The Evangel Dean Basic Training Resource Handbook

84 • T HE E VANGEL D EAN B ASIC T RAINING R ESOURCE H ANDBOOK

When the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward – as such He entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds – but the sole property of these still rests in Him, nor can ever be alienated from Him. As you are not your own but His, such is likewise all you enjoy. ~ John Wesley Dennis the Menace was walking out of church with his dad and mom. As they approached the pastor, Dennis asked, much to the embarrassment of his father, “What are you going to do with my dad’s quarter?”

“Whatever your lot in life, God expects you to build something on it.”

II. As Loving Father and Wise Sovereign, God Has Entrusted His Rich Resources into the Care of His Servants and His People.

James 1.17 (NASB) – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Exod. 19.5 (NASB) – Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. 1 Chron. 29.14-16 (NASB) – But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. [15] For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. [16] O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. A. Entrustment and representation are the two primary concepts of serving God: as servants of the Lord Most High, each of us has been provided with a share of his wealth, a specific set of relationships and opportunities determined by the Lord. B. We each have unique opportunities and possibilities to employ the relationships and resources he has entrusted to us as disciples of the Kingdom to come.