Narrow | Stewardship

Hello and thank you for joining us on the Sierra Bible Church Sermon of the Week.

We hope you enjoy this message by Pastor Nate Levering.

Thank you, Bethany.

One of the privileges, right, for many of us in Tawami County is we get to do life with our siblings.

If that's not you, I have a sister.

We're adopting her out for other families.

So have Bethany.

Super fun to get to do that together.

Uh man, I don't know about you, but it was a joy to come in this morning, both services for me, and just to have a time of worship.

So thankful for Brian and his team.

Just uh if you've ever had a week, right?

And sometimes we have those.

Uh, and mine came with what I would consider this sort of a bit of a near miss.

And I don't know if you've had those where you think that sort of one of those hold your breath moments, or I'm not sure it's going to be this bad, but like, where are we in the midst of the and um for me it started like this it's about two o'clock at night, sound asleep in my bed.

And I wake up to the realization that I'm not the only person in our house, nor is my wife Kathy, who's asleep next to me, or the boys, in their rooms.

So I get up, I make my way to their bedrooms, I can hear screaming in their rooms.

Uh, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are people in our boys' rooms and they're yelling.

And I don't know if you ever had this, and I grab the doors and I am trying to just get in, and I'm assuring them, your dad is here.

I am going to save you.

There's nothing I could do.

The doors were like, these doors don't lock, but they were locked about 30 seconds into this.

I feel this heel in my side, and my wife's waking me up from a nightmare, and she's like, What is going on?

Why are you screaming?

Why are you grunting?

What is happening?

I'm sweating.

There are times, especially when we read within the life of Jesus and his disciples, where he sort of almost grabs people and kind of wakes them up into the true story.

As if he says, Hey, the the way you're feeling, the way you're acting is not true within the story that I'm writing in human history.

Now, as Kathy woke me up and I was trying to apologize and also go, like, what just happened?

Are my kids okay?

All the things you do when you wake up and it's so real.

I also remembered that in a recent New York Times article I read that 40% of wives divorce their husbands because of their sleep habits.

And so it's like, I'm so sorry, I'll never do it again.

You know, this kind of thing.

I don't think Kathy will leave me over the fact that I was trying to save my children who were sound asleep peacefully while I was worried about them.

But this moment, I was talking to one of our worship guys this morning, we were talking about just life and the challenges and raising kids and all this, that at times I get going like this, and then Jesus has to kind of almost like get me in the face, you know, if you will, and say, Hey Nate, wake up.

That's not the story.

You've lost the plot.

What's true about us, what we believe about ourselves, how we act, is oftentimes related very closely to the story that we find ourselves in.

Now, there's a lot of kind of common cultural stories, and we've been talking together about the reality that Jesus invites us onto this narrow road story.

But in the broad road of culture, you know, three stories that uh oftentimes are told and retold in our culture.

The first one is this.

I mean, I kind of feel like I grew up with this.

You can be anything you want to be.

And I remember dribbling a basketball around just over and over and over, and like, I'm gonna play in the NBA, I'm gonna play in the NBA, I'm gonna play in the NBA.

And then I like looked in the mirror and was like, I'm not gonna play in the NBA.

Like, six to me doesn't make it, right?

But there's this if you work hard enough, if you try hard enough, you can become anything story.

How about the it doesn't really matter story?

It doesn't really matter oftentimes, especially in our youth culture of today, turns into you don't really matter.

But this is a story that's told and retold over and over in our culture.

The you deserve it now story.

This is a fun story.

So your credit card runs out and says, guess what?

You no longer deserve it.

But it's everywhere, right?

You deserve happiness now.

Me ever feel sad, like how do I just get a boost of happiness?

You feel tired and you're like Starbucks or Red Bull or whatever your I can get energy now fix is, and this can overlay if it's the story we find ourselves in in all kinds of instant sort of gratification kinds of ways.

Jesus invites us on to the narrow road story, the story he is writing, the counter story to the stories told over and over.

And if you're like, I don't really think these hold much sway, I don't just watch a Disney movie with your kids and ask yourself the question: what story is our culture inviting our children to be in?

You will see these kinds of things.

