Sunday: Stewardship
When we think about salvation translating into service to others, we cannot avoid the Christian concept of stewardship.
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
The Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia defines ‘stewardship’ as “the responsibility of God’s people for, and use of, everything entrusted to them by God – life, physical being, time, talents and abilities, material possessions, opportunities to be of service to others, and their knowledge of truth.”
Look at the following passages. With each one ask yourself, Given my particular circumstances, how can I manifest in my own life the wonderful principles taught in these texts? How should these truths impact the way I live and how I relate to others, to God, and to the gifts that He has given me? Deut. 8:11-17
The Bible teaches that the fundamental purpose for all of God’s creation is to glorify Him. Sin has derailed this reality in a very big way, but God directed His saving action toward us in order to bring us back to participate with all creation in the glorifying of God. Christ has purchased us for the sake of God’s glory (Eph. 1:11-14). It is as we acknowledge in both word and deed the complete lordship of Christ over our lives that we bring glory to God. The complete expression of Christ’s lordship over our lives will involve our service to others through the use of our time, talents, abilities, and material possessions.
Read again the texts for today. Which ones touch you the most, and why? What motivates you to try to live a life that involves seeking the good of others, as well as your own? Why is it so important for yourself, spiritually, to live for others?
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If we surrender our life to Christ completely, we will experence the fullness of God's protection, IN Him we have obtain an inheritance been predistined according to His purpose. Let us used our talents, our resources, and our time for the Lord.
If God is giving us Stewardship; He is giving us rulership which involves control and administration
Now the question is, if the Steward lacks self control; what can we expect of its people He has to be responsible for? If the Steward is not loving? what can the experience of the people be of those that are under his care? you can answer those questions individually for yourself and your families. But this world proofs where human nature has been subjected to and we see the results of lack of love to put it mildly.
In order for us to be Good Stewards, what needs to happen in us first?
If we are then transformed and is no longer "me" "I" in the picture; then we will only have to see what love is all about.
Laodicean church was lacking a few things, one of them was sight!; it was all about "ME" and "I". lets meditate on this and prayerfully change our focus away from "ME" and I.
May The Lord helps us and with His Help we can overcome our selfish nature.
I don't know how we could to do, because every day we're reading these words we always understood them, but we're never practiced them, me and you are often talking more about the word of God than practiced them. I think it's time to do both together, so that people could first understand and practiced the word of God like us.
Each of those texts spoke to me especially as the holiday is approaching and it seems that this is the time when we forgot to be real stewards and to help the brethren among us, those who may be our neighbours, anyone who is in need. We talk about the spirit of giving and compassion when we go out of our ways to purchase the new gadgets for our kids, while the family that sat next to us at church were in the same garments from the previous week and are in an obvious need. Deut 8:11-17 reminds us that we are not self-sufficient, we are to be keeping the commands of God and are to remember the things we have that we feel we attained of our own merit, God blessed us with. We are to bless others, we are to lay down our lives for others (allow the next person to experience the good God has blessed us with) because He saw it fit to die for us. An undeserving sinner like me. Who am I to keep his blessings all to myself? Helping or showing one person kindness and Christ's love goes a long way and speaks volumes of the love of God.
your input is powerful on this section of the lesson. thank you
Hi
Today's lesson is very powerful.I can clearly see myself in it, we tend to see our needs first, and give God the last fruit of our labour,while it should be otherwise. In 1 Cor 10:31, we are called to do everything for the glory of God,instead we do evrything for the glory of self.
We are called to be not only steward, but faithfull steward. We are to use everything given to us, to edify God,to console broken hearts,to share christ with others, and to use everything in our posession to serve God and others.
We are ready to work full time, overtime and part time to satisfy self, when it comes to use oyr talents for for God, we are full of excuses.
My prayer is God make me a servant to you and fellow brethren. Thank you for the talents given to me, make me a faithfull steward, that wherever I go and whatever I do Christ may be seen. Amen
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of other."
Powerful reading! This has put this week's lesson into perspective for me. Christian living is all about service to God and to others. Even the 2 commandments that are embodied in the whole moral law are based on Love for God and love for fellow man. Where there is love, there is service and sacrifice.
I wonder sometimes, at the literalness, the "black and white" comprehension we seem to have of the Decalogue. That is, if the sin is not mentioned in the Decalogue, then it is not sin. In Matt 22:37-40 Christ the Law-giver indicates that these 10 of Exodus 10 are but "dot points" of the great law of God, viz, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind ... (and) you shal love your neighbour as yourslef. On these ... hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Paul put a "paraphrase" on the latter part Christ's words when he wrote, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves has fulfilled the law. For the commandments ... are all summed up ins this saying, namely, You shall ove your neighbour as yourself ..."(Rom 13:8-10). EWG (SOP) makes this claim, "There is no limit to the usefulness of one, who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his(/her) heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God" (SD 29).
One members think that Stewardship is returning your tithe and offering faithfully, but it is more than that. It is fully surrendering all of yourself fully to the Lord. Whether is your talent , time , your resources and tithe we must use it to the furtherance of God's cause.
I mean to say , "SOME MEMBERS AND NOT ONE MEMBERS
I am soooo touched by this lesson especially Phil 2:4 cause most of the time we speak like Cain that we not our "brothers keeper." Let's ask God to help us this day to be faithful stewards. Amen and thank you.
Just wondering about this statement on p87 of regular SS pamphlet:
"The Bible teaches that the fundamental purpose for all of God's creation is to glorify Him. ... God directed His saving action toward us in order to bring us back to participate with all creation in glorifying Him."
To me, this sounds like a very conceited and narcisistic God. And my God is in no way conceited or narcisistic.
My take is that we glorify God simply because of the salvation He provides, and the rest of the Universe, for the transcendant magnanimous munificence He supplies/imparts. His created beings glorify Him in response.
Here’s the ironic application of this text. God is saying, if you’re a real follower of God, whatever you have accomplished in life, whatever you have gained in life, whatever success you have had in life, “You didn’t build that.”
That is the Deuteronomy 8:11-17 text.