Adonai: The Owner of All

Unless he owns you, you will be limited in how much of him you experience. But Dr. Tony Evans says being owned by God is the definition of deliverance. The more you become a slave to Jesus, the freer you become as a person. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Many people want God as their friend, but as their owner?

Not so much. But today, Dr. Evans explains why being owned by our Creator is the only ticket to true freedom. Let's join him. Today I want to acquaint you with the name Adonai. Adonai, like Elohim, is a plural word. Whenever it's used of God, it's used in the plural because God is a plural person.

There's only one God, but he's made up of plurality, three, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. So Adonai is always in reference to God in the Bible, plural. It's found over 300 times in the Bible, and its meaning is very interesting. Adonai means to own or to be the master of. The background to the word Adonai was a master who had a slave or slaves. He owned these slaves, but not only did he own them, but because he owned them, he bore responsibility for them. He was to provide for them, protect them, guide them.

So what he owned, he took responsibility for. So when God is referred to as Adonai, he is referred to as owner. The psalmist says in Psalm 97 verse 5 that God is Adonai of the whole earth.

He not only is Elohim of the whole earth, creator, he is Adonai of the whole earth, owner. The Bible makes it clear that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and owns the hills that the cattle graze on. God is owner, Adonai.

That is our word. It is a word of ownership that bears responsibility. When the Bible talks about God as Adonai, it's talking about the fact that because he owns everything and everybody, he is responsible for that which he owns.

Now, with that concept comes staggering implications. If God is the owner, you are not. Turn to Judges chapter 6 verse 2, The power of Midian prevailed against Israel, because Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

Watch this now. It says, Midian, that was the pagan people, prevailed against God's people because God's people had begun worshiping idols. They had begun tinkering with false gods.

So God let the enemy take control of God's people because they were tinkering with false gods. It says they got tired and cried out to the Lord, to Jehovah, help, do something. When they did, the angel of the Lord comes to a man named Gideon, verse 12, and said to him, The Lord, Jehovah, is with you, O valiant warrior. He says, The Lord, Jehovah, is with you. So he speaks to this angel and calls him Adon. Notice the lower cast because it's talking to the angel of the Lord. Oh my Lord, if the Lord Jehovah is with me, why then has all this happened to us?

Have you ever asked that question? Lord, if you near me, why am I going through this? Why can't I pay my bills? Why am I so unhappy? Why do I feel so alone?

Why do I feel so defeated? If you're supposed to be with me, the great God, or here by the church, how come you are not with me? The Lord looked at him and said, verse 14, Go in this strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.

Have I not sent you? He said to him, O Adonai, capital L, small o-r-d, O Adonai, how shall I deliver Israel? My family is the least in Manasseh and I am the youngest in my father's house. He says, I don't qualify. Jehovah says, I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as one man. Oh, I love this because he says, I don't qualify.

I got good news for some folk in here who don't feel like your family background allows you to qualify, who don't feel like you come from the good stock or you don't come from the right side of town, or maybe you were in a situation that was not pleasant to grow up in. If you ever discover Adonai and you say to Jehovah, you are Adonai, I give you ownership, you will be amazed at what Jehovah can do in the most unlikely places among the most unlikely people. You will be amazed at seeing him overcome the Midianites in your midst.

People are trying to hold you down and keep you from progressing and keep you from maximizing God's call on your life or your spiritual potential or the Midianites of various strongholds that are trying to keep you oppressed or keep you addicted or keep you defeated. God says, if I am your Adonai, you'll see me work as your Jehovah. You'll see me reveal stuff. What did he reveal to him? He revealed to him the weirdest plan that you would have ever thought. Gideon is getting ready to go. You'll see this in chapter 7.

Gideon is getting ready to go out and fight the Midianites. So he gathers 32,000 men and says, okay, let's go out and defeat them. God comes up and says, that's too many folk. I can't use all them people.

Because, you know, you can have a lot of people and they'd be the wrong folk you're hanging out with. So he said, that's 32,000, I can't use them. He whittles it down to 20,000. He's now at 20,000.

He says, okay, God, I'm ready to go fight. He said, that's too many folk. You got too many people. You got too many people.

