Each Day Already is a Challenge

Reclaiming Sermon Series - Part 1 - Reclaiming Your Identity

Our pastor has started a new sermon series. These are my notes from part one, Sunday, January 13, 2008




Reclaiming Your Identity
Reclaiming Series (Part 1)

The Basics

God is the owner.

1 Corinthians 10:26 NIV The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
Genesis 1:25 & 31 NIV And God saw that it was good… God saw all that he had made and it was very good.

Jesus talked more about stewardship than anything else. In the Gospels, one of every six verses mentions stewardship.

Stewardship: The responsibility of managing someone else’s assets, affairs, property.

Man’s Distinctives:
Difference in character.
Difference in career.

Genesis 1:28 MSG God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth.”

Man is the manager.

We forget our purpose. We forget that we don’t own everything. We’re just supposed to manage it.

The Changes:

Genesis 1:28 MSG “Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth.”

Bad reversal: We’re possessed by our possessions.
Good reversal: We can partner with God.

Benefits of partnering with God:
You manage what He gives you and enjoy it.
You manage what little He gives and you enlarge your trust.

Matthew 25:21 NIV “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

Romans 14:12 NIV So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Reminder: Everything we have is on loan.

My True Identity:

I am manager of everything - environment, time, physical fitness, finances, salvation, family, home, business, friends, time, wealth.

I get to enjoy 90 percent of everything He have me.

Tithing is a reminder that everything belongs to God.

Deuteronomy 8:17-18 MSG If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!” - well think again.

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 MSG Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there give the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live.


Daily Bible Verses:

Monday 1 Corinthians 10:26
Tuesday Matthew 25:21
Wednesday Romans 14:12
Thursday Deuteronomy 8:17-18
Friday Deuteronomy 14:22-23
Saturday Genesis 1:28