What is Stewardship

1Chronicles 29:1-9

1Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.

2Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

3Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house,

4Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal:

5The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?

6Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king's work, offered willingly,

7And gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.

8And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord, by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite.

9Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

Psalm 54

1O God, save me by your

name,

and vindicate me by your might.

2O God,

hear my prayer;

give ear to the words of my mouth.

3For

strangers

have risen against me;

ruthless men

seek my life;

they do not set God before themselves. Selah

4Behold,

God is my helper;

the Lord is the upholder of my life.

5He will return the evil to my enemies;

in your

faithfulness

put an end to them.

6With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;

I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.

7For he has delivered me from every trouble,

and my eye has

looked in triumph on my enemies.

I know some of you don’t like to talk about money in worship. The facts are that Jesus talks about money about 1 in 3 messages. I talk about money far less than Jesus does. The one out of three Sunday’s would be 17 messages a year!

So, this year I will give you a choice, 6 weeks of me putting a little bit about finances and stewardship into the messages or I can preach straight finances for the rest of the church year. For the next 6 weeks or so we are going to talk about stewardship. By the way, there are 7 weeks left in the church year and I will be gone one of them, so your going to hear a little something about finances for the rest of the church year.

Much of stewardship has to do with money. If you listen to my prayer of thanksgiving following the offering, you will here me talk about time treasure and talent. These three things make up stewardship; giving our time to serve God, sharing the talents God has blessed us with and, giving some of the treasure we have been blessed with back to God. Stewardship is one way we fulfill our mission statement “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”

Back up in the story of the building of the temple; 2Samuel chapter 7 talks about David going to Nathan the prophet and asking Nathan if it is acceptable for David to build the temple. Nathan at first says, “sounds like a good idea” but God gives Nathan a vision that night. God tells Nathan to go back to David and tell David that God will decide who and when a house for God is built and “guess what David, you are not the person; and now is not the time.”

If we back up to 1Chronicles 28 we read about David telling the nation of Israel the story about David and Nathan in regards to building the Temple.

David says in 1Chronicles28:3 that God did not want David to build the temple because David was a worrier and had shed blood. God chose Solomon. Think about this: How would you feel if you were David? Good enough to fight battles for God but not good enough to build God’s Temple

How would you react to God after that? What would you do when God comes to you and says I want your son to build me a temple?

David gives his best and encourages all the nation of Israel to do the same.

David puts God first. First rule of stewardship put God first.

Jesus teaches that we cannot serve two masters. We have to recognize money as one of the tools in our toolbox to fulfill our mission of making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Deuteronomy 26:2 tells us that we should give God the first fruit. God deserves our best, not our leftovers. When you get your paycheck, give God the fair portion first. What is the fair portion? The tithe, 10% this is the MINIMUM fair portion.

People this is a matter of trust. What god do you put first in your life?

Do you trust God enough that you will put God first and live into, have faith in God that God will give you what you need? I am asking you to believe in God, not your own wisdom, not your government, not the Lions, Rotary, Moose, Elks, Owls or Kiwanis clubs; but God. These are all groups that do good things, but they are not the Church and they are not the gods we should be worshiping. David gives to God not just the minimum tithe.

David gives extravagantly. David gives willingly; gold and silver and precious stone from his own treasure, over and above. Notice David’s passion for God. Again if you study the scripture you will see that David is described as a man searching for God’s heart. You will also see where David’s unbridled passion gets him into trouble. Where is your passion? David challenges the nation of Israel to be passionate for God and to express their passion by giving to the building of the Temple.

So far our rules tell us we have to put God first that God deserves our best; and the tithe is the minimum, God wants us to give extravagantly of our blessings. We give extravagantly to our passions. I also mentioned that God asks for our time, treasure and talent. Third rule: God values relationship with us; that means more than just money. We need to give our time and our talent as well as our treasure to God.

David challenges the people of Israel with this. He says here is the treasure I give, who is going to put it together? Who has the talent? Where are the stone cutters and the carpenters? Who will give their talent to building the Temple and making a place worthy of God? Who will give of their time to build the Temple?

First three rules of stewardship:

         God first

         Tithe is the minimum

         Stewardship is time, treasure and talent

Fourth rule: Stewardship requires vision. Solomon may have been chosen to build the temple but David had the vision and the plan. Stewardship requires vision. It would be easy for me to just stand here and say, “Give to the church because God says to”.  Let’s be honest, people don’t give to a budget, they give to a vision. David paints a verbal picture of what the temple will be. Picture it: gold, silver, bronze, wood and onyx, and other precious stone; marble in abundance. This is the picture David paints of the Temple, beauty, opulence, nothing but the best.

Our mission is to make Disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. How are we going to do that? How are we going to do that in Oneida? How are we going to do that as the Upper New York Annual Conference? How are we going to do that as the Northeast jurisdiction?

How are we going to do that as the United Methodist Church? I plan to paint you a picture of how I see us transforming this neighborhood around St. Paul’s.

I hope you will join me in transforming the world through our stewardship.

Over the next seven weeks you will hear about ministries in our church and the places I hope you will join me in going. I hope as we explore these four rules of Stewardship you will grasp my vision and go forward with me and lead me to places of ministry that I do not yet see. This faith community has power; if we use that power we can transform the world around us as well as distant places we may never see.

I hope you will join me.