In the sermon titled 'Faithfulness in Our God-given Stewardships,' Mike Davenport explores the concept of stewardship, emphasizing that everything belongs to Christ as the creator, ruler, and redeemer. He highlights the importance of being faithful stewards in various areas of life, including time, finances, physical being, worship, relationships, and the soul. Davenport stresses that all possessions and time are entrusted to us by God and should be used to fulfill His will. He warns that failing in stewardship could result in a poor outcome on Judgment Day. The sermon calls for a thorough examination of one's life to ensure faithfulness in these responsibilities, urging listeners to be prepared for the day of reckoning with Christ.

Well, this afternoon we want to look at faithfulness in our God-given stewardship. Faithfulness in our God-given stewardship. Abraham Kuyper, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905 said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ who is sovereign over all does not cry, mine, mine. What gives Christ the right to claim everything in existence as his own? Well, he has that right first of all as creator and sustainer of all things, the creator and sustainer of all things.

All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. The living creatures and the elders in Revelation 4 11 cry out, what? You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. Why? For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.

But second of all, not only is he creator, He is ruler. He is ruler. The nations of the earth have been given to Jesus Christ as his inheritance. All authority has been given to him both in heaven and on earth. All authority.

He has received the kingdom for his inheritance, so the position of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father grants him ultimate authority over all the earth. But third, he has the rightful claims over his own people as Redeemer, as Redeemer. The whole idea behind the word Redeemer is to cause to be released to oneself by payment of the ransom. To cause to be released to oneself by payment of the ransom. And so, Christian friend, his redemption of your life grants him not only the authority that is his as your creator and ruler, but also his ownership.

His ownership. As redeemed people, we have been purchased. All that we have belongs to God. You were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The fact that he is creator, ruler, and Redeemer means that all that we have is his and we are but mere stewards in his house.

Our lives are defined by those opening words of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25-14, for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. What we hold in our hands are simply his goods delivered to us. And because all in our possession belongs to him, there must be, yea there will be a reckoning." And so Jesus continues in verse 19 of Matthew 25 saying, after a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Dear ones, I want you to be gripped with these two realities. All that you have is Christ's.

All that you have belongs to him. And second, on the last day, you will give an account of all that you were given. On the last day, you will give an account of all that you were given. So what does God call us to? Faithfulness, to faithfulness.

This is what is required of a steward, faithfulness. And so in the time before us, I would like to look at several areas of Christian stewardship in which we must be faithful. I stand before you as a man who has great need for the very exhortations I am giving you. I've been convicted afresh of my own holding on to things, not wanting to give them up. When preparing to preach, I can't tell you the number of times that Nathan stands beside me and his finger pointing at me and saying, you're the man, you're the man.

I can't tell you the number of times that I've wanted to remove portions of what I've prepared because of my own heart, my own life. But I've got to be faithful to myself. And I want to be faithful to you and to your souls. I want to give you everything I've got today. There's more that could be said.

There's more areas of stewardship that you could probably point to. But in the moments before us, I just want to look at a few. The first one is stewardship of your time. Stewardship of your time. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to redeem the time.

We're to redeem it. Moses in Psalm 90 prays for a heart that would appreciate the shortness of our days that we may walk in a wise way. That was his prayer, oh Lord teach me the shortness of this time that I have that I may have a heart of wisdom. How do you use your time? How do you use it?

Do you redeem it? Do you purchase it back as a possession to be given to doing the will of God? Do you ever ask the question, how would God want me to be using these next few minutes, these next few hours, many things make demands on our time and we must be wise stewards. Other losses can be retrieved, They can be made up. You take a man who takes his finances and he puts them into an endeavor and that endeavor falls.

That man can still make some more money. He may make more money than ever he had in that endeavor, but not so with time. Not so with time. Once time is spent, it cannot be retrieved. You can't get back what you did yesterday.

You can't have it back. When it's gone, it's gone forever. Is your time being spent building up treasures that will not last, that are not eternal? Is your time being spent in the frivolous entertainment of Hollywood? Is your time being wasted by the demands of technology and all the distractions that come with them?

Ecclesiastes has been brutally honest with our souls in regard to the brevity of life and our need to set our eyes on what we know is coming, our death, and to live life backward in such a way that we glorify God in our life knowing that that day is coming. And we will see more of the stewardship of our time as we consider Ecclesiastes 3 in a couple of weeks. Second of all, stewardship of your finances, stewardship of your finances. Can a man rob God? Can he?

Can a man rob God? Is that possible? God says it is. God says it's possible. Malachi 3, 8 through 10, he tells his people, you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me Even this whole nation bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house." God has claimed a portion.

He desires the first fruits of all our labors. Our spiritual father Abraham, he gave a tenth of all the spoil to Melchizedek, king and priest in Salem, and he did so before the law. Israel was to bring tithes and offerings to the Lord according to the law. Yet it was not the law that Solomon referred to when he was teaching his sons to give to the Lord. You see, to Solomon it was not just a mere duty, it was an honor.

It was an honor. He says honor the Lord in Proverbs 3 9 honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase And obedience comes with a blessing. It comes with a blessing. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." In fact, in the Malachi 3 passage, God informs us there that this is what He will do for those who honor Him first. He says, try me now in this.

Try me. I ask you to come and bring tithes and offerings and fill up, fill up my storeroom. That there may be food in my house. Try me now in this. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it, Do you honor the Lord with your possessions?

Do you also honor him with the first fruits of all that he blesses you with? You see, we are to honor him with the first fruits. That is, we are to bring a portion to him for his kingdom work. Now, many want to argue whether the tithe, the tenth, is still required in the New Covenant. Here's my question for you.

Should the Church of Jesus Christ be more or less generous, more or less honoring with their possessions than old covenant Israel. Let me ask you it another way. Has our God done lesser or greater things for us in the new covenant. How then should we respond to what God has abundantly done for us? We have a better covenant.

We have a better covenant. But not only are we to honor him with our firstfruits, Solomon says to honor him with all our possessions. Honor him with all your possessions. That is all that we have. Yes, that which we keep for ourselves should be used to honor Jesus Christ.

Let me ask it this way. What do you have or what do you own that you feel like you should have freedom to use in ways that would dishonor Christ? If you have given your first fruits, what portion of that which remains falls under the category of this can legitimately be used in ways that would not honor Christ? Or another way to look at it, what decisions should you make in regard to the use of your money without any thought of Christ or eternity? What portion of what you own should you think about apart from Christ and from eternity.

And if you think that the New Testament is fairly silent on the matter, I would point out to you that the very first instance of church discipline in the church involved finances. A divided heart regarding the money earned led to a desire to withhold from God, but because reputation before man was at stake, a lie was told about the fullness of what was being offered. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. Third, stewardship of your physical being. Stewardship of your physical being.

Dear ones, if you are in Christ Jesus, you are no longer your own. You are no longer your own. You belong to Him. You've been bought with a price and because of that you are to serve God with your body because it is his possession. Your ears.

Your ears. Your ears are not yours to give to the invitation of sinners or immoral men and women. Your ears are not yours to give to the latest gossip, to the latest rumor, to the latest conspiracy theory, to the latest fad in theology or Christian living. Your eyes. Your eyes are not yours to give over to pornographic images, to look upon the nakedness or even the shape of another's body in order to fulfill your own lusts.

Your eyes are not yours to fill with the filth of Hollywood, reveling in the sin of those on the silver screen. Your eyes are not yours to look covetously at your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house, your neighbor's car, or any other thing that God has given him. Your mouth, your mouth, your mouth is not yours to be given over to the appetites of your belly. Your mouth is not yours to participate in the world's vulgar language or coarse jesting, nor in lies, half truths, or white lies. Nor is your mouth yours to be given over to unkindness, hurtful or destructive speech.

Your mouth is not yours to promote yourself, your achievements, your knowledge or your agenda. Your feet. Your feet are not yours to take into paths of pleasure seeking, to walk as the Gentiles walk, to run in the paths of dissipation, to turn to the right hand or to the left whenever you will. Your feet are not yours to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor to stand in the path of sinners. Paul reminds you that you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

Peter reminds us that we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Your hands. Your hands. Your hands are not yours to bring yourself sexual pleasure. Your hands are not yours to touch another in a lustful way.

Your hands are not yours to bring harm to yourself or to another, whether by drink or drugs or by strife. Your hands are not yours to touch and to handle the unclean thing. Your hands are not yours for the fashioning and then embracing of an idol of your own making. Your body, your body, your body is not yours to decorate at will with the permanent inks of self-expression or multiple needless piercings. Your body is not yours to change or to mutilate in a desire to alter the gender distinction given to you by God at conception.

Your body is not yours to be given over to the undisciplined appetite for and use of food. Your body is not yours in order to be idolized and worshiped as a temple for yourself, But as the temple of the Holy Spirit, your body should be well taken care of with proper rest, proper nutrition, proper grooming, and proper exercise. And the things mentioned here are not exhaustive. They're not exhaustive. But they all point to the fact that We must glorify God with our entire physical being.

Paul reminds us of our stewardship in Romans 6, 12-13. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. It's our reasonable service because we are but stewards. Next, stewardship of God's worship.

Stewardship of God's worship. Brothers and sisters, God has granted us a stewardship in our worship. We are to worship in a way that is acceptable to him. Nadab and Abihu were given a stewardship when it came to the worship of God. God had declared what type of fire could go in the censors when they came into His presence.

They brought fire of their own making, and God struck them dead on the spot. God is seeking worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so we have a stewardship in regards to the worship He is seeking. It must be regulated by Scripture. It must be regulated by Scripture.

We must bring Him everything He requires. And we must refuse that which he told us he did not want as well as everything that he has not explicitly made known to us in Scripture. We must guard our Saturday evenings. We must guard our Saturday evenings. We must guard our Saturday evenings.

We cannot expect to draw near to God on Sunday morning in His worship if the distance is so great due to our failure to draw near to him in heart preparations the night before. If our hearts are slow or cold on Sunday morning, it is often due to the failure of our own heart preparation the night before. It's not a good stewardship. We must guard our approach to him on Sunday morning. We must not lose sight of who it is we have come to worship.

We must worship him in the beauty of holiness. We must come in a spirit of humility, trembling, trembling at his word. We must have hearts made ready. We cannot come rushing into church at 957 and expect our hearts to be ready and engaged. Nor can we come in at 930 and expect to be able to focus on our main purpose after engaging with one another all the way up to the time that we start.

We must be gripped with the reality that we are about to have dealings with the thrice holy God. Let us not allow the world to be better stewards of their preparation for their vacations, for their concerts, and for their weddings, then we are of the preparation for our worship of the living God. Stewardship of your relationships, the stewardship of your relationships. Yes, the relationships in our lives are placed there by God, And we have a stewardship in regard to those relationships. We have a duty to each other in these relationships.

Is not the New Testament full of one another texts, exhortations given to us in regard to our relationships with one another. I have seen lists consisting of 59 texts Proclaiming the demands of our stewardship in our church relationship. I brought a list of them. Time doesn't permit me to read through them. But go and look at them on your own.

How are we doing with these? Are they even on our minds as we gather together? Did you come here today not only to worship God, but to be a blessing to one another, to encourage one another, to love one another? Was it even on your mind? Are we being intentional in our dealings with one another?

How about in our families? How about in our families? Men, Are you washing your wife with the word? We have a stewardship. Wives, are you submitting to your husband in the fear of the Lord?

Trusting the Lord to take care of you in your vulnerability, even as Sarah? Parents, are we bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Are we setting the Lord constantly before their eyes? Are we instructing them in the ways of the Lord and children? Are you not only obeying, but are you honoring?

Are you honoring your father and your mother, the God-ordained authority in your life? God has granted each and every one of us in our families a stewardship in regard to these relationships. And then there are our friends, our friends, whether here in the church or in other places. A man who has friends must show himself friendly. He must himself be friendly.

Are you a good friend to your friends? We have a stewardship. Are you like Jonathan, strengthening the hand of your friend and God? 1 Samuel 23, 16. Listen to the words of Paul written to his friend Philemon.

If you remember, Onesimus had run away from Philemon, had wound up there with Paul, and Paul converted him to Jesus Christ and showed him that God wanted him to go back and to serve his master. And so he's writing to Philemon to receive Onesimus back as he would him. And He said, I, Paul, in writing with my own hand, I will repay. Don't make him repay, I will repay. Not to mention that you owe me even your own self besides.

Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. You owe me, he says, you owe me. Give me joy, give me refresh. Are we giving due attention and due time to all of these relationships?

Or are we allowing other things to creep in and to interfere with these relationships? Are we investing in the eternity of others, not just our own? Are we investing in the eternity of others? Are we cheering and helping each other onto glory? Lifting each other up when we fall, strengthening the hands that are hanging low, as well as the feeble knees, turning the center from the error of his way.

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we are indeed our brothers and our sisters' keeper. And then lastly, a stewardship of your never-dying soul, a stewardship of your never-dying soul. All of these individual stewardship and many more are all tied to this stewardship, the stewardship of your soul. What will it profit you to gain the entire world if it costs you your very own never dying soul? You have been given a soul, my friend.

Are you taking care of that soul? Are you preparing it for an eternity of life or an eternity of damnation? An eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. Ecclesiastes 12-7 tells us that at the end of life, the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Do you remember what happened to the unprofitable servant who did not take his stewardship seriously?

Jesus gives us the response of the Master to that unprofitable steward. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you not come away from that parable of the talents with the sense of the urgency and diligence required in our stewardship. Are you gripped with the reality of what was declared in regard to poor stewardship?

Do you see what is at stake? We have great need for soul searching, for an examination of how we are doing with all that God has entrusted to us. And how much better will we fare in that great and final examination before Christ who knows all and sees all? How much better will we fare then and there if we have been faithfully examining our own heart in ways all along the way with Judgment Day away with judgment day honesty. Oh, to hear those words.

Oh, to hear those words. Well done, good and faithful servant, faithful steward, enter into the joy of your Lord. If you're here without Christ, you too have a stewardship of the soul God has granted you. This is not a stewardship belonging to Christians exclusively. What are you doing with the soul God has entrusted to you?

Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be his wool. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who a sovereign overall does not cry, mine. He is the creator of all things.

He's the ruler of all things. He's the redeemer of his people. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Oh Father, You have entrusted such great things for us and to us.

And Lord, greater things will not be given to any who has not been faithful in the least. Oh, may we be faithful. Make us to be faithful by your spirit. Lord, we've been granted treasures in these earthen jars of clay. That the glory might be yours.

May it be yours we pray. In Jesus name, amen.