Good Ground, Good News | Stewards, Not Owners - Pastor Scott Silcox

We press into a simple claim with big consequences: we are stewards, not owners. Through Luke 16, we draw a straight line from money habits to eternal impact and call our church to thoughtful, urgent, and joyful generosity aimed at people.

• The mindset of stewardship over ownership
• Luke 16’s shrewd manager and eternal awareness
• Faithfulness with little leading to true riches
• Intentional generosity that builds relationships
• Rejecting cynicism and resourcing real impact
• Testimony: funding a girls’ home in Israel
• Planting harvest, not building portfolios
• Allegiance to Christ rather than money
• Practical rhythms for giving and formation

Transcript

Welcome & Church Values

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

Kingdom Heights Update & Celebration

Moving Up: Classrooms And Volunteers

Series Frame: Good Ground And Seed

Abundance, Priority, And Souls

Setting Up Luke 16’s “Weird” Parable

The Shrewd Manager Explained

What Jesus Commends And Why

Faithful With Little, True Riches

Disciples, Pharisees, And Allegiance

Eternal Awareness Over Present Urgency

Intentional Generosity And Relationships

Confronting Cynicism About The Church

Testimony: Funding A Girls’ Home In Israel

Faithfulness In The Small And Strategy

Gratitude, Temptation, And Priorities

Possessions, Dependence, And Freedom

Three Stewardship Mindsets

Global Mission: Honduras And Local Impact

Tithing To The Lord, Not Projects

SPEAKER_01 0:19

We are stewards not owners. How many guys have seen our house values? Excellent. There's five people over here that have seen our house values. You guys should ask them about it. Or go back out and look on the wall, go to the website. But we have five values that we that we're living by. One of those, which is the one Tim talked about today, we're stewards, not owners, kind of goes kind of like a backwards way of thinking. Uh because usually there's tons of books telling you how to be an owner, to take ownership mentality over where you work and what you do and how you lead your family. But how many know that in the kingdom it's about stewardship? It's about stewardship. And I just want I want to say this, man, we got some incredible news this week. Incredible news this week. In the spirit of stewardship, we have been stewarding a vision. We have been stewarding what we feel like God's given us in way of kingdom heights, of our school and what God's doing. I was at a championship game last night for our kids, which was awesome for all of our fifth and sixth graders. It was an amazing win for them. We tore that gym to bits yesterday. We're getting quite a reputation, the fans, anyway. I apologize for all those in the gym. This is my public confession. We are young and we are passionate. And we're talking about parents, not the kids. Like we are immature and we're just excited about our kids. We love you, but we are excited, man. Our kids went off yesterday. Amazing opportunity to watch them. But I'm gonna tell you what, Thursday night, really Wednesday night, Wednesday night, I was about to close up one of the small groups and uh encourage you, please get involved in the rock groups. You will not regret that. Uh, but I'm closing up the family session, and I'm about to close, and I see like commotion in the um in the sound booth upstairs, and people are waving and jumping and doing. And I just want to tell you that we have officially gotten our CEO for Kingdom Heights, and so we are we're moving up. We're going up, we're going up. You gotta hear me. We're moving from downstairs, we're going all the way upstairs. That's where we're going. You don't believe it. You're not excited about it. I'm here to tell you we're going up. Do we have that track? You're not ready. I'm trying to tell you. We've been praying, we've been fasting, we've been, I'm talking about it's time to go upstairs to do what we said we were gonna do. Accomplish what we said we were gonna do, God is good. Thank you. Man, the Jeffersons was the best show I laughed as a kid, man. I love this show, it's amazing. Never seen a more unhinged human in my life about everything. And it was awesome. But it was an appropriate song for today because we're moving on up. We got the upstairs is finished over the next few weeks. We're gonna be putting together a game plan about how to get all of our classrooms moved upstairs, getting our kids relocated. I'm telling you, God is good. I'm excited for our students, excited for our teachers and faculty. It's gonna be an amazing and amazing couple of weeks coming up. So stay tuned. We're gonna probably be asking you to come and help us move some desk. Uh if you guys are up for it, we'd love to have your help. And uh, so anyway, that's all coming. So proud of our team, so proud. Can I just say this to Pastor Jimmy, who has really done a bang up job of helping us do this to get the and I don't even know where he's at. He's been working so hard, he's probably napping in the hallways back here. Just uh, but he has done an amazing job helping us push that through. And if you get a chance to see Pastor Jimmy, man, give him a high five, hoist him up on your shoulder. Don't do that. He's he's too old for that. Don't do that, don't hold hoist him up. Uh, but take him to dinner or something, I don't know. But let him know how much you appreciate it. He's really carefully walked us through that with the city, done a fantastic job, put in ungodly amounts of hours to make the project work. And I'm just telling you, God sends the right people when vision and and and the timing of God align. How many know the provision and the people resources also come at that exact same time? And how many know we're right where we're supposed to be? Amen? All right, for all of our guests who are like, we don't know what you're talking about. Uh here's what we are gonna be talking about today, though, here in church, and that is this. We're gonna be stewards, not owners. That's what we're gonna put our focus on today. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to your Bibles at Luke 16. And can I just say this while you're turning there? I just felt like my wife did such a bang-up job last week. Such a good job. Oh, oh. She taught exactly what I told her perfectly. And I did that level of execution deserves to be appreciated. So fantastic. So fantastic. Um I tell you what, this is an exciting time. It's an exciting season, and we're in a series right now. We're talking about good ground, we're talking about good seed, right? We're talking about good news. These are all themes that you're gonna be hearing over the next few weeks. But I'm excited about this because we're talking about good ground today and this idea. I want you to get this way of thinking. Today, we're learning the mindset of stewardship. The mindset of stewardship. We've learned about abundance, didn't we, with Pastor Larry talking about abundance? Many of us don't like to hear that because you think it's some kind of like um prosperity gospel thing, right? But it really isn't that. What it is is that in order for God to continue to advance the kingdom on the earth, he's got to do what? Bring abundance into the life