It’s All God’s

As the stewardship pastor, I get the privilege of an up-close view of the generosity of God’s people and the impact it makes on the Kingdom work He has laid before us. The result of that generosity is almost always relational, meaning lives are impacted and transformed for His glory.

Most often stewardship is viewed as the giving of our money to a church or ministry. If we looked at stewardship from a biblical perspective, we would see through God’s eyes that He owns everything and gives us the opportunity to manage it. Randy Alcorn wrote in his book Money, Possessions, and Eternity, “A steward’s primary goal is to be found faithful by his master as the steward uses the master’s resources to accomplish the tasks delegated to him.”

God gives us the skills and talents to earn, create, and manage those assets. I think one of the wonders of stewardship is that it usually stops there. But if God owns everything, how do we surrender all of ourselves to Him completely? What does it look like to live for Christ today? What does it look like to live in the fullness of God?

But if God owns everything, how do we surrender all of ourselves to Him completely?

It most likely will look like obedience and abiding in Him as John 15 explains. In the construct of stewardship, we have heard of the giving of our time, talents, and treasures. I think we should add a fourth “T” which is just as important, but more than likely harder than the giving of treasures and time. It is testimony and we should couple it with time. Combining those two together can sometimes be the most difficult. Why? Because our time is valuable to the things we want for ourselves, and there can be apprehension in giving of our testimony. But when we are wrapped in God’s will and economy completely, we begin to see the nudging of the Holy Spirit to be bold for Christ in spreading the good news. It takes time to build relationships with others and through that we build a bridge for the gospel to be heard. This encompasses all of stewardship because it is not just about wealth and possessions but about the totality of our being engulfed in Christ’s love. This, my brothers and sisters, is where we see Christ’s greatest work and our greatest encouragement, generosity, and fruit.

Stewardship is not just about wealth and possessions but about the totality of our being engulfed in Christ’s love.

When we see what is happening in our country and world today, it shouldn’t take much to motivate us to deliver our testimonies to those with willing ears who are eager to listen. It’s what transforms people and communities. The reason God gave us a personal testimony is to spread His love and the gospel—because it is the hardest thing to debate when it’s personal. Paul writes in Romans 14:8, 12, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s… So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” What will your account be?

When all this comes together in the full act of submission to our King, then the body of Christ will do miraculous things and we will all get a ring-side seat using our time, talents, treasures, and testimony for the Kingdom work at hand.