Here's the way we talk about this around here.

Uh, and we're gonna kind of start this will be a little bit heady with some sort of big stuff as we start this morning, but it's gonna help us as we consider what it looks like to be a steward with all that God's given us.

Like, how do we act?

So we're gonna start there.

One of the ways we talk about this is this idea that God is the great author.

He is the author of story.

If you look at scripture, it's a story that you're invited into.

In fact, you live between the first pages of the Bible and the last pages of the Bible.

He is the author.

We'll often say then, the crazy part, right?

The reality for each one of us taking up space in here this morning is he's written you into the story.

God wrote you into his story.

Not only that, but he writes you in as a co-author of sorts in his story.

So God has a story, he wrote you in, your nameplace, your sort of dash between the numbers, and then he gave you a pen and said, I want you to write, not just doodle, I want you to write a chapter in my story.

This is what it looks like to to live with with what God has, to live in alignment, to live as a part of his story.

Listen how Paul says it as he brings this together in a in a pretty famous passage in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

He's speaking to the church.

He says, We're God's workmanship.

He wrote us into the story, created in Christ Jesus to do what?

To do what?

Yeah, you're holding a pen.

It's a little scary because it's really not a pencil, it's more like a sharpie.

Some of you have other people sharpie on you, and you're still processing some of that, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God has written as the author, you and I into the story, and he invites us to be co-authors in the story he is writing.

I have a new kind of favorite quote of the week, and here it is.

If you're one of those people that like takes pictures, I would invite you.

This is a good one.

It's gonna be on the next two screens.

But I love uh what Christopher Watkins says here about this idea of the story and our role as God's people.

Christians gathered in the church, woo! That's you.

If you didn't, if you're like, where am I?

That's you.

Christians gathered in the church community are what does he call us?

Actors who together, and I love these next couple phrases, stage the drama of doctrine.

Doctrine is God's truth.

Moving and speaking to the rhythms and patterns of God's word.

Can you see it?

And then this next phrase I love improvising, this is what we're gonna talk about this morning.

Improvising in the spirit of the plot.

The author wrote you in, invited you to improv, to write your chapter in the spirit of what?

His plot, his story, where it's going, improvising in the spirit of the plot, where it does not give direct specific guidance on a particular scene.

So if God says, hey, guess what?

You're going to the cross, you're going to the cross.

No improv.

But in so many places, you and I are called to improv in the spirit of the plot.

Next phase.

In this story, this is the story of God of exuberant creation, painful loss, gracious rescue, patient waiting and final triumph, that embodies a way of being in the world oriented to faith, hope, and love.

We think that if we are meant to improv in the plot of or in uh the spirit of the plot, we ought to know the story.

We ought to be able to tell the story.

We should be able to tell to our neighbors, we should be able to tell it to our children.

So, how do we tell this around here?

There's lots of different ways.

One way is this God's story has four big acts.

God created, He created us in the garden, He created us with purpose, He created us to know Him and to know each other in kind of an intimacy, sort of know and being known kind of way.

We rebelled against God.

We call this the fall, Genesis 3.

It blows apart.

So all that was whole, the Hebrew word shalom, is broken now.

It's shattered because of our rebellion against God.

God steps in, Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15, to a world that's incredibly broken.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention Genesis 15 · chapter mention

And he begins to make a promise that he's going to put this back together through a person we know as Abraham.

Abraham, because the father of a nation, Israel, who, through the sights and symbols of his story, point towards a reality that God's not done, and that God is going to send a messiah, a king, the world's true king.

And he uses language like, you know, the stone heart that we have as a result of sin and rebellion will again be a heart of flesh.

This body that can go kind of near God will actually become that dwelling place, the house, the temple of God Himself.

And so we get this vision, and then the climax of the story we find in Jesus.

Everything points to Jesus.

Even those of us on the other side of Jesus point back to him.

He is the one in and through whom God puts the story back together.

It's in him, of course, that we find our forgiveness, that we experience again a restored relationship with our God.

But this last phase of God's redemption, the church, our uh reality, was sort of like not really on the map of those in Israel.

So as we're going to look at this morning, they had to sort out where are we?

How do we find ourselves in the plot so that, like good actors, we can act in the spirit of the plot, the author who's writing the story.

And so then God launches or commissions the church with his spirit as those redeemed to work out or to practice God's plan and hope of restoration.

Here's how we can kind of say this if we're gonna wrap all of this together with a little bit of theological language.

We find ourselves, this is where we as the church, this part's important, if we're gonna play our part, we find ourselves in a part of the story that theologians call, and I find this helpful, the already and the not yet.

Okay, help me out.

The what?

Already and the, which means something's already happened, but it isn't fully consummated or put all back together.

We are in the already not yet phase of God's redemption.

Jesus already has come.

He's accomplished the complete and decisive victory over the consequences of sin.

This is death.

This is his resurrection, is the victory over that, making eternal life available to all who, through faith, accept the gift of his death as a substitute payment for their sin.

So what it means to experience salvation in Christ, thereby appeasing the wrath of God, restoring a relationship with God in Christ.

The not yet, the other bookend, is the full consummation of what of that victory that awaits Christ's return and the renewal of all things.

And so we as the church find ourselves in the midst of God's story between the already Jesus has come, his life, death, and resurrection, and the he's coming back.

Don't miss that part of the story.

But in between, we are invited, as his redeemed, to play in the rhythms and practices of his word, to improv in the spirit of the plot the work of God.

This is what it means to be a disciple.

This is what it means to follow Jesus.

This is what it means to be a steward, the words that we're going to look at that Jesus invites us into.

Look with me at Acts chapter one.

Uh, we're gonna kind of see this come together for the disciples because, as I said, uh, you know, they assume that when God conquered death and hell, that the consummation was happening, that the new creation was all gonna happen right then.

But it doesn't, and so they're they're like, ah, a little bit like Kathy's, you know, ankle in my side.

Wake up! You missed the plot, and that's okay.

There are times in life, right, where all of us need that reorientation.

Maybe some of you are like, I just stumbled into church where and and your reorientation this morning is that there's a God that's known you from the beginning, that went way before you to a cross to pay your penalty of sin.

And so today your reorientation is just to come to him by faith and just to trust him and to walk with him.

So the reorientation of the disciples looks like this in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Acts, of course, is this book after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and it's the Acts of the Church, it's the launch of the church, it's those gathered as the church.

So Jesus has died, he's resurrected, and he appears to them.

If we look halfway down verse three, he appeared, this is Jesus, appeared to them over a period of 40 days.

So they're all trying to figure out where do we find ourselves now, what part of the story are we in?

How do we live well here?

So Jesus shows up for 40 days and speaks about the what?

The kingdom, right?

Speaks about the kingdom of God.

Now, we don't get in that particular phrase all of the things Jesus said.

Why?

Because what the author, Luke here is trying to do is say, Hey, we already wrote it down.

Go back and look through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and see what Jesus taught about the kingdom.

We're gonna do a little bit of that this morning.

Jesus says, Hey, this is the kingdom of God time.

This is a this already not yet phase of human history.

Down in verse 6.

They haven't quite woken up from the dream.

So they gather around Jesus and they ask him, Lord, again, reorientation, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Now for them, this is the consummation of all things language for an Israelite.

Is this when you're going to do what we believed you promised to do throughout Israel's history?

Is now that you're the king, now that you're the Messiah, is sin going to be gone?

Is death going to be gone?

Is it all going to be sort of this new heavens and new earth that you promised?

Is that what's happening?

Listen to what Jesus says in verse 7.

He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the dates that the Father has set by his own authority.

In other words, when that's going to happen, the consummation of all things, new heavens and new earth.

But, verse 8, here's your part.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

God says, I have a plan for you in between the already and the not yet.

I'm going to send my Holy Spirit, his power will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in.

And then he gives kind of three concentric circles: Jerusalem, the inside, Judean Samaria, that's like their, you know, Jamestown and Groveland.

And to the ends of the earth.

This is what it looks like to be my disciple.

This is your unique purpose right now.

This is your part of the story.

Listen to how Peter kind of wraps all this up in a passage many of us know.

He says this.

This is much later.

He's writing to the churches.

