Steward Little

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected], we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm excited about being able to share God's word with you today. And I'm wrapping up. I'm the closer and so we'll just kind of see at the very end how well I close. I'm closing. Wrapping up the four part series that we've been in called free. And it's all about finding financial freedom in Christ. Finding financial freedom in Christ. Scripture tells us that it's for freedom that Christ set us free. That's Galatians five one. And certainly what freedom is. Jesus, what is he really most concerned about? He's most concerned about setting us free spiritually. Right? So Jesus, he wants to set us free from sin and death. And that is faux free. It's a free gift of grace. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. He's just that good. He's so gracious and kind that he willingly gave himself for us. For God so loved the world that he gave. It's an inherent part of his nature. God is a giver and he gives it for free. Now it costs us nothing. It's free. It cost him his life. He gave his life for us on the cross. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, so we might become the righteousness of God in him. So it's for freedom that Christ set us free. Freedom from sin and death. But also, don't you know that Jesus not only wants to set us free from sin, he also wants to invade every other crooked nook and cranny in our lives and set us free from that, too. And it just so happens that one of the areas of our lives that we are so susceptible to being in bondage in is in the area of resource management. I think that's the reason why Jesus spoke so much about money. 16 of his 38 parables dealt with the issue of money and possessions. 15% of all that Jesus talked about dealt with the issue of resource management. In fact, the only topic that Jesus spoke more about was the kingdom of God. So wait a minute. What's up with that? Is because Jesus wants our money. Is he trying to orchestrate some sort of fundraiser because they ran out of money to buy gold bricks to pave the streets in heaven. No, Jesus doesn't want our money. Jesus wants us. He wants us. And he knows that oftentimes our money or our stuff has us. So what Jesus wants to do is he just wants to set us free. He wants to set us free from the love of money. He wants to set us free from the mindset of wanting more and more and more and more and more. He wants to set us free from allowing resources to be our master. Can you be set free today? Is that money and stuff? It's a terrible master, but an incredible servant. It's for freedom that Christ set us free. Okay, now that I've gotten that truth, I say out of the way in my mind, but no, let's put that front and center. What I want to acknowledge before you is we all make mistakes in this area. Can we agree no one has done this perfectly? Have you ever made an impulse buy? You're at the mall. We're just going to window shop. We're just window shopping. And before you know it, you're bursting through the window to buy a 20th pair of shoes. You're at Costco. Hello? Somebody. Oh, I love Costco. I mean, when my kids and I were hungry, it's like, let's just go to Costco. Let's go eat. Go eat some samples. It's fine. You're at Costco, and there is this huge new screen tv, and you already have four of them at the house. And you're thinking, but I don't have that one. And it's not as big as that one is. And so you swipe it and you take it home. Or maybe it's that you get your tax return back and you have some consumer debt that probably would benefit from that tax return, but you're like, well, you like Yolo, let's go on a caribbean cruise. We've done it. Why do we do that? Why is it that when I was 18 years old, at 01:00 in the morning while watching an infomercial, felt the need to buy a cutlery set for three easy payments of 59 99? That happened. I still own the cutlery set. Jessica can testify. Why did I do that? Because I was bored and armed with a credit card. I just got it in the mail. Plus, the guy on tv, he was so compelling, he said, if you buy right now, no delay, no delaying, buy right now, you get a complimentary set of meat scissors and a season injector. And I'm like, what's a guy supposed to do? So I bought it. I have not always done well in the area of resource management, and there's still room for me to grow. Okay. I think about the time when Jessica and I, we were so young. We've been married for 18 years, here in July. So just. You'll go back 18 years ago, and we were just young and dumb. Can we call like it is? We were young and dumb. We are living on canned green beans and big time dreams. Come on. If you know what I'm talking about. We didn't have hardly anything. But don't you know you don't have to have a lot to be happy? We were happy. We didn't have a lot, but we were grateful for what we had. And we didn't have social media, so we didn't realize how little we had relative to the rest of the world. We thought it was great, and we got to go to Chipotle once a week, got to see a movie. I felt like we were rich, and in some ways, maybe we were. Well, we had a pretty good bearing on how to handle finances, in large part because we learned from both the success and the mistakes of our families growing up. But also, we were committed to being in church, and we wanted to