Of all who thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful
praise, For thy Church for ever. Please be seated.
Worshiping the Lord is a commitment, and our
commitments are ones of faith. We worship God
in that way and please as him. We as a church
family at this time of the year talk about our
faith and what we believe God wants us to do
by faith as a part of this ministry in the following
year. Now for those of you who are visiting with
us, we are glad you're here but we want you to
feel no embarrassment or feelings of compulsion
as we spend these next few minutes as a church
family talking about our faith promise commitment.
This is our second week of this and we have already,
many of us, indicated our faith promises but
a good number have not and this is an opportunity
to do it. I'm going to ask our ushers to pass
out, or make available at least, to those of
you who would like one of the Faith Promise forms,
those forms for you to use. If you are on our
church mailing list, you should have gotten a
letter from our elders this last week containing
one of the forms, so you may not need one this
morning. That's fine. If you'd like one, just
lift your hand right now as they work their way
down the aisles. All of us who count ourselves
as a part of the Grace Church Roseville family
share the joys and the burdens of the ministry,
and of course there are always both. One of the
joys of our ministry together is that of giving.
I know some of you thought I would say one of
the burdens is that of giving, but indeed that's
not the case. Giving is a joy. Giving is a privilege
that God gives to us. We are partners in the
ministry of this local church. When I was a young
boy about six years of age, My father was still
working with a team of horses on our farm in
Kansas. I remember Babe and Bess very well. Those
were the two horses. Many of you have not had
the privilege of seeing horses work, but it's
quite a sight to watch them pull in tandem, doing
their work, sharing the load. I remember seeing
them come out of the barn early in the morning,
get hitched up with all of the paraphernalia
they had to wear, and then go out into the field
and come back after a long, hard day's work,
sweaty and needing to be rubbed down and then
being put back in the barn for their rest. Well,
there's a sense in which we are a team like that
together in this ministry. We all pull together
so that we can carry our share of the load of
ministry. Our faith promise is our way of indicating
what we prayerfully believe that God wants us
to do in 1987. Please keep in mind that a faith
promise is between you as an individual or you
and your family and God. It indicates on your
part a step of faith linked with sacrifice. As
David said, I will not offer to the Lord that
which costs me nothing. And so we want to challenge
ourselves to give beyond the comfort zone, to
the point of it costing us of being sacrificed
in our giving. But then to go beyond that to
take that step of faith in which we are trusting
God to meet our needs. It is important for each
of us to do this and to indicate in advance what
we're planning to do. That too, by the way, is
biblical. The Apostle Paul said that we should
purpose in our hearts what we intend to give.
As we indicate together what we plan to do in
the next year, it enables our leadership to do
adequate planning. These forms that we turn in
are later destroyed. These are not pledges in
the sense that someone later contacts you if
your giving is not up to that amount and says,
this much is yet due. This is between you and
the Lord. But we do ask you to complete the form
and to turn in the top copy, the white copy,
so that we can calculate it. I'm going to ask
you to pray with me before we complete the forms
this morning. And by the way, if you filled one
out last week, do not fill out one this week
unless you intend to increase it and then only
put down the amount you intend to increase. Do
not duplicate what you said last week. Let's
pray together the ownership prayer as is found
in our worship folder. This is a familiar prayer
to those of us who have been saying it for the
last several weeks as a part of our fall spiritual
adventure. Before we complete the forms, and
I'm going to ask you to do that once we have
prayed, and then you can fold that white piece
that you're turning in and put it in the offering
plate in a few moments. Now let's bow together
and let's pray this prayer as a congregation,
the ownership prayer. Your Majesty, thank you
for what you have entrusted to me to manage on
your behalf. These possessions, these resources,
these gifts are not mine but yours. Give me the
wisdom I need to make them available for the
work of your kingdom. I am honored to be your
subject. Amen. Keep my eyes on you When I turn
my gaze to people they just let me down But your
love is the strongest thing I've ever found Lord,
I don't know why I tried To take my life back
into my hands When all the while for me you had
the perfect plan So I'll do as you come in I'll
keep my eyes on you All through my days I want
you all before me I don't care if wealth or fame
choose to ignore me Lord I don't know why I tried
to live my life by my own design when living
So for now and for all time I'll keep my eyes
on you Give me the sight to always see you Give
me the mind to want to please you Give me the
strength I'll keep my eyes on you When I turn
to see from where I've come I trip and fall But
I know that you'll love me I don't know why I
tried To think my life was a throw away When
you loved me so much That you chose to pay So
as I live Thank you, Lisa, for reminding us what
should be the attitude of all of us today. As
we receive the offering, may I remind our visitors
to place your cards in the plates and also the
faith promise slips should go in the plates as
we collect the offering today. Let's bow together.
