Most people Think they own what they don't own. Just because they have it. Dr. Tony Evans says that's where the concept of stewardship comes in. God created mankind to manage what he owns.
Because he owns it all. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. We tell our children again and again to take care of the things we give them.
Well, today, Dr. Evans explains why God expects the same of us and why we often don't do much better than our kids. Dr. Evans will be teaching out of the first chapter of Genesis. Let's join him as he opens today's message with this personal story.
During seminary days, Money was very difficult to come by. It was a time of uh Almost financial destitution. But it was part of the sacrifice you made to Do those years of seminary, intense seminary training. But With a family, we still had to survive as best we could. And so there were miscellaneous things that we would seek to do to Make ends meet as best we could.
One of those things. was house sitting. What's house sitting? People in well-established and well-to-do neighborhoods would call Dallas Seminary and say we want some house sitters. They trusted the students at Dallas Seminary.
They were preparing for ministry, so they expected that nobody would steal from them.
So they would have students come to spend the weekend or even up to a week. at their home or while they went on vacation. or on a business trip. And so These students would come to the home and we put our name on the list. Of persons to be invited to live large for a weekend.
You can imagine the treat it was to go to some of these palatial palaces to. How sit? For people who couldn't be there, this would include not only watching the premises, but watching the dogs or the pets, and sometimes if the adults were leaving to watch the kids. And so we were given pay. Two.
How sit? It was a different feeling being in that house. They being in our little old apartment. There was foods that I'd never heard of before. in the refrigerator of that house.
and those houses. The furnishings that were amazing. in those homes. On one occasion, One man had in his garage a Bentley. And he told me that I could drive it to school.
But I regularly had to be reminded by Sister Evans, this is not your house. This is not your house.
Sometimes I get a little too comfortable. Because they had left us in charge in their absence. It's easy to forget. What's yours and what's not. Just because you're in the vicinity of it.
For a weekend or a week. We were stewards of a property that we did not own. We were managing the premises Of another. Our job was to oversee the well-being of what was entrusted to us. while the owners were not there.
That responsibility is called stewardship. It is a managerial responsibility. It is not an ownership. position. God has a house.
It's called this kingdom. That's his house. And he not only owns the house, he owns everything in the house. Psalm 24, verse 1 says, The earth is the Lord's. And the fullness thereof, the world and all of them who dwell in it.
God claims Comprehensive kingdom ownership of all of creation. He repeats this over and over and over again. In Psalm 89, verse 11, God says, I own all that the world contains. In 1 Corinthians. 10, 26.
God says, I own it all. In Revelation 4, 11, God says, I own it all.
So, if God owns everything, you and I own nothing.
Somebody didn't hear that. If God owns anything. Everything, all that it contains. You cannot claim ownership without ticking off the owner. God claims complete ownership of all of his creation, so there are no other owners.
There are no other owners. If you grab that. That you own nothing. including your own life, because it can be taken. You have now set yourself on a journey.
of understanding life. Because most people Think they own what they don't own. Just because they have it. They're in the vicinity of it. What God has established is A management company.
Owners of property have management companies that manage the well-being of their property. For them. God has a management company. It's called Mankind. God created mankind to manage what he owns.
Because he owns it all. Before God created man, he had another management company. Angels. Before there was mankind, there were angels, and angels managed God's creation on his behalf. Until one of the angels went rogue.
Isaiah chapter 14 verses 12 to 14. Explains how Lucifer, the shining one, rebelled against God. and try to establish His own ownership on God's premises. And tried to create a joint venture with other angels, a third of all the angels, to join him in owning what he did not create. And that led to a Cosmic Kingdom rebellion.
Jesus says in Luke chapter 10 verse 18 I was there when Satan fell from heaven like lightning Jesus says, I was there. He existed before he was born. When Satan fell, that is, when Lucifer got a name changed to Satan, he became the adversary of God. He was kicked out of heaven to the third planet from the sun. Earth.
That's why when you open your Bibles, it says, and earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. How could there be darkness when God is light? It says, darkness was upon the face of the deep, so God had to create light. It says God had to separate the land from the water. Whenever land and water are mixed, that's called a swamp.
Why was the earth in disarray? Because Satan had been kicked out of heaven to earth.
So, this had become the abode of the devil and his evil ones. But God decided as owner to renovate the property.
