Giving Beyond A Tax Deduction

Dear Members & Attenders,

What does it mean to steward something? What exactly is a steward? The verb means simply: “to manage or look after another person’s property.” The noun describes a person who does that – a person who manages another’s property, to take care of something that belongs to another.

There’s the rub. This Sunday we will be looking at our third lesson in our series on stewardship. So this has to compete with our culture’s deeply rooted assumptions that we create, own and evaluate ourselves.

Unbelief is a grab for what is not mine – this is what the Bible says is wrong with everyone. We have all sought to take the throne of our own lives. We’ve all tried to un-seat our Maker (our Owner) and we’ve all made a bid to take what never has belonged to us – authority over our own lives. This is why we’re all guilty before the LORD, and why we’re all broken. We deserve to die, even as we’re all a mess.

What’s amazing is the Gospel promises us a gift of what we never could earn. Exactly the opposite of what we truly deserve – Jesus gave Himself to save us from our guilt and ruin. When we deserved to be punished, He volunteered to bear our punishment by His death. And while we deserve to be left in the wreckage we have caused, He gives us His status, His access to heaven, His very wholeness of heart (by His Spirit living in our hearts)!

It’s when that takes root in your soul that you get turned into a conveyor of His generosity. Everything changes! Your mindset – that God truly does own everything – becomes a source of great hope and joy instead of a competitive threat. He is no longer the one you thought He was (like He was holding out on you); instead you come to know Him in all His generous sufficiency. This is what changes you from giving to get a tax deduction, to being eager to share. Anything. Every thing!

Things to pray for:

– Amazement. Read 1 Corinthians 4:7 (“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”) and praise God for giving you literally everything you’ve ever had.

– Humility (again). Give thought to just how selfish and wrong you’ve been, and bow humbly before the LORD for how you’ve treated Him. Confess your willfulness and your folly.

– Thanksgiving. Give thanks for the miracle of Jesus coming to your rescue when you deserve just the opposite – to be cut off from all of His goodness for your defiance of Him.

– Stewardship. Ask the Lord to help us see the staggering privilege of being His steward.

– Eagerness to share. Ask the Holy Spirit to grow you as a “conveyor” of His generosity.

Tim Rice, Lead Pastor & Director of Church Planting
Trinity Presbyterian Church
301 N. Florida Avenue
Lakeland, FL 33801
863-603-7777
www.trinitylakeland.org