What is stewardship?

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Living a life of LORDSHIP

• What is stewardship?

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Biblical Presuppositions

• 1. God is a personal God intimately involved
  in our lives.
• 2.God is in control guiding the affairs of
  humans.

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Biblical Presuppositions

• 3. God is owner of all as Creator and
  Redeemerprovider of all.
• 4. God is in direct control of His church,
  allowing room for human decisions.

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Biblical Presuppositions

• 5. God provides everything to accomplish His
  will for His church, in His time frame.
• 6. God works in partnership with human agents.

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Biblical Presuppositions

• 7. Christ is Lord of all, lordship is a choice of
  the will.
• 8. The Holy Spirit is the active lordship agent.

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Biblical Presuppositions

• 9. We receive the Holy Spirit by faith.
• 10. In Christ we are able to do anything He wants
  us to do.

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Stewardship Definition

• Stewardship is the lifestyle of one who accepts
  Christs lordship, walking in partnership with
  God and acting as His agent to manage His affairs
  on earth.

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Let God Be God!

• Stewardship is based on who God is!
• 1. God is creator.
• 2. God is sovereign.
• 3. God is savior
• 4. God is love.
• 5. God is owner of all.
• 6. God is personal.

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Exploring The Biblical Reality

• 1. Does God love unconditionally?
• a. Can we do anything to make God love us
  more?
• b. Can we do anything to make God love us
  less?
• 2. Is it possible to be a little bit Christian?
• 3. How does God see us?
• a. Christlike.
• b. Holy.

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Biblical Christianity is

• a. Dynamic.
• b. Focused on Christ.
• c. Committed 100.
• d. Passionate.
• e. Transformational.
• f. Fruitful.
• g. Peaceful.
• h. Loving accepting.

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• God makes us stewards
• partners with Him!

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Definition of Disciple

• A disciple is one who walks with, learns from
  and lives in submission to a master in order to
  become like the master.

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Describing the Disciple

• 1. Passionately loves Jesus Christ.
• 2. Maintains intimacy through daily devotional
  life.

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Describing the Disciple

• 3. Integrates Christ into every area of life.
• 4. Makes Christ the priority in all decisions.
• 5. Actively shares Christ.

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Love and Lordship

• 1. Only love can be the foundation for lordship.
• 2. God has loved us with an everlasting love.
• 3. His love for us is unconditional.
• 4. As we experience His love, love awakens in our
  heart.

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Love and Lordship

• 5. Our love leads us to trust Him.
• 6. Trust leads us to surrender to His lordship.
• 7. Accepting His lordship begins a partnership
  with Him.

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Lordship/Stewardship Process

• 1. Recognize Christ initiates stewardship.
• 2. Accept His gift.
• 3. Accept His lordship/ownership.
• 4. Claim His Spirit.
• 5. Acknowledge your status.
• 6. Accept His partnership.
• 7. Integrate your stewardship.

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Lordship Model
High
Partner/ Friend
Child
Relationship
Dabbler
Slave
Low
High
Performance
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Lordship Model
High
Partner/ Friend
Child
Relationship
Dabbler
Slave
Low
High
Performance
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Truth Model
High
Know God
Know A God
As A Person
Know About God
Ignore God
Low
High
As Information
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• The inward area is the first place of loss of
  true Christian life, of true spirituality, and
  the outward sinful act is the result. If we can
  get hold of this - that the internal is the
  basic, the external is always merely the result -
  it will be a tremendous starting place.
  Schaeffer, True Spirituality, p. 14.

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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
VISION
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
VISION
GOSPEL
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
VISION
GOSPEL LORDSHIP
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
VISION PRESENCE
GOSPEL LORDSHIP
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
VISION PRESENCE
GOSPEL LORDSHIP
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION
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SPIRITUAL FORMATION, Cont.

• Most problems come in areas of Gospel/Lordship
• -- Failure to integrate Gospel.
• -- Failure to submit to Lordship.

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SPIRITUAL FORMATION, Cont.

• Cause of the problem is often in the area of
  Vision or Presence.
• -- Loss of Vision distorts the Gospel.
• -- Loss of Presence distorts Lordship.

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SPIRITUAL FORMATION, Cont.

• Best answer -- combine Vision Presence -- it
  transforms the way we live.
• Place to start Vision -gt Gospel -gt Lordship -gt
  Presence.

