"The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility to God." When Daniel Webster made that statement, he was one of the top American statesmen in our country. In fact, he made that statement at a banquet. Presidents and heads of State from around the world were there to honor Daniel Webster. During that banquet, someone asked him, "Mr. Webster, what is the most profound thought that ever entered your mind?" and that's was his reply, "His responsibility to God." In fact, when he made that statement, he became so emotionally involved that he had to excuse himself and went out and came back. And then for 30 minutes he talked to those great men and women of that day about the responsibility he felt of managing the resources that God has given to him. That is the responsibility we're going to talk about today.

In a moment, we're going to go over to Matthew, chapter 25 and begin to look at the classic story of the talents, a story of God's expectation to you and me in the management of the resources that He has given to us. When we understand, then we're going to be able to do what we need to do in our message this morning. You see the problem is many of us do not yet recognize God as the owner of everything in our life. That's the whole issue. The moment that you and I can cross the threshold and understand that everything that you have and everything I have right now is God's, not mine, not yours. I don't own it, all I do is manage it. The moment that I can understand that mentally, begin to embrace it emotionally, and act it out physically, that's the moment that things will begin to really change. And then I will truly be a steward of everything that God has given to me.

Some of us may be like some people down at West Palm Beach. A camera crew went up to the door and asked permission of a family there to put the cameras in the front yard because they wanted to shoot some scenes for a television episode. The person said, "sure." There was only one problem; the person didn't own the house. They were just living in the house; they were tenants. When the owner found out that they were rolling cars all around the yard he became very upset. because you see, that person made a major mistake. They assumed that because they lived in the house they owned it.

We make a major mistake in life when we assume just because we're walking through life and God has given us things cars to drive, houses to live in we assume that somehow we have become the owner of all of those things. Let me ask you a question. If you earned $400 last week, how much of it belongs to God? Now, if this morning you're saying, "Okay, I made $400 last week, $40 belongs to God," then somehow as your pastor I'm not doing the job I need to in teaching you stewardship. You see if you made $400 last week, $400 belongs to God. The steward understands that everything we have, we just manage. God owns it all. There are some principles of money management given to us in the story of the talents. We will begin to look at them today and continue next Sunday. Are you ready?

First Biblical principle of money management:

1. God owns it all.

God owns everything. He just asked me to manage it. God owns it, I manage it. He gives me things of which He requires of me, and this is where my responsibility comes in to do the best job of managing that I possibly can. Let's look at the story. Verse 14: "For it was just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five talents more. And in the same manner, the one who received the two talents gained two more. But he, who had received the one talent, went away and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them." As I began to look at this story, there are two implications that begin to arise out of it.

A. God has a right to do whatever He wants with the possessions that He's given me.

Job said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." The Lord has a right to enter into my life at any time because the possessions that I have, are not mine. I am handling them for Him, but He has the right to walk in. That's exactly what happened here. The master gave one five, he gave one two, now interesting enough, you see, The owner has the rights and the steward has the responsibilities. The owner is the one that settled out that he would give five to one, and two to one, and one to the other. We might look back and say that's not fair. Why didn't he give everybody equal talents? Why didn't he give everybody an equal chance? I don't know. That's God. He has all the rights. I have all the responsibilities. There was a time, it says in this passage that he came back after a long period of time and when he came back, immediately he called those stewards of his that were to manage those resources, and he asked them what they had done with them. God has the rights, I have the responsibilities.

I'm afraid too many of us are like Dennis the Menace who was walking out of church one Sunday, shook the pastor's hand and looked at the pastor and said, "Now, pastor what are you going to do with that dollar my dad gave you this morning?" When you begin to unfold the story of the talents, you begin to understand that God owns everything.

B. God-given resources to accomplish God-given goals.

Let me give you a definition of stewardship from Dr. John Maxwell. "Stewardship is the use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given goals." I have to understand that. God gives me the resources and I am to use those for the accomplishment and the glory of the Kingdom of God.

What happens is this: When I truly begin to believe that God owns everything, when I lose possession just as when I gain possessions, I will keep a steady course. If I truly believe God owns everything and I have some financial setback if I lose a job; if all of a sudden, I get into the valley of dark financial times if I truly believe that God owns everything, my anxiety and my attitude towards what I have lost will be much different than if I thought I owned it. Are you with me? If I think I own everything and then I get more and God blesses and I make more money; all of a sudden, if I'm not careful, I believe I own everything and my attitude is pride and arrogance. All of a sudden, I begin to become greedy and I begin to hold on to all of those possessions because I don't understand something. I still think that they are mine.

You see it's only when we understand that God owns it that we can have the balance - emotionally, psychologically - to handle the blessings and the setbacks of materialism. The day that we begin to understand this is the day that we go down a long road in our maturity. Not only in responding as a good steward, but in our maturity of understanding balance in the ups and downs, in the economic turns and twists of our own life. You see, as I look at this passage of Scripture, I see that all that I have God has given to me. I see that God gives different amounts to different people, whether it's talents or whatever, and I see that God has a right to hold me accountable.

Second Biblical principle of money management:

2. Every spending decision is a spiritual decision.

I believe that it's not only what we give to the Lord, but what we do with the rest of our checkbook that again shows where our values are. Let me quote Ron Blue, "You can't fake stewardship. Your checkbook reveals all that you really believe about stewardship. A life story could be written from a checkbook. It reflects your goals, priorities, convictions, relationships and even the use of your time. A person who has been a Christian even for a short while can fake prayer, Bible study, evangelism, and going to church and so on but he can't fake what his checkbook reveals." Maybe that's why so people are so secretive about their personal finances.

When a business or government suspects fraud, do you know what they do? They follow what they call the money trail. They begin to look at the money and what it's been spent on, and they begin to follow the money trail, and the money trail leads them usually back to intent and motives and decisions, whether they were made right or wrong. They don't follow the verbal trail. They don't bring in the person, and the person says well I know I haven't been doing anything wrong. They don't follow the verbal trail; they follow the money trail. That is exactly what God is teaching us in this area of stewardship. God doesn't follow - folks read my lips - God doesn't follow the verbal trail.

It's awful easy to sing "I Surrender All" and surrender very little in our life. It's very easy to look at Romans 12:1-2 where Paul says, "I urge you therefore, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him which, is your reasonable service." It's very easy for us to underline Romans 12:1-2 and nod our heads. You see, it's very easy for us to assent and nod and sing and even come to church. It's easy for us to do all those things, but Jesus knows where the money trail is. Jesus, not Bruce Wittern said, "Where your treasure is, that's where your heart is." Jesus knew that He could literally find out the heart of you and me by opening our checkbook. He could find out what our priority was. He could find out what was important: what we loved, what we didn't love, what we lived for, what we didn't live for. He said, all you've got to do is follow the money trail.

Would following your money trail lead people to believe that you really love God and know that God owns it all?

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