of the believers so that he can continue to move the vision forward. It's not rocket science here, guys. This is not hard to understand. This is God using his people to advance his name on the earth. And he does that through resources. And so uh I appreciate all that we're doing to try to keep this conversation going because how many know that if you'll just allow the Lord to do it, he'll break off the bondage of bad thinking, bad budgeting, come on, bad habits that continue to cripple the body of Christ so that the vision doesn't fulfill what it's supposed to do. Amen? How many know that God wants to use everything he's already given to us? He wants to leverage that for his kingdom's sake. Now we heard that last week because we found out what is the kingdom? What is the seed? It is the excellent right on cue. It's the message of the kingdom. It's the kingdom message. That's the seed. That seed that has been thrown is the seed. And this is what we learned last week. To catch everybody up. This is what we learned last week. How you prioritize that seed. Priority. How are you prioritizing the kingdom of God? Can I tell you it's important? It's not enough to have a revelation of abundance, but if you don't know how to take that abundance and prioritize the kingdom. And you may think to yourself, I did not want to come to a church talking about money on the first day. And I've got great news for you. Because we figured out something in our study, is that there are these two sides of the coin. There is an absolute correlation to stewardship of your finances and souls, and Christ is always bridging that gap. Because today we're not just talking about money, we're talking about how that translates into salvation, into souls. What does it mean for the kingdom advancement? Right? This is what God's doing. And so there's an incredible story here in Luke 16 that is the weirdest parable nobody talks about. It's true. I've lived my entire life, and I can't think of one time anyone actually preaching this passage, and so we thought we'd give it a go. Which is kind of silly, maybe from your perspective, but this is all about Jesus. And the reason this gets lost, by the way, is because in chapter 15, we're very like understood on the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. We all know chapter 15. And there is at least a two verses in chapter 16 we know. And we'll get to those. But we lose sight of it because we already know what God values. Really, what he's trying to say in 15, Luke 15, is I value people. I value people. His desire and his teaching to the disciples and to the Pharisees is to try to help them understand that I don't look at the world's economy the same way. What moves the father's heart is people. Come on, somebody. What moves the father's heart is people. It's how you hurt, where you are broken, that sense of being lost and not knowing him. He wants to bridge that gap. His number one concern is not money. He is not concerned about resources. Why? Because he is the master. He is the master. He is the rich man in the start of chapter 16. It says the rich man had a manager, and that manager is not managing well. That's the reputation. Words made it back to the master. This dude doesn't know how to manage finances. He's not managing your business. He's not managing himself. And so the master says, hey, dude, you need to pack it up. Pack it up. This is not working. This is not working, my boy. You gotta go. Paraphrase. As for those who are following along, like, my boy is not in here. My boy is not in my translation. Get your message translation out. It's in there. It's not a translation. It's a what are we calling it? Paraphrase, yes. You have to say that. We all know it's not a translation. Jeez, Ross. I'm just kidding. So he's upset. Wrap it up. This isn't working. Now, this is what my man does. The manager, he says to himself, bro, I don't want to work. That's what he says. I man, I can't do nothing but manage. They expect me to go out here and plow a field? No, I'm not doing that. And I know this, I'm not begging for nothing. I mean, I'm a manager. I'm not gonna get demoted down to begging for something. And so he came up with a strategy. He came up with a plan. You know what his plan was? To be shrewd. To be cutthroat. To look out for himself. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I think, I think we read this sometimes. If you have read it before, maybe you've heard it before, you're just like, you're like, man, this is weird. It feels like the Lord is gonna celebrate the shrewd manager. And I want to get into that for a second, but I just want to talk about this idea that what he's doing is not celebrating his shrewd man. Anybody ever worked for a shrewd manager? No, don't raise your hands. This is on video, man. This is on video, and they know where you go to church. Don't do that. No, just you nod your head, we'll look, we'll wink at each other. I know some of you, your boss is in here, so you shouldn't, you shouldn't even flinch right now. You just pretend like it's a mystery what you're hearing right now. But you've worked for a shrewd business. Okay, I tell all my staff to stop looking at me. That's that's funny. Holding up their little teacups like shrewd. So, so they're in this situation, right? So you guys tracking with me? There's this opportunity where he's he's shrewd. Now he basically says, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to all those who have outstanding debt to the master, and I'm cutting the bills. He's like, what do you owe? Well, this is what we owe. He's like, get it out, scratch that number out, and we're gonna give you a discount. Now, how many know if you're on the other end of that, you're like, this is an answer to prayer. You've been praying that something would break, and here it is. I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna slash off 20, 30, 40% of what I owe. Whatever it was, take 20% off of it, which some scholars would believe that was his commission on it. And so this idea is that he comes in, he said, I'm saving myself. The shrewd manager says, Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm I'm gonna do you a solid. I'm doing you a solid. I know how much you owe, you know how hard the master is. He's gonna come for you. I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna cut that down. That way you can get it all paid off earlier, and you don't even worry about it. It's between you and I. I'm doing his books, plus he's getting rid of me anyway. But listen, we're gonna we're gonna do good on the way out of this deal. And that's what he does. Twice. He cuts and cuts to now he's like, all right, everything is good. Now what happens? The master comes back and he does what? He celebrates the manager. Oh, that's good. That's that's pretty slick thinking there. Verse 8. That's where we're gonna pick up, right? Verse 8. Does this thing work? Yes. Verse 8. Let's read it. And 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 eternal dwellings. This is what the master said. You need to just, hey, get to know these folks. You're gonna need them when you have nothing. And so what he did is he started to leverage what he did have for relationships he's gonna need