Resources
The world is fighting for a piece of our attention, our resources, and our very identity. It normalizes our frantic search to find meaning within ourselves. But if we go back to the beginning, the bedrock of our belief is that God is the Creator, and we are his creatures. Stewardship is built on this foundation—all things began with God, and he owns everything. He has entrusted us with this life so that we may advance his Kingdom. My body, my time, my talent, and my money belong to him. They are not mine.
Everything we have has been given to us in order to love God wholly and love our neighbors. To worship God and love others with our bodies, we must receive our limitations, delight in what God has given us, and cultivate our bodies to serve others well.
While many of us feel anxiety around our limited time, and culture tells us to use time as a tool for self advancement, we must look to God for wisdom in this area. Loving God and loving our neighbors serves as a framework for how we steward our time—enabling us to take back time for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.
Stewarding our talents well means we are using them for Kingdom production, not selfish consumption. God has entrusted us all with gifts and skills, and we each have a role to play in building up the Church and making God’s name known.
Jesus is clear that we cannot worship both God and money. Being managers and not owners of our resources frees us to connect with God and worship him through our generosity. Because God has been generous to us, we can be generous to others.
These daily readings will help prepare you for the upcoming teaching you will hear this weekend at Grace Church. These passages will create some context for the sermon by showing you Scriptures the teacher might be quoting and some passages that contain related ideas. Our hope is that as you follow this reading plan, it will help you become more defined and directed by Scripture.