Sermon Title .

The Stewardship of Faith

Sermon Text.. Deut 6:1-15
Invocation Scripture. . Rom 10:17
Main Idea :

Faith is a gift from God and we are

responsible to be good stewards of
this faith just as we are of any other
resouce that God grants to us.

Objective : To challenge members to share their faith

with their children, their extended
family, their friends and neighbors and
do so year by year
The Stewardship of Faith
Deut 6:4 - 15
Point I : Embrace Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:5-7
1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Cor 10:3-5, Eph 6:10-18
Believers r Israel.Gal 3:7-9, 29, Rom 2:28-29,
Rom 9:6-8, Phil 3:3,
Point II : Teach Faith .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:7a
Jesus taught, Matt 11:1, Mark 1:21, 6:2, Luke
10:21, John 7:14, John 8:21 Tim. 4:11
need to be taught! Heb5:12
Point III: Live Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:7b-9
Rom 1:17, gal 2:20, Gal 3: 11,
Point IV: Share Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:13
Matt 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Acts 5:32, 10:39

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The Stewardship of Faith

Deut 6:4 - 15
Slide 1 Blank screen
We move today to our next area of consideration in
this critical series on Stewardship. We will begin today
to consider the Stewardship of Faith.
Now, I suspect that most of us have heard, or
perhaps have even said, I found Jesus or I found
God! Now, though I think that we all know what is
meant by this, the truth is, none of us found God!! In
fact, man, in His sinful state, can not and does not seek
God!! Can not, because the spiritual man is dead!!
Does not, because all we do in our humaness is seek
after the satiation of our own desires, lusts and
passions. The Bible affirms this tragic reality in Psalm
14:2-3
(2) The LORD has looked down from heaven upon
the sons of men To see if there are any who
understand, Who seek after God. (3) They have
all turned aside, together they have become
corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even
one.
We see this same truth in the NT from our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the
Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise
him up on the last day.
So we see even in these verses that Faith is in fact a gift
from God, and is that not what Eph 2:8-9 says to us?

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Slide 2 - slide will fade to black after 20 seconds

For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (9)
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
This fits perfectly with our First Principle of
Stewardship. Do you recall what it is? Ownership
We clearly came to see that God owns everything
and as such, He is the one who has ultimate and
supreme right over His creation. And there is nothing
that He has missed... for in His incredible love He has
made provision for us, even in the area of faith!! And
this is critically important for we read in Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him.
And yet in His great love, He has granted to us a
measure of faith... That is what Paul teaches us in
Romans 12:3
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone
among you not to think more highly of himself than
he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure
of faith.
So it is clear that Faith is required by God and Faith is a
gift from God to us, and as a result, we are Responsible
for how we manage that gift, (this of course being our

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2nd principle of stewardship and as with the other things

we have considered, there will be Accountability for
how well we managed this incredible gift of Faith.
(Which is our 3rd principle of Stewardship)
With those thoughts in mind, turn with me to Deut
6:1-13 and let us read a powerful passage of scripture!
Vss 4-9 is called the Shema. The word Shema is the
first word of this command of Moses and it means
Hear as to hear with your ears, even more, to hear
with the Attention, with Understanding, with intent to
obey... As soon as I read the definition of this word, my
thoughts were immediately catapulted to John 1:1-14
and then to Romans 10:17.
< < < Read: John 1:1-14 > > >
< < < Read: Rom 10:17 > > >
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the
word of Christ.
One other interesting consideration, the context of this
MOST important teaching to Gods people, is that of
the home and the family.... remember our last 3
Sermons... The Stewardship of Family.... (Pause... look
around) So this teaching too, is a part of and builds
upon the foundation of the Stewardship of the Family...
Remember the first sermon and the Title of our series...
Stewardship: Foundation for Christian Living!
consider the truth that the first place in which we should
exercise Stewardship, especially that of Faith, is in the
home...
We will utilize this key passage in Deuteronomy as

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an outline for The Stewardship of Faith and see how it

is presented in the Old Testament and brought to
fullness in the New Testament. So you may feel like
you are in a Bible Drill over the next few weeks as we
look at several passages of scripture to learn these
important truths! Lets begin today by turning to Deut
6:4-11.
As you turn there this morning beloved... consider
5 key things concerning the Stewardship of Faith... We
must Embrace Faith, Teach Faith, Live Faith, Share
Faith!
< < < Read: Deut 6:4-11 > > >
Point I : Embrace Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:5-7
1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Cor 10:3-5, Eph 6:10-18
Believers r Israel Gal 3:7-9, 29, Rom 2:28-29, Rom
9:6-8, Phil 3:3,
Deu 6:4-9 "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the
LORD is one! (5) "You shall love the LORD your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might. (6) "These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
Now, the first thing that we must do here is to
understand who is Israel, to whom does this passage
refer?... I submit to you, that when Moses wrote these
Words, the people understood them to be specifically to
the descendants of Abraham, and yet, Moses knew

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better, for God had shown Moses the true source of