later. Let me tell you a story. I went to school with this guy. I'm gonna talk about Shrewd, businessman here. And this started for a young man, probably when he was in seventh grade. He's a good friend of Britt's. But then my boy was Shrewd. He started doing something, and I picked up on it later. I didn't catch it at first, but I caught it later on, and then everyone thought he was a mastermind for it, and he was. But he would go into a couple of teachers' classes, and they were good teachers, and they loved kids, and he just was trying to connect with the teacher. But what he would do is strategically bring in like some candy. He'd bring in some candy to share with the teacher. He'd be like, Here, I brought you this today. And he's like, Oh, look, I I have one for myself. How about we just enjoy it together? Man, you're so sweet. This is awesome. Let's do that. Do that for a couple of days, and you realize, like, you know what, this is pretty awesome. You guys, you know, you have the best class. You have the best class. You know, you you you eat a soccer in the middle of class and you're letting me do it, and it would be kind of cool if maybe you were the only class that allowed that for the kids. Teacher's like, I love that. We'll do that. And all of a sudden, he would then come in what? The next day and sell suckers. My boy would set up the class and everyone, hey, we get to have suckers in this class. He's like, you do, zip, zip, zip, zip, rah. Out of the backpack comes a multi-tiered business of candy that is being upcharged to every kid in school. Can I tell you my boy's a shrewd manager? He knows what he's doing, and he's got the teacher loving it because she's doing good business in here. The kids love me. He was so good. He did that all the way through my high school years. He would just sell candy. Now, it eventually started in one classroom, and then it was just the school. It just mattered. You go to his locker, you could buy treats from his locker. This is what Christian school dealers look like. The hard stuff. I want the sour Skittles. Come on. We're talking about the shrewd manager. Okay, let's let's read here chap uh verse 10. Oh, sorry, guys. One who is faithful in a very in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you 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, this is the this is the verses we know in this chapter. 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, right? And we've all heard that phrase before, but here's what I want to get to today. I want to help us get into the mindset of stewardship. What is Jesus looking for? When he says this parable, we have to remember who he's talking to. Do you know who he's talking to? He says he's talking to the disciples. The disciples are asking, and he's saying, Let me tell you a little bit, let me tell you a story. Sit around. So he begins to start this parable, but how many know if you've been in my car at any point, and I've got some kids from Kingdom Heights that have ridden in the car with me before? Uh my wife and I will take time to tell stories and to teach a lesson to someone else in the car, but not talking directly to them. We're telling a story that has everything to do with the attitude my son had just an hour ago. Right? It's a parable, a modern-day parable. Well, this is what Jesus is doing. He gathers his disciples around. He's trying to teach them. What does it mean? How do we handle this? How are we to act? What's the character of the believer? What is our responsibility as followers of Christ? And Jesus is like, gather around, I want to tell you. But guess what? Who's sticking around? Who's on the fringes of the Pharisees? Now the Pharisees are all gathered around so close that they're in his teaching, they're just eavesdropping on the teaching. Now, why does this matter? Because Jesus uses this parable because he starts to highlight who they believe themselves to be whilst also trying to pull the disciples into a better reality themselves. There are two worlds in tension, held in tension here. And the Pharisees are really good at being good. They're just good. They're doing all the things right. They're giving. And in fact, they would very much associate themselves with the parable, which is what you did when you heard the parable. You would be like, Who am I? Where am I in the story? And they would be like, We are good masters. Because we have lots of managers that do our business, and we're really good at that job. And so he's like, This is perfect. And so he, in his creative, awesome way, Jesus begins to pull these two worlds together. Disciples who are just trying to figure out how do we follow you, how do we bear the Marks of Christ? How do we bear your character to the bigger picture? And then the Pharisees who just want a killing because he won't stop picking on them. Because he continues to raise the bar in a way that just frustrates. And in fact, in their mind, it looks like he's lowering the bar, which is what frustrates them. They're wanting to hold it up here, and he's trying to say, you're making more out of your finances than what I actually care about. You think because you give, and you tell everybody you give, that that somehow buys you righteousness and right standing with the Lord. How many just need to know this if you believe that? If you believe your righteousness and you're buying your way into heaven, you're not. There's no giving your way into heaven. Only receiving the blood of Christ over the doorpost of your heart. Come on, applying that blood that Christ gave. That's salvation. Receiving Him as Lord over your life, that's salvation. But the giving is just the overflow of your gratitude for that salvation and the advancement of kingdom for other people. Amen. Alright, is everybody following me? Are you tracking with me? Alright, so we're gonna talk about the mindset. I'm gonna go through this relatively quick, but I just want to hit some of this, right? So the mindset, what is Jesus looking for? He's looking for eternal awareness. He's looking for eternal awareness. Why in his parable the master looks at the manager and says, I like this. This is shrewd, and I'm down. Now, this is opposite. We just think, there ain't no way the Lord is getting excited about this. This is nuts. But this is what he's trying to say. He knows this. What Christ is trying to tell them is that the manager understands something. His time is limited, his authority is borrowed, and his future mattered more than his present. Now I want you to get this in your mind because what you got, remember, Christ has got this hidden in the parable. But he's teaching you something about the shrewd manager. He's trying to tell you, my time is limited. When's the last time you lived your Christian faith out with an understanding of limited time? I feel like oftentimes we live out like we're nothing's ever going to change. We're living it in such a way we're not even expecting him to show up because it will be inconvenient. So there the Pharisees feel like, oh yeah. But then the disciples are learning something. How do I value time? How does the Lord see it? And he says, This, you need to be living ready. Be living ready. How about this? The manager is living in