Transcription
All right. Uh, let's jump in here. Uh, do you remember Lewis and Clark from your like seventh-grade social studies class? So, uh, the explorers who went out west, um, they were commissioned by Thomas Jefferson himself to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean, a Northwest Passage. They were looking for this thing.
Uh, here's the actual commission. I just find it funny that it's worded this way. "To Captain Meriwether Lewis, the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and such the principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce." You got it. You know what you're supposed to do. Just find, go to, go west, basically, is what he said.
Uh, now, here's what they believed. They believed, uh, that the Mississippi went up, right, and then or where it goes down. But they wanted to go up the Mississippi and then over on the Missouri River. They were going upstream, and they wanted to find the headwaters of the Missouri, like where the Missouri River comes from. And what they believed was that just a little bit over from that would be the headwaters of the Columbia River, which flows into the Pacific. So that's what they believed. They believed they go up the Mississippi, over the Missouri, a little bit of just a little, little, little trek, and then down into the Pacific Ocean. That's what they were, uh, planning for. That's what they were hoping for.
So, it took them 15 months to get up the Missouri River. Again, they were paddling upstream. It was a lot of work. And they had this expectation that they would be able to kind of get their canoes out of the water, take them on a little short walk, and then get to go into the Columbia River, and that would be downstream, and they'd be able to go downstream for the rest of the journey, find the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Jefferson isn't happy, and they go down in history.
Uh, so they, they make it to the headwaters of the Missouri. They walk a short distance up the hill. They look up, hoping to see the Columbia River, and instead, they see the Rocky Mountains. Kind of the opposite, right? And keep in mind, you immediately when I say Rocky Mountains, you guys have a picture in your head. They didn't. They had no idea what they were even looking at. The biggest mountains they'd ever seen were the Appalachian Mountains, if you call them that, right? And they were looking at the Rockies, and they just had no idea what they were looking at. And they were shocked, not just by mountains that are 10,000 feet higher than any mountains they'd ever seen in their life, but shocked by the fact that, I guess, there's no Northwest Passage. There is no water route to the Pacific Ocean. Their canoeing trip just became a mountain climbing trip.
Now, think about that. How important that idea is that in order for them to keep going, they have to completely change their thinking. They would have to change out their canoes for mountain climbing equipment. Unless they have a complete paradigm shift, they're stuck. They're stuck. They cannot continue because this is not what they expected. Reality is not lining up with what they thought it was going to be. And their plan was based on a reality that is now not real. So they have to shift, like, a mindset from "I am a paddler of a canoe" to "I am a climber of mountains." And if they don't, they can't keep going. I mean, imagine somebody like refusing, like, "No, I set out on this journey with a canoe. I'm going to keep somebody lugging a canoe through the Rocky Mountains, right? Set it down on some rocks. Like, I'm going to do this anyways, right? I'm going to try. It's not working. I'm going to try harder, right?" Like, it just wouldn't, it wouldn't work.
And this kind of leads us to a principle that is true in that journey and definitely true in your life. If your paradigm is wrong, trying harder won't help. If your paradigm is wrong, trying harder won't help. If you have a bad mental map of something, more effort doesn't solve that. If you have wrong assumptions going into something, you, you just putting in more sweat isn't going to get you where you want to go. Staying in a canoe when there are mountains in front of you, it's not going to work.
So, I want to take this idea and I want to apply it to our church word today. So, we're in a series called "Church Words." We've been looking at words that you hear in church, uh, that maybe you either don't know at all what they mean, or you kind of have a fuzzy idea what they mean, but all the church people keep using the word and you keep having to pretend that you know what it means. So, we've been going through them and just kind of clearing things up a little bit. The word we're going to look at today, though, uh, in my opinion, expresses a complete paradigm shift from the way the rest of our culture thinks to the way God is calling us to think. Uh, and I'm worried, as I, as I really meditated on this and thought about this, that some of us in this room are stuck because you've not embraced this word. You're stuck. And, and, and the problem is usually when you get stuck, you think trying harder will pop me out of this. I'm just in a rut. I just need to spin the wheels a little bit more. But, but it's not working. Trying harder is not getting you anywhere. And, uh, it's because you, you're thinking in a way that's not lining up with reality.
