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SETTLE OWNERSHIP
Less $tress | Part 1
Senior Pastor Keith Stewart
February 2, 2025

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just let go of our financial worries and stress over running our business and managing our mortgage and struggling with our student loan? What if I told you the key to a more peaceful and productive life is a 2000-year-old recipe in God’s Word that teaches us that we’re not owners, we’re merely managers of the things that belong to God. That one reality has the power to release burdens we carry that belong to God and not us. I hope you can join us in this first installment in Less $tress living.

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1. Pastor Keith made some comparisons between renters and homeowners. Ultimately, it’s the homeowner who bears the responsibility for major repairs that are a part of the normal upkeep of a home. What has been your experience in this area as an owner or a renter?

2. What, if anything, did you learn from the parable of the unjust steward that you didn’t know before? What are some of your key learnings from this parable?

3. In drawing lessons from this story, Jesus reminded us, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke 16.10). The implication is money is a really SMALL issue loaded with HUGE implications. There are riches that are far greater than money. But whether or not God will ever entrust them to us is dependent on whether we can first pass the money test. How are you personally doing in this area of your life? What have been your greatest learnings? Where have you struggled the most? What comes naturally to you today and why?

4. Jesus made money into a very intensely personal and spiritual matter by giving money the name Mammon. Why is money a spiritual matter? In what ways does money take on God-like qualities in our life? Why did Jesus reduce our choice to God and Money versus God and Satan?

5. Pastor Keith’s final illustration about playing the game of monopoly speaks to our obsession with money and acquisition. What do you know about the game of monopoly and especially its parallels with economic realities? What does it say to you that in the end, it all goes back in the box?

6. What decision or decisions will you make as a result of today’s message?