God has four spheres, four realms, in which all of life is to be placed underneath His ownership. Dr. Tony Evans explains why the concept of stewardship affects every part of our lives. Because He owns all. This is the Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. Many Christians think stewardship is just about how much money you donate or how much time you volunteer. But Dr. Evans says there's much more to it than that. And today he'll stretch your concept of stewardship in some healthy new directions.
Let's listen. 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. God has four spheres, four realms, covenantal kingdom stewardship realms in which all of life is to be placed underneath his ownership because he owns all. Psalm 128 is the summary of these four realms. It summarizes the four kingdom spheres for which you are a steward, and there is no area of your life that doesn't come under one of these four spheres.
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 as God's 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 a synonym for what it means to fear God, it means to take God seriously as opposed to taking God casually. We all have electricity in our homes. You better take electricity seriously. We benefit from electricity. Our lights come on, our appliances work because there's so much power in electricity.
Folk want to use God who don't want to respect him. They want the benefits of eternity while they make independent decisions in time. And that's not taking God seriously. It's taking God casually. Far too many people, even Christians, have turned God into a spare tire.
We want him in the vicinity in case life goes flat.
So we go to the trunk then and we take out the spare while the flat tire is being repaired. But as soon as the flat tire is repaired, God is now removed and placed back into the trunk until things go flat again. but as long as things are not flat we want him close but in the trunk or others want to turn God into a slot machine they want to pull the lever so they can hear the clinging of the blessing who do not want to recognize that he created us for a relationship and he wants to oversee us in a rule of ownership and therefore placing ourselves under his authority. He says that if you are serious about fearing me, then you walk in my ways. And he says, if I can get you to connect with me, to pursue me relationally and ruling, with two hours, you're pursuing a relationship and you're submitting 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.
We have on the rooms over here, motion detector lighting. A lot of folks were leaving electricity on, bills were getting high.
So we put in some motion detector lighting in some of the rooms, which means when you walk in the room, the light comes on. When you walk out of the room, the light goes off because we didn't want to waste electricity with people not using the room and leaving the lights on.
So we put in motion detector lighting.
Now the lights are in the room. The power is in the room, but they have been programmed not to express themselves until movement is detected. God's got a program and his power is there. His light is there, but it's been programmed not to manifest itself until he sees emotion. That why all throughout the Bible before God would do something supernatural he would tell the people to do something first He would tell them no Moses you hold out the rod Moses, you tell the people to start marching toward the Red Sea.
Joshua, you tell the priest to put their feet in the Jordan River. Martha, you better move the stone first because you're not going to see nothing until I see some motion.
So if you're serious about fearing God, if I am serious about fearing God, if we are serious about fearing God, it's got to be movement, not discussion alone. 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.
It means you're benefiting from your work, because a lot of folk have work who don't benefit from it. It's a bag full of holes.
So the first thing is your individual commitment. And he says, I will oversee the eating of the fruit of your labor. Then he says, and you will be happy. Everybody's looking for happiness today. You will be happy because I am going to invest in your emotional well-being.
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 you take God seriously, he's way out in front. And you don't even 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.
He then goes to the next category, the next sphere of life, the family. Verse 3, your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive 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 so all this talk about redefining the family and what's worse about the talk is folk who name Christ who are buying in to the talk 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 to make his wife as productive as she can be because he says a fruitful vine a vine is a vineyard 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 because you're mad you just can't decide I want to divorce because you're not happy right now who said you're supposed to be happy to begin with he says if you fear me I'll make you happy but ladies have a responsibility too says she shall be a fruitful vine in your house that her commitment to facilitating the home and honoring the one who is to make her a fruitful vine says she is committed to her home committed to her kids because she is within the home and she hasn't abandoned it says your children will be like olive plants around your table.
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, there are 2,000-year-old olive trees still pumping out olives. You know why?
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. says your children shall become olive 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 around the table but we're not around the table we're in front of the television we're not around the table we're on the ipad and the iPhone and the smart devices. We're not around the table.
And so the culture is getting more investment into our children than we are. And as a result, we've got children who have gone crazy because the culture has more impact on them than we do. And now they can get the culture without you if they have a phone. They can get it in all shapes, all colors, and all sizes. Dr.
Evans will move on to another sphere of stewardship when he returns in just a moment. First, though, I want to let you know about his book that builds on what we've been learning in our current series. It's called Kingdom Stewardship, an exploration of the burdens we'll drop and the blessings we'll receive once we realize that God owns everything, not just our money. You can get this life-changing book today as our gift when you come alongside the alternative and make a contribution toward Tony's ministry. In fact, if we hear from you right away, we'll send the book to you along with all 12 full-length messages in the Kingdom Stewardship Audio Series, the Companion Study Guide and access to video Bible study sessions taught by Tony This is a limited time offer so be sure to visit us at TonyEvans right away and make the arrangements.
Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat our contact information after part two of today's lesson. Let's get back to Dr. Evans, teaching from Psalm 128.
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. The temple was a place of worship. 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.
2 Chronicles 15, 3-6 says, in those days there was no true God, no teaching priest, no law, conflict individually, conflict at home, conflict nation to nation, conflict city to city. It was conflict because God had not been presented properly in the culture. today we're living in the dumbing down of God 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 in every football game there's only about 17 minutes of actual contact but those 17 minutes are in a one hour game so every game is slated for one hour but you're only going to see 17 minutes worth of action but you got to sit three hours to watch one hour to see 17 minutes if you drive to the game it's going to take you a couple of hours to get there because you got to drive through all the traffic you got to park you got to walk so that's five hours to sit three hours to watch one hour to see 17 minutes then you got to drive home you got to walk to the car you got to work through the traffic now that's about seven hours to sit for three hours to watch one hour to see 17 minutes and then on top of that they're going to tithe to get in to the service and going to not complain about the cost and going to not say oh all the Cowboys want is my money but I have a question Help me out here. What have the cowboys done for you lately? But God gets you up every day.
He provides all of your needs. He satisfies many of your desires. And you're going to tell me, worship is that much of a problem? People will not even see rain. They will hear it's going to rain.
And decide I'm not going to worship, but they're going to go to work tomorrow were borrowing from God's air, oxygen, and provision. But when they understood Zion, they understood that God, see the temple and the tabernacle, later the temple were set up in the middle. The 12 tribes were around the tabernacle because God wanted the tabernacle, the place of worship, to be the center of life of his people. And as a result, the weak church has provided. we live in the Mac Christian generation.
Folk want drive through Christianity. They only measure church by the level of convenience. Don't ask me to serve. Don't ask me to give up some time. Don't ask me to give up some energy.
Just take care of me, meet my needs, pray for me, heal me, counsel me, marry me, bury me. Just the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22 and 23, when you come to worship, you come to Zion, 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 and 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 so the challenge today is for Christians who are disciples of Jesus Christ to go public with their faith to no longer be secret agent Christians if you were accused of being a follower of Jesus Christ not a believer in God I'm not talking about that talking about a follower of Jesus Christ if you were accused of being a follower of Jesus Christ would there be enough evidence to convict you if we can't see people being saved and environments being impacted and worldviews being shaped by whatever sphere of stewardship God has placed under our authority, then we are not managing what he has handed to us well. The world loves this morning.
Let me tell you why the world loves this morning. Because we in church and they don't mind you being in church. Because in church, you're not making any difference. I mean, you're worshiping, you're learning, you teaching but you not a threat in here to them But it when you go back to the world of your occupation your career your gifts your education and you go back as a representative of Jesus Christ now all of a sudden you have become a threat to the society because you have taken a stand for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords because guess what? You're his rep.
You're his steward. You're his manager. and he told you to go and be salt and light, not salt of the shaker and light of the bulb, light of the world and salt of the earth.
So it is absolutely critical that you look at all of life as a stewardship. You and I are stewards, not owners. There are four spheres of your stewardship. Your individual life must now be ruled by God, which means you will check out his decision in order for you to make your decision. Because let me explain something.
There's some things God can't do. God can't do everything. He can't lie. He can't contradict his essential nature.
So there's some things God can't do. Let me tell you something else God can't do. He can't be second. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
So 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 the 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 broader spiritual family. Not just sit, soak, and sour, but engaged 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 I have and a God to glorify. I'm a steward of individual life, family life, church life, and for the well-being of the community in which I live, work, play.
So how do we measure our effectiveness in these spheres of influence? Dr. Evans will address that when he returns to wrap up today's message in just a moment. You know, stewardship begins when we loosen our grip on the things we declare are ours and instead open up and invite God to lead us. That's the heart of Dr.
Evans' teaching on kingdom stewardship, and it's a perspective that will free you to become the person God meant for you to be. For a limited time, we're offering the Kingdom Stewardship Package, a large collection of resources that'll help teach you these powerful, life-changing principles. When you make a contribution to help support the alternative broadcast ministry, we'll send you all 12 full-length audio messages from the series, the powerful Kingdom Stewardship book, as well as an in-depth study guide and leader's kit with access to downloadable video teaching sessions from Dr. Evans. Visit us today at TonyEvans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.
That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at TonyEvans.org. And while you're on the website, be sure to register your interest in A Journey Through Israel with Tony Evans this October. From Jerusalem to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, you'll explore Scripture in its original setting with teaching from Dr. Evans along the way. Visit TonyEvans.org to find out more.
Money treasures possessions. The Bible has plenty to say about what constitutes true wealth. And tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why banking on our belongings is simply a bad idea. Right now, he's back with a final thought to share with us.
In 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 scenes, 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 about Eclipse. Because Eclipse are one hot scene right after another hot scene. One day there's a big show coming to town. God is the producer. The Holy Spirit is the 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, 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 should 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.