Salvation... Let me just remind each of us here this
morning, the Moses is the author of the first 5 books of
the Bible. As far as I know Moses is the only man that
God ever spoke with face to face. Turn to Genesis
15:1-6. Vs 6 is the Key Verse!
< < < Read: Genesis 15:1-6 > > >
This is confirmed and clarified for us by Paul in..
< < < Read: Romans 2:25-29, 4:1... > > >
But note also beloved, that Jesus Christ Himself,
reveals the truth, that there would be a great calling ut
of those who were outside of the Biological family of
Abraham... There was a Spiritual family whose faith, as
we just read in Romans, revealed their true lineage of
FAITH that God is, and that He is the creator of all
things and that in His great love with which he has
loved us, set forth a plan to provide a redeemer, whom
we know today is Jesus Christ the Lord who by His
sacrifice and shed blood, would provide atonement for
our sin and thus He would reconcile and restore all who
would believe, through the convicting and revealing
power of the Holy Spirit of God, who would then take
up residence in our lives, to empower us to live a full
and meaningful Christian life!!!
Jesus Himself, teaches in (John 10:16)
"I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I
must bring them also, and they will hear My voice;
and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

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I think that pretty much settles it beloved!! All who

believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God
Himself and the Only way to heaven, they are the true
Israel! They are the Family of God, They are the
redeemed!!... So this Exhorttation is as much those of
us who believe in Jesus Christ, as they are to those who
are the lteral blood line of Abraham, for the blood line
of Christ, IS THE ONLY BLOOD LINE THAT
MATTERS!!
So what are we to do... Well, just go back to our
text...
"Hear, O Israel! (O Believer) The LORD is our God,
the LORD is one! (5) "You shall love the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your might. (6) "These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
We are to Love God with all of our heart, soul and
might!!
May I ask my friends... has their ever been a time in
your life, where you have done something with all of
your might? I can remember 3 right away... When I
came under deep conviction in the book of James that
the vulgarity I had learned as an electrician was not
proper. Floyd Mays made this very clear and so for the
next several months, I prayed that God would deliver
me from that language! The second time was when I
was working at Advance Electric Supply company. I
remember standing on a board over a stairwell cleaning

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the chandeliers hanging in the window and came under

deep conviction that I needed a faith that was
unshakable, a faith that would stand the test of time... I
didnt know then that I would one day be called to be a
pastor and need that faith, or that I would face the
greatest crisis of faith in my life and need that
unshakable faith. I prayed for that faith for over 6
months and I am convinced that God has granted that.
And then I remember when my son called and told us
that Abigail had been born but that she had congestive
heart failure and pulmonary hyper tension and had only
a 23% chance of living. I remember walking across the
street to the church where I was pastoring and laying
down on the floor in front of the Lords Supper Table
and crying out to God with every ounce of strength,
every pound of passion I could muster... For weeks on
end, I went in there and fell down on my face before
God, and now today, this very day, Abigail is a
beautiful, healthy, very intelligent girl, she is 11 years 9
months and 5 days old today!
God is AMAZING beloved!! His love is
everlasting and so we are compelled by His love, His
Mercy and His Grace to EMBRACE the faith!!
The New Testament clearly calls us to sincerely and
to seriously embrace the Faith!!! We have been
studying in the books of Timothy on Wednesday night
and we read in 1 Timothy 6:12

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Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the

eternal life to which you were called, and you made
the good confession in the presence of many
witnesses.
This military sounding context is very appropriate fr
our day and time, for there is a great battle waging in
our culture to eradicate any vestige of True Biblical
Christianity!! We have thrown prayer and the 10
commandments out of the school, unless your Muslim
and then in some places, we provide prayer rooms for
you to go to, to pray to a false God!! But, cant have
that for True Biblical Christians!!
Our chaplains in the Military are being told that
they cant pray in the name of Jesus Christ!! If there
was ever a clear breach of the U.S. Constitution, this is
it, and oddly enough every single man and woman,
every private, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major,
colonel and general and our President take an oath to
defend the constitution of the United States of
America!!
Things must have gotten to be that way for Jude,
the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ in His day,
because we read in the introductory paragraph of his
letter some compelling words... Listen to what he says
in Jude 1:3
Beloved, while I was making every effort to write

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you about our common salvation, I felt the

necessity to write to you appealing that you
contend earnestly for the faith which was once for
all handed down to the saints.
Listen my friends... We MUST understand that to
be Good Stewards of the Faith of Jesus Christ, we must
embrace that Faith with passion, with tenacity and with
unswerving allegiance!!
So I ask you beloved... What do you Embrace with
Passion?... What do you embrace with passion? If it is
not Faith in the one true living God...
"Hear, O Israel! (O Believer) The LORD is our
God, the LORD is one!
Then you are WASTING YOUR TIME, YOUR
ENERGY AND YOUR EFFORT, for there is one and
only one thing in this life that is worthy of the
investment of the totality of who you are, and that is the
one true living God! If you
Point II : Teach Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:7a
Jesus taught, Matt 11:1, Mark 1:21, 6:2, Luke
10:21, John 7:14, John 8:21 Tim. 4:11
need to be taught! Heb5:12
Deut 6:7a
(7) "You shall teach them diligently to your sons
Point III: Live Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:7b-9
Rom 1:17, gal 2:20, Gal 3: 11,

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10

and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and
when you walk by the way and when you lie down and
when you rise up. (8) "You shall bind them as a sign
on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your
forehead. (9) "You shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.

Point IV: Share Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deut 6:13

Matt 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Acts 5:32, 10:39