Today’s message : I’m not the owner, I’m the manager!
If you receive this seed of God’s word and put it into practice in your life, it can change your future in eternity.
Questions:
Why do we need to serve God?
Why do we have to go to church?
Why do we need to serve in the Kingdom of God and serve people?
Why do we have to serve and use our gifts and talents in the Kingdom of God?
Why do we have to walk in obedience to God and our leaders?
“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.” Psalms 89:11
The Bible is clear that this world was created by God and for God and everything that exists, including you and me, belongs to Him. I’m not the owner, I’m the manager, I’m steward!
“For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.”
Psalms 50:10-12
God said : If I’m hungry I don’t need to tell you I will eat one of my cows, my vegetables or chicken, I don’t need yours, they are mine, all animals belong to me.
In essence God is saying: Everything you have belongs to me! You are not owners. If you have gold or diamond, it came from God’s earth. The home that you live in, the trees, the stones, the wood, everything came from God’s earth.
The question is : If God owns it all, how much do you own?
When we understand this concept it’s easy to serve God, and it’s easy to give, because you don’t own any of it but you are manager. You’re steward and the Lord is going to come back one day and settle accounts.
He’s going to know how I managed His money, His property, the gifts and talents that He gave me and gave you.
When we talk about stewardship and being a servant of the Kingdom, we need to understand why you are here on earth, here in this church, serving in ministries. You are here not to do as you want, but to follow the directions that the owner of this Kingdom left through His word.
I want to illustrate it to you.
How many of you have a teenager at home? or how many of you has ever had a teenager at home?
Many parents ask me for help, because their teenage children want to rule their homes, they do not obey, are rebellious, and want to do everything in their own way.
Many teenagers go through this. I’m not saying all do, but many have a phase.
If you have or have had teenagers at home, you probably told them or have had this thought:
“You don’t own this house, you’re here for now, you’re going to be leaving pretty soon and it will be your mom and I who will stay here just as we were before you arrived!”
“This is not your house and as long as you live in my house, you are going to follow my rules! You’re not the owner!”
A lot of God’s children are just teenagers. Do you know the difference between an immature believer and a mature believer ? Stewardship! It’s the way he /she serves in the kingdom of God.
When you realise that you are not the owner, and God is the owner, and you’re living in His house, you better manage it the way He wants it managed.
First point: I’m not the owner. The rules such how “your house” has to be managed has already been established in His Word.
Second point: I’m the steward, I’m a servant!
God started the whole thing with stewardship. Many people never even thought about this.
God puts Adam and Eve in the garden and put a tree there to remind them they were not owners.
In other words, God was saying:
“Every time you walk by that tree you will realise you don’t own this garden, I own this garden.
You are here to take care of it, you’re here to steward it because it belongs to Me.”
If you remember the very first temptation, satan said to them : God doesn’t want you to eat from this tree because He knows you will be like Him.
You will be the owner. You will not have somebody telling you what to do anymore. You won’t have to be the steward anymore, you will be the owner.
Adam and Eve failed because they were not content in being the stewards, because they wanted to be owners and to do things their own way.
This is an age-old problem.It started in heaven, with an Angel (Lucifer) who was the leader of Worship and wanted to be like God, after Lucifer, Adam and Eve and unfortunately Christians still have this same desire : to do the things their own ways, to live their life the ways they want , to use their time the way they want and use their money, their gifts and talents as they wish.
What do you have that you did not received from God? Everything you have came from God, and everything belongs to Him.
God claims comprehensive Kingdom ownership of all of creation. So, if God owns everything you and I own nothing, there are no other owners.
God owns but He has given you the freedom to mess up what He created. In fact He gave you and me so much freedom we can hand it over to the devil, if we want!
You don’t own nothing, including your own life, because it can be taken!
Today we all have to start a new journey understanding that your life, it is yours to manage, not yours to own. I’m not the owner, I’m a steward, I’m a servant!
God has trouble with His kids who want to argue with Him in His own house!
His House in the Bible is called all creation.
“The earth and everything on it belong to the Lord. The world and all its people belong to him.”Psalms 24:1
The Earth and everything belongs to Him, it’s His house and He calls it The Kingdom.
God has made it clear that there is only one owner and you and I are not it.
You and I own nothing including our own life because it can be taken from us.
