Opening Scripture:
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. YOU WILL ALWAYS HARVEST WHAT YOU PLANT(good or bad)….SO LET’S NOT GET TIRED OF DOING WHAT IS GOOD. At JUST THE RIGHT TIME we will reap a harvest of blessing IF WE DON’T GIVE UP.  (Galatians 6:7,9)

• Stewardship requires persistence

The Chinese Bamboo Tree Story:

• First year: No visible signs of growth
• Second year: Same. Third & fourth year: Still show no signs of anything happening.
• Fifth year – something amazing happens: 80ft in 6 weeks – 3ft in 24 hr – 1.5 per hr

QUESTION: At what point did the bamboo tree start to grow? In the first year or the fifth year?

• When you are a good steward, growth is happening even when you don’t see it!

How do we become persistent in our stewardship?

PERSISTENT STEWARDSHIP: PLANTED

Those who are PLANTED in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still BEAR FRUIT in old age; They shall BE FRESH and FLOURISHING.  (Psalm 92:13-14)

• To grow as good stewards we must first be planted. Nothing grows unless it is planted!

He shall be like A TREE PLANTED by the rivers of water, That brings forth its FRUIT IN ITS SEASON, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall PROSPER. (Psalm 1:1-3)

• Stay where God has called. God’s destiny for your life has a specific geographical location.

PERSISTENT STEWARDSHIP: NURTURE (Nurture with prayer)

The EARNEST (PERSISTENT) PRAYER of a righteous person has GREAT POWER and PRODUCES WONDERFUL RESULTS. (James 5:16)

• What you treasure, you will nurture.

PERSISTENT STEWARDSHIP: WAIT

“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for AN APPOINTED TIME; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, WAIT FOR IT; BECAUSE IT WILL SURELY COME, It will not tarry. (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

• Waiting for what? The appointed time. The right time

CONCLUSION

• What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?