Sermon Title .

Stewardship, Foundation for Christian Living

Sermon Text. . Gen 1:1-31 (focus Gen 1:1, 1:26Invocation Scripture. . . Psalm 24;1
Main Idea :

God is creator of all things thus He owns

all things and grants mankind the
privilege of being His stewards on this
earth.

Objective :

Christians, as God's stewards must

realize that we own nothing, not even
ourselves and that we should then be
constantly about His business.

Stewardship, Foundation for Christian Living

Gen 1:1-31
Point I :

Creator and Owner. . . . . . . . . . . . . Gen 1:1

Point II :

Entrusted and Commanded. . . . Gen 1:26 -28

Point III:

Benefitted and Blessed . . . . . . . Gen 1:29-30

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Stewardship, Foundation for Christian Living

Psalm 24;1-6
Slide 1
We will begin today a series of messages on
Stewardship. Now the moment I say that word, most
people have a very one dimensional thought, they
immediately think of Money. Stewardship is so much more
than about money.
I hope and pray over the next several weeks that I can
help to broaden your understanding of Stewardship and our
thinking about ourselves and all that we THINK we own,
as Gods Word provides fresh insight and compelling
understanding of what True, Christian living is all about.
Slide 2 We will consider 6 Sermons. We begin our series
today with a message entitled
1. Stewardship: foundation for Christian Living
We will then consider 5 additional sermons
2. The Stewardship of Time
3. The Stewardship of the Faith
4. The Stewardship of Family
5. The Stewardship of Talent
6. The Stewardship of Finances
Slide 3
In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes...
Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of
moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given
you by God. If you devoted every moment of your
whole life exclusively to His service, you could not
give Him anything that was not in a sense His own
already..

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Interestingly enough, the whole idea of stewardship begins

for us at the beginning, the book of Beginnings that is...
Genesis. So take your bible and turn with me to Genesis 1.
Slide 4
< < < Read: Gen 1:1-31 > > >
Focal Verses Gen 1:1 and 1:26-29
I always find these verses compelling and there are so
many truths that are critical for us to understand in these
first few chapters of Genesis, but today, we are going to
focus in on vs 1, vss 26-28 and vss 29-30. Look back then
with me to Genesis 1;1
Slide 6
Point I : Creator and Owner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gen 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.
That is a simple but incredibly profound statement with
incredible and far reaching implications!
Let me ask this morning, has any of you ever made
anything yourself? // Even from the earliest age, we tend to
make things as human beings. We build blocks into
structures and shapes and eventually as we gain greater
dexterity and ability into structures that look like buildings
with which we can play and enjoy ourselves... at least until
one of our other siblings comes along and knocks our
wonderful building down. Then we get mad and cry or get
in a spat that mom or dad have to stop.
Interesting, also this concept of ownership We
wouldnt dare go out in to the parking lot, randomly pick a
car and drive away in it, any more than we would walk
down the street, randomly pick a house and go into it and

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take up residence, helping ourselves to the things in the

refrigerator, picking the most comfortable chair, grabing
the remote and scanning the channels to watch what we
want.
And yet... we seem to VERY quickly forget this first
verse of Genesis and the implication that was expounded in
Psalm 24:1 in our invocation scripture, do you remember
what it said?....
(Psa 24:1 NASB) The earth is the LORD'S, and all it
contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.
We are then, living in Gods World, using Gods
resources, enjoying Gods sunshine, and Gods plants and
animals, using Gods gifts and talents... // Think about that!
Seriously friends... Think about that!!
The Bible is full of passages that directly tell us that
God owns it all!!
There are many more where that comes from we read in
(Exo 9:29 NASB) And Moses said to him, "As soon as
I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the
LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be hail
no longer, that you may know that the earth is the
LORD'S.
Leviticus 25:23 "The land is mine and you are but
aliens and my tenants."
(Deu 10:14 NASB) "Behold, to the LORD your God
belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and
all that is in it.