Uh, so, you ready? Our church word we're going to look at today is the word stewardship. Word stewardship. Now, I don't know what pops into your mind when you think of that word. Uh, if you are a church person, you, you've kind of grown up in church and you're very used to church words, for you, probably you would have thought, "Wait a minute, I thought we were talking about money next week." Because usually churches, when they say the word stewardship, they're only talking about money. And I will admit, stewardship, uh, money is a part of the word, but it's not near the whole thing. And, and I'm not going to go there today.
Um, maybe you just look at this word and you're like, "I don't know, it's kind of an old-fashioned kind of word." Uh, you probably can't think of the last time you used it, right? Like, when's the last time you dropped "stewardship" in a normal conversation, right? And then for those of us who are like super nerdy in the room, you're like, "I don't know about stewardship, but I know 'steward' because I watch Lord of the Rings and Denethor was the steward of Gondor, right? And he didn't like his son, Faramir, and he ate tomatoes in a super creepy way." If you're not laughing, you're not a nerd. Congratulations. I actually had this craziest thing. Somebody came to me after first service. She goes, "Oh my gosh, right before you said the Denethor thing, I leaned over to my husband and said, 'I know steward! Steward of Gondor!'" Or she literally, I called her out. It was great. I was like, I was playing prophet. I loved it.
Um, so, what does stewardship mean? And why does it potentially have you stuck spiritually? The simplest definition of stewardship is being entrusted to manage what belongs to someone else. Now, that's pretty simple, right? You already understand the concept, if not the word. You know, we, we don't use this word anymore. Matter of fact, if you read the NLT translation, which is the translation we use most often here, um, you won't find the word stewardship or steward anywhere because they actually took it out and they put the word "manager" in in place. Same meaning, just different word, a little more familiar word for us. But it's, it's not a familiar word, but it is a familiar concept.
So, uh, if you have a financial advisor, somebody who helps manage, like, your retirement accounts, they are a steward of your money, right? That you, you own it, but you have entrusted it to them to manage it and to, to take care of it, right? You have the big picture. They're going to help you with the details. Now, they're a steward, right? So, they don't, they don't own it, right? They're not taking your, your 401k and going on vacation with it, right? They're, they're doing what you want them to do with it. If you've ever had a babysitter before, a babysitter is a steward of your children for the night, right? They're not going to do what they want to do with the kids. They're going to do what you want them to do with the kids, if they're a good babysitter, right? You're not going to come home and like, your kid's going to have a new haircut, right? Like, that would be shocking. Um, so they're a steward. So, we, we get the concept.
Um, but the word is a little old and antiquated. Now, so far, none of this is shocking, right? None of this is life-changing. And none of this is really going to help you get unstuck spiritually. This is pretty familiar territory. But what I, what I want you to see is it's not understanding what "steward" means that will get you unstuck. It's understanding what you are a steward of that's going to get you unstuck. It's not understanding what it means. It's understanding what you are a steward of that's going to get you unstuck.
So, question: What are you a steward of in your life? What areas of your life are you being entrusted to manage what belongs to someone else? You ever thought about this? Now, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is your job, right? If you have a job, you're working for somebody who, you know, somewhere up there, somebody owns the company, and you are in charge of a part of it. Maybe a small part, maybe a big part, but whatever part you're managing, uh, you're doing it for someone else who's the owner. So, in a way, you could say you were a steward of whatever part of your job that you, you have there. But what else? What else are you a steward of? What if I told you, I think you are a steward of way more than you think. Way more than you think. And it changes everything when you realize it.
So, in order to, to talk about what you are a steward of, we also have to kind of compare it to what you are an owner of. Right? So, those are those are the two things you have to really decide in your life. What am I steward of and what am I owner of? Now, a steward manages resources that belong to someone else. An owner is legally and rightfully managing what's theirs, right? Uh, a steward operates with delegated authority. An owner operates with inherent authority. Ownership is about possession and rights. Stewardship is about responsibility and trust. The difference is not activity. Both are going to make decisions, right? If you're a steward or an owner, you're going to make decisions. It's about authority and control. Uh, the owner is the source of that. The other, uh, steward is acting on behalf of the source.