I can't use all those people. He says, now, you go down and have them all drink out of the water. You go have them drink out of the water. And everybody who holds his head up when he drinks, you keep them.

The ones who put their heads down when they drink, I can't use them. Because, see, if they put their heads down, that means their eyes aren't focused on the situation. They just focus on getting their needs met. But I need some folk who, while they're getting their needs met, are focused on the task at hand.

Their eyes are open even while they're satisfying themselves. 20,000 got whittled down to 300, the Bible says. They got down to think, you want me to go fight a whole army with 300 people? Not quite, Gideon. I want you to fight the whole army with 300 people and me.

If you had 20,000 people but you didn't have me, you're still going to lose. But if you got 300 of the right folk with me, I will show you what Jehovah looks like when he becomes Adonai in your situation. See, the problem is, a lot of us have Jehovah who's not yet met Adonai.

He's not owning anything yet. He's just somebody we come and hear the Bible from on Sunday, we come and hear the Word from, so we'll say, guess what Jehovah said today in church? And we never see Adonai at work. So until Jehovah and Elohim become Adonai, you won't know how big God is.

You won't have to turn there, but let me give you another reference. It's Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. It says, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw Adonai. See, and I know, Isaiah saw the Lord, that's what we say. But it says, Isaiah saw Adonai.

Now, why do you need to know in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw Adonai? Because it looked like the human king was the key. But the human king died. The thing that you normally look to, the man in charge, he died. But it wasn't until the human king died that he saw who really owned stuff.

Adonai was still seated on the throne running the show. You see, sometimes we won't see Adonai until God lets something die in our situation. He kills something we were looking at. He kills something we were depending on.

He lets that job go away because we were banking our whole financial well-being on that employment. He lets that person be removed from our lives because we thought we couldn't make it without that person still being in our lives. He lets something go away, get rid of, get shattered, so we can discover who really is in charge here, who really owns here. We can discover what really, because he desires, will keep us from seeing our own sin.

That's why God let Isaiah see his own sin with his tongue when he saw God as owner. He'll take as long as it takes for his renters to get the point. Because you're a renter. I don't know if you know that. And sometimes I forget it too.

We're all prone to forget it. But we are renters. How do I know we're renters? Because everything we have for living is borrowed. Nothing you have is not borrowed. The clothes that you're wearing was borrowed from some animal. The fruit or the vegetables you eat was borrowed from a seed that the vegetable or fruit provided. The meat that you eat, you borrowing that.

You ain't make any animals. In fact, the air that you breathe is on loan. It's all borrowed. We walking around here talking about we owners.

It's mine, it's mine, it's mine, it's mine. It's yours on loan. But when borrowers start acting like owners, you insult owners.

You insult owners. Adonai means you don't own. Bible says you came into this world naked. You're going to leave in this world naked because you own nothing. Everything is on loan.

You are a borrower. So God expects you to recognize him as Adonai. And that's why we're not seeing the presence of God and the power of God. Because we want people who want to use God's name, but he can't own the things he made.

And that includes you. Because the Bible says if you're a Christian, even your body is not your own. You've been bought with a price. He wants to own your body, he says. Spirit and soul and body.

He wants to own the whole package. I love this passage. David was said to be a man after God's own heart. You can get a feel for this in 2 Samuel 7. Because in 2 Samuel 7, he keeps saying, Adonai, Adonai, Adonai, Adonai, Adonai. Beginning with verse 18. Look at what David says. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord Jehovah. And he said, Who am I, O Adonai God? And what is my house that you have brought me this far?

See, he understands he's a borrower. You brought me this far. And yet this was insignificant in your sight. It wasn't a big deal to you, O Adonai God. For you have spoken also of the house of your servant concerning his distant future.

You've got my future in your hands. And this is the custom of man, O Adonai God. Again, what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Adonai God. For the sake of your word and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness to let your servant know. For this reason you are great, O Adonai God. For there is none like you, and there is no God beside you according to all we have heard with our ears.

No wonder David saw so much, because he kept God in his eyes as Adonai. More on the blessings and benefits of being owned by God when Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment. First, though, you can dig even deeper into today's subject and put the principles to work with the help of Tony's popular devotional, Experiencing the Power of God's Names.

