Biblical Stewardship

1. Re-visit the Meaning of Biblical Stewardship

3. Fundamental Basis of Stewardship We own nothing. God owns everything.

4. Theological Basis of Stewardship Man is to honor and glorify God by being a steward in the world. God awaits man’s voluntary response to His love.

6. Genesis 1: 26, 28 Then God said, “ Let us make man in our image, in our likeness , and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” God blessed them and said to them, “ Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God’s Stewardship Mandate to Man

8. God never stop giving. God never stop loving.

10. Stewardship: GOD GIVES God’s Grace – Receive it, Live it. . . . is a way of life. It is a comprehensive concept – recognizing that we respond to God's generosity, not because we have to, but because God's own goodness draws us to respond. Stewardship is a lifestyle God has called us to.

11. What is a Steward? “ A steward is someone entrusted with another’s wealth or property and charged with the responsibility of managing it in the owner’s best interest.” A steward is a person who takes care of someone else’s property.

12. A. THE CONCEPT OF STEWARDSHIP IN THE OLD TESTAMENT The Old Testament teaching on stewardship may be summarized in three principles: 1) God is the owner of everything. 2)God’s covenant people are held responsible for their management of God’s resources. 3) Giving is a worshipful response to God’s ownership of all things .

13. B. THE CONCEPT OF STEWARDSHIP IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Stewardship as Christian Discipleship Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is at the core of what it means to be a Christian. A disciple is a learner, an apprentice, a servant, a follower. Stewardship is another way of talking about discipleship. We are the gracious recipients of the good things of God “ Stewards of the manifold grace of God”–that is our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ. We fulfill that calling as we receive, nurture, appropriate and share God’s presence, promises, grace and mission.

15. Our worship is not perfect; we are still marred by our mixed motives and our inconsistent behaviors. Even when we try our best to honor God we recognize that God’s grace supplies God’s goodness to us, and even our finest worship cannot earn that grace.

16. What then is Stewardship? Stewardship is the Christian life. For what is stewardship but that God has entrusted to us life, time, talents, money, possessions, family, and His grace? In each case He evaluates how we regard and what we do with what He’s entrusted to us. But there is a Stewardship Crisis !

17. It remains mere theological principles; wanting in practical Christian living. Most Christians do not embrace it into tangible realities