Peter says, Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.

And then he he kind of frames it in Jesus' Kingdom of God language, which we'll look at.

He says, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

So what he's saying is this that each of you in this phase, because the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you, God's going to give you some gifts.

He's going to give you some relationships.

He's going to give you some spiritual gifts.

He's going to give you some experiences.

Each of you should use whatever gifts you have, they're given to you not solely for your own purposes or primarily, but to serve others.

And then he uses this language as faithful stewards.

He says, this is what we are meant to be between the already and the not yet.

This is what Jesus is looking for out of those of us, his church, in this season between the already and not yet, the working out of his plan.

So will you be faithful stewards?

So this word steward or manager, and this is the word we're going to talk about for the next few weeks, as we take our third step in sort of what it looks like to be an SBC kind of disciple, a steward, a person that belongs in authentic community and a person that cultivates their life with Christ.

The S of that is to steward our lives with purpose.

The part of what God invites us into is to take, as Peter says, the gifts God's given us and to use those to serve others.

This word steward comes from a Greek word that is translated in English in our Bible, steward or manager.

And what this means in their time was this, because we don't really have this as much in our day, but the steward was this.

This was the person that was the trusted household.

This is the trusted household manager, excuse me, who controlled the master's property, finances, provisions, and servants.

Okay, so master would have had a steward.

When master's gone, the steward's responsibility is take care of it, manage it, steward it.

He answered directly to the owner, acted with delegated authority that was given to him by the owner, master, steward, king, and could be removed at any time.

This is what a steward or a manager was.

I think for me, as I was thinking about this, that maybe one of the most clear, at least recent examples of what this relationship looks like is like when Kathy and I, sort of against our better judgment, for our son's eighth grade graduation, went down to Verizon and added a phone to our phone plan.

And so when they asked me, and I'm adding the phone, they said, What do you want us to name the phone?

I said, Well, you can name it Kaden's phone.

And then I'm thinking in my mind, this will not be Caden's phone.

And so when I handed the phone to our son Kaden, I told him this.

This is when all of you wish you were raised by a pastor like I was.

You get sermons about all kinds of things, including cell phones.

So in about 15 points, I said this.

I said, Caden, the phone I'm now handing you is and will always be your dad's phone.

Now this could get confusing for you, Caden.

I I understand that.

Because it's gonna come up and say Caden's phone.

In fact, it's gonna say Caden's phone on my phone when I call you.

In fact, your mom and I will often say, Caden, grab your phone.

Caden, you've lost privileges on your phone.

Caden, you may not have that app on your phone.

Caden, we are the ones that can forever and for always read the text on your phone.

Why?

Because while we gave that phone to Caden, it's not Kaden's phone, it's whose phone?

My phone.

And so this language that Jesus invites us to live into as we improv in the spirit of the story is that God as King, God as Lord, God as master has entrusted us with something that will for all times be His, but it can sure get confusing down here.

And some of us, quite frankly, at times, I'm very much included, need to be kicked in the side and woken from the dream we are in, so that He realigns us to say what we have isn't ours.

It's for his purposes.

It's for his plot.

Are you with me?

And so this is the invitation to join him in the story he is writing.

Now, something I need to say because we are going to look at a couple of passages in which Jesus he kind of goes after it.

And uh one of them is kind of a lifelong verse for me, Matthew 25.

We're just going to look at some parts of those this morning.

But one of the things that Jesus does, and many of you know this, so give me a second, is he tells parables, little stories.

And sometimes the style in which Jesus tells this particular story is with great emphasis on a couple of things.

But he oftentimes throws other details in there that when you read them, you're like, huh.

Like that doesn't seem to square with these 15 other places that he clearly says that.

And so we have to learn to read the scriptures, especially the parables or the pro or the, you know, even the parables of the Old Testament with the context of the whole of Scripture.

Does that make sense?

So Jesus is going to tell a little story to try and help you like wake up or to maybe get you and like, okay, I'm living in the wrong story, but you can't take that whole story as all of the details with which God orients the story to us.

One example is this these stories that Jesus is going to tell go a little bit like this.

There's a master who has some managers, he puts them in charge of things, and then he leaves.

