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"The only thing God asks is to present our bodies as living sacrifices," said Hemphill to more than 500 students, faculty and staff that attended the Friday chapel. "This is all God asks. That's the foundation of everything else - if you ever get that one right, you won't struggle with stewardship the rest of your life, whether financial, dating, or time." Hemphill pointed out that stewardship is essentially a personal worldview. "The only real issue is whether you consider yourself an owner or a manager. Do you look at yourself and say 'these are my gifts, my time and my talents?' Or do you say, 'there's another issue at stake because I belong to Him.' If I am His, then my gifts, my time, my dating life, my college experience is also an issue of my management for Him." According to Hemphill, stewardship has little to do with how much is kept or given. Rather, stewardship is "a lifestyle choice that liberates you to find and serve your creative purpose." "The Bible teaches that we were created in God's image, which means we're relational, rational and responsible," said Hemphill. "We're created to live in relationship with one another and God. We're rational so we understand what God's revealed to us and then we become responsible in the midst of this. You can go all the way back to when God put Adam and Eve in the Garden - He gave them the responsibility of managing, not owning, but managing the Garden." Citing several biblical passages, Hemphill emphasized that as Christians, we are called to be dead to our sin. "Dead men have nothing to offer," said Hemphill. "We are
living sacrifices. The problem with a living sacrifice, though, is it
wants to get up and crawl when the flames get hot. You take a dead
sacrifice, it's not going anywhere. It's tough sometimes to be a living
sacrifice. He offered four ways to practice "radical stewardship":
"Only because of that relationship with God do we have something to give," emphasized Hemphill. "That gift is you." |
