****NOTE Please read the scripture from the Bible first for this is God's word****

Last week we spoke about being stewards of opportunity. This weeks message pertains to being stewards of yourselves. First lets define stewards. A steward is one who takes care of something that doesn't belong to them.

When we speak of personal resources, we are talking about doing a good steward of your own personal body, mind, and spirit, for the glory of God. This passage of scripture gives us some guidelines for being good stewards of our personal resources.

We Need to be a good steward of our personal resources.

1. Always remember that His grace is the foundation for our stewardship. (The word grace is such a beautiful word. It means the free unmerited love and favor of God. The foundation of our lives is based on the fact that God left the paradise of Heaven, to become a man in flesh, and die for our sins so that we may be forgiven of our sins. This is the most graceful action that anyone could perform. The book of Ephesians explains that we are saved and forgiven by this gift or graceful action of God. "Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast." Understand we are not saved by our own actions, if we say any different then we are saying that Jesus didn't die for us, and our beliefs are vein. Jesus died for us, and we must accept his gift of forgiveness and trust in Him.)



• He created us by grace. (We didn't create ourselves, God created us. He chose to create us, because you see, God is self sufficient, He does not need us, but chooses to allow us to exist for the purpose of glorifying Him.)
  


• He loved us before we followed Him. (God loved us even though we may not have always been a part of his body or aren't apart of his body. He loved us before we were born, and even knowing that after he died for our sins we were going to sin again. We need to appreciate the fact that we have a forgiving and merciful God.
  


• He died for us even though we deserve to be condemed. (If you read the book of John it says "Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.". You see we were already condemned by the sin of Adam and Eve, but Jesus was sent down to save us.
  


• He has accepted us into His body forever. (Lets look at Romans 8:38 - 39. Notice carefully that Paul writes that with God, we need not fear anything. We may be "lined up like sheep for the slaughter", but yet we are conquerers. Blessed are those that suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. There is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the Love of God. These words are very inspiring to know that as long as we walk with God everyday we need not fear anything accept God .)


2. Sacrifice you body to God. This has to do with the corrupt practices and thinking of the world. (What does it mean to sacrifice your body as a reasonable service to God as it states in Romans 12:1? It means that we need not to be conformed to the wicked ways of the world. Since Diane and I have began to endure a life a Christianity, we have seen certain individuals that seem to view us as "different". This is not to say that we are better than they are, however we recognize most of our sin, and the temptations of the world and don't want to be apart of it. We want to be apart of the body of Christ. We desire to obey our God and make a conscience effort to live in a way that pleases God. Living a Christian life isn't easy, but it is the least we can do to thank God for giving us the gift of salvation. You see since God created us, and he is our maker, he is also our owner, we DO NOT own our bodies, so we must be good stewards of our bodies and take care of them and use them in a way which will be pleasing to God.)



• Not as a dead sacrifice, but a living one. (We need to submit ourselves to the will of God, sacrifice all the temptations of this world. As some of you may know, I no longer drink alcohol. Now this isn't something that was told to me at church, nor is it a rule to obtain salvation. I chose to do this because I don't want to be conformed to this world, drinking beer is a social activity that many people of this world enjoy doing. And you may say a little drink won't hurt, I won't get drunk. The fact of the matter is you are enslaving yourselves to things of the world, which in turn is considered sin. Someone even made a comment to me the other day, and he said, "I will have a beer with you when you fall of the wagon." And I chuckled and smiled thinking of the temptation, but with my faith, and sacrifice it will never happen.)
  


• Not as a wicked sacrifice but as a holy sacrifice. ( The idea of being a holy sacrifice is doing it to please God with a humble heart.)
  


• Not as a worldly sacrifice, but as a transformed one. (Again, the world tells you that it is okay for you "do it if it feels good and makes you happy". In my experience of "doing what feels good" is that you never get fullfilled so you keep on doing it until it becomes an addiction or habit. Then you are enslaved to that particular behavior. We should be asking oursleves in every detail of life " Will this please God?" )
  


• Not according to an old way of thinking but a changed thinking that seeks His will. (The sooner we come to an understanding that if we don't surrender to His will, we will never succeed. Just recently, I had a terrible day at work, everything was going wrong, my partner was on vacation, and everything was broken. In all that madness I noticed my behaviour and attitude became somewhat bitter. Bitterness leads to a corrupt heart. Towards the middle of that day I decided to take a step back and observe what was happening and see what I was missing. I prayed that God guide me according to His will and not of my own. My day became more peaceful even though there was madness at work, but I had released the bitterness building up.)


3. Sacrifice yourself of body to God.
   
   
   • Let go of your inflated veiw of self. (The world is always telling us to have more self esteem, and to be more confident, and the reality is that we live in a world of selfishness. I myself struggle with selfishness as I was an only child. We need to live as Jesus did, and take into consideration the preciousness of others. Live unselfish lives, live humbly, and live to please God, not the world.)
     
   
   
   • Adopt a forgiven, gifted, view of self. ( I want you to take notice of Romans 12:17 - 19, as these three verses deal with forgiveness. You see if someone comits sin toward us, they are commiting sin to God. We are not to take vengence among our enemies, we are to love, and pray for them. We need to trust that God will take vengence and repay what has been done to us. I will tell you from personal experience, that this is one of the most liberating things that you can do. Learn to trust God with the debts owed to us, He will justify them.

In closing I challenge you to walk with God in your everyday activities, decisions, and events. Try to use your talents to glorify God.

posted by Ben at 4:32 PM