understand, how does God's economy work? What is God's desire and expectation for resource management? So we were doing pretty well at the time. We had a budget. It was clearly defined. We made sure God was first. He got the first and our best in our budget. We tried our best to stay out of consumer debt. We acted our wage. We lived on less than we made. We tried to be generous and see a need, meet a need, and all those things, and not did it perfectly, but pretty good. Until the flyer came in the mail. And that flyer, it was shiny, it was well put together. And at the top of the flyer, it said, you want a free? Uh huh. All you have to do is attend this little seminar on a Saturday for free, and then you get the free cruise. No big deal. If you would have told Jessica and I that gullible was written on the ceiling, we'd have spent hours looking for that word. Where was that? Where'd you say it is? It's up there, right? So we went. We went to Irving, pulled up to this strip mall. It was broken down. I mean, it looks us. Come on. How many of you know that God always puts roadblocks in front of you before we blow right through them and make a bad decision? Like when we make bad decisions. It's not because God didn't say, don't do that, and multiple times, because God wants best for us, right. So we just plowed right through it, went inside, locked our car, and went back and was like, wait, do we really lock that? Okay, good. It's safe. I think so. Go inside. And after eight long, grueling, pressure filled hours, we walked away. Walked away with a terrible timeshare. Terrible, terrible timeshare in the highly desired vacation spot of Tyler, Texas. What in the world? This wasn't Puerto Vallarta. This was Tyler, Texas. Who goes there? We never went, actually. We bought this timeshare. More like a crime share, if not for being so gullible to willingly participate in it. So here we have our timeshare. We're paying for it for an entire year, and it wasn't cheap. And then in the mail, we got our cruise voucher. It was a three day cruise from Galveston, and the window of opportunity was like, October 17 to October 20. You can make it. Go for it. So we had a timeshare in Tyler, Texas, that we never used and a cruise we never got to go on. Man. What I'm trying to say is this is an area of life that we've got to wise up and you're not alone. I would imagine that we have all made some financial blunders. Maybe even you've done that, and you're still paying for it today. All I'm trying to do today is just help a brother, help a sister, help a family out. Okay? And I want you to know that I am by no means preaching this message from a place of, I've arrived. I've arrived. No. Even though we're all on different places in our journey, both in finances and relationships and everything else, there's one thing that's constant and the same for all of us, and that's that there's room for growth. So can we grow today? If you're ready to grow, turn to somebody and say, it's grow time. It's grow time. Oh, my goodness. What I want to do today is I want to widen the lens a little bit. If you're new to our series, Bill, Pastor Bill, he's been working through this material for the past three weeks, and what I want to do is I just want to widen the lens a little bit. And I want to do my best to summarize what we've talked about by honing in on one particular idea, and that's the idea of stewardship. And I want to make sure that we have a working definition. So we're on the same page about what stewardship is. So I have a definition up on the screen. I'll read it from my notes. Here's what stewardship is. It's the careful and responsible management of something keyword entrusted. Entrusted to one's care. That's what God is looking for. God is looking for good stewards. He's looking for people that he can place into their possession, his property, his people, his time, into our hands. And he's asking us, in fact, he's expecting us to be found faithful and trustworthy. And there is a reward that comes along with that. We find Jesus talking about this reward in Luke, chapter 16, verse ten. Here's what it says. Whoever can be trusted with very little, whoever can be trusted with very little will also then be trusted with much. We have to understand that the main thing in life to God, for us, stewardship. Stewardship. And this is an all encompassing word. This is not just about money. This is about time. This is about people. This is about open doors of opportunity. God's looking for people. He's watching. And, oh, he is ready to just pour out blessings and opportunities into our lives, but only if we're blessable. So one thing I want to ask myself, and I want us to ask ourselves today as we go through this material, is, am I blessable? How many of you know that if you're parents, you want to bless your children, don't you? You just want to lavish them with blessings however you can, but you won't if they're not blessable because you don't want to raise rotten kids. You want to raise righteous kids. So you withhold the blessings. But if not for them, putting them in a position to be able to handle that well, whoever can be faithful with just a little bit, you can be faithful with a lot. And God's about it. He's about blessing his kids. We're going to look at a passage of scripture today from Matthew, chapter 25. And it's a story that Jesus told, and it's known as