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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Stewardship (Matt 25:14-30) ----------------------------------------------- Our time, possessions, talents and abilities are all gifts from God, and He is the source and the owner of all of them. (Gen 14:22; Ps 24:1). We need to faithfully manage what the Lord has entrusted us with. The parable of the talents shows that God entrusts us by the ability that we have to handle it. The servant who buried the talent put his own thoughts and ideas on the master rather than recognizing the master’s true self. When the servant buried the resource, it wasn’t used for good. It went unused. We need to be faithful and recognize that our God is love, grace, and life. (I Cor 4:2). We should do our very best to be obedient, and should have fun with what we do for the Lord. And we should do our work for the Lord. Our reward is not monetary gain, but is the relationship we have with the Lord and other people. We need to be careful not to live our life in an illusion that we are living with God when we live a life of disobedience. We are to use His resources to help others (I Peter 4: 10-11), and need to consider whether it is what God intended for His resources. He wants us to use our time, money, talents and abilities to accomplish what HE wants. God’s will for us is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, making disciples of all people… to care for widows and orphans, do justice, and love mercy. Application points: --If you want to talk percentage, talk 100% rather than 10%. It’s ALL God’s. -- Steward your time (Ephesians 5:15-16). Care about what God cares about and spend your time accordingly. -- Seward your treasure (I Cor 16:2, II Cor 9:7) Steward your talents. (I Peter 4:10). Use it to serve others. -- Buy stock in the Great Commission. There is a Guaranteed investment return. We need to stop being disciple by the world. Things are either temporal (things) or eternal (people and God). Ultimately, we are here to make disciples.