When you are weighing your personal interests and responsibilities, be careful not to twist the concept of stewarding to your advantage. I have seen many people who believe that stewardship means preserving everything they have. Thus, they refuse to lay down any rights or sacrifice any property in the interest of peace. Jesus condemns this notion -- he does not want us to either stockpile or spend anything for our own pleasure or convenience. Instead, he wants us to invest our resources wisely and gain the maximum return for his kingdom (Matt. 25:24-27). This certainly means protecting our rights and assets from wasteful sacrifices, but it also means expending them willingly on spiritually profitable ventures. Just as seed must be sacrificed to produce a crop, our personal rights and material assets must sometimes be surrendered to sow the gospel and produce a spiritual harvest (John 12:24-26). 

Recall the last time giving up something felt like dying.

Those verses from John 12 are full of rich "harvest" imagery -- "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Ken warns us against the wasteful sacrifice -- something the heart of Christ does not desire; however, this seems to be the minority experience. The majority of the time, we are being asked to expend our rights and assets willingly on spiritually profitable ventures. And Jesus tells us exactly how that is going to feel, each and every time. Like the kernel of wheat, it's going to feel like dying.

We can appropriately use the word sacrifice, but the word die or dying probably holds more power in our hearts and minds. The expansion of the peaceable kingdom comes alongside the death of our own pleasure or convenience. Jesus willingly demonstrated this and set an example to be followed. Resurrection is a reality that we as believers should cling to with a fierce tenacity; but we must remember that something specific always precedes resurrection -- death. But if it dies, it produces many seeds…