the parable of the talents. And in this story, Jesus is saying, there's a master who has talents. He gives them to his servants. The master goes away. He then comes back. And he's expecting for the servants to be able to show for what they were given. And so I want you think about that as we look into Matthew, chapter 25. And this will also be an illustration about the idea of stewardship. What is stewardship? It's carefully and responsibly managing everything that's been entrusted into our care. So let's take a look at Matthew 25 beginning in verse 14. Here's what Jesus says. For it, the it is the kingdom of heaven. For it, the kingdom of heaven will be like a man. That's Jesus going on a journey. Who called his servants. That's us. And entrusted to them his property. So who does all this property belong to? Jesus. The Bible says all things were created by Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus. That's colossians 115, if you want to memorize it. To one, he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to their ability. Then he went away. He who had received five talents went at once, no delay. He's like, I get it. I know what I'm supposed to do with this. At once. He traded with them and he made five more talents. So he also, who had the two talents made two more talents. But he who had received one talent went and dug in a ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Jesus is coming back. If we die before he comes back, either way, we're going to settle accounts with God. Some people say, they say, don't judge me. Only God can judge me. It's almost like that's comforting, like they're comforted by that tattoo. That's somewhere. Only God can judge me. The problem is sometimes he does, sometimes he does. And we're going to give an account for how we handle these talents. This opportunity, the people time that God has entrusted into our care. He who had received five talents came forward. Verse 20, bringing five more talents, saying, master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I've made five more talents. His master said to him, oh, well done, good, faithful servant, you have been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enjoy or enter into the joy of your master. Oh, I love that. Enter into the joy of your master. I don't think I can say with 100% confidence that I'm perfect at this, but, oh, man, I want to be such a good steward of everything God's given to me, that God's excited. He's excited about how I'm handling everything God's given to me. And that one day I'm going to hear Jesus say, well done, good job. You did great. You were perfect. That's why you need my grace. But you did a great job. Well done. And he who also had received two talents, verse 22, came forward, saying, master, you delivered to me two talents here, I've made two more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful again. Over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He who had received the one talent came forward saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man. How many, you know, the complainers have a voice. They got a tone. It's whiny, negative nancy. You get a text message from them. I mean, you know, when that number comes through, you're like, here we go. Here we go. Nothing but complaining. And you can hear the complaining through the message. You can hear it. They always got that tone. Whiner is going to whine. Complainer is going to complain. Maybe I'm just talking to me and you can just join me in my conversation. Look, constructive criticism is valuable. It is. Correction can be kind. If your boy's doing something that is not honoring to God, please tell me. And the way we avoid criticism, to becoming complaining, is you sandwich it. Sandwich it with some sort of point of encouragement, point of affirmation. Hey, I love this about you. You honor God. When you do that, it's just awesome to see you in action. Now, there are times when you say this, that's not who you are. That's not what you're about. But I believe in you're awesome. See how you sandwich it? Constructive criticism is a gift from God. Complaining? Nope. The Bible's very clear. Do all things without grumbling and complaining. Here's this guy blaming. Well, here you go. Here's yours. Reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you scatter no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here. Here's yours. But his master, Jesus, answered him and said, you wicked and slothful servant. Another translation says lazy. Can you think of anything worse than being called lazy? Especially by someone who cares deeply for you, and you care deeply about just lazy. That's what Jesus is saying to this servant who took his talent and just dug a hole and buried it. He said, you're lazy. You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and I gather where I scattered no seed. Here's what the Lord's saying. He's saying, you know who I am. You know my character. You know what I'm about. You know that I've graciously entrusted all this into your care, and I expect for you to take good care of it. You know that. And if you knew that at some point in time, you're going to stand before me in judgment? Then why'd you act like such a fool? You know who I am, so why didn't you do more with what I gave you? So he says, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. In other words, he's