Stewarship--Law or Gospel?

[msethsmile]

Stewardship is about our time, talents, and treasure. We've all heard sermons about stewardship that are Law: do this and don't do that. How about one based on Gospel. Because of God's great love for us, this is how we can respond and say thanks.--

1 Chronicles 29:10-13
David’s Prayer

¹⁰ David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,“Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.

v10. a.It is late in David's reign. He's handing the baton to Solomon, who will be allowed to build the Temple.
b.The gifts for the building of the Temple are from the people. Yet, David praises God--the true source of all gifts.

v11. Everything belongs to God. That's Gospel. We, as individuals, were bought by God with a great price--Christ's blood. And validated by His resurrection.

v12. "Wealth and honor come from You." All our time, talents, and treasure ultimately come from God.

Celebrate belonging to God. Stewardship is the response of a believing heart to God. God's love is pure enough, powerful enough. He created man perfect--which man rebelled against. In eternity, God saw fit to fix this chasm. "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."

[Ben Danbleume]

I'm not under the law, everything I do/believe is gospel based.

[msethsmile]

True enough, Christians are not under Law. They have been released. "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."(Deut 21:23, Gal 3:13) Christ became (suffered) our curse. Never the less, the Law is still there for a reason. --for Christians and non Christians.

1. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 Christians still sin. (The difference being faith) The Law points this out.

2. The Law always convicts (even Christians). It steers us back to the Gospel (nothing we can do to remedy breaking the Law).

3. Even acts done in faith are tainted by sin (uffda).--that is, breaking the Law. "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6

[sdbrison]

Everything we have is a gift from God and ultimately belongs to Him.

[CajunBass]

Everything we have is a gift from God and ultimately belongs to Him.

AMEN that Brother.

[msethsmile]

The point of the stewardship thread was that too often sermons approach it from a Law standpoint--which is valid. Sometimes approaching from a Gospel angle is in order. The pastor must decide which approach his congregation needs. Not all are alike.

Not only everything we have is a gift from God. We, ourselves belong to God too (that's Gospel, a good place to be). He owns everything, including us. David got it. (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit)