While we love to enjoy the things God gives to us throughout our lives, sometimes we fail to realize that we have obligations to God. He has entrusted us with so much, and with privilege comes responsibility. Chapel today and circumstances in the past few days really got me thinking about this. I came up with three implications of stewardship. There are probably more, but these are the three that stuck out in my mind. I include the first two now, the last one to follow, hopefully soon.
- Excellence: “A Passion for Thee,” “Living for Jesus”
Because Dr. Polson did a fine job in chapel today of presenting our duty to pursue excellence, I will not cover that now. But I would strongly encourage those who did not hear his sermon to listen to it here.
- Humility/Service: “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord”/”Make Me a Blessing”
We have nothing that God has not given us. As sinners, we deserve only God’s wrath. We were all on the same plane, all equals in God’s sight: all sinners worthy of eternal punishment (Rom. 6:23). But because of His great love and mercy, God not only provided a way to forgive our sins but also has provided good things for us. The greatest gift man could ever receive was given in the form of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word (John 1:14). The Son of Man, and the Son of God. He gave up the glory He enjoyed in heaven to become man, live a perfect life—an example of humility (Phil. 2:5-8), and die a perfect death—and not just any death; the death of the cross, again an example in humility. God poured out His wrath on the Son, and then He put His stamp of approval on Christ’s sacrifice by raising Him from the dead. It was by the greatest sacrifice of all that God showed His love and forgave our sins once and for all (Rom. 5:8). God’s goodness could have ended here. He was in no way obligated to us. And providing forgiveness was far more than we deserved. He would have been perfectly just in stopping right there. But He didn’t. God loves us so much that He provides our daily needs and then adds extra blessings on top of that (Psalm 68:19). Because everything we have is from God, we have no room for boasting (Rom. 3:21-28). We have no room for pride. We have no room for obligating God (Dan. 4:34-35). Because He has provided more than we deserve, we must be thankful for what He has blessed us with and content with what He has chosen to withhold. This excludes envy and bitterness. If God chooses to give others more of something or chooses to take away something from us, that is His prerogative, and we must with Job humbly fall at His feet and say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) He seeks our good, and we can rely on His love that will never do anything that is harmful but pursues refinement, ultimately to glorify Himself and bring us good (Rom. 8:28). Instead of envy or strife, out of humility should flow a desire to humbly serve others and use what God has given us to edify fellow believers (Phil. 2:1-4)
