STEWARDSHIP

STEWARDSHIP

“Quality of Life Series”

10/26/04

LEADER: Let me ask you a question, if you died right now, what donation would you have made to life itself?

In the end, how long you lived is not going to be nearly as important as how well you lived. "it’s not the duration of life of how many years we live but the donation of life, what we do with those years that really count." Today we’re going to see discover some ways to make our lives count.

(From: Stewardship-Will Our Lives Count For Much?

By Rick Gillespie-Mobley EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35226&ContributorID=5503)

LEADER: Are you a giver…or a taker?

Are you a good steward of all the Lord has given you?

Of the people He sends you?

Of the gifts He gives you?

Your money?

Your body?

Time?

His Word?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Stewardship-Will Our Lives Count For Much?”

By Rick Gillespie-Mobley EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35226&ContributorID=5503)

John D. Rockerfeller Sr. was at age 23 a millionaire. At the age of 50, he was a billionaire. He was the richest man in the world. But he was a miserable rich man. At the age of 53, he was eaten up with physical diseases and ulcers. He was a grabber, not a giver. He was always trying to get more money and he was a greedy man. Greed had so consumed him that at the age of 53, the doctors told him he had one year to live. Just one year.
Here’s a billionaire, the richest man in the world, and all he could eat that year, all that his stomach could handle was milk and crackers. Milk and crackers. The man could go out and buy any restaurant in the world, buy it; have any food before him on the table. But it wouldn’t do him much good. It was in that year, that Rockerfeller began to look at his life. He said I have all these possessions and I’ve never been a giver.
That’s when he decided to become a giver. He gave to churches, to hospitals, to foundations, and to medicines. Many of the discoveries we’ve had in medicine have come from money provided by the Rockerfeller foundation. That man who had only one year to live at age 53 because he was a greedy old man, do you know what happened to him. He started giving. He started releasing all this inward attitude, stuff that was in his body. He got rid of his stress, his tension, and his ulcers. He began to live, and he lived to the age of 90 years old..
People are killing themselves with stress and ulcers because they want to get even. They don’t want to forgive. They have filled their lives with resentment. They’re stingy and they are miserable. They wonder why they never enjoy life. You see it’s not how many years you live that counts; it’s the donations you make during the years that really count. Let’s pour out all of our bitterness, our unforgiveness, our anger, and our jealousies so that we can become givers in life.

LEADER: “Stewardship-Will Our Lives Count For Much?” CONT:

By Rick Gillespie-Mobley EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35226&ContributorID=5503)

What separates the giver and the taker on the high road and the low road. Well first of all, givers are positive activist in life. Show me a giver and I’ll show you a person that’s active in life. She or he is constantly giving. Socrates said know thyself, Cicero said control thyself, Jesus said give thyself.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 1

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ''What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.''

Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 2

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“The trick is to realize that after giving your best, there's nothing more to give.”

Sparky Anderson American Baseball Manager

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 3

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.”

Ethel Percy Andrus, Founder of the National Retired Teachers

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 4

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.”

Barbara De Angelis American Expert on Relationship & Love, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 5

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

Mother Teresa 1910-1997, Albanian-born Roman Catholic Missionary

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 6

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.

Billy Graham 1918-, American Evangelist

LEADER: Stewardship Solutions – God’s Gift of Wealth

By Woodrow Kroll EXCERPT

http://www.backtothebible.org/stewardship/article.htm/20052

Seventeen of the Lord's 36 parables have to do with property and stewardship.

Clearly, this was an important subject to Jesus. The problem is we have a skewed understanding of what wealth is. The Funk & Wagnalls dictionary defines wealth as "A large aggregate of real and personal property, an abundance of those material or worldly things that men desire to possess." That definition catches the spirit of our times exactly.

We see wealth in terms of having an abundance of material or worldly things. Riches consist of how many cars you own or how many square feet are in your house. Take Bill Gates's home for example.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Bill Gates”

From: Stewardship Solutions – God’s Gift of Wealth

By Woodrow Kroll EXCERPT

http://www.backtothebible.org/stewardship/article.htm/20052

When local city administrators toured Bill and Melinda Gates's house a few years ago when it was being built, they made a few comments about what they saw. They found, for example, 300 people working on the house while they were there, including 104 electricians. There were no visible electrical outlets anywhere (apparently Bill doesn't like the clutter). You climb 112 steps from the main floor to the main entry. Or if you want, you can take the elevator. The wood columns from the main floor to the roof in the entry area are more than 70 feet tall. The floor is heated everywhere, including the driveway and the walks.

