RESOLVED: To be a steward of God's resources

Several weeks ago I blogged that we have started a new sermon series at Sixth Street called "RESOLVED" in which we are looking at 4 resolutions that we as Christ-followers can make that will have a significant impact on our spiritual lives as well as our church and our families.  The second resolution that we looked at was resolving to be a steward of the resources that God has provided us.  We talked about the need to flip the lens by which we look at our money and possessions. 

The problem is that from an early age we have been programmed to look at our world from the lens of consumers and consumption.  We also see things through a scarcity mentality that says there is only so much available and we need to get all we can right now. We learn this as infants.  We learn there are only so many cookies so we better eat them now.  As we grow up, our desires get bigger.  We begin to measure our lives by our consumption and our value is measured by the size of our flat screen or the cost of our SUV.  We want the Super-Size meal and the 20" laptop.  To top it off, we see the things in other people's houses add to our discontent.  We also talked about the fact that the gravitational pull of our flesh is not towards godliness, but towards selfish fulfillment.

The answer to this is that we need to change from being consumers to being stewards.  We need to see our resources the way that God does.  We need to understand that all our resources have their beginning and belonging with God.  He has placed us as managers over them and made us accountable to him for our management.  This is why stewardship is such an important topic in the church.  Without a biblical understanding of stewardship, our resources will eventually become idols that rob us of truly worshiping God.

We saw that our lives are to be marked by four significant changes:

• They should be marked by contentment over consumption
• They should be marked by righteousness over resources.
• They should be marked by purity over possessions.
• They should be marked by generosity over greed.

We closed with the following resolution:
WHEREAS, life and everything that accompianies it is a gift from the Heavenly Father; and
WHEREAS, every resource in the life of an individual has its ultimate origin from the hand of Almighty God; and
WHEREAS, God has graciously provided from His sovereign hand every resource in the life of a believer including but not limited to financial resources, life and breath, the dawning of each day, and all the possessions accumulated in life; and
WHEREAS, the life and attitude of the Christian is to be marked by responsibility and thanksgiving to God Almighty; and
WHEREAS, the Christians is accountable to God for not only the accumulation of these resources, but also their management; be it now
RESOLVED, that as a Christian I will be a steward of God's resources; and
RESOLVED, that I will measure the value of my resources by my accountability to God and not by my personal consumption; and
RESOLVED, that whether I eat or whether I drink or whatever I do I will do it all to the glory of God; and
RESOLVED, that I will generously and gladly support the ministry of my local church and the kingdom of God as a first priority; and
RESOLVED, that I will live a life marked by contentment, responsibility, generosity, righteousness, and purity with the resources God has given me.