borrowed authority. Does that sound familiar? What you have, who you are, what you've been called to do, we are not our ourselves. Um we aren't just who we think we are. I'm telling you, when you have given your life to Christ, you've given over the authority of the Lordship over your life, and you're on borrowed authority. What you have, what you do, is not yours. Psalms, Psalms uh 24, 1. Go back and read that. The whole book is, the whole book, the whole chapter is great, but it says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and the world and those who dwell therein. What is he saying? He's declaring, God's in control. Come on, touch your neighbor and say, You're not in control. I know you want to be in control, but you're not in control. You're not in control. You you're you're yielded to the person who gives breath to you and allows you to be on the earth. Come on, somebody. You didn't, you, you, you ain't doing this. You you're not doing it. He's holding you, right? This is important, right? And how about this? The manager, he knew this. What mattered more was not his present, but his future. We live in a society that tells you the most important thing that's happening right now is the thing that's happening that second. And the most important thing that's ever gonna happen in the world is happening to you in that moment. That's why the enemy will come along and tell you nobody sees you, you hear you are buried under all of this, and here you're isolated, and here nobody loves you, and here nobody says anything, and and and then you get all worked up. You spend the rest of your life and your day. Listen to me, I'm giving somebody some freedom today. You're not gonna walk out of here worried about I don't know how to pay the bill, I don't know how to do the thing, I don't know how to do this, and then you just make mistake after mistake after mistake because you're worried about your present, and you're not even asking the Lord what the future is supposed to look like with him in it. Come on. When we're talking about getting in the mindset, come on, touch your head and say mindset. I need to get in the mindset. The mindset of stewardship. It's not a fun phrase that we just put on the wall. It's not we're not just being sharp with words, like, ooh, that sounds catchy. This isn't sticky taglines, this is a way of life. And so I have to ask myself, if I'm if I'm learning as a believer how to be generous and how to live in the character and the nature of Christ, I need a mindset change. Because how many know we were born of this world? And of this world is twisted, it's selfish, it's self-absorbed, isn't it? Come on, somebody. You don't think it is. You anybody live with somebody who's a little bit selfish? Now listen, don't let the enemy tear down what Valentine's did for your relationship. Don't let the enemy come in and steal that right now. Right? Valentine's did a work on some of y'all. I can even see y'all are happier today. That's amazing. Don't let the enemy steal it. But I'm just saying, there's some selfish folks that we can be around sometimes. And it is a dying daily, isn't it? Because just human nature, guys. I mean, just can I help everybody in here? Everyone is selfish. You know, it's not like one group of people, there's no one person in your family. We are all selfish unless the the character of Christ begins to shine through and we yield to that. And that means we then humble ourselves. Right? That that's all that is. And so the answer is you're like, yeah, you. It's you I'm talking about. You selfish. This is what Charles Spurgeon said. Live as one who has to give an account. Love this quote. Live as someone who's got to give an account. Can I tell you, if you believe the word of God, if you believe what he said he was gonna do, which he says he will return, then you do know that every single person is gonna stand before the Lord one day. Now, here's what's shocking to me. More, there are more believers, more revivals breaking out. I mean, Southeastern's in revival down in Lakeland right now. Amazing. There are more believers and more people. People are making uh uh uh trips and to get in the presence of the Lord. We know all this stuff, but we are not acting like we're ever gonna stand before Him. It's mind-blowing to me that we know we are, but we're not really living in such a way. We're not thinking everything that I do today has an end date. It's got something on the And so what we do is we allow society to tell us gather as much as you can. And we're like a bunch of little chickmunks out there, just stuffing our little jaws full of things, running back to our little layers, spitting it out, heading back out. All in preparation for what? For what? Well, I'll be ready. I hope your soul is ready. Like your house is ready? Wonderful. I got a fresh new coat of paint, and I've got all the supplies to survive for 32 days. Sweet. For those 32 days, you want to cry out to God for our souls. Amen. Come on, I'm just telling you, there's a priority in the kingdom. And the reason that is because God is not like worried about resource like I am. I'm all worried about resource. Come on, somebody, I'm worried about it. There are times where it's just it's squeezed because of the decisions I made. I'm constantly asking for a revival in my finances on decisions I made. God didn't come down and move my hand. Devil didn't reach in my back pocket and the money just ran out this door. No, it did not. You use that money the way you wanted to. And we got to take ownership of that. We gotta take our side of it. But here's the good news: God is not moved by all that provision. He is the provider. Everything on the earth, everybody, every person. We sang a song today so perfectly fit that. If the rocks are gonna cry out, I will, if the mountains are gonna proclaim I will. We're singing about all the nature that's gonna worship God. It didn't have a line. We say should add something about your wallet in there, should be in there. If my wallet will come on, somebody we gotta get a kingdom mindset around this thing. Okay, I gotta hurry. And I'm gonna go through this. Second thing Jesus is looking for, what is Jesus looking for? He's looking for intentional generosity. Intentional generosity. What the manager ends up doing, he gets real generous with somebody else's money. Did you see how he did that? He's like, hi, listen, listen, I know you owe the master, but I'm gonna tell you what, I feel like he wants to give you a discount. It's like, no, he does not want to give you a discount, but I'm feeling froggy. We used to do this back in the day. We used to make jokes like, all right, get your wallets out, we're gonna do take up the offering, and I want you to hand your wallet to your neighbor and tell him to be generous. Huh? What if we did that? Come on, there wouldn't be one wallet passed in here unless it was empty. And you'd be like, you check it out, bro. I'm telling you. Hello, hello, hello. Generosity, it should look like this. Generosity that looks like this. Kingdom leverage. What the manager is doing, he's leveraging what was in the master's hand for his own purposes and relationship. Future focused sewing. What's he doing? I'm giving you a discount so