Generosity is from God ( HE owns it )
What to do with the phrase “ Home Ownership “ ?
What does that mean?
Briefly revisit Matthew 25:14-30. ( 5 Talents, or 5 bags of gold )
What is the point of the text?
Who is the owner?
And how does that apply to us?
What the Bible says about ownership….
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.
1 Corinthians 10:26
FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS.
Job 41:11
“Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.
Psalm 95:4
In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also.
Psalm 95:5
The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.
Psalm 50:10
“For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.
Psalm 50:11
“I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine.
Haggai 2:8
‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the LORD of hosts.
Psalm 74:16
Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun.
How do we understand who God is?
By focusing so intently on our gifts as being ours, we become short-sighted in two distinct ways.
FIRST we lose sight of the reality that all of our possessions are gifts from God. Without Him, we would possess nothing.
He provides the strength and health to work.
He gives the ability to grasp intellectual concepts and earn degrees.
And He grants us favor in the eyes of the world.
SECOND we lose sight of the reality that all of our possessions are owned by God. When you receive a gift from someone, you own that gift. The giver surrenders his/her rights of ownership. When you receive a gift from God, however, you are the second owner, if you will. God never surrenders His rights as the primary owner. “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).
VIDEO ILLUSTRATION
“Stanley’s Company”
https://generousgiving.org/media/videos/stanley-tam-legally-giving-my-business-to-god
1 Corinthians 4:7
7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
All that He gives and all that He receives is His.
Recognizing God as the ultimate giver and supreme owner of all your possessions will, by the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit, generate Christ-exalting traits within you:
* Humility – as you consider your greatest achievements in life as undeserved gifts
* Divine Dependency – as you entrust yourself to our Creator, from whom all things flow
* Responsibility – as you use your possessions in a way that glorifies our Triune God
* Generosity – as you give just as freely as you have been given
* True Worship – as you combat idolatry by elevating the Giver above His gifts
https://www.ligonier.org/blog/god-owns-everything-you-possess/
Illustration : RonBlue -blog
Life is not consistently good. Life can be capricious and often confusing. The presence of sin and brokenness and evil in our world makes it a scary place to be.
When we actively believe that God owns it all, we have nothing to fear because we have nothing to lose. In light of the sorrow and confusion in the world, though, how does that work? Do we really have nothing to fear if we place it ALL in God’s hands? Do we really have nothing to lose when life is so unpredictable?
Yes, and let me repeat myself…YES. The reason for my conviction is this: I believe that I have nothing to fear because I believe that God is good. When we marry our belief that God is good with our understanding that life is difficult, we can be at peace in surrendering our resources to Him. For me, the best way to learn of God’s goodness is to spend time in Scripture with Him. Reading His grand story of redemption and hearing Him speak to me personally reinforces my ability to surrender to His goodness, whatever is going on in my life at the time.
http://www.ronblueinstitute.com/single-post/2017/02/07/God-Owns-It-All
Application
We have nothing to lose. WHY?
We have everything to gain. WHAT?