Mr. Gates has a four-car garage. The house for the maintenance staff has its own three-car garage. If you want, music will follow you throughout the house, even to the bottom of the pool. Melinda has 42 linear feet of space in her closet for hanging clothes, all operated like a dry cleaner's rack. And, by the way, the master bathtub can be filled to the right temperature and the right depth by Mr. Gates as he drives home from work. The opulence of the Gates's mansion reflects the mentality we have today about wealth. The more we have, the more we spend.

LEADER: Stewardship Solutions – God’s Gift of Wealth

By Woodrow Kroll EXCERPT CONT:

http://www.backtothebible.org/stewardship/article.htm/20052

When we get back to the Bible, however, we find that wealth is a lot more than money. Wealth is the sum total of all that God has given us.

The Bible makes it clear that God created everything, God sustains everything and God owns everything.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Psalm 104:24

"The earth is full of Your possessions."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Chronicles 29:11

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours."

LEADER: "Our Primary Stewardship" By Kenneth Sauer

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=47789&ContributorID=6536

A little boy had two quarters, one for ice cream and one for the church offering. Unfortunately, he accidentally dropped one of the quarters into the storm sewer. “Oh, no, Lord,” the boy said, “look what happened to Your quarter!”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Haggai 2:8

"'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of Hosts."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #7

http://www.backtothebible.org/stewardship/article.htm/20052

"When the possessor of Heaven and Earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward. As such, He entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds. But the sole property of these still rests in Him nor can ever be alienated from Him, as you are not your own but His. Such as likewise all you enjoy."

John Wesley 1703-91 founder of the Methodist Church

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “God’s Land” By Ralph E. Dixon, Jr. The Upper Room

http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?start_pos=1&item_id=146277

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17 (KJV)

YEARS ago while plowing, I uncovered a Native American artifact. I thought the flint object was a tomahawk. Later, I showed it to a knowledgeable person and learned it was actually a stone hoe. An unknown Native American and I had been turning the earth in the same place, although we were separated by culture, technology, and hundreds of years. I realized that the land I considered mine is in my possession for only a short time, as it had been for my predecessors. It has been God's land all along!

It is easy to think of material things as our own. In reality, God has loaned them to us so that we can be faithful and express the gratitude that God is due.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: "I Sing The Mighty Power Of God"

Hymn by Isaac Watts:

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q1108/q1108.html#point5

I sing the mighty power of God
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command,
And all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord
That filled the earth with food;
He formed the creatures with His word
And then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed
Where'er I turn my eye:
If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky!

There's not a plant or flower below
But makes Thy glories known;
And clouds arise and tempests blow
By order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee
Is ever in Thy care,
And everywhere that man can be,
Thou, God, art present there.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Corinthians 4:7

"What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Galatians 4:2

"…but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father"

LEADER: “Guardians” Today’s Word By Dr. Grant C. Richison EXCERPT

http://www.crusade.org/word/word1619.html

Paul uses two terms that both carry the idea of entrusting someone with something of value: 1) guardians and 2) stewards.

· A "guardian" was one to whose care something is committed. The word comes from two Greek words: upon and to turn, direct. This individual has delegated authority over the person of the child. He was both an attendant and a bodyguard. The Mosaic law is an attendant and bodyguard to teach us how to conduct ourselves.

· A "steward" literally is one who rules a house. This person managed the estate of the heir until he came of age. He had authority over the property of the heir.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ecclesiastes 5:19
¹⁹ Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

LEADER: What we do with these gifts is a test of our character.

Mr. Welch of Welch's grape juice; J. C. Kraft of Kraft Cheese; Henry P. Kroll of Quaker Oats; William Colgate of the Colgate Soap Company; Walter Johnson, the founder of Holiday Inn; J. C. Penney of the J. C. Penney stores; and R. G. LeTourneau of LeTourneau University and all the LeTourneau equipment are examples of good character and good stewards of the resources they received from the Lord. These men put God first in their businesses.