that you will hire me later when this guy gets rid of me. He's got a motive. Eternal relationship building. Eternal relationship building. I just want to stop right here and and tell you something is that God intends for us to do life together, and he intends for us to prioritize relationship. There is this misconception that you uh have to prove that you can do it on your own and that you're separate, or whatever it is that lie that you've told yourself. I'm just telling you, there is an invitation to a relational gospel because it actually tells a story of the kingdom. When we separate it, we are incomplete. When we try to live in isolation, you are incomplete to the fullness of what Christ came to do. He did not come to separate you, he came to bind us together under the lordship of his son, amen, Jesus. And then he says, I'll set you apart. Not as an individual, but as a group. These are my people. Right? Does that make sense? And so this is the things he's living out. So we see that. It says, Make friends for yourselves. Verse 9 tells us all of that, right? How about this quote right here? Jim Elliott, I don't know if you know this guy or not, gave his life in Ecuador as a missionary. Right? He said this phrase, which is fantastic. I think everyone's heard it before, but we'll read it. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. This man gave him and five others, four others, four others, gave their life to share the gospel to an unreached people group. I am moved by stories like this. Because they understand something. They understand what value Christ puts on the earth and in people. It was not a money issue, it was not a time issue. All of that paled in comparison to a soul that was lost. People who have not heard, it drove them in their compassion, which they didn't get on their own, they got through Christ. The compassion they felt towards those who had never heard the gospel, and they did something about it. How often we sit on our hands with people who you assume have already heard the gospel message, but maybe they hadn't heard it through the filter you're going to give, and that might be the decision factor for them. But instead, we're busy. I got acorns to gather. I'm moving up the ladder. I'm running through this thing right now. I'm trying to prepare for my life. And these are all the things you tell yourself, but I'm telling you, these things aren't the highest level of value in the kingdom. So when we we talk, and this is the strategy of the enemy right now. He wants so much to distort who the church is, why she exists, and her power to change things. And what he what he's doing is he's seeding the ground of really good kingdom people to say you can't trust the church. And this is cool because we'll do this. We'll take one person who made a bad decision and let them stand in the gap for all that exist. Now, can I ask you a question? Would you like to be judged with that same measure of judgment? If you're a man in here today, there are some deadbeat dads in the world who don't do their job right, who undermine the values of home, who aren't submitted to the Lordship of Christ, and because they're not, they're not even submitted to their own covenant marriage, and we've seen them break apart and cause division, and there are men out there who will not take responsibility. So here's the good news today. You're all a bunch of heathens, you're all a bunch of nasties. You just should do better at your life. Now, can you you hear what I'm saying? You hear it that way, and you're like, now come on. Now come on. I know what I do. I'm a praying man, I'm serving my family, right? I know. But but we will let some Yahoo in the back country misuse some finances and say, see, that's what's happened to the church right there. There they they've lost touch on what's happening. Oh, you can't trust them now. Come on, man. Don't let the enemy. I don't, I know, I'm this ain't this ain't fun and popular and you know, whatever. You want popular, there's all kinds of popular churches you can go to. But I'm just trying to tell you, we're trying to raise up mature Christians who understand the power that God has given them to gain wealth and to use that wealth to advance the gospel across the globe. Let me tell you how I know we know how what that means is that last week we raised the rest of the money to start the girls' home in Israel. We raised$85,000, sent the checkoff, it's already going because we're people who understand. We're here to advance the gospel. People need to hear the message, and we have been given the opportunity to partner together. This isn't one person in here. I have got great news for you. I can tell you today it wasn't one person walking in and writing a check. It was the collective effort of the many who turned around and said, We're gonna just do something crazy. We're gonna build a girl's home in a place you shouldn't have the opportunity to do that. And we're gonna trust that salvation is gonna be taught, they're gonna be restored, they're gonna be reinserted into a community that loves them, and Jesus is gonna continue to show up in their dreams to bring salvation. While they're sleeping, he'll do that work. We'll send the missionaries in to do the day work. All in partnership. Where did that come from? Right here. Understanding the mindset of stewardship. Understanding the mindset of stewardship. Getting the spirit of a Jim Elliot. They don't know, they must know how am I to partner with God's kingdom to make that happen. And we're getting to do some cool stuff with it. What's Jesus looking for? Third thing he's looking for, faithfulness in the small. Faithfulness in the small. Faithfulness in the small. Now, I'm gonna bridge this little piece together right here because I think it's it's an interesting take. And I I didn't lay it out quite like I really wanted to, but I just ran out of time. So we just had to go with it this way. But it's it's real simple. Verse 10 it says, one who is faithful in the very little is also faithful in much. Here's the true definition in the parable sense of what the shrewd master, the shrewd manager is to do to be. He is thoughtful, awake, and strategic. This is what God, this is what Jesus is implying. Because he's telling the disciples, but he's really telling the Pharisees as well. Why is it that everyone that claims to be so spiritual, the the the the the evil sons make preparation to cover themselves and to advance their master, but not even the ones who love me understand how to do that. Hey, disciples, pay attention. There's a way to live. And hey, Pharisees, you didn't figure it out. It's not what you think. It's not you being shrewd, it's not you being slick, and it's not you actually being generous. It's actually you being yielded and faithful to what I put in your hands. God is not needing the money. I I stopped praying for that years ago. I stopped praying like he doesn't know my need. I stopped that. He knows what you need. What you should be praying for is the a greater capacity of stewardship of that that he's already given. You'd be amazed. Didn't we hear that in the testimony in the video earlier? I was amazed. Everything I had was already there. It just took somebody coming in and