Stewardship involves the responsible management of things that belong to someone else. For Christians, it means using life, abilities, possessions, opportunities, and knowledge responsibly according to God's will. As the creator and redeemer, God owns everything. Stewardship acknowledges God's ownership through wise use of resources, abilities, and the body to bless others and support God's work. It is a privilege that helps overcome selfishness. Proper stewardship imitates Christ's selfless gift of himself on the cross for humanity.

1. Stewardship Promotion

3. What is Stewardship?
A steward is a person “entrusted with
the management of the household
or estate of another.”
Stewardship is “the position, duties, or
service of a steward.”
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1979, p.1786

4. What is Stewardship?
To the Christian, stewardship means
“man’s responsibility for, and use
of, everything entrusted to him by God
– life, physical being, time, talents and
abilities, material
possessions, opportunities to be of
service to others, and his knowledge of
the truth.”
SDA Encyclopedia, Revised Edition, p. 1425

5. What is Stewardship?
In its larger dimensions, then,
stewardship “involves the wise and
unselfish use of life.”
Paul G. Smith, Managing God’s Goods, p. 21

6. More than anything else,
Living a Christian life means
SURRENDER
– a giving up of ourselves
and an accepting of Christ.

7. When we give all that we have and all that we are
to God, to whom it all belongs anyway, He accepts
it but then puts us back in charge of it, making us
stewards, or caretakers, of everything that we
“possess.” Then our tendency to live
comfortable, selfish lives is broken by our
realization that our Lord was
naked, imprisoned, and a stranger. And His
enduring “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations”
makes the activity of the church –
sharing, teaching, preaching, baptizing – more
precious to us. Because of Him we seek to be
faithful stewards.

10. God’s Ownership
3 Fold God’s Ownership over Us
We are His
1. by Creation
2. by Redemption
3. by Choice
Stewardship is the acknowledgement of
God’s ownership!

11. Ways to Acknowledge God’s Ownership
1. Stewardship of the Earth
In His coming advent, Christ will
“…destroy those who
destroy the earth.”
Revelation 11:18

12. Ways to Acknowledge God’s Ownership
2. Stewardship of the Abilities
The Parable of the Talents
Matthew 25:14-30

13. Ways to Acknowledge God’s Ownership
3. Stewardship of Material Possession
Our use of material goods reveals how much we
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have
love God and our neighbors. Money can be
power for good: in ouryou say, ‘In what
robbed Me! But hands it can provide
way have we robbed You?’ In
food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, and
clothing tithes naked offerings.”
for the and (Matthew 25:34-40).
From God’s perspective money has value
mainly as it is used to provide the necessities
Malachi 3:8
of life (1 Timothy 6:8), to bless others, and
to support His work.

14. Ways to Acknowledge God’s Ownership
4. Stewardship of the Body
“I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
God, which is your reasonable
service.”
Romans 12:1

15. Ways to Acknowledge God’s Ownership
5. Stewardship of the Time
“See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as
wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand
what the will of the Lord is.”
Ephesians 5:15-17
Like Jesus, we must be
about our Father’s business (Luke 2:49)

16. Fundamental Belief No. 21 – Stewardship
We are God’s stewards, entrusted by Him with time and
opportunities, abilities, and possessions, and the blessings
of the earth and its resources. We are responsible to Him
for their proper use. We acknowledge God’s ownership by
faithful service to Him and our fellowmen and by returning
our tithes and giving offerings for the proclamation of His
gospel and the support and growth of His church.
Stewardship is a privilege given to us by God for nurture in
love and the victory over selfishness and covetousness.
The steward rejoices in the blessings that come to others
as a result of his faithfulness.
Seventh-day Adventists Believe: An Exposition of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, p. 302

17. CHRIST AS STEWARD:
Proper Stewardship is
SELFLESSNESS
– complete self-giving to God and service to humanity.
Because of His love for us Christ endured the cruelty of the
cross, the even deeper pain of rejection by His own, and
abysmal God-forsakenness. In comparison to this gift,
what could we ever give? His was a gift, not of what He
had – even though He had everything – but of Himself.
Such is stewardship. To gaze on that greatest gift is to be
drawn out of ourselves – to become like Him.
Seventh-day Adventists Believe: An Exposition of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, p. 307