Stewardship Talks - Courtney Yelle

At Sunday School today, July 18, The Rector talked about how God is on the move.  We parishioners are all on the move.  All of us have been walking into the church foyer for weeks now.  Do you remember the poster that states ”Stewardship a way of living?”  So, what is our way of living?  Here at St. David’s we are physically distant in the pews and unable to gather in person, however, the Holy Spirit has kept us together.  God is on the move connecting us.  We are now moving closer to open congregation services, and in a few short weeks we should be back to a normal gathering.  In spite of the Covid, we continue to find new ways to attend services and serve Christ.

So, what makes Christian Stewardship a way of living? When we talk about Stewardship in the context of the Christian life, we mean God is the owner of all things.  These resources would be anything and everything He has given us.  This would be our salvation, the gospel message, our churches, our education, our time, our energy, the words we speak, the house we live in, the car we drive, our children, our spouses, our finances, and our job.  Everything we have ultimately belongs to God and he has entrusted it to us for a specific purpose.

So, what is that purpose?  Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 after telling us not to chase after the things the world chases after, we are to rather seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to us.  In other words, the purpose for which God has entrusted us, that which he owns, is so that we can be busy advancing his kingdom.

This obviously includes missions and evangelism, but it also includes benevolence, for Jesus is clear in Matthew 25 that when we help those who have nothing, it is as if we are helping Him. It includes how we are spending our time. If some of the money American Christians spend on sports and recreation were given to further the Kingdom of God, I wonder where our mission’s endeavors would be?

In conclusion, Stewardship includes our thought life, that is, instead of much of the entertainment with which our culture tells us we must amuse ourselves, we were to focus instead upon the things of God, how much more like Jesus would the church in America be?  You see, stewardship is comprehensive.  Stewardship is using all of our God given resources to accomplish God’s purpose and desires on earth. 

Father Porter said God is on the move.  We are all on the move!  Remember, Stewardship is a way of living!