Hey Clawson Family!

Song: 

Scripture:

Matthew 25:13 New Living Translation

13 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.

Matthew 25:14-30 New Living Translation

14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver[a] to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together![b]’

22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew 16:25 New Living Translation

25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Deuteronomy 8:18 New Living Translation

18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 New Living Translation

19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Devotional:

We need to change our mindset on stewardship and steward things the way God wants us. 

My life is not my own, I am a servant of the King

I think even as a Christian sometimes we are tempted to have the mentality, God is not the one that did the work I am. So, because I did the work, what the work produces is mine. There was a movie and the wife asked the husband to say grace over the food and his prayer was something like this.

Dear Lord, everything on this table came from the work of our hands. We tilled up the ground and planted the seeds, we pulled the weeds and harvested the crops, we fed the chicken, gathered the eggs, and milked the cows, and if we hadn’t have done the work none of this would be on the table. But all the same we thank you for it anyway.

We have to be careful not to be ungrateful. Our attitude towards serving Jesus with our whole lives should be “We get to do this”. We get to come to church and serve, we get to be the church outside of the building, we get to run the most insane bus ministry in town, we get to put together food boxes to feed the community, we get to serve, we get to give, we get to pray, etc.  Because of what Jesus did for me, it is an honor to give my life in service to him. My life is not my own, I am a servant of the King. I want to give you some scripture here really quickly.

The Earth and everything in it is the Lord’s. In Haggai 2 he says the gold and silver are the Lords. My breath is the Lord’s. Even my body is God's because he bought me with a high price. The truth is I have absolutely nothing. My life is not mine, it's Gods.

How I manage and steward my time matters. Everything has an expiration date including our lives. Ephesians says make the most out of every opportunity while you still have time.

How I steward my money or treasure matters. There are two different outlooks on how to steward our treasure.

How much of my money am I going to use on God?

How much of God's money am I going to use on me?

How I steward my stuff, my thoughts, my actions, my mouth, my family. It is important. Because everything that I have is on loan to me from God and is his.

In the story in Matthew 25 it said - He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. I looked up the term stewardship this week and this is what the dictionary says.

Stewardship is -  the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property.

When I give my life to Jesus part of what that means is understanding that I am not an owner of anything, I am managing what God has entrusted me with. My life is not my own, I am a servant of the King. 

Journal: 

Have you ever considered that since you gave your life to Christ, it no longer belongs to you? You are not your own! In your journal today how understanding  stewardship can change how you use the resources you have been given

Training:

Father God,

in the name of Jesus, forgive us when we have human feelings and think it's all about us. Forgive us when we forget that You have us here on earth only to further Your kingdom. Help us to understand we are merely caregivers of what you have given us to stewart.

Everything we have is yours and help us to use every resource we have faithfully and wisely.

In Jesus name, Amen.