So in Genesis 1, God renovates the property. He calls in light, the sun, the moon, the stars, separates the water from the land, creating continents. And brings order to a chaotic environment, but now establishes a new management crew. A new group of stewards, if you will. Psalm chapter 8, verses 3 to 6 says, And you have made man a little lower than the angels.
That is, constitutionally inferior. We can't disappear, we can't fly around, we don't have angelic intellect, we are lower constitutionally than the angels. But you have crowned him with majesty. You've hired a new crew. To look after your works.
That's stewardship.
So let me define, let me give you a. Specific definition of kingdom stewardship. This management crew, mankind, male and female, has been duly tasked. With protecting and expanding the assets of the owner. Stewardship is protecting and expanding the assets of another.
You protect it. and you expand it. Everybody in here has a bank. A place where you deposit resources. You do it for two reasons.
to put it in a safe place. That's why you don't keep enormous amounts of money under your mattress, because it may not be safe.
So, you put it somewhere where there's a vault, you put it where there's security, because one of the jobs of a bank. is to protect your asset. But there is another job, and that is to expand it. That's why you want to know what the rates are. You want to know how much interest you will get on your money because you don't just want them to protect it, you want them to expand it.
That is, to make more of it than you started with.
So the job of a steward is to protect And expand the assets of another.
So, the job of a kingdom steward. is protecting and expanding God's creation on God's behalf because he is the king, creation is his kingdom, and we are his management crew. When you understand that you're not an owner, Of anything. Yeah. Since God owns everything.
And you're only a manager of everything. That God puts in your hand. It changes how you look at everything. You ever have anybody come over your house and think they own it? As a matter of fact, do you have anybody in your house who don't pay, who think they own it?
Like your kids. Then they are out of order because they have misunderstood their role. God has created a kingdom and his management team have misunderstood their role. Because they think they own what he's only given for us to manage. And whenever ownership and management.
are in two different directions, there's gonna be conflict. Because when the manager is doing something opposite to what the owner has prescribed, there's going to be conflict. Because the owner is insisting you work for me. I don't work for you. Dr.
Evans will return with more on the meaning of stewardship in just a moment. But first, as we're learning today, each of us has been entrusted with a portion of God's kingdom. and this series is designed to help you understand that responsibility more clearly. If you're ready to go deeper, Tony has written a powerful book that does just that called Kingdom Stewardship. Unlike most stewardship resources that focus mainly on finances, Tony explains that money is just one part of a much larger calling.
one that opens the door to far greater blessings when we understand it God's way. That's why we're offering the Kingdom Stewardship Book as our gift. when you make a contribution to support the alternative broadcast ministry. And to help you get the most from this teaching, we're also including the Companion Study Guide and downloadable videos featuring exclusive instruction from Tony. Plus, you'll receive the complete two-volume Kingdom Stewardship Sermon Series.
All 12 full-length messages, including insights we won't have time to share on the broadcast. This is one of the most comprehensive packages we've ever offered on the air. But it's only available for a limited time, so don't miss out. Visit tonyevans.org. or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 to request the Kingdom Stewardship Package.
I'll share that information again after the second part of today's lesson. Right now, here's Dr. Evans. And so God created mankind. To be his stewards.
and he would equip them for their stewardship. Because he said, let us make man in our own image. An image is a mirror. When you woke up this morning and you went before the mirror You saw you. If you lifted up your right hand...
And you saw the right hand in the mirror. Lift it up is because you lifted your hand up because all the mirror did was bounce back. To you, you. An image is a shadow. When you see a shadow, when you move, the shadow moves because it mirrors your movement.
So God says, we're going to create man, male and female, and we're going to create them to mirror our movements.
So, the job of every person created is to mirror God's movement as part of God's management team over things they do not own but that He owns.
So we're going to make them like us so they can mirror us. on that which belongs to us. And that is all creation. We're told at the end of chapter one Every time God created during the Each day of creation, he says it is good. He comes to the end of creation, and in verse 31, he says, it is very good.
He says it's not just good. is awesome. He has created a management team, stewards. Who he wants them to keep him feeling good about what he started with. Our job is to make the owner feel good about what he built.
As stewards. We are too. Give him pleasure. I mean Think of the creation. God has super packed creation so we don't run out of anything.
When he built it and said, it is good. There was so much in there. That we don't run out of air. We don't run out of foliage. We don't run out of seeds.
And this is generation after generation after generation after generation. What he created, he packed so much stuff in there that. It covers from the beginning of mankind. Tell the end of mankind everything in between cuz he real good So there's a lot to unpack. Your job, my job, our job, is to protect it.