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Transforming the Mind

• Why the Mind Is Important
• 1. Gods ultimate gift in the creation of man.
• 2. Controls all of life.
• 3. Where habits are formed.
• 4. Where the relationship with God takes place.
• 5. Where sin and the battle with sin takes place.

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Steps for Transforming the Mind

• 1. Prayerfully face your sinful reality.
• 2. Gratefully accept your reality in Christ.
• 3. Focus your mind on Christ and the things above
  (Col. 32 Heb. 121-3).
• 4. Be willing to live with the mystery of God.
• 5. Practice devotional skills
• 6. Practice the presence of God.
• 7. Actively resist sin.

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Why Money?

• 1. It is the theme most often mentioned by
  Christ
• a. Over two thirds of the parables deal with
  money or material possessions.
• b. Over 2,000 biblical references to money!
  Only about 500 on prayer, and less than 500 on
  faith.

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Why Money?

• 2. Money is life.
• Time Talent Energy Money.
• 3. It is a common denominator.

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Why Money?

• 4. Finances are a spiritual battleground
• a. In the world.
• b. In the work place and business.
• c. In the home.
• d. In the church.
• 5. God uses money.
• 6. Money competes with God (Matt. 624).

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Why Money?

• 7. Time money the most fluid aspects of life.
• a. Quickly reflect one's walk with God.
• b. Quickly impact on relationship with God.
• c. Therefore the Tithe and the Sabbath are
  spiritual thermometers.
• 1) Individually
• 2) Corporately

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Why Money?

• SPECIAL NOTE
• Money is an important part of stewardship. Yet
  proper financial stewardship can only come in the
  context of the Christian lifestyle of stewardship.

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General Conclusions

• 1. The tithe belongs to and is returned to God.
• 2. Tithing is an act of worship to God.
• 3. The tithe is returned in response to Gods
  blessings.
• 4. Tithing is a test of loyalty for Gods people.

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General Conclusions

1. Tithing is part of revival and a return to God.
2. The tithe is the starting point of our worship to
   God in the material areas of lifeour freewill
   offerings to support the local church flow on
   from this.
3. In the O.T. God supported His corporate people by
   giving the tithe He receives to support the
   sanctuary and the Levitical system. There is a
   similar system in the N.T. for supporting His
   work.

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Testing Our Loyalties

• Key Principles
• 1. Put God first "Seek ye first . . ." (Matt.
  633).
• 2. Worship only God. (Exodus 203)

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Gods First Test

• 1. The setting
• a. A perfect world.
• b. A perfect humanity.
• c. A perfect relationship.
• 2. The temptation "You will be like God .
  . ."

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Gods First Test

• 3. The issue the seduction of ownership.
• a. Who is God?
• b. A choice of life or death.
• c. Loyalty to the creator.
• d. Who do we trust?
• e. Who do we obey?

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Gods Contemporary Tests of Loyalty

• The Sabbath in time.

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Gods Contemporary Tests of Loyalty

• Tithe in possessions.

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The Sabbath Test of Loyalty

• 1. In Eden the test was to put God first.
• 2. The Sabbath is a sign of
• a. Accept God as Creator. (Ex. 208-11)
• b. Accept God as Redeemer. (Deut. 512-15)
• c. Accept God as Sanctifier. (Ex. 3113)
• d. Accept Gods kingdom. (Isaiah 6623)

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Principles for Sabbath Observance

• 1. Accept the gift of salvation eternal life.
• 2. Seek intimacy with God.
• 3. Lay aside the burdens of life.
• 4. Make it a day of focused worship and
  fellowship.

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Purpose for Tithing

• a. To worship God.
• b. To combat selfishness by making God first.
• c. To test our loyalty. (Minimum Test)
• d. To remind us of unconditional surrender.
• e. To provide for the full-time gospel ministry.

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Tithe as Worship

• a. Accept our relationship with God.
• b. Recognize God as Creator.
• c. Accept God's Ownership. . .
• d. Recognize God's care, guidance and love.
• e. Accept redemption as a restoration of God's
  ownership.

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Testing Our Attitudes

• Loyalty determines
• WHO we serve.
• Attitude determines
• HOW we serve.

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Gods Contemporary Tests

• The level of our passion for God is proportionate
  to our intimacy with God.