saying, like, there it is. There it is. That's it. That's it. It's McDonald's. It's stealing from your bless your blessing. You're eating your seed. What's supposed to be a harvest is now just a meal. What's supposed to create harvest after harvest multiples, you've just enjoyed it as a meal. I need this hot fudge Sunday. The problem is you need it every day at two o'clock. It's not wrong to want a hot fudge Sunday, but maybe every day at two o'clock? I don't know, maybe not. Why? Because that two o'clock Sunday is starting to wear on your pocketbook and your belt. Come on, I'm being facetious, I'm being funny, but I'm being dead level serious with you. This is what happens when you learn how to prioritize what the kingdom prioritizes. What I mean by that is simply this. I live within my means, I take care of our family, but I also make better choices because I know if I get really unhealthy, it costs more to keep up with the decisions that I've made. Come on, somebody. So I'm not, I'm just trying to say it's like a it's it's a cycle that we have to start working our way out of. Amen. Shrewd in the story, though, is this it's thoughtful, awake, and strategic. But isn't it interesting? Christ takes a very drastic turn. He's celebrating the shrewdness of the manager, but then he's saying, Hey, I just want you to be faithful with a little. Well, that doesn't even feel like it matches the story. What is the gap filler? And that's why I put urgency. Is the thing that holds those two intention. What is interesting to me is that the manager who's just feeling free with the master's money, right, he has a sense of urgency. Now, this is what I'm trying to tell you. If the world is strategic for money, why aren't believers strategic for souls? If the manager is strategic and having to make preparation for himself just to get the money and to hold the money, where are we in the thing that God values? Are we just hoping that somebody will preach a message that will have a salvation message attached to the end of it? Is that what we're hoping for? Can I tell you something? The greatest message of souls will come from you, not from one single human, not from one experience. I'm gonna hurt somebody's feelings. I'm just trying to tell you right here. It's like we cannot, we're long past waiting for like a Ryan Harbunky, guys, he ain't even here no more. Ryan Harbunke who is taking giant nets and pulling in millions of souls. Like, I don't know what to tell you, but we're at a stage now where we should be multiplying that through the effort that he's done. We should be doing ten times that, a hundred times that, just in the individual efforts that we have together. But we're not because we're letting organizations and people do all of that heavy lifting while I gather my acorns so that I can buy the shoes I'm waiting for. Which I'm doing that right now, actually. I've I told my class, I got three pairs of shoes right now I want to buy. It's true. It's true. I look at them, I look at them a couple times a week. I'm just like, I'm doing it today. Isn't that embarrassing? I do. Tim, you did this. You did this. You've made all of us like shoes and stuff. So here we are. All looking at shoes. My kids are looking at shoes. I walked in my closet the other day. I've been looking at these shoes. I want the shoes. I'm gonna buy the shoes. This is what I keep telling myself. I wake up early in the morning, I go to my closet, I'm gonna go read my Bible, and I'm just thinking about these dumb shoes. I woke up thinking about these shoes. They're gonna look so good. They're good, they're fancy. They got like a they got like a little pop color, a little something different than I've seen. You know, I'm gonna be unique. Stand out. Here I am. I walk into my closet, I go to get a, this is a true story. I go to get my jacket, I lean, I the lights are out, I put the jacket, I pull my jacket, and a pair of shoes drops out of the ceiling onto my face. And the Lord said, You have enough shoes. That pair of Nikes hit me square in the teeth. I hadn't worn that pair of shoes twice. And this is what the Lord's saying. He's like, I already gave you a pair of shoes. Just wear those. Wear those. Wear those. I still want these other shoes. See, I'm not trying to tell you I was delivered. I wasn't delivered from wanting these shoes. I just but I had the reminder, I've got shoes to spare. Grateful hearts, Scott. Get your heart back in gratitude. Do you see what I'm saying? What what what should drive us in the kingdom is a sense of urgency. When we talk about having the mindset of stewardship, it's it's an urgent thing. It's not something we kick down the road. It's taking it seriously today, so we know how to partner with the Lord on the earth today. How many know you can't take it with you? No matter what that preparation looks like, it's not going with you. It doesn't mean to be foolish. Please, please hear me. I'm not talking about being foolish, being silly. There is there's both being prepared, and really, I would say more than anything, it's a working with the Lord. It really is that simple. It's saying, God, what do you want? It's prioritizing him and what he's trying to do on the earth, and recognizing whenever I put him in the center of that, that all of my needs, wants, and desires are also in him. It's not misplaced in things, it's in him. And you'll be shocked at how God does creative things. Things will just happen that bring provision that you weren't even thinking because you were so focused on this. I won't point him out. There's a brother here that's sitting on the second row, he knows who I'm talking about. Probably the he is he's he's sitting on the end of the second row in the middle. So you can figure out who that is. One of the things I love about him is that he inspires me in this direction. I've never seen anyone care and love people so much and then sacrifice so much, and never, never anyone even know about it. They don't even know about it. You find out later, he's already been there. He showed up, he landed, he gave, and then he disappeared. And then you find out later, it's like, man, he beat me to the thing I was trying to be a blessing for. And he's already come and gone. It inspires me to see believers live this out in a very real, tangible way. And how many know that's an invitation for all of us? It's an invitation for all of us. Amen? Are y'all tracking with me? I'm gonna end, I promise. 1148. Somebody play music. Make us all feel better. There's an ending coming, we promise. I like this. One of my favorites here, Howard Thurman, amazing man. This is what he said. The power of possession is great, but greater still is the power of what? A life that does not depend on possessions. Greater. Oh, it's awesome to have. Greater is to not have the dependency. I don't have to have it, but what God brings, I get. Do you follow me? I love this statement. It's great. It informs us, it helps us to think differently. Just about how we're pursuing things. Yes, the power of possession is great. Having many things is awesome. But man, you ever been around somebody who don't need anything? You know how frustrating those people make you? Hey man, got something right here. Hey, you want a cookie?