(From: Stewardship Solutions – God’s Gift of Wealth By Woodrow Kroll EXCERPT)

http://www.backtothebible.org/stewardship/article.htm/20052

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Measure of Wealth” By Peter Kennedy

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon3a/measure_of_wealth.htm

"and said: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.'" - Job 1:21
Stanley Kresge was born on June 11, 1900 in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Albion College in 1923 and went to work for his father's company, the S.S. Kresge Company. The S.S. Kresge Company later changed its name to K-Mart. For much of his entire life, Stanley Kresge was very wealthy man. But he was not spoiled by his inherited wealth. He was a Christian philanthropist who maximized that fortune. During his lifetime he gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to others, and especially to his church. When he died in Detroit at the age of 85, his pastor said this in the eulogy: "He considered what he had as a trust from God, and that he was a steward of all that God had given to him." Before his death, Kresge told a newspaper reporter why he never let it be known how much of his personal fortune he had given away. He said, "I'd be embarrassed to have anybody think I was bragging about charity." But quietly and consistently, all of his check payments and charitable contributions were signed exactly the same way: "In the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, Stanley S. Kresge."
We come into and leave this world with no material possessions. The only true measure of wealth is our ability to praise the Lord throughout our life. Are you going through difficult financial times? Today in prayer, let Job's words be the prayer of your heart "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."
"The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money." - J.H. Jowett

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ecclesiastes 5:19

"As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor--this is the gift of God."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Proverbs 11:24

One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

LEADER: Are we good stewards of our resources?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Luke 12:15

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 8 (RESOURCES)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“EARN as much as you can. SAVE as much as you can. INVEST as much as you can. GIVE as much as you can.”

Rev. John Wellesly American Minister

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Luke 12:48 b

For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Luke 6:38
³⁸ "Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

LEADER: “Stewardship-Will Our Lives Count For Much?” CONT:

By Rick Gillespie-Mobley EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35226&ContributorID=5503)

Jesus tells us that givers are blessed by God. He says when giving becomes a habit of life good things are going to happen.

LEADER: Are we good stewards of ourselves?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 9 (SELF)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.”

Antoine De Saint-Exupery 1900-1944, French Aviator, Writer

LEADER: Are we good stewards of our bodies?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Corinthians 6:12 – 20 (NIV) EVERONE TURN

“Everything is permissible for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me” – but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food” – but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

LEADER: “Caring For God’s Temple” By Carl Willis EXCERPTS

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=62902&ContributorID=5993

· 64.5% of all adults in the U.S. are considered overweight

· 15.3 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases occur in the U.S. each year

· More than 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related disease

· 22.4% of high school seniors have smoked marijuana in the past month

· 68 million pornographic search engine requests daily

We must honor God with our Body
Take care of what God has given us with:
Rest
Exercise
Sound nutrition
Avoiding temptation
Avoiding Garbage in, garbage out
Using our body for God’s glory
Worshipping
Serving others

LEADER: Are we good stewards of our time?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Stewardship Part 1 Time” By Wesley Bishop

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=66791&ContributorID=11135

Time is such a strange thing. It goes at the same speed. It neither speeds up nor slows down. An hour is always 60 minutes, and a minute is always 60 seconds. There are always 24 hours in a day, except when we go off and on daylight savings time. Then you have one 25-hour day and a 23-hour day, so it equals out. There is no way to get more time. You can’t buy and sell time. Every single person on the planet has the same amount of time in the day. The rich don’t have more and the poor don’t have less. The old man in India has the same amount of time as the young girl in Canada. No matter how wise or foolish we are with our time, we get the same amount every day. You can’t put time in the bank for another day. Every day we are presented with another 86,400 seconds to use. God issues us a check each day for 86,400 seconds. How do you spend it?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #10 (TIME)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Time_And_Time_Management&id=5

“Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.”

Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773, British Statesman, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 11 (TIME)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Time_And_Time_Management&id=5

“If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.”

Lee Iacocca 1924-, American Businessman, Former CEO of Chrysler

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #12 (TIME)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Time_And_Time_Management&id=5

“Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.”

Horace Mann 1796-1859, American Educator

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 13 (TIME)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Time_And_Time_Management&id=5

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 14 (TIME)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Time_And_Time_Management&id=5

“Time stays long enough for those who use it.”

