A GOD-LIVED LIFE: The Earth is the Lord's

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

          We are wrapping up a series of sermons with a Stewardship emphasis. Stewardship, ultimately, is about our entire life. We use what God gives us to his glory and for the good of our neighbor. For one more month, we will consider the way we use the gifts God gives us as is God-pleasing.
         This email is to further encourage what we pondered on Sunday, January 9. (That service can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjo1iuJ-pSw&t=1s)  In this way, each one can give more consideration about how he or she may put into practice what was proclaimed as a God-pleasing way to serve him.
          For the month of January, we continue to consider what it means to have A Life Shrewdly Lived.

A LIFE SHREWDLY LIVED

Week #1         The earth is the Lord’s

            Psalm 24 reminds us: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that fills it, the world and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1).  We are in the habit of calling things “mine.”  It is true to an extent.  We are not wrong to use phrases such as my house, my job, my car, my family.  If the Lord entrusts something to you, it is yours.  But God never relinquishes ownership.  If God did relinquish his rights to our possessions, we could use them any way we wanted to and God would have nothing to say about it.  God would fully support phrases like, “My body, my choice.”  But God holds us accountable for what we do with our bodies.  They are his gift to us.  It matters to him how we use them, and he has given us direction in his word about what is appropriate and what is wicked (and he still gives us some freedom to do what we want; there are no words—good or bad—about coloring your hair).

Everything we possess is a gift from God, whether tangible things like cars, houses, vacuum cleaners, and coffee makers or intangible things like talents, agility, and sense of hearing.  For a time, God entrusts these blessings to us for our good.  We use them to honor the God who gave them and for the good of our neighbor whom we encounter.  This is why God gave them. 

If it should please God to remove our possessions from us, it may prove difficult.  Some possessions won’t bother us to lose.  If we break a coffee mug, we probably won’t care.  If we lose a family member, that is heart-breaking.  In either case, we are taught to confess with Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  May the name of the Lord be blessed” (Job 1:21).  Job recognized that all he had was the Lord’s.  And he recognized that the Lord had every right to withdraw what he had given, no matter how much it hurt Job to do it.

God does not give us our possessions because we deserve them.  He gives them because he is our good and merciful Father in heaven who is generous and loving.  All things belong to him.  And that includes us.  We are the Lord’s—his creation and, more importantly, his redeemed.  Our life on earth will eventually be taken from us, but thanks to Jesus our life never ends.  Since we are the Lord’s, we will go to him to receive joy, peace, rest, and glory in a life that never ends.  Our Lord has given us his word and sacraments to save us and sustain us until we are brought to his heavenly kingdom.  He has worked in our hearts saving faith which is not lost even when we die.  That is one gift we do well not to forfeit by neglecting God’s word for the sake of loving gifts that we will not keep.