Are You Taking Care of What God has entrusted you with?

Take Care of What I Gave You

Pastor Calvin Cook

November 14, 2025

“For you will spread out to the right and to the left; And your descendants will take possession of nations And will inhabit deserted cities. 4 “Do not fear, for you will not be put to shame, And do not feel humiliated or ashamed, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, And you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.” Isaiah 54:3&4 (AMP)

I was listening to a young preacher recently who was confessing his sinfulness of not using what God had done in his life, utilizing the gifts he had been given, and even leaving the teachings of the moment he first came to know Christ as Lord and Savior of his life. Leaving or forsaking the blessings that he had received as a child of God.

The scriptural reference this young 20 something preacher made, moved me to read Genesis, chapters 1-3 and the verse from Genesis 2:15 : “So the Lord God took the man [He had made] and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.” (AMP) really paused me.

As I prayed over this verse – I felt the question being asked of me by the Holy Spirit “Are you taking care of what I gave you ?”  This morning I want to ask that same question of you and continue to pray over this question in my own life. “Am (I/You/We/the Church) taking care of what God has given us, blessed us with.

So here is the short of it: Before there was sin…Before there was pain…Before there was brokenness… there was a calling: Take care of what I gave you.

Adam and Eve were entrusted with a perfect world — and the fall came when they stopped stewarding what God entrusted and reached for what God never intended them to have.

Their ignoring God’s direction and instruction opened the door to temptation.

Their distraction for something that looked better and gave them more opened the door to deception.

Their making a decision at the direction of the evil one led to the beginning of sinfulness.

Fast forward from the Garden of Eden to the Prophet Isaiah – we quickly learn through the pages of history that here in Isaiah 54 it becomes our understanding of what restoration is. But it also points the finger back at us saying – “You must take responsibility of what I gave you.” Here once again is the Holy Spirit speaking convicting grace into our lives.

Do not think to little of yourselves because when God convicts and we change, God will also rebuild, restore, enlarge, and bless… but most importantly I believe God is calling us to take care of what He has given us.

As Isaiah 54 has called us and reminded us to enlarge our tent (vs2) reinhabit and rebuild that which was given you (vs 3) and be reminded of the covenant made to you personally and to all of God’s people.(vs 4)

But this will come with some responsibility on our part. Blessings require continual care. Increasing requires more responsibility to care for that which we are given. Peace requires a mind set on peace always! All of this is hard because the evil one is always in the background saying, “try this it will be easier, take less effort, and fill the voids you think you are missing.”

Most importantly for all of us, especially the micro managers in the room, it requires grace. If you don’t know what grace is, that just might be the problem. We are not experiencing God, because it is by God’s grace that is unmeasurably sufficient for everything we could ask for or imagine. (Ephesians 3)

Basically, I am convicted of this that God is saying “I am rebuilding you. But you must take care of what I rebuild.” Take care of the covenant. Take care of your walk with Me. Take care of your holy relationships. Take care of your family. Take care of My church. Take care of the mission I placed in your hands.

So for today – place the stakes deep into prayer, scripture, worship, Holy Spirit inspired mission and ministry and receive what God wants to do in your life today. And be renewed, rebuilt, redeemed, remade, by the Holy Spirit at work within you.