The Spheres of Kingdom Stewardship - Tony Evans Sermon

what do you have that you have not received God claims comprehensive kingdom ownership of all of creation so if God owns everything you and I owe nothing there are no other owners God has given you the freedom to mess up what he created in fact he's given you and me so much freedom we can hand it over to the devil if we want if you grab that that you are nothing including your own life because it can be taken you have now set yourself on a journey of understanding life it's yours to manage not yours to own so in the words of football how bad do you want God has a house it's all of creation for the earth is the Lord's the fullness thereof and all the world that all who are in it for a part of this world is his house his word for his house is called Kingdom that's his house word his kingdom is his rule over all of his creation is his house God claims ownership of his house and because he claims ownership of his house he has set the rules for how his house is supposed to work but unfortunately kids have come into his house with new rules his creation has decided that a lot of his rules they don't like so they have created their own set of rules the only problem is they've done it in his house the concept of Kingdom stewardship is simply the responsibility to protect and expand the resources that God has placed under our managerial care on his behalf you and I are managers caretakers you are not I am NOT we are not owners of anything God has four spheres four realms cover mental stewardship realms cover mental Kingdom stewardship realms in which all of life is to be placed underneath his ownership because he owns all but he has four covenants remember a covenant is a divinely created relational bond it's an official agreement and arrangement established by God through which his kingdom values are to be understood yielded to and followed has four of them some 128 is the scenic why gnome it is the irreducible minimum it is the summary of these four realms now let me give you some good news to start with there is a big payday for God being the owner of all of your life you being the owner of none of it and merely the manager of it it's a big payday he repeats it throughout this passage the first word in verse 1 is blessed the last word in verse 4 is blessed the third word in verse 5 is blessed to speak of blessing is to speak of divine favor it is experiencing enjoying and extending the goodness of God in your life and everybody wants the payday without the management we want God to bless us while we changed the rules in his house we want divine favor on us while we make up our rules or piggyback off of the rules of his enemies while we pray for a blessing but the word bless in this passage is tied to you submitting to your managerial responsibilities and not claiming ownership of anything you and I we and us own nothing and if you will grab that accept that that God is the only owner and you are only a manager now you and the owner can get along these for cover dental spheres where all of life is under the rule of God are laid out for us he starts off with your personal Kingdom stewardship your individual Kingdom stewardship blessed is everyone every individual every person who fears the Lord who walks in his ways when you shall eat of the fruit of your hand you will be happy it will go well with you he starts off with you everyone so let's pretend you are the only one in the building right now because he is now speaking to every one of you individually your responsibility is God steward my responsibility if no one else was here is to fear God blessed is everyone who fears the Lord the question is what does that mean a synonym for fearing God is take God seriously so if you want to synonym for what it means to fear God it means to take God seriously as opposed to taking God casually we live in a culture that takes God actually not seriously he's good for the invocations and the benedictions as long as he stays out of the information between the two he's good for us to say grace before a meal as long as he doesn't interrupt the affairs of my day God is not taken seriously today on any level but he says that the favor that God offers is tied to the fear that he demands how do you know if you feel God how do you know that how do you know you're not just talking smack how do you know you're not just talking a good game how do you know that this thing is real and not just religious conversation and Christianese he says because at the end of verse one you walked in his ways you fear God with your feet not with your feelings you fear God with your with your movement not just with your mouth you fear God with your life not merely your lips with your walk not merely your talk if you want to know if you fear God see which way your feet are moving as you walk in his ways so there is a contradiction between fear and God and moving in the opposite direction and he says if I can get you to connect with me to pursue me relationally and ruling the two hours you pursuing a relationship and you're submitted to a rule under his kingdom covenant and authority if you do those two things proven by your walk not by your talk then you have positioned yourself in the place of favor God is not against blessing he's not against favor he is against blessing and favor that's independent of relationship and obedience he says if you walk in my way if you execute my will according to my word then you'll see me show up he says there's a threefold reward in verse two he says you shall eat the fruit of your hand that's your labor that's your labor you'll see God join you in your work your career you'll see God join you with his favor to eat the fruit of your hand is to enjoy the benefit of your work it's one thing to work and not be able to eat from it it's another thing because this is agrarian to work and be able to eat from it means you're benefiting from your work cuz a lot of folk at work who don't benefit from them [Laughter] I studied the Bible in college for four years I studied the Bible before you is better than those masters degree another four years better than the doctor the great and