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519

Italian Inventor, Architect, Painter, Scientist, Sculptor

LEADER: Are we good stewards of our talents…our gifts?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Peter 4:10
¹⁰ As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 15 (TALENT)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Talent

“Your talent is God's gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God.”

Leo Buscaglia American Expert on Love, Lecturer, Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #16 (TALENT)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Talent

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

Henry Van Dyke 1852--1933, American Protestant Clergyman and Writer

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 17 (TALENT)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Talent

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ''I used everything you gave me.”

Erma Bombeck 1927-, American Author, Humorist

LEADER: What will we do with the people He sends us…our families?

Be good stewards?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #18 (PEOPLE)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=People&id=4

“There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.”

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662, French Scientist, Religious Philosopher

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #1

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35223&ContributorID=5503

I want you to meet Raoul. Raoul was a young individual who came from a very poverty stricken background. Raoul was determined when he grew up, he was not going to be poor. His kids would have the good things of life, and his wife would never suffer as his mother suffered to make ends meet. Raoul worked hard in college and went on to get his MBA. Everybody who met him would say, now that’s somebody that’s going somewhere. One day that guy is going to make it big.
Raoul was hired by a good company. He got married and had a couple of kids and they lived comfortably. But Raoul was driven with the need to accumulate more. He worked more and more hours on the job. He moved up the company ladder. He invested his money well and made a killing on the market. The guy had success written all over him. His wife asked him if he could finally cut back on work so they could spend some time together. He told her that after this next big move, he would cut back but right now he really needed to plow himself into the job. He kept climbing the ladder socially and economically and won the admiration of many.
One day Raoul realized that he had gone as far up the ladder as he could go. Again his wife asked him, to come back and spend some time with her and the kids. He told her, "you know honey, I’ve gone as far as I can with this company. I’m just forty-five. I’ve got a plan I want to tell you about in the morning after I run some numbers on the computer. Sitting at the computer Raoul was thinking, I’ve made a lot of money with these stocks, but I don’t want to keep it all here. I’ll sell them and buy even more stock, and hopefully double what I’m making now. Boy I’ve got a lot of good things. A beautiful home, a Mercedes and a Lexus, and money in the bank to boot. My wife is right. I’m going to kind of sit back and sort of chill out on life and do what I want to do."
While he was admiring his great skill and accomplishment and looking over all the materials he had gathered for his future, for the first time he heard God speak. God said, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself." With that message, Raoul grabbed for his chest. He fell over on his computer and his investment plans for the future and He died. His wife found him there at desk the next day simply looking as though he had fallen asleep.

LEADER: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” CONT:

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35223&ContributorID=5503

Jesus said, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but it not rich towards God. God knows all about our plans and our dreams. He knows all about what it is we plan to accomplish. He knows all the hours we’re putting in and the sacrifices we’re making. But God knows something we don’t. God knows when our clock is going to stop ticking. Just when Raoul thought he was ready to enjoy it, he lost it all.

LEADER: On your death bed will you be saying… “I wish I’d spent more time at work”…or will you wish you’d spent more time with your family?

LEADER: Are we good stewards of our time?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #2

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35223&ContributorID=5503

From the moment we are born, we are assigned a clock which is ticking. We like to think the clock is ticking in our favor. When we see a little child, we think, that child has seventy or eighty years ahead of him or her. The reality is, the child is losing time at the rate of 86,400 seconds each and every day.
By the time the child reaches 35, the child will have 500 days left to live. This 500 days is based on subtracting the time spent sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, hygiene, odd chores, medical matters, eating, traveling and miscellaneous time stealers from the next 35 years. When we think of stewardship, we often think of money, but time is something God expects us to be good stewards of as well. How we spend our time is going to be of tremendous importance when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ecclesiastes 11:6
⁶ Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

LEADER: Are we good stewards of His word?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #3

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35223&ContributorID=5503

Have you ever heard someone say, "I would like to read the Bible but I just do not have the time." If you were to read the bible from Genesis to Revelation at the speed of someone doing the Scripture reading it would take seventy one hours. If you broke that down into minutes and divided it into one year, that means in only twelve minutes a day, you could read the Bible from cover to cover.
How many of us who do not read the Bible, can honestly say to God, God I just do not have twelve minutes a day to devote to your word.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #19 (GOD’S WORD)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Bible

“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.”