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(1 Chr 29:11 NASB) "Thine, O LORD, is the

greatness and the power and the glory and the
victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in
the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O
LORD, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all.
(Job 41:11 NASB) "Who has given to Me that I
should repay him? Whatever is under the whole
heaven is Mine.
(Psa 50:12 NASB) "If I were hungry, I would not tell
you; For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
Haggai 2:8 " 'The silver is mine and the gold is
mine,' declares the Lord Almighty."
(1 Cor 10:26 NASB) FOR THE EARTH IS THE
LORD'S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS.
(Heb 1:1-2 NASB) God, after He spoke long ago to
the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in
many ways, {2} in these last days has spoken to us in
His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the world.
(Col 1:15-18 NASB) And He is the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of all creation. {16} For
by Him all things were created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things
have been created by Him and for Him. {17} And He

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is before all things, and in Him all things hold

together. {18} He is also head of the body, the
church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from
the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first
place in everything.
And so the point?.... The point is, EVERYTHING
belongs to God... EVERYTHING... and hear me... listen..
EVEN YOU!!! Thats right!! You dont even own
yourself! Are you kidding Pastor Ken? Come on now,
thats a little too radical... (pause) O really?....
Turn to 1 Cor 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own? {20} For you have
been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body.
Listen my friends, unless we FULLY embrace this truth,
this whole idea of stewardship will elude us. Its not
sufficient to understand it!! Many people understand many
things, but until they embrace what they understand, it is
not translated into life and therefor has no impact!
If you understand and embrace this truth, it reveals the
first of four key principles about stewardship, the Principle
of Ownership! So lets clarify what we have just come to
understand from Gods Holy Word.
Who owns everything?
God
and secondly Who owns you? God

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Now that we know who owns everything, even us,

consider the second point this morning... God has entrusted
us with His Creation and Commanded us to manage it!
Look back at your text to Gen 1:26-28, which reveal the 2nd
and 3rd principles of Stewardship which are Responsibility
and Accountability....
< < < Read: Gen 1;26-28 > > >
Slide 8
Point II : Entrusted and Commanded. . . . . Gen 1:26 -28
We see clearly there at the end of vs 26 that God has
chosen to Entrust the management of His creation to us.
What did it say...
(Gen 1:26-28 NASB) Then God said, ...let them rule
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Wow!! Thats amazing!! God has entrusted to mankind, the
management of His incredible creation!! We get to rule
over it. The Hebrew word here is radah The word is
defined as, to have dominion.
I like that word much better than the word Rule... Some
how the word Rule has a negative connotation in my mind,
one of use without responsibility, where dominion
somehow reminds me that I am a part of and a party to the
results of my decisions over something.
We have been given Dominion over the earth by God.
The problem with this, is that we can too easily forget to
whom everything belongs and begin to think that it is ours,
that what we make of all of these incredible resources, that

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work very consistently based upon immutable laws of

science and physics that God also has put into place,
somehow are ours and even worse that we have achieved
them indepently and on our own, forgetting the key truth
that everything belongs to God, even us, and even the laws
of science and nature upon which we so heavily depend,
and the Bible says that Jesus Christ upholds, or sustains it
all by the Word of His Power... isnt that what Hebrews
1:3 told us...
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact
representation of His nature, and upholds all things
by the word of His power....
So beloved... He made all things, sustains all things and
provides to us, the privilege and the RESPONSIBILITY
(that 2nd Principle of Stewardship) of managing His
World, our lives, the families with which He blesses us,
that begin to form the society and culture in which we live.
When we understand this Responsibility, I believe that it
can dramatically change how we look at everything!!
But dont miss the last part of verse 27, because Verse
27 exposes the third Principle of Stewardship,
Accountability. Look at the verse again...
{28} And God blessed them; and God said to them,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth."
This is clearly a command beloved...