then I've been preaching all of these years and I'm still learning new things from this awesome inexhaustibility a little game that's why I'm so excited about the 2018 Study Bible and its accompanying works but Tony Evans Bible commentary it will take all of this training and this teaching and make it available to you to understand utilize and apply God's most powerful [Music] and then I love this one it will go well with you that's your future it will go well with you in other words I'll be two steps ahead of you ten steps ahead of you a year ahead of you working things out next year that you can't even see this year it will go well with you see when will you take God seriously he's way out in front you owe him see what he's doing you just know nothing is working out now but he is manipulating things and twisting things and tweaking things so that when you arrive it's already been set up because it will go well with you in spite of how it may look right now but the condition is that in your individual decision-making you fear God you take him seriously he then goes to the next category the next sphere of life the family verse three your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house your children like all the plants around your table that's the family we're living in a day of the dumbing down of the family the family is not a human creation the Bible says God owns the family says marriage is a covenant God claims to own the family and so it is critical that we do not allow the rules of the world to infiltrate the kingdom of God in the name of being sensitive we must be sensitive but it must be compassion without compromise in other words you don't dumb down God's standard just cuz the rest of the neighbourhood has come up with a new rule he says your wife shall be a fruitful vine within your house he talks about the stewardship of the husband here and his stewardship is too to make his wife as productive as she can be because he says the fruitful vine a vine is a vineyard vineyards produce grapes grapes fermented produced wine and you know what wine will do it'll make a man happy the man is to steward his family is to oversee the well-being of his family he says and what this means is that you just can't walk out cuz you man you just can't decide I want to divorce cuz you're not happy right now who said you supposed to be happy to begin with he says if you fear me I'll make you happy so so know it is a responsibility but it is the breakdown of the family that is the greatest social crisis of our day it has produced poverty it has produced abandonment it has produced criminology it has produced increase in prisons it is produced and increase in the tax base to support all those single parents who now have to raise these kids without the man in the home there's crisis after crisis after crisis after crisis because men have redefined the family and have abandoned them it is a stewardship responsibility but ladies have a responsibility to says she shall be a fruitful vine in your house that our commitment to facilitating the home and honoring the one who is to make her a fruitful vine your husband should feel your honor experience your honor says she is committed to her home committed to her kids because she is within the home and she hasn't abandoned him says your children will be like all the plants around your table not olive trees all in plants it takes 15 years when I'll have plan to become an olive tree so not olive trees olive plants it takes 15 years but if you nurture it right it'll produce olives for 2,000 years over in Israel at 2,000 your olive trees still pumping out olives you know why cuz their roots run deep because their roots run deep we have a generation of unrooted kids because parents haven't been there long enough to tender to the roots it says your children shall become outlet plants and guess where around your table the stewardship of the table to use that table time not just for eating but for leading and ministering and guiding and correcting and mentoring God says that he's calling on you to have a stewardship in the sphere of the home if you have a family that that is a primary responsibility and it is one you own there is no such thing in Scripture as no-fault divorce or divorce for illegitimate God has legitimate reasons but they're very narrow so he goes from the individual to the family then he goes from the family to the church verse 5 the Lord bless you from Zion Zion is a lofty word it was God's holy dwelling places Mount Zion the city of Zion the temple called Zion all three are called Zion Mountain City temple he saw about the temple because he's gonna talk about city in a moment the temple was a place of worship worship is the recognition of God for who he is what he has done and what you're trusting him to do it's the celebration of God it was the job of Zion to set the standards that were to infiltrate the culture Zion was to set the agenda for the culture starting with the recognition of the true God 2nd chronicles 15 3 to 6 says in those days there was no true God no teaching priest no law conflict individually conflict at home conflict nation the nation conflict City the city it was conflict because God had not been presented properly in the culture today we're living in the dumbing down of and the reason we're living in the dumbing down of God is the dumbing down of the church that because we have reduced them in here they have reduced them out there the Lord bless you from Zion the Lord give you a blessing see this is critical because there's certain blessings that come because of your attachment to Zion that do not come simply because you're a Christian because if you're not a test the Bible knows nothing of an unchurched believer because God wants you investing in the lives of his other Saints not just asking God to invest in you that's why they're all the one anothers in scripture but we live in a day of spiritual hitchhikers everybody thumbing for free ride but the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 and 23 when you come to worship you come desire where the presence of God is in the church collectively if the church is operating under his