unknown 50:52

No.

Strategic, Not Manipulated, Generosity

It’s About Allegiance, Not Dollars

Start Early: Rhythm Of Giving

Prayer For A Stewardship Mindset

Invitation To Salvation And Closing

SPEAKER_01 50:53

I'm good. What do you mean? You're not gonna make me eat alone. No, no, I'm great. Who just have self-control like that? Listen, you have that conversation with me, I'm gonna tell you, I won't leave my brother alone. No, my sister, I will eat this cookie with you. As an act of love and unity together. We'll eat this. But when you're around people who don't need stuff, they they're attractive. And it's not like snobbery. I don't need it. I don't want your cookie. It's not that, it's not nose in the air. Those people are gonna drown. Probably this afternoon when it rains. But nose so stuck up in the air, just catching water. Like, not that. It's not snobbery. It's not snobbery. What we're talking about is people who who are confident in who their source is and know where they position themselves in Christ and Christ getting maximum glory out of that life. It's attractive, man. Somebody, and listen, I'm not talking about someone who has a ton who lives that way. I could list three people in this room right now that I know are in the room who don't have a ton but live this way, and it inspires me. Now, the only reason I'm not calling them out is I don't want to embarrass them because then I'm like, then they'll tell me you're stealing my blessing. And I don't want to be the blessing stealer, but you're inspiring to me. You're inspiring to me. Can I just end with this? Three stewardship mindsets I want you to take away right here. These are three that I want you to leave with this afternoon. And that is this we are planting a harvest, not building a portfolio. What we're doing in the kingdom through this church has nothing to do with us building our own kingdom on the earth. We didn't call ourselves kingdom heights so that we could be like, yeah, that's catchy. That sounds like a kingdom we want to build. No, we want to build the kingdom of God through faithful obedience, right? We want to partner with God. We're not trying to build something that everyone looks around and be like, oh, they have nice things. We don't want to be people who have nice things. We want to make deep impact. I want to make a deep marked impact on our city, on our culture. Come on, somebody. I believe from this place we can change. Not just here, just in a couple of days, I'm getting on a flight. I cannot wait. Headed back to Honduras. We're going with our Kingdom Heights crew that's headed out there. It's amazing. And we're going to go minister to kids. We're going to go feed children. We're going to feeding programs, we're going to jails, we're going to churches. We're going to minister to people. We're going to get out of the house and we're going to, we're not only doing it, we're taking all of our young people. I want them to see it. I want them to know what it's like to partner with the Lord and bring the salvation message to someone who's never heard before. I want them to feel weird singing songs with motions of Spanish they don't know. It's the best. Just lip syncing and I don't know. We were practicing in the car. My kids are like, this is hard. It's like, yeah, it's another language. But we're going to be ready. The readiness is in us getting prepared in our hearts and in prayers to say we can't wait to minister this people. Do you know that right now, while we're in this building listening to stewardship, talking to you about getting the mindset of stewardship, there's a whole team in New Orleans who are hitting the streets and bringing salvation message to all the drunkards and the chaos and the nonsense. There's a whole team right now. Right now, while we're all here, and this is the beauty of the body of Christ. There's a lot at work. There's so much happening in this church, you don't even know what's happening. That today there will be people who are being ministered to. There will be nursing homes that have been touched today. There are gonna be people who are being fed today. There's gonna be people who showed up here who are needing something. They're gonna walk away with everything they were looking for. First, a message that transformed their life and a relationship with Christ. And some are gonna walk away with relationships and understanding and resources that they were begging God for, and it's all right here. Can I tell you we get to do that as a church? It excites me to think of all the seed we're putting in the ground. Because I, and this is a mindset we gotta get out of. I am not putting my money in the ground, and this is why, this is hard. All of us associate. Well, that's my money, and I have to be a good steward, and you better make sure you do exactly what I say to do with this. You're not given to the project, you're given to the Lord. When you tithe, this is why we don't allow you to just write on the paper, uh, here's my tithe, give it to Candace. No. You want to give something to Candace, give it to Candace. But when you give in your tithes, you're given unto the Lord. This is his house. This is what he's required of us. We're we're we're doing that in the complete submission that he is in control of the seed. Amen. There used to be a bad teaching that used to go around, it's like, well, the way they use the seed, the way I planted it, and they're using it totally different, then it then it null and voids the obedience. That's crazy talk. That's not true. Because all you're responsible is your act of obedience. My only responsibility is Holy Spirit, lead me, guide me, give me the grace, courage. Some of us need a lot of courage to give it and then trust the Lord. He will bring the increase. I mean, no, it's the kingdom message. So when we start talking about sowing, I'm talking about we have so much seed in the ground, but that seed is not just money. That seed is the message of the kingdom. Generosity isn't random, it's strategic. I'm just kind of waiting to be inspired, Pastor Scott. Don't be strategic. Stop waiting for us to make you inspired. Well, if they play a really good video, I might give. If we have to manipulate giving, then we're we're in the wrong. If we believe that manipulating giving to advance God's kingdom is what he intended, then we're not reading our Bibles right. We ain't gotta do that. Here's what we do. Pay attention. What are you guys working on this year? Formation. Well, that doesn't seem very exciting. Well, I'll tell you why it's exciting. It's because the more formed we get in Christ, the more yielded you get to the Holy Spirit, the more advancement the kingdom will make. This is what we