Helen Keller 1880-1968, American Blind/Deaf Author, Lecturer

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 20 (GOD’S WORD)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Bible

“The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

Dwight L. Moody 1837-211899, American Evangelist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 22 (GOD’S WORD)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Bible

“When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty.”

Woodrow T. Wilson 1856-1924, Twenty-eighth US President

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 23 (GOD’S WORD)

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Bible

“No one ever graduates from Bible study until he meets its Author face to face.”

Everett Harris

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Psalm 119:72 (GOD’S WORD)

The law of Thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #4

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=35223&ContributorID=5503

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
When we provide a stewardship of how we spend our time, it will be based on what we have actually done, not what we intended to do. Nobody is going to be rewarded for good intentions. The psalmist prayed, "Lord teach us to number our days." Our problem stems from us overestimating the time we have left. What do John the Baptist, good King Josiah, and Jonathan the son of King Saul all have in common with Jesus. All of them had an appointment with death before they reached their fortieth birthday. Yet each one of them found the time to do the will of God for their lives.
When we truly number our days, we have a different outlook on life. For instance if you knew you only had 24 hours left to live. What book written last year would you want to read? What soap opera would you desperately want to see? What football game would you not want to miss that night? What amount of that time would you want to rush back and spend at the office on your job? What hairstyle would you feel you had to get? What movie would you just have to see? What outfit would you be dying to buy? What car would you just have to ride in? What pair of sneakers would make you feel good to put on.
Most of us would not be interested in calling our favorite secular artists to come and sit with us. We would not be calling for the bartender to come be by our side. If we had our own business, we would not be calling for all our clients and customers to come be with us. No must of us would be calling for our family and close friends. Some of us would even want to have a worship service remembering the goodness and promises of God. We will have accepted the ticking down of the clock and the final countdown, not as a great event to be feared, but as a passage into the eternal presence of our God. We would not be approaching the judgment seat of Christ with fear, but rather with assurance that Jesus is going to accept us into His kingdom.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #5

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

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The reality is, we do not know how much time we have left to give in service to God and to each other. What would you say to your child, if you knew today is the last time you will get to see them? What would you say to your parent, if tomorrow was your last time together? What would you do differently toward your husband or wife this week, if you knew this week was your last one together? My friends it should not take a crisis in life for us to love another as Jesus told us to do.
Part of being a good steward of our time is loving people. Jesus put it this way, "a new commandment, I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this will everyone know that you are my disciples." Every now and then take a look at the obituary page in the newspaper and see how many people your age made an unexpected departure out of this life. The chance we have today, is a chance that’s not going to come again. You cannot love people without investing some of your time in them. You cannot love a church without investing some of your time in its ministries. You cannot love God without carrying out God’s commandments in your life.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “God’s Painters” By William C. Sanford The Upper Room

Give an account of thy stewardship. Luke 16:2 (KJV)

SOME time ago I heard a woman state an idea that has stayed in my mind ever since. The woman said she liked to think of each day as a canvas on which she would paint a picture. She would undertake to paint a picture so beautiful and interesting that she would feel good about signing her name to it. What a great way to look at a day! Every morning, God gives us a fresh canvas. Every evening, we return a painting. This idea has the power to shape lives for good by changing the way we look at our actions.

At the end of each day, I ask myself, Does this painting represent the best I can do? How can I do better tomorrow? In what ways can I touch others' lives for good?

LEADER: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” CONT:

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EXCERPT

A good stewardship of our time, recognizes all of our time belongs to the glory of God. Whatever we do, which cannot be done to the glory of God, needs to be eliminated from our lives. Every day the clock is ticking. Each time you look at your watch, look at your spiritual watch and ask, I’m I doing what I’m doing to the glory of God.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #6

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

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Jesus went to Calvary and died on a cross on our behalf, all because he was a giver in life. Jesus died to get us to see beyond ourselves and into the very heart of God who is the greatest giver of them all. You can’t even begin to know God, without being willing to become a giver, for the first step in knowing God is to give your allegiance to Jesus Christ. It’s up to you. Will your life count for much in the end? Only one life, so soon it will past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.