stewardship and governing kingdom authority the fourth and final category and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life indeed may you see your children's children peace be upon Israel now he's just gone to the city in the country Jerusalem and Israel that's the city that's the country to the nation now it doesn't take a genius to see that we are a nation in turmoil political turmoil social turmoil racial turmoil gender turmoil economic turmoil we are in a hot mess and when God describes it in the passage I've mentioned to you in second chronicles 15 3 to 6 he says you're in a hot mess because I'm not vicinity you're in a hot mess because I've been excluded from your lives excluded from your schools excluded from your churches even I've been excluded from your families I've been excluded and when I'm excluded it doesn't matter who you elect because when I'm excluded and my presence is no longer being felt then that vacuum is filled by conflict and chaos and so the challenge today is for Christians who are disciples of Jesus Christ to go public with their faith jeremiah 29:7 seeks the welfare of the city in which I have placed you for in its well-being you will have well-being in other words the place should be a better place to live if the church is doing its job there should be community impact if you're taking God seriously that means you're going to find out what he wants on the front end and then adjust your footsteps to that and where you haven't done it you're going to repent and say God I've been going the wrong way but now I'm turning to move in your way so that you can now move with me in whatever area you need to repent then it's a family you fight for the family you go to war for your children for the marriage for whatever your family situation happens to be you fight for it and then you become part of God's brought a spiritual family not just soaked and sour but engaged in in making the church as strong as impactful as it can be collectively and then we go public we go public we let the world know the society know our community know that Jesus Christ is Lord we're not ashamed of the gospel we're not ashamed of our faith and we do it with love but we do it with clarity because a charge to keep 1/2 and a god to glorify I'm a steward of individual life family life church life and for the well-being of the community which I lived work play in radio and television and movies they show you previews of coming attractions these are the hot clips of the upcoming show fight scene love scene chase scene the hot seeds and they stitch them together because they want you to look at the movie so they stitch all the hot scenes together now you look at it it may have been a terrible movie but you wouldn't know that by the clips kind of clips on one hot scene right after another hot see one day there's a big show coming to town God is the producer the Holy Spirit is director Jesus is the superstar and it will be a worldwide production it's when the kingdom of God comes down to this earth but in the meantime he's left you you you you you you you you you me and us here as previews of coming attractions we're supposed to be the hot clips of the upcoming show people are supposed to see the clip of your life the clip of your family the clip of this church the clip of your influence in the society and they can say that clip is hot that clip is hot that clip is hot so that they now say where can I buy a ticket and that's when we can tell them you don't have to buy a ticket the price has already been paid we have a stewardship first of all with our personal lives to surrender on a daily basis our lives to God's purposes for that day the Bible makes it clear that this is a daily walk your time your talents my time my talents treasures are to be yielded to him then we have a family stewardship responsibility this sphere is caring for your mate your children those who in your family to make sure that they are stewarding their lives in accordance with God's will God's plan and God's purpose happiness is a benefit of family joy the benefit of family but kingdom purpose is the responsibility of family then there is a third sphere that is our connection with our local church the church has been given the responsibility to advance God's kingdom corporately in the world every Christian is expected to be a functional part of a local church that means you're not just there to sit soak and sour you're there to contribute your time your talents and your giving to the church's strength of being able to be an impactful agent for the kingdom of God impacting you and your family for your spiritual development but through your gifting impacting the body of Christ as it flows into the broader society that leads to the fourths sphere this fourth sphere or realm that our stewardship should impact are the communities in which we live we work we relate to other people that includes the government that's why you should vote because you have the opportunity to exercise responsibility because leadership has a lot to say about what God does in a society but also your community involvement whether it's with your PTA or a community agency to lend God's voice to the decisions that are made for the well-being and stability of the place where you live and work and raise your family because when those four spheres are stewarded correctly then you find God's blessing covering those spheres when they're not stewarded correctly and you're out of alignment your family's out of alignment the church is out of alignment the community is in chaos and I think you see that all around us today then we don't see God's favor coming upon those realms through our stewardship so remember you are to steward the four realms under the rule of the [Music] [Music] you you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 26,218

Rating: 4.9311137 out of 5

Keywords: Tony Evans sermon, sermon, sermons, powerful sermons, inspirational sermons, motivational sermons, dr tony evans, tony evans sermons, money sermons, sermons on money, stewardship, stewardship sermons, sermons on stewardship

Id: T2T4YPnshgs

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 01 2020