Lord, today we need to turn our eyes upon you
as much as ever before in our lives and to focus
upon the grace that you desire to make real.
in our experience. Lord, I pray that you will
open the floodgates in our lives, remove the
obstacles, the hindrances, and work powerfully
in us and prove yourself as the faithful God
that you are, where we can see you in our daily
lives as well as in the ministry of our church.
In Jesus' name, amen. Let's continue singing
together. Hymn number 16, How Great Thou Art.
We're going to sing all four stanzas. We'll sing
the fourth verse a cappella and then the instruments
will join us on the chorus. Number 16, How Great
Thou Art. Let's stand please as we sing together.
I thought When Christ shall come with shout of
acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall
fill my heart. Please be seated. Let's open our
Bibles today to the 10th chapter of the Gospel
of Mark. The title of the message today is Where
the Rubber Meets the Road. I think the title
will make itself clear as we work through the
first part of the message. As he was setting
out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt
before him and began asking him, Good Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No
one is good except God alone. Jesus is not denying
his own deity here, he is simply probing this
man to see if he really understands who Jesus
is, attempting to lead him to understand that
he in fact is God and that good is appropriate
when speaking to Jesus. He goes on to say, you
know the commandments, do not murder, do not
commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false
witness, do not defraud, honor your father and
mother. And he said to him, teacher, I have kept
all these things from my youth up. And I think
the man was sincere in saying that, but he was
measuring himself externally. This was an external
righteousness, not heart righteousness. He was
measuring himself as did the scribes and Pharisees.
And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him
and said to him, one thing you lack, go. and
sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and
you shall have treasure in heaven, and come,
follow me." Jesus put his finger into the heart
of this young man, took him beyond the external
measurements he was using so that he might see
his real heart need. And by the way, Jesus was
not saying that by doing this he would inherit
eternal life. Eternal life comes by faith, and
as it says here, come, follow me. But Jesus wanted
to remove the obstacle first. Before he could
follow Jesus, he had to get rid of the covetousness
of his heart. But at these words his face fell
and he went away grieved, for he was one who
owned much property. And Jesus, looking around,
said to his disciples, How hard it will be for
those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of
God. And the disciples were amazed at his words.
But Jesus answered again and said to them, Children,
how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. They were even more astonished and said
to him, Then who can be saved? Looking upon them,
Jesus said, With men it is impossible, but not
with God, for all things are possible with God.
Let's pray. Lord, I pray that as we examine your
Scripture, the Holy Spirit would be our teacher
and would speak to us and would expose whatever
there needs to be exposed in our lives that we
might come and follow you. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. I was struck last Sunday by Robertson
McQuilkin's remark about the all -American commandment.
You remember that? Thou shalt covet, he said,
using 1 Corinthians 12 .31 as his tongue -in
-cheek proof text. I smiled at his humor, but
at the same time, perhaps like you, winced at
the sharpness of his point. Covetousness is a
temptation that every one of us faces. especially
in this culture with its materialistic values.
We, all of us, struggle daily with this green
-eyed monster. And sadly, often not very successfully.
You see, we are wonderfully gifted at creating
rationales for our own selfish accumulation of
personal wealth. By the way, the greatest wealth
that any people have known in the history of
the world. We give at the office. We hand out
at the door. We pledge to charity. We put something
in the offering plate at church. And then, of
course, we conclude that we've done our fair
share for others and that we can now lavish the
remainder on our own pleasurable lifestyles.
or perhaps save it up to secure for ourselves
a comfortable future. We reason that we are not
the ones who are wealthy. We are not rich. After
all, there are others around us who have much
more than we have. Why, we're only middle class.