believe. Our church doesn't believe that we have to give you a sad story to get behind. We believe this. There's a need, and God will move his people to meet it, and we're gonna partner with him, and we're gonna invite you to do that with us. It's that simple. It's that simple. And we can live there because we've been formed in the nature of Christ. This is what he wants to do. Amen? Third one, it's about allegiance, not dollars. When all's said and done, if you can take the parable down to its base level, I believe this parable can come down to this. It has nothing to do with the dollars, has nothing to do with your sacrifice, has nothing to do with the shrewdness of this guy. All of those things can lead us to this last statement. Where is your allegiance? Where is your allegiance? Is it to your culture? Where's your allegiance? Is it to your gender? Is it to your job? Where's your allegiance? Is it to your title? Where's your allegiance today? Not about dollars. He's not poor, young person. Jesus ain't bankrupt. It's an invitation to trust the God of the universe who has everything. If you'll position your heart, your mind, your spirit, start now. You know, I I your age, probably at age maybe 10 or 11, I think I got an idea of this understanding of tithing. So I would just tithe birthday money. I tithed birthday money. Technically, I don't have to. But in my world, I was learning a rhythm. I was just gonna do it. I was just gonna learn tithing. I'm gonna learn generosity. I never went to the doctor's office. Hear me now. I'm not bragging on myself, but I kinda am. I never went to the doctor. I had a twin sister. I never went to the doctor's office that I never didn't ask for her a sucker, did I? I got my sucker at the bank or at the hospital. Come on. Do you guys remember to give suckers out at the bank? A bank is a building. People work over there, gamefully employed there to exchange dollars and say the kids don't know what we're talking about. Bank? Are you talking about my father? The bank? Yes. They used to send those little suckers that were connected to the two strings. Cheapest sucker you could buy. It was amazing. You remember that? So much food die in that. That's why we are the way we are today. Because we all ate that. Things are going off in our brains because we ate that stuff. It was so good. I never went home without getting one for my sister. I just just I was gonna be generous. Thinking of people. Come on, you can never be too early to start. That's what I'm saying. Stand with me, okay? Anybody else excited about getting into the mindset of stewardship? Gotta have the mindset, right? Why does it matter? Because next week, you do not want to miss this. We're gonna get into the heart of generosity. We're gonna get into the heart of generosity. What is the heart posture? That's gonna come out of 2 Corinthians 9. You wanna get in front of me? Go for it. Read up on it. 2 Corinthians 9. We're gonna learn about the heart of generosity. What is it that God is looking for in the heart of men concerning generosity? Today we're learning what He's expecting out of us. There's a what? A mindset. There's a way to think through stewardship. He's teaching through this parable, he's teaching us today. How many would like to grow in this mindset? If that's you today, I just want you to lift your hands. I want to pray over you today. Listen, don't be fooled. In this very moment, hear what I'm saying. In this very moment, if you could hear what I was saying today, what everything boiled down to, it's not about dollars, it's about souls. It's not about dollars, it's about souls. It's about what? It's about this allegiance, allegiance to Christ. When I have allegiance to Christ, His Lordship, He prioritizes my thinking, my actions, my pursuit, I am getting what I a sense of urgency because souls hang in the balance. Because what moves him are lost people. That's what I'm praying for. God, give me a mindset that the way I think, the way I spend money, the way I go about my day, the way I plan for my future. God, that I think down the road. I'm not thinking what I need today, I'm thinking what advances your kingdom, what is moving the gospel forward, what is needed to see your name be made famous and known on the earth. And God, I want to partner with you in that. Teach me how to grow abundance in my own personal life through good decision making and good training, good resources. But God, never let me lose the heart of the Father. Souls. Souls. Souls. Souls. Lord, we love you today. God, I lift up your people to you. God, even pray for those that are even in this room who maybe don't even have a relationship with you. And they're hearing today that this is even available. God, a transformation, a lordship. God, an empty void being filled with peace and joy and love and the things that I've pursued. And the invitation is this the same. As God is creating a new mindset, He can create a new heart today. And all you have to do is say, God, I need you. I am a sinner. I have walked away. I have never even responded. Whatever your story is, it's real simple. It's a simple declaration. I need you in my life. It's that simple. Lord, forgive me. And I invite you to be the Lord of my life. Just like that. You can be saved today. Not only will He radically transform who you are and who you were into who he intends you to be, but he will give you the mind of Christ to start to step out and to be formed in his likeness. Lord, we thank you for our families today. I thank you for those who are in partnership today. I want the mindset of stewardship today. God, we want to serve you with our finances, with our whole self. Nothing hidden from you. God, we gave up the rights to who we wanted to be and we gave them to you. We're asking you to press upon us your nature so that we can live out, God. We can live out to our family, into our city, into our job, God, and to those that we have influence with. God, that they can see you, not us see you. And God, that we give ourselves a chance to partner with you to see millions of souls. Because our preparation is not what we see today, but when we stand before you, Lord, the many, many, many souls that will be there because of your faithfulness to and through us. And God, that's that's the story I want to live into. God, I thank you for this. I thank you for what you're doing in our church. I bless your people today. Pray strength and grace over them as they step out the rest of this week. God, we thank you for what you're doing. In Jesus' name, everybody said Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:01

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at The Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.