Ownership

“Your life belongs to God. You don’t share your time and talents with Him. He shares them with you. He owns you and everything about you.”(Greg Laurie)

¹⁰ Every creature in the forest, even the cattle on a thousand hills, is mine.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains.  Everything that moves in the fields is mine.
¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you, because the world and all that it contains are mine. (Psalm 50:10-12, NOG)

God owns everything, and we manage it for Him.

·        Everything you can see.

·        Everything you are.

¹⁹ Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. ²⁰ You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NOG)

·        Everything you earn.

Everything is under our management (as is illustrated through the Parable of the Talents).

¹⁷ Don’t ever say to yourself, ‘I got all this wealth by my own power and ability.’ ¹⁸ Remember the Lord your God is the one who gives you power to do these things. He does this because he wants to keep the agreement that he made with your ancestors, as he is doing today. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18, ERV)

¹⁴ “At that time God’s kingdom will also be like a man leaving home to travel to another place for a visit. Before he left, he talked with his servants. He told his servants to take care of his things while he was gone. ¹⁵ He decided how much each servant would be able to care for. The man gave one servant five bags of money. He gave another servant two bags. And he gave a third servant one bag. Then he left. ¹⁶ The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money. Those five bags of money earned five more. ¹⁷ It was the same with the servant who had two bags. That servant invested the money and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who got one bag of money went away and dug a hole in the ground. Then he hid his master’s money in the hole.
¹⁹ “After a long time the master came home. He asked the servants what they did with his money. ²⁰ The servant who got five bags brought that amount and five more bags of money to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of money. So I used them to earn five more.’
²¹ “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with that small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’
²² “Then the servant who got two bags of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of money to care for. So I used your two bags to earn two more.’
²³ “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with a small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’
²⁴ “Then the servant who got one bag of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, I knew you were a very hard man. You harvest what you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not put any seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid. I went and hid your money in the ground. Here is the one bag of money you gave me.’
²⁶ “The master answered, ‘You are a bad and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest what I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not put any seed. ²⁷ So you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would get my money back. And I would also get the interest that my money earned.’
²⁸ “So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags. ²⁹ Everyone who uses what they have will get more. They will have much more than they need. But people who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them.’ ³⁰ Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’ (Matthew 25:14-30, ERV)

1.   Our money management must be according to Whom the Master is, and what He wants.

2.   Our money must be wise and strategic.

¹⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.”

¹⁶ Then Jesus used this story: “There was a rich man who had some land. His land grew a very good crop of food. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my wheat and good things together in my new barns. ¹⁹ Then I can say to myself, I have many good things stored. I have saved enough for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’

²⁰ “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?’

²¹ “This is how it will be for anyone who saves things only for himself. To God that person is not rich.” (Luke 12:15-21 ERV)

3.   For our money management, we will be held accountable.

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. (Romans 14:12, CEB)

 “God's ownership of everything also changes the kind of question we ask in giving. Rather than, ‘How much of my money should I give to God?’ we learn to ask, ‘How much of God's money should I keep for myself?’ The difference between these two questions is of monumental proportions.” (Richard J. Foster)[i]

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[i] Inspired by the sermon “Earning God’s Money: Managing God’s Money” (installment one) Sunday January 5, 2020, Pastor Dave Jansen, CenterPoint Gahanna Church Gahanna, OH.