Beloved, I'm convinced that our attitude toward
our money and our earthly possessions, however
much they may be or however little, that that
is where the rubber meets the road as far as
our spiritual confession is concerned. That's
the real test of what we are spiritually. Have
you carefully, prayerfully considered the stewardship
of your money and your possessions? Perhaps the
ownership prayer has struck a sensitive nerve
in your heart as it has mine over the last few
weeks. One cannot pray those words for several
weeks without his heart having a dramatic impact
being made. By the way, those words are ones
that you may wish to keep in a more permanent
form. We're making available to you today a beautiful
printing, suitable for framing, of the words
of the ownership prayer. Before we distribute
them broadly, what I'd like to do is offer them
to those of you who have sought to incorporate
that discipline of praying this prayer in this
fall spiritual adventure. You may not have prayed
it every day as you had hoped or intended to
do, but if this has been a discipline that you
sought to keep over these last weeks, There's
a free copy for you up here in the front and
also some tables in the back. I'd like for you
to take this and maybe you'd want to put it in
your office or your home as a reminder of the
ownership prayer that God has indelibly written
upon your heart during these days. We'd like
to start by offering them one to a family and
then if we have some left over we can offer perhaps
two to a family in case you want to put one in
your office and in your home. Have you considered
though the items that are mentioned in this prayer?
It says, these possessions, these resources,
these gifts are not mine but yours. What do those
words mean? What are we talking about when we
talk about our possessions? Well, let me suggest
that it refers to all that we own. It's talking
about our home, our land. The car, the stereo,
our wardrobe and adornments, the collectibles,
even the guest room we have in our homes. Those
are our possessions. There are others that we
could name. What do we mean when we talk about
our resources? Well, it includes our bank accounts,
our safe deposit boxes, inheritances, insurance,
investments, influence. Yes, our influence. That
too is a resource that God has given us. When
we talk about our gifts being the Lord's, what's
in mind? Well, let's say that it includes our
skills, the talents God has given us, our spiritual
gifts, children, friendships, whatever physical
attributes God may have given us. Our gifts include
our creativity. and certainly the time that we
have. You see, by nature, we tend to grasp, to
hang on to all of these things. And that's the
real heart of the issue, isn't it? All of us
struggle with the idea of ownership. Whose are
these things? We have yet to realize, perhaps,
that none of these things really is ours at all.
They are all our kings. And we then are expected
to use them, to manage them. They are entrusted
to us, not for our own selfish use, but for His
use, His purposes. He wants us to make them available
as it says in that prayer for the work of his
kingdom. That's why we have them When Jesus comes
to visit we are reminded to see our things Through
his eyes Now of course Jesus was there before
our fall adventure and he is going to be in our
homes after the fall adventure is over But there
is a sense in which we have emphasized his presence
in our homes during these days. He cannot be
there with that special emphasis without our
having to see our possessions, our resources,
our gifts through his eyes to whom they really
belong. Now there are people who object to this
kind of thinking. For example, there are some
who might say, what right does Jesus Christ have
to my money? possessions and gifts. What right
does he have? That may sound a little strong,
perhaps even on the border of blasphemy, but
might it not reflect the real attitude of our
hearts at times? What right does Jesus Christ
have to these things that are mine, we ask. Let
me suggest that he has rights to them. In the
first place, He created all things. And so these
things that we call ours are actually His by
right of creation. As the Apostle said in Colossians
1 .16, By Him were all things made. And so anything
that you and I possess during our brief time
in this world is actually His by right of creation.
He made all things. Secondly, I would suggest
that he has rights to them because he endowed
all of these things to us. They are his by right
of prepossession. Before they were ours, they
were his. He has given them to us for this brief
span that we call life. As Paul wrote to the
Corinthians in the fourth chapter and seventh
verse of the first letter, what do you have?
that you did not receive? Good question. John
the Baptist knew this. He is recorded in the
Gospel of John, the third chapter, the twenty
-seventh verse. A man can receive nothing unless
it has been given him from heaven. And James
echoes the same theme in the first chapter and
seventeenth verse of his letter. When He says,
every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift
is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights. What right does Jesus Christ have to
these things? Every right, because they are His
by right of pre -possession. And thirdly, I would
suggest to you that they are His by right of
redemption. For you see, He bought us with His
own precious blood. The Apostle Paul writes to
us in 1 Corinthians 6 19 and says, You are not
your own, you have been purchased with a price.