So, stop for a minute and think through what you own. What are you owner of? Make a list. You can make a list. Write it down. Now, I want to help you with this. Okay? I want to help you with your list. Can I help you with your list? I want to use some Bible verses to help you with your list. We'll really get this thing nailed down. Uh, "I am owner of." And then we'll, we'll, whatever you got, start writing it here. I'll, I'll help.
Um, Deuteronomy 10:14: "Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to." That's not you, right? That says the Lord your God. All right? So that says that heaven and earth and then everything in it belongs to God, not you. Now, when you read that, you know, you might read that and go, "That's a nice like heading, you know, kind of like a, like a title page. Like the detail is probably different, but okay, I get it. Like God's the creator. He owns everything." So, like, what about what about the details, though, right? Um, there's got to be some.
So, Haggai 2:8 says, "The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts." Okay, now you're, you're sitting here like, "Do I have any gold or silver at home?" And if you're not like a dwarf, probably not. Um, this means money, right? This is God claiming that he owns all the money on the earth. All of it. So, all your money is actually God's money. Now, immediately, what pops into your mind there is like, "Wait a minute, I earned this. I worked hard for this. I sweat for this. Like, my name's on the paycheck. I did that." You're right. You're right. That's a good point.
Uh, so, Deuteronomy 8:18 says, "But you are to remember the Lord your God, for it is he who is giving you the power to make wealth." Oh, dang. So, your ability to make money isn't yours either, right? So, you're sitting here thinking, "I'm smart. I'm hardworking. I'm good with my hands. I'm a shrewd business guy." Yeah, God gave you all that. He entrusted that to you. So, that's not yours either. Yikes.
So, this is a lot so far, right? Like, everything you have, you bought with God's money. So, that's God's, and the money's God's. And your ability to make money's God's. Wow. That's a lot. What else is there?
Um, Jeremiah 10:23: "I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course." So, this says, like, your life isn't yours. Your, your plans aren't yours. Your purpose isn't yours. That's God's too. You're like, "Gosh, is there anything left? What about just like me? Like myself? Like with me?"
1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Don't you realize that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." Whoa. You aren't yours. Even your body belongs to God. That by itself, right there, by the way, is incredibly countercultural these days, that you don't even own your own body.
So, you got your list of things you own. Did you, did you, did you do a good job with it? Because it should say, "I own," and it should say, "literally nothing." Does it? Is that what it says? Because that's what this just said. Now, because if I go back through, the heavens and earth, they're God's, not yours. Money and possessions are all God's. Talent and abilities, those are God's. Your plans, your purpose, your life, all God's. And your body, all God's. You are owner of none, steward of all. You are owner of none, steward of all. That's what the Bible says about you, that you own nothing. You are steward of everything in your life. God plays the role of owner. You play the role of steward. You are, uh, entrusted to manage what actually belongs to God.
And I don't, I don't know where you're at with that. Uh, I don't know how that comes off. Um, I, I think there's a progression that happens. Um, when you're first, like, introduced to faith and you start kind of thinking this through, this idea might be a little bit, I don't even, I don't want to call it like offensive, but you might bristle at this idea, like, "Oh, everything he's got, like, I don't own anything." We don't like it. Um, but I think as you go, what, what I've discovered is I actually really lean into this now, 'cause it's very freeing to say that I don't, I'm not like owner. I'm just the steward here, man. I, I'm just taking care of what is already God's. And there's something very freeing and relieving about this, that that God is playing that role.
Uh, so, you are, I'm just going to go with this premise. You're a steward of everything in your life. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, "In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy." So, that's your calling. Your calling is to be a trustworthy steward of the things that God has put into your life. And in some ways, this isn't a super huge shift. Uh, because owners and stewards, there's a lot of overlap. There's a lot of things that you have in common with an owner. Both are going to make decisions. Both are going to allocate resources. Both are going to influence outcomes. They're going to carry responsibility. Both are going to build and invest and plan. And both are going to bear the weight of the consequences of choices. Again, the difference is in authority and control. That's the, the big difference is authority and control.
