I know you have heard this conversation before: “What’re your socks doing in my drawer?”  Or how about this, “Why is my wrench in your tool box?”  Or how about this, “Why is your junk on my side of the room?” 

           Which leads us to the question of the day, “If God owns it, why do I have it?”  We established the Christian conviction that all we have belongs to God.  Israel and many Christians signify this by giving God a tithe or a first-fruit of what they have. God owns it all, so what are we doing with it?

           "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Re 4:11).

           The phrase “by your will” is translated in the King James by “and for thy pleasure…” In effect what is being said in this passage is that we were created because God wanted us.  It wasn’t so much that we were playthings, i.e. created for his pleasure, but rather, God thought it was a good idea and it pleased him to create us. 

           When we look at what God does, ultimately God does what he wants to do because he wants to do it.  We don’t like this because, we think, “what if God does something we don’t like?”  When we say this, we put ourselves above God, we become his judge and frankly, we are out of place.  This is why James says, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”

           If I ask myself the question, “Why do I have what I have?” my first answer is, because God wants me to have it.

           This is called grace.  Nothing we have is earned.  All we have is given to us.  The Bible says, “Children are a gift from God.”  We don’t own our children; they are on loan to us by God.  So also James tell us Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (Jas. 1:16 -17).  Every good and perfect gift comes from God.

           This is the thinking behind the passage in Romans where God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. (Rom. 9:15)  The religious people were having a problem with Gentiles becoming Christians on equal footing with them.  Paul tells them, “It’s not your choice.  God chooses who he will save and who he will not save.”  In Romans 10 he goes on to say that he will save everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.  That is God’s choice; it is his decision, and not ours.

           So all we have is a gift.  Enjoy life today because today is a gift.  This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Give God praise by an attitude of gratefulness.  Be thankful for what you have.  Appreciate it.  You have it, not because you deserve it, but because God wanted you to have it.

           A second reason we have what we have is to endear us to God.  God is not trying to bribe us, but when we see all the good things we have, God wants us to come to him with proper appreciation and thanksgiving.  The key verse on this is Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you towards repentance? (Ro 2:4).

           God’s kindness, his goodness, and his patience with you, are to lead you back to him.  We sit in our warm homes, sipping coffee, watching our favorite program.  We look out the window and see the sunset with the streaks of radiant light filling the sky.  We look up as our children run through the living room and our spouse comes and sits beside us.  We think about our freedom as American’s and deliberate on where to put our retirement funds.  The dog comes up, wagging its tail and looking for a pat on the head.  We reach over to the end table and take a bite of moist chocolate cake and say to ourselves, “Life is good!” 

           God in heaven looks down and waits for us to look up and say, “Thank you God.”  He waits for us to extend that appreciation into a desire to know Him better.  This desire will lead us to Jesus, for we cannot come to God and know Him unless we come to Jesus. 

When we come to Jesus, we receive even more from God.  We receive forgiveness of sin.  He gives us the Holy Spirit to live within to help us.  We are predestined to receive a great many glorious and wonderful spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm.

God is waiting.  The song says, “The Savior is waiting to enter your heart, why don’t you let him come in?”

How quick people are to blame God when bad things happen.  But how easy it is to ignore God when everything is going well.   How can we blame God for the bad when we don’t appreciate and thank him for the good?

God is kind to us because he wants us to repent and come to Him.

           A third reason we have it is found in Genesis 2. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Gen. 2:15-18).

           We were designed to work.  Laziness is a result of the fall.  Rest is part of God’s creation; laziness is not.  And in that work we were created to work the Garden and to take care of it.

           The words “take care of” are interesting.  It means to watch something very carefully.  It can mean, “to guard”.  As we do not know of any enemies of the garden, it probably means to take good care of.  There is more to gardening than working a garden.  The garden must be worked right.  The more careful the gardener, the more fruitful the garden.

           This brings us to the second reason why we have what we have.  We are to manage it for God.  Adam and Eve are in God’s garden, taking care of it for him.   They are to work it and watch it carefully.  God is expecting a certain quality of work out of them.  They are not assigned to watch weeds grow, but to keep up the garden in a great way.

           This management attitude came home to me as I watched a brief excerpt from a documentary on Windsor Castle.  The cook at the castle said that unlike the cooks in restaurants who are able to cook things how they want to, the cook for the Queen of England must prepare the food the way she wants it prepared.  So we do not manage what we have the way we want to, we are entrusted by God to manage what he has given us the way he wants it managed.

           "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.  So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.  But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.  "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.  The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’  "His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  "The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’  "His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  "Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’  "His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?  Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.  "‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.  For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.  And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Mt. 25:14 -30).

           This passage speaks clearly that what God has given to us needs to be managed.  We do not own it.  Because we are owned by God, everything we own belongs to God as well.  He has entrusted it to us to use for his purposes.

           4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) (1Ti. 3:4 -5).

           A mark of maturity in the Christian life is the ability of people to manage their families.  The criteria for an elder is not to be a super-Christian, just a mature one.  The requirements for Elders are requirements for every Christian.  Not every Christian has grown to this point of maturity, but those who have are eligible for this role.

           And then we are to mange the grace we have received.  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1Pe 4:10).  Our gifts and talents are to be used to serve others.  We are to give others what they do not deserve, just as God has given us so much that we do not deserve.

           I close with this final verse.  In response to the question, “Why do I have it?” we have discovered three reasons.  First, we have it because God wanted to give it to us.  Second, we have it to lead us to repentance and third, we have it to manage it for God.

           The final verse is Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1Co. 4:2).  This verse is excellent to memorize and to keep before you.  Write it on your checkbook and on your mortgage paper.  Put it in your will.  Post it on your refrigerator.  You have been given a trust.  Be trustworthy.  You have been given something by God in good faith, be faithful.

           Next week we will look at the question, “What are my priorities?”  If God owns everything and we are to manage it for Him, what are the priorities that we should follow?