And then after a while, he's going to come back.

Question.

What part of that doesn't square with what we know is true about our relationship with God?

He doesn't leave.

Matthew 28, Jesus' great commission.

He says, This is what I want you to do.

I want you to go.

We'll look at this in a minute.

He commissions us as his people.

At the end of that, he says, as you're doing this, here's my promise.

I'll come back someday.

I'll check in.

Good luck.

No.

He says, I will be with you always.

In John, remember what he says?

We studied this in the spring.

He says, I'm not going to leave you as an orphan.

I'm going to come to you.

Then he goes on.

He says, in fact, your life will become my dwelling place.

My father and I will make our residence, will dwell in you.

I love what Henry Blackaby says in Experiencing God.

So you bring some clarity, he says this.

He says, A servant of a human master serves for his master.

That's not our story.

God, however, works what?

Help me out.

God, however, works through us.

He works through his servants.

And so while Jesus is going to set this up in this parable, you need to know that if you decide or you step in or you continue to walk as a faithful steward, it isn't that you're hopefully pulling off what God wants.

This is God living and active in us, moving his mission ahead.

He works through us.

This is why we've chosen this picture as we're thinking about discipleship together at Sierra Bible Church, that our belonging, cultivating, and stewardship.

There's just incredible overlap because as we steward that which God's given us, it's him that works in us, and it's him that's promised to be in charge of the fruit, not us.

Our role is what?

Be faithful.

Be faithful.

I think oftentimes faithfulness, at least in my own life, is a decent amount of effort learning what went wrong, trying again, and then a decent amount of effort learning what went wrong and trying again.

We are not in God's story, in charge of the fruit.

We are in charge of that little word faithful or unfaithful.

He's invited all of us as stewards, whether you like it or not, you're a steward.

The choice is are you a good one, a faithful one, or are you not?

And these are the stories that Jesus is going to tell.

And we're just going to allude to them this morning as we're trying to get our hands around this concept of steward.

Matthew 25.

We're going to look at Matthew 25 and Luke 19.

Two stories very similar.

They come at similar times in Jesus' life, uh, and they highlight a couple of different things.

The first, Matthew 25, and this for me has been kind of a life section.

This is about a master and his managers.

Jesus starts the story this way.

Again, as he's telling these stories about the kingdom of God, it will be like a man going on a journey who calls his servants, this is that word steward, and entrusts his wealth to them.

What happens after this, if you're not familiar with the story, is you know, somebody gets five, somebody gets two, and somebody gets one.

And then we're told, verse 19, after a long time, the master of the servants returns and settles accounts with them.

So there's a point where he's gonna come back in each of these stories.

There's about five or six of these stories.

We're just looking at these two together, and he's gonna see how did you do?

He said, Oh, how did it go?

Did you at least muster a little bit of energy?

Did you try?

Did you learn?

Did you try again?

So he's coming back.

The the section in um Luke, and I love a phrase that Luke adds to this because it helps us understand it in the context of the larger story.

Uh, but in Luke 19, it's a very similar kind of story.

Luke says this says, While they were listening to this, Jesus is telling them parables.

He went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem.

This is the language for Jesus knows he is so close to giving his life and to beginning this new phase of the church between the already and the not yet.

So Jesus knows we're about to enter this time.

I'm gonna have a heart to heart with people like Kyle.

I want to get Kyle ready so that he can improv with his own life the gifts he's been given.

Remember what Peter says to the story or the spirit of the story.

So Jesus knows his time's about to come.

The people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.

Again, this is just that language, right?

Where the people were in the wrong story.

And Jesus says, No, I'm gonna do some other things in here, like it or not, but you're invited to participate.

He said, A man of noble birth, again, this sounds real familiar to Matthew 25, went on a distant, went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.

So he called ten of his servants, this represents all of us, and gave them 10 minas.

Minas are money.

He says, This put this money to work, he said, until I come back.

Now, in each of these stories, some of the people respond faithfully.

Each of these stories, one of the people doesn't.

And so in Matthew 25, back to the first story, we get Jesus' story of what it looks like for the servants when the master returns to settle accounts in language that some of us like long for.