saying, just if you'd have just done bare minimum, bare minimum, then there would have been something that I could have affirmed at my coming. I should have received what was my own with interest. So take from the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For everyone who has been given more, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What is Jesus saying? Everything we have is by his grace. He's so good, he's so faithful. Everything we have is by his grace. And God wants us to take good care, be good stewards of everything that he has given to us. If we're faithful, what's he going to do? He's going to say, I can trust him, I can trust her. Here's more. Continue to faithfully be fruitful. If we are not faithful, if we're not good stewards, then we're at risk of God saying, I can't trust you, and he'll take it and give it to someone who can be trusted. I want us to grasp this idea of stewardship, and I'm going to give you a couple of practical things for us to be able to better understand what stewardship really is or how to be a good steward. And that's the reason why the subject that I'm preaching from today is steward little, steward little. Because if you can be faithful with a little, well, then you can be faithful with a lot. So if you're taking notes, this is your time to shine. If you take notes because you really love Jesus, clearly, I'm kidding. It's because you want to stay engaged. I'm just kidding. So here's the first point, okay? We're going to talk about a steward's perspective. Steward's perspective. A steward is very, very clear in his or her understanding about how this whole thing works. And here's what it is. God, you own everything. Everything. It's all yours. I own nothing. You own everything. You get to decide how the rules are played. It's all yours. God, I'm a manager. I'm not an owner. My car, it's not mine. It belongs to God. My wife, she's not mine. She belongs to God. My kids, they're not mine. They belong to God. If my kids belong to me, help me, Jesus. They belong to God. They belong to God. My intellect, my emotions, my time, my clothes, my slight obsession with a Texas longhorn football. Okay, that's mine, but it's all his. Everything belongs to God. I love how psalm 24 puts it so clearly. I just love how God leaves no room for misunderstanding. Here it says this, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Everything under the sun, everything around the sun, it belongs to God. Oh, I'm so happy about that, too, by the way. I'm so thankful that I'm not my provider. I am so thankful that I'm not the bestower of talent of time. I'm so thankful I don't have to make decisions of any size in life by myself. The buck doesn't stop with me. It's all about God. He owns everything and everything. That's the perspective of a steward. Whenever we start thinking like a steward, we're able to start acting like a steward. But it begins with a perspective that it all belongs to God. Give us this day our daily bread. He's our provider. He's our source. When my perspective is that way, I don't have to be so afraid of economic conditions. He's my provider. The Bible says that he will supply all my needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The steward's perspective is, I'm just a manager. I'm not the owner. I find great comfort in that. The second point is steward's production. A steward's perspective. God, this all belongs to you. I'm a manager, not an owner. The steward's production is this. God has given us talents, time, treasure, relationships, opportunities. And in doing so, he expects a return on that investment. If you're a business owner or you like to dabble in the stock market or you have money of any kind, you're probably looking to put it in the place that's going to generate the greatest. What return. The thought that I have anything tells me that God believes I'm capable of doing something. He is investing in us and wants us to generate a return. Two of the servants did that, right? The one, the five, and the one with two. They made five and two more. The one who had the one just did nothing. The only reason why we fail in the area of stewardship, or maybe two primary reasons, one is because of laziness. We don't do anything. And trust me, it's much easier to just be on TikTok and watch Netflix all day long. It's a lot easier. It's much more difficult to identify, cultivate, nurture, develop what God's given to us so that we have something to show for. Oh, that's so much more difficult. So it's either because we're lazy or two, because we don't value what we have. We don't value what we have. Do you value what you have? Is your portion enough? Yeah, somebody's got five. And you might have two, or you might have two and somebody else has one or vice versa. God doesn't give equally. God gives fairly. God gives according to our ability, is what the pastor said. Is that right? Is your portion enough? Are you content? One of the things that will kill our production will kill our ability to be able to be useful is when we compare, when we look to what other people have, we're focused more on what they have in their hands than what we have in our hands. We tend to minimize the value what we have. I think about the story of Jesus. He feeds 5000 men, not including women and children, right? So it's probably 20,000 people. And he does so after preaching all day