Stewardship For God’s Glory The Gospel
Notes
Transcript
This is our verse for this series and I invite you to memorize this verse.
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
Work it (עָבַד) (ʿā·ḇǎḏ)
Cultivate; till; toil, work; serve; accomplish, do; let work, urge to work; make serve, take into service. (Make it better)
Watch over it (שָׁמַר) (šāmar)
to keep, preserve; to watch, guard; to obey; to manage. Primarily means “to watch,” but can denote obeying in the sense of keeping or observing a command.
Week 1 of this series we studied how to steward our bodies well for the Glory of the God. I remind you as you strive to make bringing Glory to God through your body that you have more control over some decisions about your body than the enemy wants you to believe.
Hopefully you have made at least one healthy choice in the last couple of weeks in regards to your body.
Last week, We looked at stewarding our possessions for the Glory of God. God has blessed you with possessions. The question is how can you use the possessions God has given you to bring Glory to God.
Maybe its time to give something away. Maybe its let someone borrow something you have. Maybe its using something you own to create community and conversation to build better friendships or relationships.
Monday it was a snow day for us. So after the message last week, we started cleaning out the closet. I think we got up to 9 -12 bags of stuff to the thrift store. (This shirt was in the back of my closet and so I moved it to the front)
Week 3 Stewardship for the Glory of God
The Gospel
God’s word or the Good News of Jesus Christ
As Stewards, may we work the Gospel. May we find ways to use it in our lives and share it with others around it.
May we also keep the Gospel. May we know the Gospel well and not let anyone twist the Word of God.
I am so excited about the number of you all that are participating in our church reading plan. This activity alone is excellent stewardship of the Gospel.
I am so excited that this morning I want to give out some prizes to a couple of you. The goal of this is to keep you engaged and to engage others in the reading and stewardship of the Gospel.
This morning I have a gift card for the most comments on the reading plan. And the current person who has commented the most on the talk it over section is drum roll… Janet Patrick we have a $25 gift card to White River Coffee company for you.
The next person who wins a gift card is the most unique or cool comment and this one was based on my judgement but this one goes to drum roll… Tammy Holder
She informed us after the reading of Genesis 30 where Jacob is given some of Laban’s sheep based upon the color of the sheep. Tammy said, “Science backs up the fact that prenatal nutrition can determine coat color. The agouti gene is responsible for a solid coat color and it is turned off or on by the nutrition of the mother. I love it when science can but used to prove the Bible is true! I think Jacob was a pretty smart guy.”
9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.
10 For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.
11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
As we started this series together, I asked do you ever feel like life is out of control? Ever feel like your body is out of control? Finances are out of control? Ability to rest out of control?
Here
Hebrews: An Introduction and Commentary (ii) The Urgency to Seek for that Rest (4:11–13)
the implication is that no-one can enter into true rest except the one in whom the Word of God has taken full control in every part of his experience
To abide in Christ, is to allow the Word of God to take full control over every part of our life here on earth. It determines how we handle our Bodies, How we handle our possessions (hold them loosely), How we handle our finances and how we share the Good news of Jesus coming to rescue us.
12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
Living:
It reflects the true character of God himself, the source of all life. The word of God is life giving. It is the Word of God that rescued us from death and brought us to life. It is the Word of God that meets us with life in the face of actual death.
Effective/Active:
It is active. That is it is not dormant. Something can have life but be dormant. The Word of God is not only living but as living it is also active. It springs into activity and challenges those who fall short of its standards. As active, it demands a response. Will we abide in the word? Will we follow the word?
Penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow
The inner life of a Christian is often a strange mixture of motivations both genuinely spiritual and completely human. It takes a supernaturally discerning agent such as the Word of God to sort these out and to expose what is of the flesh. The readers might think that they were contemplating certain steps out of purely spiritual motivations when, as God’s Word could show them, they were acting unfaithfully as did Israel of old
Turn to 1 Corinthians 4.
Here Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and right before this chapter he is addressing some arguments that have come up about who the people are following. Some are saying I follow Paul and others are saying no I follow Apollos and he is addressing this in chapter 3.
As he is addressing this he says this in chapter 4
1 A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God’s mysteries.
2 In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one of them be found faithful.
A person should consider us in this way: as servants
Servants: Literally an under-rowers.(Image) This describes the slaves who rowed the huge Roman galleys.
In essence, we are not the captains of the ship but we are only the galley slaves who are under orders. No slave is greater than another.
We are the under-rowers of Christ.
Managers(Stewards): A steward is a servant who manages everything for his master, but who himself owns nothing.
We are stewards of God’s mysteries. He is speaking of these Spiritual leaders who are carrying the Word of God to the people.
As he speaks to leaders, I don’t take this lightly. Galatians 6:10 describes the church as the household of faith and the ministers are stewards who share God’s wealth with the family
v.2
The steward is called to be faithful to His master. I don’t take this lightly and I am constantly checking myself, my study and my thoughts to ensure that I remain faithful to my Master and Savior our Lord Jesus.
My desire here at Bridge of Faith is to always have an environment that is open to feedback. Make myself approachable that if you disagree with a teaching then you have the ability to talk with me about it. My heart’s desire is to be obedient to my Master and I don’t ever want to be led astray in this so feedback can help keep us on track.
48 But the one who did not know and did things deserving of blows will be beaten lightly. Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more.
We have so much access to the Word of God. Many of us in our homes have multiple copies of the Word of God in our language. There are places in this world where the Word of God is not in their language or they are not allowed to have it. We have Bibles laying around.
If you don’t have a Bible, then we are happy as a church to provide you with one.
We have access to the Bible on
our phones
Through apps
memorize scripture
radio
TV
Google
Books
Audio Bibles
Youtube Bibles
TV Shows
Movies
We have been given so much access to the Gospel and with this access to the Gospel much is required of us.
14 For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died.
15 And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way.
Paul once viewed Christ from a purely human way
As we walk through this series on Stewardship it has been brought to my attention that all of us will follow something or all of us are abiding in something. The habits we have says a whole lot about what we follow and what we value.
The internet is constantly trying to capture the mind and persuade it in what to follow and what habits to create.
Paul says I no longer view anyone in a purely human way. Christ has died and risen. I no longer live for myself but for Christ alone.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
He has committed the message of reconciliation to us
The sharing of the message of reconciliation has to be carried out and people must hear the the call to be reconciled to God
Ministry of reconciliation is primarily the proclamation of what God has done. Share what God has done in your life. Share how you have been brought from death to life.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Ambassadors:
God uses His representatives (us) to share the message of reconciliation.
Are we the owners of the message of reconciliation? NO We are stewards of this message. We are ambassadors. We represent the owner. We share His message with others.
Lean in to God. Abide in Him. Be reconciled to God. Rightfully understand that God is the owner of our Bodies, Our Possessions, Our finances and His Word.
Think about the Word, dwell on the word, be obedient to the word. Think about it in the morning when you wake up, think about it when you lay down at night, think about it when you are in a tough place. Think about it when you don’t know what decision to make.
Steward the Gospel
It is for the Gospel that…
We take care of our bodies and knowing they are not our own and bought with a price. The blood shed of Jesus Christ
We manage and control our gifts the Lord has given us.
We take careful control and use of the time that the Lord has granted us.
We care for our possessions and take excellent care of the facilities that the Lord has blessed us with. We know the Gospel is being shared in this place and lives our being changed. It is for the Gospel we must maintain this place so that the Gospel is shared here far longer than you or I ever live.
It is for the Gospel that we obey, love, and learn the Word of the Lord. So that we can share with others the truth of the Gospel.
We are called to be excellent Stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.