These first servants, who are the faithful servants in Jesus' story, hear these words.

Well done.

You good and what faithful servant.

And again, you're not called to be faithful to my gifts.

I'm not called to be faithful to your gifts and your story, but I'm called to be faithful to mine in as much as you are called to be faithful in yours.

Jesus then tells each of these stories as well as the three or four others with this other character in him.

And this character uh sort of has this moment with the master, the king, and he's settling the account, and he brings back the ten minas in the one story, or the one talent in the first story.

And and basically what he does is he looks up at the master, and then he says, This I know you're a hard man.

I was afraid.

Fill in afraid with anything.

I was distracted.

I thought I had enough time.

I thought I'd leave it to the professionals.

I wasn't really sure.

What about?

And for each of these people, they they come back like, well, I know you gave me some things of value to you, master, and I'm like returning them.

Jesus has this language for those, he and it's harsh language.

He says, You wicked, lazy servant.

And he's like, Man, at least you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers.

You didn't even have to do anything.

You could have just made a phone call, like, have someone else manage it.

But you didn't, you buried it in the story so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest.

And then Jesus, inasmuch as he has reward, he has punishment.

I think there's one more.

We're not going to look at that one.

That's for some other time.

So there's reward and there's punishment for each of these people.

Let's wrap these up.

These are the fill-ins if you want them.

If we were to look at all six or so of these stories, that Jesus says, Hey, I'm telling a story.

All these stories start with a very similar, it's like a master who leaves for a wedding.

Be ready.

He's coming back.

He's going to have a conversation with you about the valuable things he's given you.

How's that gonna go?

And he says, here's the way to hear good and faithful steward.

And so let's kind of sum these things up.

All of all these stories point us to these sort of three things.

This, that all of life, our relationships, our abilities, our experiences, our resources, our opportunities, and our influence, if you're to read all these stories in context, is what stewardship.

What does that mean?

It's not ours.

They're gifts from him.

We are the steward.

All of life, our relationships, abilities, experiences, resources, opportunities, influences.

I know we just read that, is stewardship.

It's temporary.

We don't oftentimes think this way until something hits us.

But all of us, right, have a dash between the numbers.

And at least at one side of those, we are going to have this time with the one who's given us the relationships, abilities, experiences, resources, opportunities, and influence, and we will be accountable.

Another way to say this is this.

And so maybe we find ourselves kicked around, or I gotta, I got, I'm not sure if I can.

Who how Jesus' invitation is to take a step, just take a step and begin to look at what he's given you and to say, God, what does it look like for me to be a faithful steward with these things?

And to muster.

I mean, maybe he's just gonna fill your sort of sails with the Spirit's power.

Most of us, it's gonna be getting a few people around us and saying, Man, I'm gonna take a step.

I'm gonna get out there.

I'm gonna take what I've been invited to steward and steward that.

Well, lastly, God rewards, and again, this is back to looking at all of these.

God rewards faithful, humble, generous, watchful stewardship and punishes waste, selfishness, apathy, misappropriation.

In other words, this is the like confusion about who owns it, hypocrisy, and dishonesty.

And so if you go back through and you read those stories, the this is how Jesus describes the narrow path and the wide path.

Five things, five things, of which I'm going to mention three for time's sake, that you've been put in charge of.

So if you're gonna take all the resources God's given you, if you're going to, as Peter says, should take the gifts that God's given you and become a faithful steward, what are we in charge of?

Like, what are the sort of things that Jesus has said?

Hey, here's what I want you to be in charge of.

Go.

Three things.

The first one is the good news.

There will be more come back the next couple weeks.

The good news, in some ways, and we know this, Jesus put us in charge of it.

Now he wrote the story, he paid the penalty, he's done the work.

But listen to the invitation in Matthew 28.

Jesus comes to them.

This is at the end of just before this section in Acts.

Comes to his disciples.

He says, All authority in heaven is and on earth has been given to me.

In other words, I am the one in charge, I am the master, I am the king in these stories.

Therefore, go and make disciples.

He says, I did my part already.

I'm gonna come back in the not yet.

In between, I'm putting you in charge of as a steward of my gospel.