long and the people are hangry. How many, you know, somebody gets hangry. It's like, feed the child, they get hangry. So the people are hangry. They've been hanging on to every word that God says all day long, and they are angry. And the disciples tell Jesus, everything you're saying is really good, but can we wrap this up? Because the people, they're foaming at the mouth like they are staring at you and us. Can we wrap this up and send them home? Because they're hangry. And Jesus says, no, let's feed the people. And then he asks this really interesting question. He asked the disciples, what you got? What you got? And they're like, well, just a couple of fish and a couple of pieces of bread. That's all we have. That's all we have. And Jesus says, that portion's enough. That's enough. I can do miracles with a tiny amount. We should not live life like, well, all I got is this job. All I got is this wife. Better be careful now. All I got is this one kid, or, I don't have any kids or all I've got is it. No, we should be living like, I got a couple of fish, I've got a couple bread. God can do amazing things, miracles. If I will just be content with my portion. It's about portion control. Not talking about dieting, talking about developing. You've been to grandma's house. You have some amazing food. How many love going to grandma's house? You just love home cooking. Whoo. It's good. You got your plate, and you have in your mind you want seconds. What's grandma going to say? Finish what's on your plate first, and then you can come get. We need to be content with what's on our plate right now before we ask God to give us second helpings. He wants to, but we've got to be content. We've got to be grateful for whatever we have. Our portion is enough. Sometimes we think the grass is greener on the other side. Let me just tell you, grass is green where you water it. We got to start watering the ground we're standing on. Embrace the season. We're in. Employ the talent. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed. I may not have the most talent in the world. But whatever God's given to me, it is enough for me to be faithful. I don't need more. My portion is enough. And when we're faithful, with whatever God has given to us, no matter the quantity, whether it's five or two or one, then we can be productive. Then we can be productive. Let me tell you about a cool thing about production. Production leads to promotion. It sure does. If you own a business and you're looking to promote somebody into management, you're looking at the person that shows up on time, even early, looking at the person who's a go getter, someone who hustles, someone who takes correction well, someone who has a good attitude. Those are the people you want to promote. Productivity is a prerequisite for promotion when it comes to how God operates and what he gives to his people. God wants us to be productive. How many guys remember your first job? Anybody remember that? Your first job? Usually remember it. My first job was when I was 15 years old. I was working at Schlotsky's. Funny name, serious sandwich, not smiling about it. Schlosky's. My first job at Schlosky's at 15 was to clean tables and make sandwiches. And I loved it. I thought it was the best. I love coming home smelling like smoked turkey meat. It was great time of my life. After several months, the manager, he came to me, said, it's time. Excuse me? It's time for a promotion. He offered me an opportunity of a lifetime. Work the drive through. I was so happy. I traded that apron out for a headset. It was awesome. I loved it. God's been so faithful to me. Not because I deserve it, because he's good and gracious. God's been gracious to you. As I look back on that time in my life, I never would have dreamed. Never once would I have dreamed that I'd gone from wearing a drive through headset. Never in my life that I would go from that platform to this platform. And I can just tell you it's by God's grace. He's that good, and he's honored. Some areas I've gotten it right, and this is just one. I'm not perfect, but here's one area I've gotten it right in. No matter which headset I was wearing drive through headset or preaching headset, my question has still been the same. May I take your order? God's large and in Charge. I'm small and on call. We will be promoted, more opportunity, you name it. When what? When we're faithful with what God has given to us. Now, when it comes to production and promotion, we have to be careful, because sometimes we can make more about me. More can be our motive. More can be our master. That's idolatry. Idolatry is whenever we take something good, a good thing, and we make it the ultimate thing. Your career is good, but it's not the ultimate thing. Your relationship is good, but it's not the ultimate thing. Your kids are good most of the time, but they're not the ultimate thing. We're not going to make our calendar revolve around their lives. That might be idolatry is when we take a good thing and we make it the most important thing. God wants to give us more. But is my motivation about upgrading from a mazda to a Maserati? Now, if God blesses me with a Maserati, hello. Hello. Now, I'll be honest with you. If I get a Maserati, like, I will never drive the windows down, because, you know, sometimes God just outrageously blesses you, and you're like, I don't want to show know