Since people are starting to ask me for stewardship sermon advice, I will send a children's sermon.  The beginning of it is something I borrowed, and because I got it secondhand I can't credit the source, but I have added a twist so I will share it as partly mine.

Before church one Sunday I gave a child a $20 bill, with instructions that I would be asking for it during the children's sermon.

Then when the kids came down front, I started telling them that I had company coming after church and I was broke.  I said that it is usually nice to offer people something to eat, but I had nothing to offer them.  I said that even if I just had enough to order a pizza that would be okay.

Then child to whom I gave the $20 to says, "Here you can order a pizza with this."  And I asked the other kids, "Why do you think it was so easy for him to give me the money?"

Some said, because he was nice, or generous, or because I was the pastor.  Then I asked him why it was so easy to give me the money and he said, "Because it wasn't mine. You gave it to me." 

That is the children's sermon I have heard and copied, but I didn't stop with the questions.  I had one more.  I said to the young boy, "What if I gave you that money before church and I forgot to ask for it?  Maybe I did another children's sermon or something.  What would you do?  Maybe you might start thinking about a trip to the mall or the movies.  Thinking about what you might spend it on.  He said yes.  We agreed that the longer that it was in his pocket the more he would start to think of it as his.

Our goal as steward leaders is to help people understand that it really is easy to give back what is not ours in the first place.  We give back what we have been given.  We are failing at our job if we let money sit in all our pockets so long that we start thinking it is ours and we have other plans for it.  That is when it gets hard to ask people to give. 

And frankly we hate talking about money because we really do believe that we are asking people for their money instead of asking them to be good managers of what God has given them and give back a portion to God's work in this world.

Lord,
We pray that we would truly understand and be thankful because everything that we have and are comes from you.  And we pray that we would be bold in sharing that with others and offering the privilege of sharing what you have giving them with others.
Amen.