If you today claim to know Jesus Christ as your
Savior and Lord, then you are saying by that
that you have been purchased or ransomed from
your lostness, your sin, to belong to Him. That
ransom price has purchased you and me So that
we're no longer our own What right does Jesus
Christ have to these things our money our possessions
our gifts They are his by right of creation they
are his by right of prepossession they are his
by right of redemption Turn with me into the
Old Testament to 1 Chronicles chapter 29. We're
going to see that this was a truth that David
recognized. This is part of David's prayer after
gathering the materials necessary for the construction
of the future temple. Notice it says in verse
9, then the people rejoiced because they had
offered so willingly, for they made their offering
to the Lord. Isn't that a great thought? They
had received a great offering David gave first,
then the leadership, and then all the people
gave and the result was so generous, so abundant
that they all rejoiced because they had given
their offering to the Lord. It's good for us
to remember that as we bring our gifts to the
Lord, we put them in the plate. That we are not
giving our gifts to the church primarily, or
to the missionaries primarily. Rather, we are
giving them to the Lord to be used in the advancement
of His Kingdom. And notice it goes on to say
in the next phrase, they made their offering
to the Lord with a whole heart. They held nothing
back. And King David also rejoiced greatly. So
David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the
assembly. And David said, here's his prayer,
Blessed art thou, O Lord God of Israel, our Father,
forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and
the majesty, indeed everything, that is in the
heavens and the earth. Thine is the dominion,
O Lord. and thou dost exalt thyself as head over
all. Both riches and honor come from thee, and
thou dost rule over all, and in thy hand is power
and might, and it lies in thy hand to make great
and to strengthen every one. Now therefore, our
God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name.
But who am I? And who are my people that we should
be able to offer as generously as this? For all
things come from thee, and from thy hand we have
given thee." You see, David recognizes that as
they brought this generous offering, they were
only returning to the Lord what he first had
given to them. It was his by right. He was the
owner. And that certainly is not Old Testament
doctrine merely. But then someone may object
by saying don't I have the privilege to enjoy
the things God has given to me Doesn't it say
in the Bible somewhere that he's given us all
things richly to enjoy Amen indeed it does God
has given us all things richly to enjoy first
Timothy 6 17 But God has not given us those things
for us to live luxuriantly and pander our greed.
You see, the key to that verse is what enjoy
means. Giving us all things, richly, to enjoy.
What does it mean to enjoy all of these things
that God has richly given to us? Well, let me
suggest in the first place it means to have one's
needs met. Including, by the way, the need for
pleasure. God has created us so that we need
pleasure. Now when pleasure becomes our chief
end, when it becomes our God, then that is sin.
But understand that one of our basic human needs
is pleasure and God gives us all things richly
to enjoy for our needs to be met. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and
all these things. will be added to you. What
things? Food, clothing, a place to live. What
does it mean to enjoy them? It means to have
your needs met. It's a joy, isn't it, to see
God meet your needs. I think secondly, to enjoy
means to be able to give to those who are needy.
He's given us all things richly to enjoy. One
of the greatest ways to enjoy what God has given
to us is to give it. To give it away. I talked
to a man this last week whose father is in the
position to be able to give a college in another
state and he did a million dollars. Why? It's
a great joy to him to give. Jesus said it is
more blessed to give than it is to receive. So
God has given us all these things to enjoy by
giving to those who have need. And thirdly, we
enjoy our things by investing them wisely in
the Lord's work. Turn with me to Luke chapter
16. Jesus here tells a parable that has left
a lot of people puzzled. I wish we had time to
go into it, but actually it was preached to us
a year and a half ago by Robert Smith when he
preached here and delivered a great message on
this text. So I'm not going to take time to do
it this morning. If we want to enjoy the things
God has given to us, it means that we will invest
them so that we can rejoice one day in heaven
with those who have been won to Christ by our
wise use of the Lord's money. Notice in verse
9 as Jesus summarizes the story about the shrewd
steward He says and I say to you here's the conclusion.
Here's the application make friends for yourselves
by means of the mammon of unrighteousness That
is another phrase for money or the things that
we have that when it fails they may receive you
into the eternal dwellings." Isn't that a strange
thing, so it seems for Jesus to say? Not at all.
Jesus is saying to us that we need to be shrewd,
wise, that is, in the use of our earthly resources.