because you don't want to lose it. You want to be humble. We don't want to fly it around. Let me just tell you, Solomon was the richest person, dollar for dollar, to ever live. Who elevated him there? God. God did. God wants to bless us. Not the same. Remember, some five, some two, some one. God wants to bless us, and when we do, we should enjoy it. Solomon said, whenever you receive blessings, it is for your enjoyment. Oh, God doesn't give us stuff for us to be like, oh, man, I got this career, oh, man, I got money in the bank. No, God wants us to enjoy it. He just doesn't want it to be our motivation. Point number three, a steward's purpose. Why am I stewarding? It's not every day I'm hustling. Every day I'm stewarding. Why? To bring God glory. Oh, it's to bring him glory. It's all about him. It's not about me. The one who had one talent, he did nothing. Because it's all about him. It was easier. Take the path of least resistance. Do nothing. There was also another man who's very rich in the Bible. It's in the parable in Luke, chapter twelve, who had a lot of crops. He had this huge, bountiful harvest, and so he tore down his barns and built bigger ones to be able to house more and more and more. So you have a person who has very little with one talent, does nothing with it. You have a person who has a whole lot, which, by the way, God provided the rain, the seed, the ground for all that to happen. He was a good steward. He harvested a great crop. But in the end, God condemned both of them. Why? Because the one who did nothing and the one who did a lot, it was all about them. It was self centered, not God centered. What's a steward's purpose? Oh, it's to bring glory to God. It's to bring him honor. It's all about God. No matter what it is, no matter what I'm managing, it's all about him. And by the way, God wants 100% of us. Not 75%. You can have my kids, you can have my wife. You can't touch my career. God. God wants 100%. Can you imagine telling God, God, I'm happy to give you 75% of my life, but 25, it's me. It's me. Try that with your spouse, honey. 75% faithfulness. Count on. It's coming. Count on it. You think she'll be satisfied with that? God doesn't want 75% faithfulness. He wants 100% faithfulness. He don't want to take a backseat to anybody or anything. He wants us to enjoy what he's given to us, develop it, curate it, cultivate it, but do it for his glory and his alone. And point number four, there will be a reward. What's the steward's reward? The one who had five talents, he was faithful. The one who had two was faithful. They made more, they multiplied everything. God's given to us is for the steward and multiply. In the end, what was the reward? Well done. Come enjoy. Come enjoy time with your master. What's the reward? It's Jesus above all else. Why do I want to be a good steward? Because I want intimacy with Jesus. And in the end, someday I want to hear well done. I want us to live for the well done. Maybe right now you identify more with the one with five and two. Maybe you identify more with the servant who had one. Here's what I want you to just ask yourself, is there some area of your life that you have dug and buried? Maybe it's a marriage. Maybe you've given up that there's hope of restoration. You just buried that idea of restoration. Maybe it's with your kids. They're just so wayward. You're just thinking, every time I forgive, they do it again. You just buried that possibility of a better future. Maybe it's with your talent. You know what God's given to you, and you're keeping it to yourself instead of using it for the building of his church. Maybe it's your career. God's put. He's put a dream in your heart to take a risk and step out of something that you're in that's complacent and step into something that requires courage and see what God would do. Is there something that you've buried? If so, it's time to dig it up. It's time to dig it up, dust it off and use it again. I believe there's two questions we'll be asked when we get in heaven. All of us get the first one. Some of us get the second. Here's the first question. What'd you do with Jesus? What'd you do with Jesus? Did you receive him as your savior? Did you trust in him and follow him alone? If you pass that test, you say, jesus is my lord and savior. You get the second question. The second question is this. What did you do with what God gave you? And my hope is that as stewards, that we can say, I didn't always get it right. I made some mistakes for sure, but, lord, I did my best. I never quit. I always tried to handle what you put in my hands in a way that's faithful. And then we can hear those words. Well done. Come share in the joy of your master. Lord, we love you. We thank you so much that you are so gracious to us that you give to us freely everything we have, the shoes we're wearing, the eyeballs we see, the world through the family. We have the job. We have the talent. We have the time. We have. It's all yours. And you're gracious to us. So, Father, help us to have a renewed commitment to being stewards. To steward. Little, little by little, we cast votes towards stewardship. Before long. Stewardship is no longer an activity. It's an identity. It's not what we do. It's who we are. Because that brings you honor and glory. And that is our aim. In Jesus'name, amen. [00:38:12] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.