So, when you have a stewardship mindset, if you're like, "What is the difference?" You know, now, okay, I don't own things. I'm a steward of things. The big thing is the first question you ask when you go to make a decision. Um, the first question you ask when you go to make a decision should be, if you're a steward, not an owner, the first question should be, "What does God want me to do with this?" That's the first question. Now, you, you may, as you keep going, you'll get to the point where you ask the question, "What do I want?" But that should not, if you're not, if you're not owner, that's not your first question. You will ask it, but you're not going to ask it first. The first question is going to be, "What does God want here?" Because this is, this is God's. This is not mine. I'm, I'm the steward. I'm merely managing what he has entrusted to me.
So, I want to ask the question, "What does God want in this area of my life?" So, I, this is one of those ones where I, I hope you know I, like, think about you guys a lot. Pray about it. I sat, it was like 11:00 on Thursday, and I sat, I left this part, there's a big gap in my notes right here where I stopped, and I just wondered where you would be at this point in the sermon, like how you would be absorbing this information. That some of you, I know, you're church people, like, "I know, I know, thanks, shut up." Uh, and then others of you, maybe you're being introduced to this concept for the first time and you're like, "You're hearing a pastor say like, 'Nothing's yours,' and you're like, 'Who is this guy?'" Right? And I'm like, "This is, this is a rough room to be in when I've got people who, one, some think they already know it, and some are being introduced to it for the first time and don't even want anything to do with it." I'm like, "Man, what do I, what do I do?" Right? What's like next?
So, what I decided was I would say something even more controversial. Just lean into it at this point. Um, gosh, you didn't laugh. You're really nervous. Okay. Um, here, here's, we'll just, we'll just keep going. Here's what I believe. I believe that you cannot pursue a God-given calling in your life with an owner mindset. That you, you, you can't pursue a God-given calling, the thing you were created for. You can't pursue that while maintaining an ownership mindset in your life. It just doesn't work. It, it's like trying to canoe in mountains. They don't go together. It won't matter how much more effort you put in. If you have an ownership mindset, these two things don't go together. They just don't work together.
So, here's, here's my example. So, a couple of years ago, a couple of years ago, this is, this is a long time ago. For the sake of the person I'm telling this story about, this is a long time ago. Um, one of my sons, who will not be named, the older one. Um, he decided to like build a fort underneath our deck. And our deck's a little, it's not like super raised, but it's a little raised. Like, I have to crunch, like, uh, bend over to get down in there. But, um, he had fun. It was great. There was like leftover lumber. He was in there. He was like making walls and doing all the stuff. It was really cool. Uh, doing just boy stuff. He told us that when he got mad at us, he was going to live under there. And we were like, "Go for it." Like, "You can go now if you want." Um, it was, it was great.
Uh, so, uh, one day I was trying to do something manly, which isn't super, I'm not very handy, so I try not to do anything that fixes things because usually it ends up calling someone else to fix the thing that I try to fix. Uh, but I, I was trying to do something and I could not find my DeWalt drill anywhere. And I'm like, "What is going on? Like, I can't." And then I had like that epiphany, like, "Oh, I wonder." So, I crawled under the deck and, uh, cool fort, man. Really cool. He had like a little platform where he was going to sleep when he was mad at us. Uh, there was other stuff. There was like a dead deer, uh, skull with a, it was like, it was everything that a boy would ever dream of. He'd even, he'd even dragged, uh, some like plastic containers in. It was cool. I'm like, "This is nice, man."
So, I was like looking and, and I, I found it. Uh, I was in one of the plastic containers. Now, important thing for you to know about the plastic containers. Uh, they were waterproof and didn't have lids. So, I went to reach in to get my DeWalt drill and had to submerge my hand up to here and pulled out my DeWalt drill. And you're sitting there thinking, "But Adam, like, don't you have like extra batteries?" Sure do. Here it is right here. So, whatever I was doing, I could not do because obviously the batteries are completely fried. Believe it or not, it still works. I got a new battery somehow. I don't know. Crazy.