LEADER: “The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” CONT:

By Rick Gillespi EXCERPT

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Whether one goes to hell or to heaven is dependent upon whether or not during one of those 36,792,000 minutes of a 70 year old person life, if he or she took just one minute of time to give his or her life to Jesus Christ and make a decision to live for Him. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." The Bible says, there is no other name in heaven, earth, or under the earth by which anyone will be saved other than Jesus Christ. Your clock is ticking down letting you know you are running out of time to do what God requires of you. The first step is getting saved. The second is living the life God has for you.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE # 24

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Giving

“What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.”

Tryon Edwards 1809-1894, American Theologian

LEADER: There is another stewardship we can choose to exercise or not… the freedom God has given us in this country…the right to vote:

Our thirty-fourth President, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), said, “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.”

(From: http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Voting)

Don’t forget to be a good steward of your vote!

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“Stewardship-Will Our Lives Count For Much?”

QUOTE # 1

Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

QUOTE # 2

“The trick is to realize that after giving your best, there's nothing more to give.”

Sparky Anderson American Baseball Manager

QUOTE # 3

“The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.”

Ethel Percy Andrus, Founder of the National Retired Teachers

QUOTE # 4

“No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.”

Barbara De Angelis American Expert on Relationship & Love, Author

QUOTE # 5

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

Mother Teresa 1910-1997, Albanian-born Roman Catholic Missionary

QUOTE # 6

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.

Billy Graham 1918-, American Evangelist

“Bill Gates”

Psalm 104:24

1 Chronicles 29:11

Haggai 2:8

QUOTE #7

John Wesley 1703-91 founder of the Methodist Church

“God’s Land” By Ralph E. Dixon, Jr. The Upper Room

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17 (KJV)

It is easy to think of material things as our own. In reality, God has loaned them to us so that we can be faithful and express the gratitude that God is due.

"I Sing The Mighty Power Of God" Hymn by Isaac Watts:

1 Corinthians 4:7

Galatians 4:2

Ecclesiastes 5:19

“The Measure of Wealth” By Peter Kennedy

Ecclesiastes 5:19

Proverbs 11:24

Luke 12:15

QUOTE # 8

“EARN as much as you can. SAVE as much as you can. INVEST as much as you can. GIVE as much as you can.”

Rev. John Wellesly American Minister

Luke 12:48 b

Luke 6:38

QUOTE # 9

“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.”

Antoine De Saint-Exupery 1900-1944, French Aviator, Writer

1 Corinthians 6:12 – 20

“Stewardship Part 1 Time” By Wesley Bishop

QUOTE #10

“Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.”

Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773, British Statesman, Author

QUOTE # 11

“If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.”

Lee Iacocca 1924-, American Businessman, Former CEO of Chrysler

QUOTE #12

“Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.”

Horace Mann 1796-1859, American Educator

QUOTE # 13

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat

QUOTE # 14

“Time stays long enough for those who use it.”

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519 Italian Inventor, Architect, Painter, Scientist, Sculptor

Peter 4:10

QUOTE # 15

“Your talent is God's gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God.”

Leo Buscaglia American Expert on Love, Lecturer, Author

QUOTE #16

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

Henry Van Dyke 1852--1933, American Protestant Clergyman and Writer

QUOTE # 17

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ''I used everything you gave me.”

Erma Bombeck 1927-, American Author, Humorist

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #1 By Rick Gillespi

QUOTE #18

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662, French Scientist, Religious Philosopher

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #2 By Rick Gillespi

Ecclesiastes 11:6

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #3 By Rick Gillespi

QUOTE #19

“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.”

Helen Keller 1880-1968, American Blind/Deaf Author, Lecturer

QUOTE # 20

“The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

Dwight L. Moody 1837-211899, American Evangelist

QUOTE # 22

“When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty.”

Woodrow T. Wilson 1856-1924, Twenty-eighth US President

QUOTE # 23

“No one ever graduates from Bible study until he meets its Author face to face.”

Everett Harris

Psalm 119:72

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #4 By Rick Gillespi

QUOTE # 24

“What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.”

Tryon Edwards 1809-1894, American Theologian

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #5 By Rick Gillespi

“God’s Painters” By William C. Sanford The Upper Room

Give an account of thy stewardship. Luke 16:2 (KJV)

At the end of each day, I ask myself, Does this painting represent the best I can do? How can I do better tomorrow? In what ways can I touch others' lives for good?

“The Clock Is Ticking--Stewardship Of Time” #6 By Rick Gillespi