Stewardship

LESSON 11*June 6 - 12
Stewardship SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week's Study:

Deut. 8:18; Ps. 50:12; Matt. 24:46; 25:14-30; Luke 4:16; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20.

Memory Text:

" 'Everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance' " (Matthew 25:29, NIV).

Stewardship is not limited to caring for financial resources and to making sure that God gets His ten percent. Though that's certainly part of it, so much more is involved.

"The term steward is misunderstood and even foreign in our society. We do not have any terms in our modern vocabulary that carry the richness of this term. Caretaker fails to capture the responsibility laid on the steward. Manager seems inadequate to describe the relationship between the owner and the steward. Custodian is too passive a term. Agent is too self-serving in our day. Ambassador is too political, and it lacks the servant aspect. Warden is too administrative and loses the sense of the personal. Guardian is too closely tied solely to parental responsibilities."—R. Scott Rodin, Stewards in the Kingdom (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 27.

The Week at a Glance:

How do I use my talents, my time, my material resources, all the things that God has given me stewardship over? How do I truly live my responsibilities toward my Maker and Redeemer? This is what stewardship is all about.

*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 13.