Now, I'm sure you can imagine that my, my son, uh, kind of had some rule changes when it comes to how he was able to use my tools after that, right? Like, our relationship when it comes to the things I allowed him to use changed a lot because he acted like an owner when he was a steward. He acted, he treated that drill like it was his when it wasn't his. He did what he wanted to do with it instead of what I would have wanted him to do with it, which is not leave it outside in a bucket of water. Um, and it changed things. Cuz then, not, not like I got more restrictive, right? I, I tightened up a little bit, like, "Hey, I can't let you use these tools 'cause evidently you're not ready for that 'cause you keep acting like you own them when you don't own them yet. You got to, you got to, I got to die first. You got, it's going to be a while before you get that. Like, you, you are steward. You are not owner." And it affected our relationship. Now, we understand that, right? Nothing's controversial there. Like, of course you had to tighten it up a little bit. He needed to learn some things.
Now, turn that around now and think about your relationship with God. If it's true that God owns literally everything and he plays the role of owner, what happens to our relationship with him when we act like owners? And God's like, "Hold up. I entrusted that to you. That's not yours. It's mine. You're supposed to ask the question, 'What does God want first?'" But instead, you're asking the question, "What do I want first?" How do you think that's going to affect things here?
See, and that's when it, so to circle back to this idea of purpose. I think everybody in here is like hungry for purpose in your life, right? You want to live out, like, your God-given purpose, that reason he created you. You want that. You want more of that, more of that, more of that. But you have to look and say, like, "Hey, if you're acting like an owner in your life when really you're a steward, and then you're turning around and asking the owner of all things, 'Hey, I want more purpose. I want more of that mission that you have for me in my life.' How do you think that's going to go?" And I don't think God's being like vindictive or anything about it, but I think God would probably say back to you, "Hey, I entrusted you with some things. Why do you keep acting like an owner? And if you're not asking the question, you know, 'What do I want?' about that, why would I give you more?" It's going to affect things, right? Like, that's, that's, that's obvious that if we act like an owner when we're really a steward, it's going to affect things.
And part of the reason that is is because I really believe that God can't transform what you don't give him. You know, it's weird to start a sentence with "God can't." It sounds like anything I say after that would be wrong, but how about "God won't." You've got areas of your life that you've got your fingers wrapped around, and you're acting like an owner. And then what? Think about what that does to God. What role that you're forcing God to play then? If you're the owner, what is he? Your advisor? Your, your servant? "Oh, could you help me with this?" That's weird. That doesn't fit, right? Like, like that, that's not going to, that's not going to work.
So, so there, you, you can't ask God to give you purpose and then hold on to things. It just doesn't work. Again, it's like sitting in a canoe expecting to go up a mountain. They don't go together. This is a massive principle. It's the difference between a surrendered life and an unsurrendered life. If you have an owner mentality, you're in charge, man. You're the one with the authority. God is now your advisor, your assistant, your genie in a bottle. He's not God anymore. And it, and it just doesn't work. And then we get all caught up in like, "But why isn't I just want more purpose? I just want to, you know, live out this calling." I, I, and you're trying real hard, but I think you're stuck because if you act like an owner, I don't think you're going to be able to move forward.
So, here's what I want to do. I want to get, I want to get practical here. Um, so, if you're a Christian already, if you're already a Christian, in some ways, you've already kind of stamped this word over the top of your life. Maybe you didn't use this word, but in some way, you kind of gave God control, right? That's part of what it means to be a steward is your, "Hey, I'm wrapping my fingers from around these areas of my life. It's my life is yours." And you kind of stamp that over your whole life, right? It's the heading of your life. But there is a difference, I think, between, uh, saying it's true up here and then working it out in the details, right? Because I know if, if you're a Christian, been in church for years, you're looking at this word like, "I know what this word means. I, I have notes from 2013 on this. You know, I did a Bible study. It was so good, pastor. Shut up." You know how I hear that, right? When somebody says that to me, I hear, "It was better than the sermon you just preached." Anyways, that's my own insecurities. Thanks for that.