And to expand it because he put all the stuff in there.
So, watch this: anything you add to your life is something that's already in existence. There's nothing in your life In any part of your life, that you don't have to go to something already existing to get it. Why? Because God packed it into creation. That's why the Lord says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7: What do you have that you have not received?
And then he asked, so why are you bragging as though it came from you? It didn't. You had to piggyback off of something. You eat because God created animals. You wear clothes because God created them.
You are able to function because of what God came. You build a house because of what wood from trees that God made. Everything you have, you have to borrow. From the owner. God has given you managerial responsibilities.
So, what does he say? Chapter 2, verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may freely eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil You shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.
He tells Adam, Eve has not been created yet, she's going to be created shortly. He tells Adam, because Adam was to be the one who bore first responsibility, so he's created first.
So he tells Adam, look. I'm gonna give you a house. In my home. I'm going to give you an apartment in my house and we're going to name your apartment Eden. This is gonna be where you live.
It's going to be your homestead.
So he gives him a homestead and he calls the homestead Eden. This homestead was a well-treed property. A bunch of trees on this homestead. He gives him a bunch of he says, Now, from every tree of the garden, you may freely. E And I want you to keep it and cultivate it.
To cultivate means to unlock its potential. When a farmer cultivates the soil, He's doing it to plant seeds. Because the seeds are gonna produce new things. In other words, I want you to bring out of it what. It can do.
Therefore, let me say this: it is a sin not to maximize your potential. It is wrong not to maximize under God the potential of what He's placed in your sphere of responsibility. You are not to be satisfied with not becoming all that God created you to be, because the whole point of stewardship is to unlock the potential. Under God. In relationship to him.
So he says, I want you to now, watch this. Freely eat of all the trees in the garden. Eat freely from all the trees. Maximize your potential of the garden that I put you in, the sphere of my ownership that I have given you to manage. I want you to get everything out of creation that creation has the potential to provide you.
Keep it, that means protect it. Cultivate it, that means unleash. what it can do. And if you're not thinking like that, you're not thinking like a good manager. A good manager wants to expand the business.
A good manager wants to get more renters in if it's an office build. A good manager wants to expand it. For the sake of the owner. He says, However, Yeah. I'm gonna put a tree in your den.
One tree in the middle of your garden.
So I'm going to say the den. Because the den is usually in the middle of most houses. I'm going to put it in the midst of the garden. I'm going to put it in the den because. Usually to go to the kitchen you gotta go through the den.
Usually to go to the bedroom you got to go through the den. Because the den is situated in the center of most homes. And so he says, in the middle of your house, Eden, I'm going to put one tree, and that tree you can't touch. You you can't touch that tree. I can now all these other trees Use them to the max.
But that tree We'll kill you. If you take of that tree, you're going to die. You're gonna die. Why would God put a tree in the middle of the garden that could kill you while telling me I got all these other trees I can have fun with? Because every time you get up and go to the kitchen.
And every time you get up and go to the bedroom, I want you to be reminded this is not your house. I don't want you to get so used to the garden you think is yours. That you think this is your house? You own it. No, no, I'm letting you live here.
And to let you know I'm letting you live here, I'm gonna stick it right smack dab in the den.
So that any movement you take, you got to bypass that tree. Oh, it's not my house. Oh, it's not my house. But why would not I eat of the tree when it's got so much information in it? Good and evil.
It's got good information, it's got bad information, it's a Google tree. Why wouldn't I take advantage of this tree? Because God wanted to tell his management association and all of the members of it. That I do not want your basis of knowledge to be knowledge that you reason. I want your basis of knowledge to be knowledge that I reveal.
I want you to live by revelation, not human reason. Yeah. Dr. Tony Evans, talking today about our responsibility within God's supervisory team.
Now, before we wrap up, let me remind you about that comprehensive Kingdom Stewardship Resource Package I mentioned earlier. It includes Tony's insightful book, The Companion Study Guide, Downloadable Videos, and all twelve full-length messages from the Kingdom Stewardship Sermon series. These resources are our way of saying thank you when you make a contribution to help keep Tony's teaching coming your way on this station. Be sure to make your request before time runs out. by visiting tonyevans.org.
or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. where a team member will be glad to help you. Again, the number 1-800-800-3222. or online at tonyevans.org. On Monday, Dr.
Evans explains how stewardship isn't about rules, but relationship. and how understanding that can unlock new potential in your life. I hope you'll join us.
