Good Stewardship of Your Treasure
Phil Derstine 9-14-25
Stewardship – God Owns It!
- Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
- Genesis 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
- Deuteronomy 8:18 “Remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth…”
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager – Luke 16:1-14
- Luke 16:8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”
- Shrewd: Astute or sharp in practical matters
Wealth Management – God Tests Us!
1. The Purpose of wealth: to prepare for Eternity
- Luke 16:9 “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
- Can’t take earthly wealth with you – Be rich toward God!
2. Treasures are a Test
- Luke 16:10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
3. Either I master money or money master’s me
- Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
- The Tithe (10%) – Malachi 3:8-11“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse.”
- Tithing is the testimony of God’s ownership in your life.
- Malachi 3:10 “Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
We Pray for Money and God gives an IDEA…
- An idea is a SEED – You have to FIND it, PLANT it, and NURTURE it to maturity.
- In every seed there is a FOREST.
The Seed Principle – God Multiplies it!
- II Corinthians 9:10 “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. (11) You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
- God supplies SEED… Why?
- Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…”
- Inside every creation is a SEED containing the DNA to reproduce.
- Our job: Environment & Management
Being Seed-Full
- You need to do something with your seed – FIND it, PLANT it, NURTURE it to maturity.
- Being seed-full involves CREATIVITY
- CRISIS creates environment for creativity – Crisis is the FERTILIZER for growing seed.
- II Kings 4:1-7 “What do you have in your house? (just a little oil?… start filling jars!)
- Exodus 4:2-5 “What is that in your hand?” (A staff?... throw it down, die to self)
- John 12:24 “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
- Mark 4:26-29 “And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
- Harvest is miraculous & progressive!
- Proverbs 11:24 “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. (25) The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
