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Knowing the BASICS – Knowing the Stewardship: Your GIFT! (Sermon Audio)

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This is the audio from the November 9, 2025 sermon, “Knowing the Stewardship: Your GIFT!”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

 

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Today we continued a sermon series about Knowing the BASICS!  This will be a six-part series looking at the basics of what we believe as the Deer Run Church of Christ, which corresponds with what I believe as a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus.  Foundational to our beliefs about God is a belief that the Bible is the true and accurate Word of God filled with the content He desires for us to know and follow.  Because the Bible is God’s Word, we believe and know God to be the authority over all things.  With God as the authority, we find through Jesus the example of knowing the submission we ought to live with.  As we submit to God, we discover a great invitation from Him to all people.  As we respond to the invitation of God, we discover a community of believers called to a unity through a communion with God and with one another.  When we understand that the true ownership of all that we have and all that we are belongs to God, it ought to lead us into a practice of godly stewardship.  In church settings we often think of stewardship in terms of the amount we give.  I believe God would have each person be more serious in looking at both sides of your . . .

  • Generosity:  2 Corinthians 9:6-7

    • Understanding your gift begins with an understanding of God’s generosity which ought to lead to your generosity.  Our working definition of generosity typically involves someone who gives freely, joyfully, abundantly, and beyond what is expected.  God anticipates an abundant crop of righteousness produced in our life because He has been generous in sowing those seeds into us.  God’s gift becoming your gift, and your gift becoming God’s gift, will always produce generosity. 

  • Involvement:  2 Corinthians 9:8-9

    • Understanding your gift will lead you to an involvement in using that gift for the good of God’s kingdom.  It is God’s gift, His grace in your life, which supplies the very things necessary for good works to be accomplished in you and through you.  God expects to be involved in your life just as he expects you to be involved in kingdom life.  God’s gift becoming your gift, and your gift becoming God’s gift, will always require both His and your involvement.

  • Faith: 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

    • Understanding your gift will produce a growing faith in your life.  While the very definition of faith precludes God from having a belief and trust in something unseen and unknown, in a sense He has faith in us as He both sows seed in our life and provides seed for us to sow.  It is by faith that we accept the seed of God’s Word planted within us and it is by faith that we share the seed of that Word with others.  God’s gift becoming your gift, and your gift becoming God’s gift, will always be an act of faith.

  • Thankfulness:  2 Corinthians 9:12-15

    • Understanding your gift will result in a thankfulness that must be expressed.  As each member of the body of Christ does its part, it produces an overwhelming thankfulness for the way God is meeting the needs of everyone.  It is relatively easy to do things in a way in which people thank you for your help.  The greater challenge as those who recognize all things come from God, is to do your good deeds in a way which people glorify your Father who is in heaven.  God’s gift becoming your gift, and your gift becoming God’s gift will always result in a thankfulness which acknowledges God.

Today, how will you express your GIFT?