Um, yeah, but just so what? You know it. There's a difference between knowing it. There's a difference between knowing and actually living it out, right? There's a difference between saying this is true of my life. I'm steward of all, owner of none. What, what about what if we break it down? What if we start looking at the details? So, here's what I want to do. I want to give you, called a mentality check, because I think this is hard. I want to give us some credit here. Everywhere in our life, uh, we're kind of trained to have like an ownership mentality, right? And in the physical, it's kind of true, right? Like, if you own your home, you can use the word "own," right? And if the bank calls you, you can't be like, "Sorry, Jesus is the guy you're looking for here. It's not me, right? That would be great." Like, "You got to call him. I'm sorry. It's not mine." No, you, you kind of do have to like operate like that in the physical. So, it's really tempting for us to just keep operating that way, uh, in, in the spiritual and kind of having this mentality that we just own everything. But, you got to separate these two things out.
So, I want to give you a check here. I want to go through the different areas of your life and ask you, what's your mentality? Are you operating like an owner or are you operating like a steward? Let's start with your relationships. If God owns everything, if he owns everything, then God owns your relationships. So, let's start with your most important one. If you're married, that means that your marriage isn't your marriage. Your marriage is God's. That's a big deal, right? 'Cause we get, we get weird about our relationships, don't we? We talk about "my marriage" and "I want my marriage to look this way." Cool. That's not, that's a, you're allowed to have that conversation. But the first thing you should be asking is, "How, what does God want it to look like?" Is that the question you ask first? Is that the first question you've asked? "Hey God, what do you want this relationship to look like?" And let that answer settle before you start asking what I want. You got to ask what he wants because it's his.
What's your mentality? What about, what about that second, second most important relationship you have? If you're a parent, it's with your kids. They're not yours. They're God's. So, so you have to ask the question, "Hey God, how do you want me to do this? How do you want me to parent? How do you want me to make these decisions? You, they're yours. How do you want me to parent them?" And that would be a really good parent. The, the worst parents are the ones asking, "What do you want, sweetie?" No, they don't. Okay, who cares? They're wrong. Whatever they want 90% of the time, you got to ask what God wants. And what about your friends, or your co-workers, or, or your extended family? Do you realize that those relationships are God's, too? Are you asking the question, "Hey, God, what do you want here? How do you want me to operate here? What do you want these to look like?" Is that, are those the questions you're asking first? Or are you more asking, when it comes to your relationships, "What do I want?" And if you are, I just want to let you know you've slipped into an owner mentality. And that's not going to work. And I bet you you're having some issues. If, if you're acting like an owner when really you're a steward, I bet you there's some problems there. And I would challenge you to start to unwrap your hands around that. Start asking the question first, "What does God want?"
All right. What about, what about your calendar? How many, we're teaching our teenagers right now to use the calendar on the phone because like, they'll just like, "Hey, in five minutes we have to leave." Like, "Well, I didn't know that." They have to start telling us when they have to be places. So, my calendar's got all these different colors on it. It's great. There's just so many things happening. How do you think about that when you go to put something on a calendar? Are you, are you asking, "Hey, God, how do you want me to operate here? God, what do you want this month to look like? God, what do you want this year to look like? How am I going to spend my time?" Right? Because again, isn't it weird how we get super possessive of that? "I need a little me time." Right? And this is my, my weekend. It's mine. Is it? It's yours. It's great. What are you going to do with your weekend? Right? We have that. Or just this little, "I just need this, just need this hour here. I need this right here. It's mine. It's mine." But it isn't, right? God's gave you every minute you've got. So, and again, there's nothing like, you're allowed to have that. I'm not saying not. I'm just saying, have you asked the first question though? "Hey God, what do you want me to do with this?" Is your calendar structured as the master plan according to the way God would want it to be like scheduled and structured? And if you haven't asked that first, again, I think you're accidentally acting like an owner instead of a steward. That's God's calendar, not yours.
What about, these just get more awkward as they go. Um, what about your body? That verse said that your body actually isn't yours. You don't belong to you. Have you thought about that? This is deeply personal, right? 'Cause the effects of, of, "Hey, this isn't mine. This is God's." That's huge. So countercultural. Oh my gosh. You can't, I, if I said that out on the street, people would yell at me, right? Like, you can't say that. But that's what the, I was just reading a Bible verse that said, "You are not your own. Your body doesn't belong to you. It belongs to God." Which means the first question you should be asking is, "Hey God, what do you want me to do with this thing?" Right? And that's huge. That, that has to do with like what you eat, you know, your activity level, your sex life, what you watch, how much you drink, all that's going to be, you're going to be asking the question, "Hey God, what do you want me to do here?" That's huge. And that, that means again, it's not about what you want first. It's about what God wants first. And then you allow that to inform what you do. Have you ever thought about it that way? That that even your body is a stewardship? You have stewardship of your own body. I tell you what, if you just think about that for a little bit, you pray about that for a little bit, that's really transformative. Really transformative. And some of you are stuck in some area of your life when it comes to your body. And I bet it has something to do with your mentality that it's yours and it's not.