As we're discovering, those titles tell us a lot about God's nature and character. This life-giving devotional can provide you a daily dose of direction when you're lost and deliverance when you find yourself stuck. Request it today, and it's yours with our thanks, when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. If you do that right away, we'll add a special bonus, all 14 full-length messages from Tony's current two-volume series, Knowing God's Names, on both CD and digital download.

The complete collection includes some messages we won't have time to present on the air, so there's no other way to hear some of this powerful material. Visit us before time runs out at TonyEvans.org, where you can get the details and make a request. Or call 1-800-800-3222, where members of our resource team are standing by 24-7 to help you in person. That's 1-800-800-3222.

Right now, Dr. Evans is back with Part 2 of today's lesson. Adonai, the one who owns, and the owner calls the shots. We want God, we don't want Him owner God. And unless He owns you, you will be limited in how much of Him you experience. You may hear a lot about Him, Jehovah, in the Word, but your experience of Him is tied to your recognition that Jehovah and Elohim must be your Adonai. And He's called Adonai in the circumstances of life when people's lives have gotten to the point where they no longer want to own themselves. And God will wait until you give up ownership. Here's what I'm saying. Adonai is the password for the unveiling of Jehovah.

You need a password to get in? You want to get into more of Jehovah expressing, revealing, and manifesting Himself, then He must be your Adonai. Jesus put it this way, because Jesus is called the Adonai of the New Testament through the revelation of God. He says, how do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? You say, you talk in that talk, but I don't own you. Because if I owned you, then you would find out what the owner wants. And if you don't find out what the owner wants, that's because you don't believe I own you. So, you take care of yourself.

You take care of yourself. And that's why so many people look to God to bail them out, because they have their own Adonais. They have their own Adonais. They want to run their own lives. And men, we want to run our lives independently of God. And women, we want to run our lives independently of God. And then we want to run our homes independently of God. We want to run our finances independently of God. They want to run our careers independently of God. God—but then we go to church and we say, Oh Lord, God's not working for me.

Well, I have a question. Is He Adonai for you? Is He owner, or is He just God in general? Unless and until we address the lordship issue—that is the ownership issue, the master issue—then God's revelation of Himself, Jehovah, will be limited. It is surrender of your will to His will, your way to His way, yourself to His self. That's why Paul said, My life is not my own. Now some people accept Jesus as Savior and as Lord at the same time.

Some people do it simultaneously. They don't have this gap, so they don't have a life that's messed up over years, okay? Other people do it at some later date. That's why, parents, we want our children to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, but then we want the children to make the Savior who they accepted the Lord. And you want to close the time gap because that will affect not only their decisions, it affects God's work in their life, and the less the gap, the less the mess.

It's an Adonai issue. In fact, let me give you a secret. Here's one of the most often quoted verses in evangelism in the New Testament, and that's Romans 10-9, okay? If you will confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. The next verse says, For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, with the heart man gets saved. But then he says, But with the mouth confession Christ is Lord.

He says, With the mouth confession you are delivered. The word saved means to be delivered. Now we quote most of those verses to tell somebody who's not a Christian how to become a Christian, but that's really not why those verses were written. Those verses were written to people who were already Christians, but who were not delivered.

They were saved in the sense that they were on their way to heaven, but they were undelivered on earth. And Paul writes those Christians to say, If you will confess with your mouth the lordship of Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that He's alive to do something about your situation, God has raised Him from the dead, you will be delivered. For with the heart you believe unto conversion, but with the mouth confession you believe unto deliverance. And the reason why more people aren't delivered is because they have believed unto salvation, but not confessed unto lordship. And until the lordship issue is settled, the manifestation of God, Jehovah and Elohim, will be limited or negated. The Bible says in Psalm 110 verse 11 that God hath made Jesus Lord.

He is the one now to whom we should obligate ourselves. First Corinthians chapter 7 verse 21 and 22, I love this verse. It says that the slave to Christ becomes the Lord's free man. In other words, the more you become a slave to Jesus, the freer you become as a person. The less you are a slave to Jesus, the more bound you become as a person. It is your slavery to the owner that frees you up as a servant.