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God is telling us what to do. When someone has

authority over you and commands you, you are
Accountable to them for whether you obey their
instructions!
We are not just Responsible to God for what He
intrusts to our care, We are Accountable to God for how
we USE what He has intrusted to us!!
Dynamite can be used to clear rock to build a tunnel to
make our path shorter and easier, or it can be used to
destroy a bridge, that can totally stop our forward
progress!! The Dynamite is not the issue, the issue is
whether we use it Responsibly and understand that we will
be held Accountable for how we use it!
You see my friends... God has Ultimate Ownership of
everything and it the fact that we are Responsible for what
He entrusts to us and that we will be held Accountable for
how we use what He has entrusted to us, help to remind us
of our status as Stewards... But there is a final truth here I
want you to see today... As Gods Stewards, we are
benefitted and we are blessed by the very fact that He has
entrusted these things to us as Stewards. Look back at your
text to vss 29-30...
< < < Read: Gen 1:29-30 > > >
Slide 10
Point III: Benefitted and Blessed . . . . . . . . Gen 1:29-30
(Gen 1:29-30 NASB) Then God said, "Behold, I have
given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface
of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding
seed; it shall be food for you; {30} and to every beast of
the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing

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that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every
green plant for food"; and it was so.
Listen my friends... We are the beneficiaries of all that
God has created. And not only has He created what we
need, but He has chosen to do that in marvelous variety and
then equipped us to actually enjoy that variety!!
Think about it... We are told that many animals only
dont see color... What a tragedy not to know that a rose
can be red, pink, white, orange etc... It is easy to
appreciate the fact that God loves us when you recognize
that not only did He make the colors, He gave us the ability
to SEE the colors!!! Take it another step.... God made
vanilla beans... Cocoa beans, peanuts, Sugar cane, and ice,
and what did we do with all of that?... Well, with the mind
that God has given us, we invented Snicker Blizzards...
And guess what... We get to eat those!!! But if we had
no taste buds, a Snicker Blizzard would be no different
than eating dirt. But God Gave us Taste buds, and Im so
glad He did, because I can taste how good a Snicker
Blizzard REALLY is!!!
O my friends, we are so Benefitted and Blessed by all
that God has created and by the fact that He has given it
into our hands as His stewards!!!
Think about it this way... If you are a servant to the
King, you get to live in His house, eat off of His plates and
from His bountiful provision!! You get to walk the
palacial halls and see the incredibly gorgeous rooms that
make us His palace, and you even get to sleep in His
house!
Incredible!!!... But the problem?.... As mentioned

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earlier, we too often tend to forget that we are the Steward

and begin to think that we are the ones who own it all, and
then, like immature little children we fight about what we
THINK belongs to us, verses what we think belongs to
others... .Like when we were kids sharing a bedroom and
we would get mad at the other sibling and we would draw
a line and say, this is your side, and this is my side!! Or
we would fight over the last cupcake or Fig Newton in the
cupboard... HELLO... HELLO... did we own that house, or
that bedroom? Did we own those cupcakes or Fig
Newtons? NO... NO... they belonged to our parents, we
were borders, we were temporarily in their care, WE
DIDNT OWN Squat!! But we acted like it was all ours!!!
So we started acting like we had rights, rights to half
the room, rights to the last cup cake, rights to the TV and
what channel to watch..
HELLO!!! HELLO!!! Listen me friends... Listen and
hear me well, for this is the crux of the whole message
today boiled down into one statement!!
God owns everything period! Remember, The first
Principle of Stewardship, which was Ownership...
Thus, we must conclude that We own Nothing..
Period!
And yet... Like spoiled little brats we clamor about our
rights, when God in His Holy Word is calling us to
Responsibility and Accountability, the 2nd and 3rd
Principles of Stewardship... Got it... Now listen... Listen
very carefully....

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Owners have rights...

Stewards ONLY have Responsibility and Accountability
WO-O... HELLO... Let me say that again... //
Let that sink in a minute
O beloved... Even though God owns ALL things, He
tells us very clearly in 1 Timothy, and those of you with us
on Wednesday night will remember this where we studied
in 1 Tim 6:17 catch this...
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be
not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in
the living God, who giveth us richly all things to
enjoy;
God gives us all these things to richly enjoy... Ultimately,
they are not ours, and we are not even our own!! So we
have NO Reason... NO REASON To ever fight and
squable about anything, because all that we are doing as
Christians, is managing to our best ability through the
power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Gods Word, what
He has entrusted to us.... LET ME SAY THAT KEY
PHRASE AGAIN...
God owns everything period! Remember, The first
Principle of Stewardship, which was Ownership... We
own Nothing.. Period! Owners have rights...
Stewards ONLY have Responsibility and Accountability
So... Who is it beloved, that you think you are?
Let us pray...