So go.

And this can be as creative and unbelievable or simple as possible.

But what does it look like to steward the good news about Jesus?

Make disciples of all nations.

He says you should baptize them.

And so if you haven't been baptized, we'd love to be a part of that.

Many of you are getting ready to get baptized up at Pinecrest just after Labor Day with us.

You can fill out your little connection card.

Hey, I'm in.

Let me take a step in what God wants, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

As surely as I am with you in, always, to the very end of the age.

Remember what Henry Blackaby says in the context of the scripture.

This is not us out there winging it.

This is God working in and through us in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The prayer Jesus loves to answer is us coming before him and just saying, How do I be faithful with what you've given me?

I don't think he hides out.

I don't think he makes it hard to figure out.

I think he says, Here's a step you can take, here's a nudge you can respond to.

This is the second thing he puts us in sort of in charge of stewarding is his love.

And again, think think about times or think about someone that has distorted, if you will, the love of God.

We probably have someone.

And that's because God put that person in charge of stewarding his love.

And they distorted it.

We have the privilege of displaying God's love to others or distorting the image of his love.

Like you are giving that to steward.

And so part of what it looks like to be faithful is to steward that well.

John says it this way.

I mean, he just raises the bar right through the roof.

Love one another as I have loved you.

So there's plenty of room for improvement all the time, right?

What does faithfulness look like?

Just notch it up a step.

Spend some time with Jesus and say, are there ways that my love is not a great representation of your love?

Again, a prayer Jesus loves to answer.

Love one another as I've loved you.

So you must love one another.

This is what we are stewards of as his church.

His love.

We need to be the best picture to put his love on display.

And then lastly, he of these three of our five is the harvest.

He puts us in charge of the harvest.

He says, I'm going to do the sowing.

I'm even going to do the growing.

But here's what I want you to do.

And he looks at his disciples.

He says, I want you to see.

Listen to this phrase.

Look at this phrase.

He says, I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields.

They're ripe for harvest.

Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life.

This he's bringing together this other teaching.

So that the sower, this is Jesus and the reaper, this is us, may be glad together.

He says, I'm going to do all this work.

What I want you to do?

Get out there and share the good news.

Tell the story.

Invite people to take a step of faith.

And in that step of faith, that they would experience me as their king, as the lover of their soul, as the one who laid down their life for them.

This is our role as the church.

This is what we're trying to say.

Hey, how do we do this better?

How do we do this cleaner?

How do we do this cheaper?

How do we do this in increased ways in our Jerusalem, in our Samaria and Judea, and in every corner of the world?

How do we take what God's given us?

I regularly hear this about our church and I love it from people that don't go here.

Oh, I love Sierra Bible Church.

I hear so many good things about the way you guys are impacting our community.

And I absolutely love that.

And that's a group of people, individuals who are just saying, How do I take what I have and impact my little corner of our community in a way that stewards faithfully what God has done in and through me?

It's just taking it out, just sharing it, just looking outside, not only inside.

This is what we're called to be as his stewards.

Let's pray.

God, thank you.

Thank you for the incredible privilege, the radically good news that you invite us into the story.

God, you're not a distant God.

You're a God that's come as Emmanuel to put our lives back together.

That as you restore a kind of shalom, a kind of wholeness in our hearts, that that would work its way out in our lives and into the lives around us.

God, I pray for those of us that you're stirring to take a step of faithfulness, to step in in new ways, maybe in first ways even, to stewarding well your good news.

To stewarding well this unbelievable love, God, that you've given us this grace.

And then to look up and to say, Lord, where do you want me to move in?

What does it look like for me to go and make, to step in with all that I have to the place you called me in the time you've given me?

God, help us step into those.

Help us be cheerleaders of each other, that we would take steps of faithfulness.

And we trust you, God, as the one who's sowing and as the one who brings fruit.

Help us find our place in the story and improv well in those spaces.

We love you.

We thank you for giving your life for us.

We pray these things in your amazing name.

Amen and amen.

Thanks so much for joining us, church.

We hope that you enjoyed this message.

To find more messages like this, or to see where you can get connected or to give financially, please visit Sierra Bible.com.