God Owns Everything
Keep It 💯Series | Part 1
We need to talk about something most churches won't touch.
Not because it's unimportant, but because it's been so badly handled for so long that even bringing it up makes people's walls go up immediately. We're talking about money. Stewardship. Giving. And the loaded history that so many of us carry around those words.
But here's the thing: avoiding a topic because it's been abused doesn't protect people. It just leaves them without the truth they need. And the truth (the full, biblical, Gospel-centered truth) is actually really good news.
So let's Keep It 100.
Scripture Focus:Psalm 24:1 | Matthew 25 | Matthew 6:21
GOD Owns Everything (Psalm 24:1)
"The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord." — Psalm 24:1
King David wrote this song to celebrate GOD's greatness, authority and kingship. And before he gets into worship, he establishes something foundational: ownership. Over everything.
This isn't David's opinion. It rings throughout all of Scripture. Moses says it in Deuteronomy 10:14. Ethan the Ezrahite declares it in Psalm 89:11. GOD Himself establishes it in Exodus 19:5. The whole earth. Everything. All of the things. Not just the religious things… all things.
So that means the possessions we work to earn belong to GOD. The gifts we were born with belong to GOD. Your intellect. Your house. Your car. Your retirement. Your education. Your opportunities. Your children. Your time. Your body. Your bank account.
Everything. Belongs. To GOD.
That goes against everything our culture says. My money. My time. My life. My choice. My plans. My future. But David says none of that is ultimately yours.
Here's a helpful picture: imagine you ask someone to house sit. You give them the keys, the alarm code, the wifi password. You fill the fridge. You tell them to enjoy themselves. And you come back to find they've knocked down a wall and redecorated.
That's a problem, because they confused access for ownership.
And that's exactly what so many of us do with GOD's resources. Just because something passes through your hands doesn't mean it belongs to you. Just because it's in your account doesn't mean you own it. Temporary supervision is granted to us. Rightful ownership is reserved for GOD.
Stewardship ≠ Ownership (Matthew 25:14-30)
"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey. He called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them." — Matthew 25:14
Ownership is the act, state or right of possessing something. Stewardship is the job of supervising or taking care of something. That distinction matters more than we realize.
When we truly believe we are stewards and not owners, our questions change. We stop asking "what do I want to do with MY…" and start asking "GOD, what do YOU want me to do with YOUR…?" That sounds simple. But it's a complete reorientation of how you do life.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable about servants entrusted with their master's resources. The master goes away and returns, and he evaluates each servant not on what they owned, but on what they did with what he owned. One servant buried what he was given out of fear. And the master's response was sharp.
Here's the sobering truth: one day GOD will evaluate each of us in the same way. Not on how much we had, but on what we did with what He entrusted to us. The question we practice now is the question that will matter then: "GOD, what do YOU want me to do with YOUR…?"
GOD Wants You To Keep It 100 (Matthew 6:21)
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." — Matthew 6:21
When the topic of biblical giving comes up, most of us immediately start calculating what we're about to lose. But that framing gets it backwards. This conversation has never been about what GOD wants from you. It's about what He wants for you.
The earth and everything in it belongs to GOD. He doesn't need our coins. What He cares about is our hearts. And Jesus makes clear in Matthew 6:21 that where our treasure goes, our hearts follow. Our attitude about money exposes what we love most, trust most, and fear losing most.
So GOD is not after your 10%. He's after your 100%. He desires for us to submit ourselves to His rule completely. And when we truly do… nothing is off limits. We know Him. We trust Him. We invite Him in and ask Him what to do with what He's entrusted to us.
But when we keep certain things off limits, especially money, we're just like the servant who buried the bag. We're saying "Nah… I got this." And that reveals something important: if GOD can't touch your money, He doesn't have your heart.
To anyone reading this who has been hurt around this topic (who has been manipulated, pressured, or spiritually abused through bad teaching on giving) that pain is real and it's valid. Healing matters. And bad experiences don't cancel biblical truth. They just mean we need to find the real thing. Something being abused in one place doesn't mean it should be abandoned everywhere. We learn. We heal. We get up and do it right.
The First Step Isn't Generosity. It's Surrender.
The immediate takeaway from today isn't "figure out your percentage." It's this: what area of my life am I still treating like it belongs to me?
Because the first step of healthy, biblical stewardship isn't generosity. It's surrender. And surrender begins when we finally admit (out loud, in our hearts, with our wallets) that everything belongs to GOD.
"The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord." — Psalm 24:1