It is your independence from the owner that causes you to be in control. We would tell our children this when they don't listen to us as parents that you're gonna go in the wrong direction. We want them to listen to us because we know stuff they don't know. In their rebellion we say I told you so or wish we could tell them I told you so because we have more information than they have.

Guess what? Hate to tell you this, but God's got more information than you have. If I own you, do what I say and believe that I'm Elohim and Jehovah.

But most people don't believe that. They don't believe he's Elohim and Jehovah, so they don't make him Adonai. But Adonai is the password to Jehovah. So then, what must you do? What should be your response to today's message?

Because here's what you have to understand. When you don't surrender to Christ, you do surrender to chaos. When you don't surrender to Christ, you do surrender to chaos. See, a lot of us have surrendered to chaos not knowing we made chaos the owner because we didn't surrender to Christ. When you don't surrender—that's why we're having so many problems in our lives, so many problems in our families, so many problems in our finances, so many problems in every area of our life.

We have not surrendered to Christ, and so we're trying to—you know what most of us spend our lives do? Trying to manage chaos. My life is a mess, so let me manage it the best way I can.

So we try to manage chaos. God says, you won't have to manage chaos if I could own you. If I could tell men what it means to be a man, what it means to be a husband, what it means to be a father, cuz I own you.

Tell women what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a wife, what it means to be a homemaker, cuz I own you. So if you take a position, know you don't own me, I own me, cuz I'm the man. I'm captain of my own ship. I'm master of my own faith. I am the man. Good. Let's see you, man.

Let's see you own you. You know, on the court TV shows, the rule is, if I'm gonna try your case, it must be understood that my decisions are final. I'm not gonna hear your case unless you agree that what I decide is what we're gonna go with. If you're coming in to debate whether you're gonna agree with my decision, I'm not gonna hear your case. You gotta sign and agree that the decision, you must do this in advance, that I make is final or he won't hear your case. See, a lot of us go to God to see if we like how he's gonna rule.

And God said, that's not how this works. It must be decided in advance that I'm Adonai, I make the decision, now we will hear the conversation. And I listen to what you got to say. I hear what you have, how you feel. I won't disregard your point, but then I'm gonna make the final decision, and you have to believe I'm good, I'm fair, I'm just, and I'm gonna do the right thing in your situation, even if it's not the preferred thing. Why?

Cuz I'm Adonai. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about how our lives can change when we're willing to let God call the shots. He'll be back with a final illustration to wrap up our program in just a minute. If you'd like to have an audio copy of today's message, to review again on your own, or to pass along to a friend, just contact us for details on the title, Adonai, The Owner of All. Better yet, get this message as a part of Tony's current teaching series, Knowing God's Names.

For a limited time, you can get all 14 messages in this powerful two-volume series as our gift, including some lessons we won't have time to present on the air. And as an added bonus, we'll also include that companion daily devotional I mentioned earlier, Experiencing the Power of God's Names. Just visit us at TonyEvans.org, make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station, and we'll send you both of these powerful resources as our way of saying thanks. Remember, we depend completely on your support to continue this important ministry work. Again, you'll find us at TonyEvans.org, or reach out to our Resource Center by calling 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by around the clock to help with your resource request. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. God gives to us out of love, hoping we'll respond the same way, but that's not always how it works. Be sure to join us next time as Dr. Evans talks about how we ought to relate with our God who provides.

Right now, though, he's back with this closing illustration. You know what a deed is? A deed is merely a legal document transferring ownership. You deed your car over to somebody, you deed your house over to somebody.

You know what that is? It's a transfer of ownership. Well, what we need to do is have a life deed, and we need to say to Jesus Christ, you're now Adonai Kirios of my life. I deed my life over to you. I deed my emotions over to you. I deed my finances over to you. I deed my family over to you. I deed my material possessions over to you. I deed my being over to you, and I just have to believe that because you're Elohim, and you can make stuff of mine nothing, because you're Jehovah, and you want to manifest yourself to me, I'm gonna make you Adonai so I can have both. And I'm gonna deed my life over to you because I'm tired of the chaos, and I'm tired of the drama, so I'm gonna deed it over. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.