Today's Passage - Matthew 25:14-18

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Matthew 25:14-18   "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. "   The Lord is teaching us here about being a steward in the kingdom of God. First of all, as a steward, we must understand that all that we have belongs to God. The "bags of gold" here were referred to as "talents" in the King James Version; it not only represents our money and talents, but also everything that we own. In other word, as a steward of the kingdom of heaven, nothing we have actually belongs to us, but all belong to God. Our time, money, talents, spiritual gifts are all given to us by the Lord of all things, and they are to be used on earth for His Kingdom.     A while back when I first became a Christian, I used to have the wrong idea that because the Bible says that we ought to tithe, it means one tenth of our income belongs to God, but the other nine tenth belongs to myself. When I received my salary, I would quickly offer ten percent of it to God to say: "This tenth is yours, and the other nine tenths are mine." It's the same way for me in money and serving. I often said to the Lord: "I won't be absent in Sunday service, because that time belongs to you; I will serve in fellowship and small group because I think they need help, but rest of the time is mine, and you better not touch it!" I often separate everything into His and mine, thus my Christian journey wasn't a pleasant one, because I felt that the Lord was aggressive in wanting more from me and He wanted more than ten percent. After my spiritual life grew and I learned more about God's truth, then I realized that everything that we owe actually belongs to God. Not just the one tenth, but rest of the nine tenth as well, because everything we have is given by God, and God wants to use the nine tenth for His Kingdom.   Jesus shed blood and died for us on the cross. With His precious blood He has redeemed us from sin and law. As soon as we are saved, we no longer belong to the kingdom of the authority of darkness, but rather to God. If we belong to God, then everything that we owe ought to be used by God. Paul said in Corinthians 4:7, "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" Our role on the earth is to be the steward of God, so we don't have any right to argue with God what's His and what's ours. It's our responsibility to simply follow God's will and use all the grace that He's given us, so may God help us!   Pray with Pastor Tong     Lord, we thank you, because all that we have are from you. May the Lord help us to be determined to let you use all that we have, and may the Lord use our life to become channel of blessings for many. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!