Stewardship
and Ownership
Text:
Psalm
24:1-10
Man must know and constantly be reminded
that, God is the creator and the owner of all things as clearly stated in verse
one of our main text (Psalm 24:1); “The
earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell
therein”. If this is clear to us, then we must concede to God the fact that
our lives must be lived to please Him. We must realize that man is only a manager and steward of all creation.
Stewardship
may therefore be defined as a condition
or situation in which a person put in charge of a thing must be ready to render
accountability. Resources like time, material possessions and skills given to us by God are given on trust,
and so one day each person will give
account of how he/she has used them to benefit another to the glory of God who
is the ultimate owner of all things.
God’s ownership of all things created is
affirmed by John in John 1v1 and
also in the book of Colosians 1:16.
Man should acknowledge God’s gifts; put
these gifts to use to the benefit of others around him in order that they will
be able to see God’s goodness through that man to whom God has bestowed the
gift. Be sure when this is done that men will have no choice but to give the
glory and honour to Almighty God who bestowed these gifts. A good example is
seen in King David in I Chronicles
29:9-14 who acknowledged God’s
ownership of the majesty, honour and blessing that he enjoyed and returned the
glory to God.
“Blessed are you Lord God of Israel, our Father, for
ever and ever.
Yours Oh Lord is the greatness, the
power, the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is Heaven and in
earth are yours, yours is the
kingdom O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all’.
As God’s steward, man must be ready to
give account to God on all things entrusted to him or her. Read carefully Ecclesiastes 9:8, 10:13-14.
God established His ownership by two
things, namely, creation and redemption. Read Psalm 50:10, Genesis 1:27, Isaiah.66:1-2. Kindly meditate on these texts
and bring out truth. One truth is that up till now, ownership of all resources belongs to God and this has not been
transferred to any man.
Through Adam, man lost his initial
stewardship, when he compromised and sinned. Read gently Romans: 23-24.
Man therefore assumed the position of
slave and death had dominion over him, but God through by His mercy redeemed
man and restored him to position of a son through the Lord Jesus Christ. God
did this by giving His only begotten son to shed His blood for atonement for
our sin. He established a new covenant with us. Henceforth any one redeemed by the blood of Jesus is a steward and
no longer a slave. Man can now have dominion over all things God
created. Friend, until you are redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ by
accepting Him as your saviour, you will live without dominion over sin, death,
satan (with his demons) and you can never be God’s steward. To reverse this
ugly lifestyle of slavehood, kindly go back to God by accepting Jesus Christ as
your Lord and Saviour. Do it now in
prayer!
Going back to our main text for today
there are a few lessons to note.
- A steward is a manager in another man’s business; sooner or later he will give account of his stewardship to the employer. Such position is temporary. Read Luke12. The rich fool did not take cognizance of his position, and had nothing for himself. Read Psalm.49:10; “For He sees wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, and leave their wealth to others”. The only lasting wealth we have is what we lay up in heaven as our treasure through right attitude in and to stewardship. Let us be wise and remember that many of our material possessions will not last forever except when they are judiciously put to use as a steward of God with sense of accountability to God.
- The requirements
v Acknowledge
your stewardship to God and strive to please Him alone- I Corinthians 15:9-10, Romans
14:8
v Faithfulness
is required in our stewardship just like the Macedonian Christian- II Corinthians8:1-15, Mathew 25:14-30, Luke 16:10
v You
will give account of yourself how you fared about all He committed to you
Examine yourself in the
light of His words now and take urgent steps through prayers to be a steward
that God can be proud of. The pertinent
question is, Are you God’s steward? God bless you as you join this chariot
for the next message delivered on by his servant, Rev’d. Dr. I.O. Akano.
(PART
1)
