BALANCING THE BOOKS

BALANCING THE BOOKS
2 Corinthians 5:9-10
Discovering and being the unique person God made me to be in every area!

1. ME
How do I struggle with this?
When I was in high school, I worked at Walgreens in the largest mall in Albuquerque. I was a bookkeeper and stock manager. I remember when a group of people came in from the company. They came to take inventory. They spent a week counting everything in the store. When it was over, they compared their count to what our records showed should be there. The result? We were $10,000 short! Not good! The cause was shoplifting! Over the space of a year, people had stolen a massive amount of inventory from our store. This led to a total makeover of our security and monitoring processes.  This led to an 80% reduction in loss the next year.

2. WE
How do we all struggle with this?

John said that “the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but He came to give us life, and that more abundantly”! The devil has been stealing from us.  We need to do an inventory of our lives and see where the losses are. Then we can refit our lives around the principles of God’s Word to eliminate the loss.

That is the purposes of this series.  We call it “TOTAL MAKEOVER”.  We want to help you become all you can be in every area of your life and stop the devil from stealing the blessings God has for you!

3. GOD
What does the Bible say about this?

All of us have times when we have to balance our books. We reconcile our bank accounts; we settle bills and debts; we deal with college loans. This is a fact of life. It is also a spiritual fact of life. One day all of us will settle accounts with God.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 NKJV Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

We all have a job to do...

1 Corinthians 9:16-17 NKJV For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. We have all been entrusted with a stewardship.

What is stewardship?

Often we think of stewardship in terms of finances. It is more than that. I want us to think about “total life stewardship”.

The word stewardship comes from the Greek word "oikenomous", which means somebody who manages a household.  We are not the owners, but managers. We manage all the areas of our lives for the glory of God! Our personal life, our family, our church, our work, our money, and our world.

SCRIPTURE
1 Peter 4:10 NKJV As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Parable of the Talents, Part 1
Matthew‬ ‭25:14-19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

Insights
1. All get talents.
2. All are different.
3. God expects us to use them.
4. God will check on us.

Parable of the Talents, Part 2
Matthew‬ ‭25:20-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

Insights
1. The reward was the same.
2. Based on faithfulness.

Illustration
Me and Charles Nieman…

Parable of the Talents, Part 3
Matthew 25:24-30 NKJV Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Insights
Use it or lose it!

4. YOU
What should you do about this?

Luke 12:42-44 NKJV And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.

1 Corinthians 4:1-2 NKJV Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

5. WE
How can we all live this out together?

We are going to learn together how to steward all the areas of our lives! Over the next five weeks we are having a “TOTAL MAKEOVER”!

• “Getting Into SHAPE!” Stewarding My Life
• “All in the Family” Stewarding My Family
• “Who’s Your Daddy?” Stewarding My Church
• “The Outhouse or the Storehouse?” Stewarding My Finances
• “Who’s My Neighbor?” Stewarding My World