“But God said to that man, ‘Foolish man! Tonight you will die. So what about the things you prepared for yourself? Who will get those things now?” Luke 12:20
God has declared that He created mankind to be managers or stewards of what He has entrusted to them but they were never ever to take the position of owners.
God has called you and me to be managers, stewards of His Kingdom’s possession.
The definition of Kingdom stewardship is the responsibility to faithfully protect and expand the resources God has entrusted to us as managers on his behalf.
We are managers on His behalf or the best word the define us is servants.
We have the responsibility to protect and to expand the resources, the gifts , the talents that has been entrusted on us to manage.
God has given us a call to manage all of what He owns. Jesus spoke and taught much about stewardship and being servants of the kingdom.
““Then the Kingdom of heaven will be like….”. Matthew 25:1
Jesus tells this story to help us understand His ownership, our stewardship and how this whole thing works and why it matters.
““For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.”
Matthew 25:14-15 NKJV
For the Kingdom of heaven is like: A man goes on a long journey, he takes his three slaves and entrusts His possessions to them according to their abilities.
“Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.”
Matthew 25:16-17
He calls three of His servants and says: I’m going to give you five talents, I’m going to give you two talents and I’m going to give you one talent because I know what each of you can handle, according to your abilities.
We all have been entrusted talents. We don’t have the same amount but we all have received some talents: 5 or 2 or 1. It may be different amounts but we all have some.
The first thing that God have entrusted on to us is time.
It says He went on a journey for a long time. You and I have time. God gave you time. You and I have 24 hours a day, all the same amount of time. We have time to serve Him.
Also We all have the capacity and ability to be productive! Because He was expecting them to produce something.
Everyone here has God-given capacity of productivity as a manager. They are expected to be productive in their time !
So we’ve got talent, time and abilities and also we have resources.
We all received resources, not the same amount, but we all have something.
This is what Jesus was teaching in the parable: How managers handle what doesn’t belong to them but has been entrusted onto them during the absence of the owner.
Obviously Jesus was talking about Himself. He came , He died on the cross, three days later He rose from the dead, after 40 days he ascended up to heaven. So He is now physically absent. He is gone on a journey.
It says that He went for a long time! Jesus died 2,000 years ago, so He’s been gone a long time.
He entrusted his stewards, His servants to act on His behalf with everything he’s left behind.
Remember that everything you have has been entrusted onto you, you don’t own anything and neither do I.
The three servants have been entrusted with possessions that are not theirs, they all belong to Master.
The story says that servant number one had five talents and he went out and got productive, he used all he had and doubled, so now he has 10 talents.
The second servant had two talents, he also went out , used it and multiplied it. He was productive and now he has four talents.
“But the one who had received the one went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
Matthew 25:18
Servant number three, dug a hole and hide his talent in the ground. He hid his talent and didn’t use it.
Verse 19 says:
““After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.”
Matthew 25:19 NIV
Jesus is obviously talking about Himself. He is been gone a long time. He says, serve me, multiply your talent because I’m coming back one day.
What you need to understand is : Jesus is going to come back, or you will die before He comes and when you meet with Him there will be an accounting.
You will be asked: How is my kingdom? How are my possessions? What was done of the talents I put temporarily on your possession? You’ll have to answer these questions.
This questions will be asked at the Judgment seat of Christ!
What have you been doing with the talents God has given you? How have you been using your time?
Next week I will continue this message, and I will talk about how the reckoning will be.
Because many have time, have resources, have gifts, have capacity, but do not want to use it for the Kingdom of God.
That servant who did not use his talent, Jesus called him bad and lazy servant.
Jesus called him lazy because he didn’t use his time to multiply his talent.
Today we see the same thing happening! People have time for everything but not for God, yesterday we had 12 hours of prayer, we had 2 hours of worship, how many servants of the Kingdom were there?
We have Bible studies, prayer meetings, Conquerors’ School, Cell Meetings, Hope cafe and only few have time for the Kingdom of God. We need to repent from this sin before it’s too late.
You are here not to do as you want, as you wish, but to follow the directions that the Master of this Kingdom left us through His word.
How will you be called by God on Judgement Day?
May God call you a good and faithful servant, not a wicked and lazy servant!
God bless you and see you next week with the second message of this series.