What about your, uh, your bank account and your possessions? Said that that's God's too. Some of you are like, "Can we talk about sex again? That was better. That's awkward." It's God's. That paycheck, that's God's. That bank account, that's God's. That credit card, that's God's. That house, that car, that's, that's all God's. And again, I'm not, it's not some horribly different thing to say, "Hey, God, what do you want me to do with this?" But it is a shift. There's a, there's a difference in the way you think about things when you say, "Hey, this is all God's and I'm the steward, so I'm going to ask him first what this should look like." That's huge.
What about, uh, what about your abilities, your talent, your leadership, your athleticism, your creativity? Have you thought about that? Again, those are things we, we get so weirdly possessed of this stuff. It's mine. I am the, I'm creative and I need my time to go be okay. But have you thought of and your leadership and all that, like that, a lot of the stuff that makes you you, that makes you, uh, I don't want to say useful in the world, but you know what I mean, like it's the stuff that people are like, "Man, if you weren't here, we'd be missing that." Like, that stuff, you know, that's God's too. That's crazy to think about. And again, you have to ask the question, "God, what do you want me to do with this?" That's the first question you should be asking. And then you can ask "me," but like, that, that's huge. Again, a total mindset shift, paradigm just changes. It's God's, not mine.
Now, here's, here's my guess. I'm, I'm done. I'm not going to dig any more into your life. Um, my guess is, as I went through there, there was some area that didn't, that you didn't like it, right? Some area you're like, 'cause the moment you start thinking about, "Hey, what does God want me to do?" The, the reason you were, you didn't like the feeling is because you were afraid. And, and what you were afraid of is that if I ask, "What does God want?" He's going to say the opposite of what I want, that it's going to pull. So, you're afraid to even ask the question. And I get it. I get it. The inventory is uncomfortable. But I've been telling, I'll try to tell you as often as I can, that I do believe that God's way is better. That if you, if you choose to do what God wants you to do in an area of your life, that in the long run, that area will be better. That you will be, uh, in a better place if you choose the way he wants you to do it than the way you want to do it. That your way will maybe feel good in the moment and will be destructive in the long term. That handing it over to him is the right way to do your life. And that even if it's scary, even if it feels horrible at first, it will, it will work out in the long run to be better for you. I know it's scary.
Now, uh, I believe that it's true that you are owner of none, steward of all. And I would call that, we call that a principle, like a principle of life, that you are, you are, uh, owner of none, steward of all. That's a principle. Now, the thing about principles is we, we usually think about them wrong. A principle is not a rule you follow. I'm not presenting a rule that you could follow. Uh, a principle kind of follows you whether you want it to or not, right? Um, it's not something you like choose to apply or not apply. The principle kind of applies itself to you. It's not a rule that you can break or not break. The principle can kind of break you. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's the best descriptor I could say is kind of like gravity. You know, a, the principle of gravity, that you're going to just, you know, get pulled down. You could be sitting here and if I said, "Hey, gravity is just a principle and it's going to be, it's going to affect your life in these ways." You could say, "I don't believe in that, right? I don't, I don't see gravity. I don't see what you're talking about, pastor." And you could go out and try to live your life like gravity wasn't true. And, and it, just gravity wouldn't care, right? You could, you could get up on your roof and be like, "I can fly. I don't care what pastor says, right?" And you could jump, and gravity's going to pull you down, and you're going to be in the hospital whether you believe in it or not, right? It's a principle. And, and what I want you to see is that like, you are owner of none, steward of all. That's a principle. It's just true. And, and you can sit here and fight against it and, and try to, try to weasel your way out of it in certain areas of your life, but it is just true. And it's not going to, it's not going to really change the outcome. But you can, you can leverage a principle to your benefit or you can ignore it to your demise. You can't disbelieve it out of existence. You know, it's just true. Owner of none, steward of all. First question you should ask in every area of your life is, "What does God want?" He owns this. What does he want in this area of my life? Ask that first.
