. Did you know that everything's going to rust? Did you know that? It's all going. Susan and I actually we do this every now and then, and uh we're we're kind of purging some things out of the house. We're doing it most of the weekend actually. And uh collect stuff and we bring it to CCA, you know. You know how it is. You don't intend to collect stuff, but you end up collecting stuff. And then you realize, what am I doing with this stuff? So you start purging it and you're taking over to CCA. A few years ago when we were doing this, I was going through the closet and thought, perhaps there's some things in the closet I haven't worn in a while. If I'm not gonna wear it, why have it? But I had a couple of suits. And every now and then I need a suit. Thank you that I don't need it every Sunday. Thank you very much. Used to, don't anymore. But I pulled out one of my suits and I was just trying to get past it, and there were holes in it. In my suit. I paid good preacher money for that suit. Moths had actually gotten in. You know about mothballs? There's a reason your grandmother's house smelled like mothballs. I had to throw the suit away. I couldn't even give it away. I had to throw it away. You know what? The moths are coming. They are coming.

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All this stuff is gonna burn up. Every bit of it. It's going. The question is, where'd you get it? Where'd it come from? What are you doing with it?

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But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Want to get your heart right?

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Put your treasure where it belongs. Your heart will follow.

God’s Love Is Personal

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So then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? He's talking about perspective. You're entering into a new creation. You're part of a new family, you should have a new perspective. If you don't have a new perspective, your eye has darkness in it. Let the light shine in it. It'll help you make good and wise and prudent decisions. When everything's foggy, you can't make a good decision. You ever drive in the fog? You ever done that? I can remember one time I was driving and it got so foggy, I pulled over and I parked on the side of the highway. And I had to just wait for it to clear up. And when it cleared up, I couldn't believe how many of us were parked on the side of the highway. Wasn't that long ago in California, they had some a hundred cars that were in a mess because people kept moving in the darkness. Don't walk in the darkness. No one can serve two masters. He either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. He doesn't say you can't have wealth.

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You can't serve wealth. Where'd you get it?

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What are you doing with it? He goes on from this passage into verse 25. Again, he's pressing home the point of how valuable we are, not our stuff, but we are to God Almighty. For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor uh for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor weep, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

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Are you not worth much more than they? Chapter ten of Matthew who presses Edom and harder.

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Are not two sparrows sold for a cent, the smallest coin of the time? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

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You are beloved of God.

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God's love for you is personal, God's love for you is generous. You can't get more personal than God knows the number of hairs upon your head. He keeps record.

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He knows all about you.

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God's desire is that we would fully embrace and not forget that we are beloved of God, that his love for us is personal, that his love for us is generous. And finally, God's love for you is purposeful. Here we see this in Colossians 1, 21 and 22. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. His personal relationship with you is about you being transformed into the very person in your heart of hearts you desire to be. That's why we're instructed in Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. All scriptures inspired by God and profitable for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God, the woman of God, might be adequate, equipped for every good work.

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Stewardship isn't just about money.

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It's about fully embracing the reality that you are God's beloved. And he has in store for you an abundant life. Jesus said, I came, they might have life and have it to the full. The fullness of life is an experience of Him using you, not in your strength, but in the strength that He provides for His kingdom purposes, that lives would be transformed, that you'd see others go from darkness to light, from death to life. And you would see God use you for that purpose, not

Prayer, Abba, And Daily Pursuit

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just your preacher. You. God's desire is that you would experience Him minister in and through you, whether you have a gift of service or a gift of speaking, a gift of administration, that God would use you and you would experience the joy of being used of God. One of the reasons I love to go on short-term missions and bring folks with us is because they, some, many, for the first time in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, experience God, use them supernaturally. Introduce someone to Christ. Serve someone who has very real needs beyond what we can imagine in this place. See the joy on their faces if they experience God's presence in and through you.

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And then we say, Oh, that's what this is all about. Let me take it home and do the same thing where God's planted me. Guys, we're looking at stewardship.

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Stewardship gets a bad name. If you go to a health and wealth preacher, it's all about give and it will be given to you. You give, give, give, give, give. And I'll get a jet plane, I'll get a bigger house, and a second house, and a third house. That's not biblical stewardship. Biblical stewardship is you fully understanding who you are in Christ and how he wants to use you to your joy for his kingdom purposes.