Stewards of This Life
Dear Hope Church Family,
I have greatly enjoyed and benefited from our close attention to the captivating portrait of Jesus that John’s Gospel paints for us. The opening six chapters have given us access to who Jesus is, how he relates to people, speaks to people, cares for people, and provides for us exactly what we need, though not always what or how we expect it!
For the summer months we are going to pause our journey through John’s Gospel to take up two crucial questions for the distinctively Christian life: how we steward the lives we have been given, and how we make experience transformation of those lives.
Allow me to express the heart behind the first series of sermons and the first of those questions:
One of the unforeseen and unintended effects of our Making Room for More generosity initiative was exposing a significant gap in our pastoral care and leadership and discipleship – namely teaching and preaching about how we live our calling as stewards of the life entrusted to us: its resources, relationships, skills, and gifts.
This series of four sermons is fruit in keeping with my repentance of having neglected this very real and consequential aspect of discipleship. While we cannot cover all the ground overlooked, we can make a faithful beginning in hopes of initiating a conversation that will endure and bless us and shape us for the long haul of knowing Jesus and serving his interests.
And so the heart of this series is having the truth, wisdom, and grace of the Gospel touch and form all areas of our lives, even our money and our stuff, and our fears and our trusts, and our needs and our desires.
Please join me in praying that God would increase our capacity to trust him and steward all he has entrusted to us!
Grace and peace,
David