Now, I want to circle back to something. It's that verse in Corinthians. I want to read it to you again. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Don't you realize," I love that he says that 'cause some of us are like, "Nope, didn't." "that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? That God, if you're a Christian, God lives in you and was given to you by God. You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." For me, this is like foundational. This is one of the most important stewardship verses in the Bible. Uh, so this one thing that this is saying is that I believe that God has a claim on you, like God owns you, as kind of like creator rights, like he owns you because he's creator of everything. God, God created every molecule in existence. So he owns you because he owns everything because he created everything. But this verse actually takes it a little step further, that if you exist, you're God's. But then also, if you're a Christian, so if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and you, you've crossed that line of faith and you say, "Hey, I follow Jesus." This verse says that he owns you double. You got two mortgages on you now 'cause he owns you as creator, and he owns you as savior. That he died for you. That he bought you. That there's, there's a double ownership on your life. And that means again, that part of what our mentality as Christians should be is that my life is God's. Maybe a better word than stewardship, since we, we get hung up on this word because it's weird. We could just say surrender. It's God's. You, that's, that's the thing, isn't it? That's the harder thing for, for, for that first step to actually break and say, "All right, God, it's yours." For, for the, the, the mentality to shift over to say, "I'm not going to just do what I want to do. I'm going to do what you want me to do." That's the hardest step. Yeah. You got to figure out what that looks like in the long run. But that's the hardest. The hardest step is the first one where you finally say, "No, this is, this area of my life, it's God's." And that's what I want to point out.
So, I, I just went through like, basically your whole life and pointed out like all these different areas where maybe you had an ownership mentality. I just want to point out, I didn't say that you had a problem in any of those, did I? But for every one of us in this room, one area God kind of pointed out, didn't he? You were like, maybe, and maybe you're like, "God didn't point it out. I just tried to ignore him completely." Right? Um, but there was something, and I want to, like, that was God thing. That's God saying, "Hey, give me that. Give me that." And I, I just listen. I think sometimes in church, we do this thing where we think church is good if we leave feeling guilty. I don't know what it is. Like, "Church is so good. Pastor just beat me up. You're like bleeding. It's great. It's great. I feel terrible. It's awesome." Like, it's weird. It's a weird Christian mentality we have. Um, I don't want you to just leave feeling guilty. I want you to leave making a decision to think different, to live different. I want, I, my goal was always change, not some kind of weird feeling you might leave with.
So, I don't know what it was. I don't know what God pointed out to you. I don't know what, I don't know what area of your life he's like nudging you on. But listen, listen to him because again, my, my point is, I, I actually think that that'll keep you stuck. The more areas of your life that you try to claim ownership of, the more areas of your life you're going to be stuck in, and you won't be able to live. You're, you're living beneath your calling. You're living beneath that person that God's calling you to be. The more you hold on to the different things in your life. Give it to him. Owner of none, steward of all.
Uh, stand up with me and let's pray. Lord, this is hard. Lord, thank you. Thank you for being patient with us 'cause I, you, you know we live in this, in this, uh, culture that is so heavy on the ownership thing. Lord, and this is hard for us. Be patient. I pray for the person who, Lord, you're, you're pointing some stuff out right now. Maybe one area of your life where you're like, "Hey, I need that." And they know that they've got an ownership claim on it. Lord, I pray that they would unwrap their fingers from around it right now and begin the process of surrender to you. Lord, I, I pray for the person who maybe hasn't even crossed the line of faith yet. They're sitting here and, and, and they, they know they need something. I pray that they would know it's you. They would, they would give their life to you right now. Give, give their life over. Uh, ask you for that forgiveness and start a new life with you. I, I pray for this church, Lord, that we would have an attitude of stewardship, an attitude of surrender, and that we would get to find out what that means. Increase our desire for your calling and your purpose in our life, Lord. Raise it up to a fever pitch so that we're hungry to give our lives over to you to find out what that means. In Jesus name, I pray.