2018 Sep 30 sermon - Stewardship
2018 September 30th Youth Sunday sermon by Manuel Sieunarine. Theme: Stewardship.
Hymns: 328 This is my Father’s world; 772 Christ for the world we sing (to the tune of 293 Come Thou almighty King); 204 Thou didst leave Thy throne; 672 Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
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Psalm 145:14-21 (NIV) A psalm of praise. Of David.
14 The Lord upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
16 You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.
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Mark 10:17-31 (NIV) The Rich and the Kingdom of God
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good-except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-along with persecutions-and in the age to come eternal life.31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
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Good morning everyone. Today’s theme is stewardship. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to You, O Christ, our Strength and our Redeemer, amen.
What is stewardship? A steward is a person who is responsible for someone else’s property. We are stewards of this world - all people, plants, animals, the environment; everything. Our stewardship is crucial because we help, give relief to and love the lost people of the world. We are responsible for seeking the lost, comforting the forsaken, aiding the poor and giving relief to the suffering. This is God’s call to us to be stewards of His people.
The Earth is our habitat and we must be good stewards of the planet, protecting, preserving and enhancing all life. We are responsible for dealing with climate change and preserving endangered species.
The need for stewardship extends to governments; that is, politicians and persons in charge of countries. A political agenda that seeks only to protect my country, my family and me is not stewardship that God requires. We live in a world of other countries and we must reach out to help, save and protect others. We need no borders!
Stewardship is about generosity and hospitality. In Psalm 145, David attributes these qualities to God, implying that we learn to be generous and hospitable from God’s example. God freely gives life to all living creatures because He loves the world. He placed humans in charge of the world because He trusts us. We are stewards of this world, and as stewards, our dignity is the trust God places in us. Of course, sin entered the world through human disobedience, breaking the trust of God, but the obedience of one man reconciled us with God once more, mending our relationship.
In the book of Genesis, when humans first disobeyed, God was free to dismiss us from our roles as stewards. He was under no compulsion to compromise with us, but He did, because He felt sorry for us, His children. Delaying the instant stroke of death, God allowed us to age so that we would continue being stewards of the world. During our lifetimes, we would have many opportunities to repent and return to Him. However, this was not enough to satisfy God. In addition to providing mercy, He provided grace in the person of Jesus Christ. Through His atonement and His obedience, the gates of Heaven are open once more to us if we believe in Him.
Naturally, we are a rebellious people, and turn away from the straight and narrow path of love, instead preferring the wide, open road of comfort. The New Testament reading describes Jesus’s encounter with such a rebel. Now, I call him a rebel, but he is not an evil man. I am sure he earned his wealth, and he did obey the Ten Commandments, but being good is not enough to satisfy God. Only Christ satisfies God; that is why Jesus told him, “follow me”. However, the rich young ruler did not believe in Christ. Nonetheless, Jesus loved the man even though the man would not follow Jesus. Romans 5:8 explains this powerful love: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Perhaps the rich young man was thinking of his family and friends. How would they survive without his wealth? How would his employees find another job? There is a pervasive belief that all our love must be given to family and friends only. Certainly, love begins with the family, but it must not end there. Jesus calls us to help those in need. In Matthew 9:11-13, 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus left His mother and father’s house, left His job as a carpenter because His work was to reconcile the world to God the Father. In Matthew 12:50 Jesus says, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Here Jesus expands the definition of ‘family’ to include all the children of God: anyone who believes in Christ becomes part of our family. When we follow Jesus we may lose our family and friends, we may suffer persecution as the reading says, but we gain so much more. Not only do we have the hope of Heaven, we make a new family here on Earth with all who follow Christ.
Jesus calls us to be stewards not only of the world, but also of each other. We follow Him out of our homes and even out of our communities into the world where the need is greatest. He does not send us as castaways because He goes with us; He is always with us, and we meet Him where our help is required. In Matthew 8:20 “Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He meant that He could not stay at home forever, could not limit Himself to His family and friends because He needed to carry out His Father’s work to redeem the world. Jesus calls us to participate in this redemption.
I want to relate an experience I had online. There was a young man who completed his tertiary education. He was very happy with his success, but also very bitter because of his past. He had a bad experience with religion. He said that he was only able to succeed after leaving the church because the church held him back. He said that the church told him that all of his failures belonged to him and all his victories belonged to God. That experience really upset me because it is a lie. Both our victory and our failures belong to Christ, not one or the other! Jesus bears all our sins and success. It’s not all on us, it’s all on Him; both the good and the bad. We cannot bear our own sins because we cannot make sufficient atonement for them. On the other side of the coin, we cannot claim our own victories, because we cannot do anything without our Lord who gives us life. Without Christ we are utterly lost.
When we try to help others, we will sometimes experience failure. After all, when Jesus presented Himself as the Messiah, the only hope of humanity, He was executed. We are not greater than our Lord, therefore we too shall know the bitterness of defeat. Even so, death is not the end. At first the Cross appeared to be the greatest failure in human history, but the resurrection transformed the Cross into a symbol of total victory. Death and sin were crucified on the Cross with Christ, but only He rose from the grave, nothing else. He rose victorious, and if we believe in Him, we too shall share His victory over the grave. Now Jesus holds all of the keys: to Death and Hell and Heaven. Therefore, when we as stewards go out into the world and witness destruction and chaos, we must remember who holds the keys. We do not go into the world to meet death; we go into the world to meet Christ, who conquered death.
Therefore, let us have a joyful attitude towards our stewardship. Jesus goes with us, for He is the indwelling Christ who shares our humanity. Jesus goes before us, for He has overcome the whole world already, and calls us to participate in its salvation. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, teach us how to be stewards. Let us see You in Your people, in Your world, and in Your Kingdom. Amen.