HCC Weekly - September 22nd, 2025

Stewardship

Pastor David

The day this devotional goes out, the 2026 budget of each ministry department at our church is due to be presented to Pastor Ken. After they have been presented to pastor Ken and approved, he takes them to our church board for final approval. This is all done to make sure we have an expectation of what our finances will look like next year. As staff pastors we understand that setting a standard for our spending is necessary because what we are spending is not our own. Rather, our ministry budgets are made from the tithes and offerings given to the church by you the congregation and ultimately belong to God. We are just stewards of it.

God has given us different responsibilities or things that we are to steward. To steward means to take care of something that does not belong to us. Here are some things that God has given us to steward:

This world – Genesis 1:28

Our bodies – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our wealth/possessions – Proverbs 3:9 (and see the blessing for doing so in the next verse)

Everything (since everything is from God) – 1 Chronicles 29:14

We have a responsibility to take care of what God has given us. And if we don’t it could prevent us from receiving more.

Think of it like this: a friend gives you a plant to take care of but you are negligent and forget to water the plant and it dies a couple weeks later. Later that friend comes around and asks about the plant and you have to tell them that it died because you weren’t a good steward of it. This might insult your friend or at least make your friend think it was a waste to give you that plant that they themselves grew or bought. It may also stop them from giving you other things in the future if you didn’t take care of the thing they already gave you.

This is the general idea of the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. A master gave three servants different amounts of talents before going on a long trip. While he is gone, two servants take what they given and double it. The third decides to hide it out of fear of losing what was given to him. When the master returned he praised the first two servants but was not happy with the third servant who took his talent and did nothing with it. He then took that servant’s talent and gave it to the other servant who started with the most talents and doubled it.

So, we have a responsibility to steward what has been given to us by God. And as King David said in 1 Chronicles 29, that’s everything. That said, how are you doing in stewarding what God has given you? When he returns will he find that you have taken care of and even grown what you were given or, have you been negligent and hidden what has been given to you?