He's saying that we need to use it in such a
way as to make friends. who will be able to welcome
us into heaven when life has failed, when it's
over. The idea is that as we invest in the Lord's
work, people that we've even not met are one
to Jesus Christ, as God's work is advanced in
other parts of the world, as well as here. And
one day when we get to heaven, we will for the
first time be able to see what the investment
of our money has meant. Those friends will welcome
us in the eternal habitations. They will say,
welcome, I am here because of your investment
in the Lord's kingdom down there on the earth.
That's what Jesus is saying. To enjoy the things
that God gives to us. One is very wise to invest
it in the work of the Lord because then you see,
one is investing in heaven. And one gets eternal
pleasure from it, and not merely passing pleasure.
Well, someone says, what has the use of my money
got to do with spiritual things? After all, the
two aren't even related. Ah, how wrong that is.
Indeed, notice Jesus' words in verses 11 and
12. If therefore you have not been faithful.
Excuse me, back up to verse 10. He who is faithful
in a very little thing is faithful also in much,
and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing
is unrighteous also in much. If, therefore, you
have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous
mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?
And if you have not been faithful in the use
of that which is another's, who will give you
that which is your own? You see, what our Lord
is saying here is that one's faithfulness in
the use of his money is a direct indication of
his fitness for spiritual things. That may surprise
some of you, but that is the teaching of Jesus
Christ. Now that does not mean that those who
have a lot of money are therefore naturally qualified
for spiritual responsibility. It really has nothing
to do with the amount that one has. The point
is, how does one use what he has? Jesus says
if a man knows how to use these little things,
if he's faithful in these unimportant little
things, then he can be given the eternal things,
the true things, the spiritual responsibilities.
He can be trusted with them. I was never taught,
as a young person, anything about giving, beyond
the fact that I should put something in the offering
plate. And I usually did put something in the
offering plate. Even through my college years,
I rationalized that I was a poor college student,
and therefore, and I was going to a Christian
college and giving my money to them, so it wasn't
that supporting the Lord's work. I mean, there
are all kinds of rationales you can come up with.
It wasn't really until I was out of college and
had gone down to Covington, Kentucky in my first
ministry that God taught me a lesson about this.
And it came in a rather pointed way. Pastor Wiersbie,
under whom I worked for those two years while
he was there, said to me, now, Pastor Call, who
were very formal in those days, now, Pastor Call,
you will, of course, tithe your salary. so that
you can set a good example for the Lord's people
in our church. I'm sure he didn't hear me suck
in my breath or swallow hard, but that was the
first time in my life I had ever been really
confronted with the concept of tithing, and obviously
I began tithing. It was not exactly of free will
at first. I felt some coercion in it, but it
wasn't long before I began to see the joy in
giving more than just a nickel or a dime. Our
family has continued the practice of at least
tithing through the years. There have been times
we did not know how ends were going to meet.
No, we are not wealthy because we've tithed.
No, we cannot do all the things we would like
to do. But I want to say this to you as a testimony
in the part of our family, that we have found
God to faithfully meet our needs, and even more,
as we've been faithful in giving. You say, well
then do you believe that tithing is a legal requirement
for this age? No, I do not believe that. I know
that there are some who do, and that's fine.
I'm not going to argue with them. We all have
the right to be wrong, including me. I'm not
going to argue that point. But I do believe this,
that if I, in this age of grace, with all of
the privileges that I have in Jesus Christ, give
less than what a Jew did in the Old Testament
under law, and somewhere I'm missing something.
I've overlooked something. Something's not functioning
in my life very well. I believe that tithing
is not a legalistic requirement, but it's a good
goal to start with. And which one should then
pass up in its giving? As one learns to be faithful
in these things, God then entrusts spiritual
responsibilities and opportunities. You see,
the use of our money and what we do with that
has direct bearing upon our spiritual opportunities.
The two do go together. Now, I know that there
are those who tell you that if you tithe, you're
going to be prosperous and you're going to be
wealthy. In fact, I have had material come to
me that has said if I will send my money to a
certain place in Oklahoma, that when I send it,
I will have it double my money back within a
month. Well, that simply isn't true. But I have
found this in our experience as a family, that
when I have been faithful to God in giving, that
God has always made the remainder go further.
Some of you are shaking your heads, you know
what I'm talking about. If one is faithful in
his giving to God, and by that I mean giving
the first fruits, not the leftovers, but upfront
giving the first fruits, giving to God what is
purposed in the heart, giving to God that sacrifice,
that step of faith, that if one is faithful in
doing that, God will see that the needs are cared
for, and even more. But someone says, can I have
the best of both worlds? I'll serve God, but
I also want to retain the right to my money.
