Last week I had the opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour of the Baltimore Ravens training facility. We saw everything from the locker room to the weight room, from the the classrooms to the indoor practice facility. It was incredible. One of the highlights was getting to hear General Manager Ozzie Newsome share a bit about leadership.
One thing that stood out to me was his sense of accountability to the owner. He said that he was getting ready to have his annual meeting with the owner - something he called "a trip to the principal's office." Even someone as high up in an organization as Mr. Newsome still has to be accountable.
And that got me thinking. This week at STORYCHURCH we began a new series called "Treasure." My message this week was about how the biblical view of money and possessions is that we are MANAGERS not OWNERS. Everything under the heavens belongs to God. My car is actually God's car. My lumpy couch is actually God's lumpy couch. My role? I'm the manager. In fact, I like to think of myself as the "General Manager of the Copeland franchise." It's my job to spend the money, to take care of those who rely on me, to make sure my family is staying focused on what we are trying to accomplish as a family. But at the end of the day I'm just a manager. God is the owner. And I'm accountable to Him for what I do with what He's given me.
Jesus teaches us about this in Matthew 25:14-30. Three servants get entrusted with their Master's wealth. The Master goes away for a bit and eventually returns to settle accounts with his servants. He wants to know what they did with what He had given them. Two of the servants put those resources to work and actually earned more. One of them did nothing with it and actually buried it in the ground. The first two get rewarded with even greater things, while that third servant has everything taken from him because he proved that he wasn't a very good manager.
I don't know about you, but I want to be someone the Master can entrust with even greater things.