Well, look in verse 13. Jesus said, no servant
can serve two masters. For either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will hold
to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon. Our Lord says it's impossible
for us to have two authorities in our life. One
or the other must dominate by the very nature
of things. He is saying that God will not share
the throne of our lives with money. No, we can't
have the best of both worlds. That's impossible.
By the way, Jesus is not here condemning wealth.
Please understand that. Indeed, it is the Lord
who gives power to get wealth. He is not condemning
wealth, but He is condemning making wealth one's
God. He is condemning serving money instead of
using money to serve God. That's what He's dealing
with. This may come as a surprise to some of
you, but I believe this. That the judgment seat
of the Lord Jesus Christ When the life's work
of every believer will be examined For its worth
in serving the Lord the King in his kingdom here
in the world When we stand before him on that
day as those redeemed by his precious blood and
we give account of ourselves I believe that our
financial records will be subpoenaed as evidence
Our heavenly guest for these weeks is gracious
and lowly of heart. But remember that he is also
the Master. He is the King, the Sovereign, to
whom we owe not only our loyalty and allegiance,
but who has the right of control to everything
that we have. Let me suggest a project for you,
your family, if you're married. sometime during
this upcoming week. Let me encourage you to take
a walk through your home. Go through each room
of your home with your guest, the Lord Jesus.
Ask Him what He thinks of this room and that.
And dedicate the contents of that room to Him,
recognizing His right of ownership. Do you dare
do that? David Maines, who is the director of
the Chapel of the Air, has written some helpful
words regarding this. He says, walk through your
home and say aloud to Christ, this is your living
room, Your Majesty. Are you pleased with the
way it's being used on your behalf? Is there
anything you would change? Then pause and give
him opportunity to speak in the quiet, to put
thoughts in your mind. Then continue the process.
This is your kitchen. This is your garage. This
is your guest room and so on. Maybe he will use
or rather speak words of affirmation regarding
the way his resources are being used. He might
challenge you to explore new means of service.
Possibly he will ask you to remove certain items
that do not please him. Walk with him through
all that belongs to him. Don't skip anything
he wants to see. Tell the Lord that above everything
else you want him to see you as trustworthy regarding
these resources. Wilkin called it the all -american
commandment. If there's any commandment that's
made to be broken, it's that one, at least in
the context of what we've talked about today.
I quote again from David Maines when he says,
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
asked this question, Why do you call me Lord,
Lord, and do not what I tell you? Even today,
the cause of our Master is stymied on many fronts,
because servants hold their Master's resources
in tight fists. Stewards have forgotten whose
name is on the possessions they manage. What
am I saying today on this sixth Sunday of our
fall spiritual adventure? Here's the summation.
Don't view what you have as basically yours.
Rather, do view all that you have as through
Christ's eyes. Let's pray together. with our
heads bowed and our eyes shut, and as the Lord
brings to His own point and His own summation
what He wants to say to each of us. What is it
that you need to say to Him today? Will you take
a moment right now to speak to Jesus? Will you
open your clenched fist, if that's the case?
And say, Jesus, what is in my hand has your name
on it. Give me the wisdom I need to make it available
for the work of your kingdom. Lord Jesus, we
are reminded that it is required of stewards
that they be found faithful. We have been pointedly
reminded this morning that we are indeed stewards
and not owners. I pray that we will live like
it and give like it. I pray that you will work
this grace into our lives. that we might be generous
and joyful as we enjoy the things that you have
given to us so richly. Amen. We're going to sing
in closing a hymn that you might not recognize.
It's number 435. We will sing only the first
two verses of the hymn. And since the tune may
be new, while you're seated there, I'm going
to ask Patsy to play it through once for us.
435. We'll stand together as we sing. We give
thee by thine own Whatever gift may be All that
we have is thine alone Our trust, O Lord, from
thee Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I
pray that in light of Jesus' soon coming and
the certainty that we shall stand before Him,
each one of us, and give account of ourselves,
may we then live this week in such a way that
we are faithful stewards so that when we stand
before Jesus and all of the records are opened
and we are accordingly rewarded. We may hear
from his lips those coveted words, well done,
thou good and faithful steward. In his name I
pray, amen. We're dismissed.