Church Covenant: Part 3 - The Stewardship of the Home

Acts chapter two. On Sunday mornings and this is part two from the message this morning. Sunday mornings, we've been the last three weeks looking at our church covenant. We read it in Sunday morning service last Sunday morning. We kind of led into it with a message on what is the local church two weeks ago on Sunday morning and then last week preached a message about the definition and purpose of the local church.

What is what is our purpose? And the Bible spells that out. God instituted his church the local church in particular to carry out certain directives that he has given to us as a group and as individuals that we edify and exhort one another as we need encouragement and help from each other to pray for one another, to help to disciple and teach one another and then to take the gospel and go out and win others to Christ so we we grow our our family in the Lord Jesus and our ministry. So, some of the purpose of the church. Then, this morning, we started with first Corinthians chapter four in verse two.

It says, there moreover is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. God has given us in Christ and through his spirit differing spiritual gifts. He has given us, created us differing talents and also abilities. He has given us different life experiences that build on our character and our knowledge and abilities as well and God wants to use those in his church and in this world to bring glory to his name and to minister to others. I've said many times, if the only reason God saved you was to take you to heaven, where would you be?

Help me out. You'd be in heaven but that's not the only reason that God saved us. God didn't save us just to take us to heaven. God saved us that we might bring glory to him here on earth and therefore, he for this time has seen fit to leave us here to give us purpose and meaning that we might bring glory to his name and that we might minister to one another and bring others into the fold. So, having said all of that, those abilities, those gifts that God has given us, they don't do any good if we don't want.

If we don't use them. If we don't apply them. The most important attribute in a steward is not his ability. The most important attribute is his what? Is his faithfulness.

His faithfulness. That the one who has entrusted something to the steward can trust that that steward is going to be faithful to do his very best to take care of that whatever it is that has been entrusted to him. So, it is required in stewards not that a man be the most talented, not that he be the most charismatic, not that he'd be the most whatever you want to fill in the blank. But that he just simply be what? That he simply be faithful.

With that stewardship that God entrusted to him. In our church covenant, we come down to the third section. It's entitled Christian stewardship. Christian stewardship and we looked at three areas. We're looking at three areas today of stewardship that God has entrusted to us Missouri Avenue Baptist Church and to the members of this church and really to to every Christian and believer in Jesus Christ.

Three stewardships, three areas of stewardship that we need to be faithful in. The first area is the stewardship of the local church. As I mentioned this morning, the local church is not does not belong to me. It does not belong to you. This is not my church.

This is not your church. This is whose church. This is Christ's church. This is his body. He is the head.

He is the redeemer and purchaser of every individual believer that makes up this local body and other local bodies like it. It is his church. However, he has entrusted to us this stewardship of one another. The stewardship of the ministry that is represented by Missouri Avenue Baptist Church and it is a stewardship that requires something of us. As I mentioned this morning, the Bible speaks of the cost of discipleship.

Anything that is a worthwhile endeavor is going to cost someone something. I mentioned this morning, salvation is free, a free gift. In other words, salvation is free to us but that does that mean that it didn't cost anything. No. Our salvation cost too.

Cost Jesus Christ everything. Cost him his life on the cross. Great suffering in our behalf and anguish. That we might be saved. It did cost a great deal.

When we become children of God and we are enter into his family, that also comes with responsibility And if we're going to fulfill those responsibilities, if we're going to bring glory to God, if we're going to be good stewards of this church and this ministry that also is going to what? That's going to cost us something. I started by looking at what it cost the church in Jerusalem. Now the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two is is somewhat of a unique situation. It's the first church.

It is a church that went from being a 100 and some people to 3,000 and some people overnight. It is a church that was immediately persecuted and became outcast amidst its own people in Jerusalem. Whereas these people were initially part of synagogues that helped to take care of their widows and watch out for one another. They became outcast of the synagogues immediately after their profession of faith in Christ and so you have all of these believers in this city. Many of whom had great needs and the only people they had to go to to help take care of them and their ministry was was each other.

And so in Acts chapter two and verse 44 it says, and all that believe were together and had all things common sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. What did they do? Well, they did whatever was necessary to take care of the church. And the church was who? It was them.

They were the church. And they did whatever it took to take care of them, of each other. To provide for each other, to not just in the temporal needs but in spiritual ways, in emotional ways, to minister and to care for one another. They spent time going from house to house to encourage and teach each other and it involved a great deal of many things. Sacrifice on the part of many financially but also in time and effort and energy to be good stewards of their local congregation, their church and their ministry.

It takes wisdom. It takes selflessness sacrifice, and most definitely love. To be good stewards of God's church but not only are we to be stewards of one another and of this church and ministry to see that it continues and grows and brings glory to God but also we are stewards of the gospel. We looked at that this morning. We have a responsibility to fulfill the command of Jesus in Matthew 28.

And in Mark 16 and Acts chapter one and Mark 16 Christ said, go into all the world and what? Preach the gospel to every creature every person needs Jesus every sinner needs a savior and God has entrusted to us the responsibility of taking the gospel message to our neighbors, to our friends, to our coworkers, to our relatives, and to the uttermost part of the what? Of the earth. It is a great stewardship that God has entrusted to the local church, To you and to me. That we must take seriously.

We must be willing and look for opportunities. To share Jesus with those around us. I I mentioned this morning the fellow that showed up at our door yesterday to sell solar panels and we listen to his spiel about how badly we need solar panels and how much money they're going to save us. I can tell you how much money they're going to save us. Maybe $2 a month.

I don't know that it's worth it. But you know something I had a captive audience and so at least for a few of those minutes while we were waiting on it I had the chance to plant a little seed of the gospel which that young man desperately needed and hand him a track. Before he left. We have those opportunities. Responsibility of furthering the gospel and proclaiming.

It's not just a responsibility of pastors and missionaries but of every believer in Christ and if we as a church will see that opportunity that God has laid before us and be good stewards of the gospel, we'll see more souls saved. If we will be willing to put our money where our mouth is and support the 11 missionaries, continue to support the 11 missionaries that we already do who go all over the world. We'll we'll hear and see more souls come to Christ through this local ministry on the other side of the world. We have a missionary in China. On the other literally the other side of the world.

Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in a difficult situation. What a wonderful privilege and yet great responsibility we have as stewards of the gospel to fulfill the commission God has given us, to be witnesses for him in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part. Of the world. I'd like to conclude this evening with the third stewardship. It's also mentioned in our church covenant and that's the stewardship of the family.

The stewardship of the family. You see the church and the family are very much intertwined. If we don't take care of the family, then it will very adversely affect the ministry of the church. Someone has said as the home goes, so goes the society. And we see that, don't we?

In our world today, in our society. The same is also true of the church. If our homes fail, then our churches will also suffer because of it. In first Timothy chapter five, we're going to come back to there in a second. I'm going to put up for it.

Why don't I go ahead and turn to verse eight up there on the screen. In first Timothy chapter five, Paul gives instructions to Timothy concerning the care of widows. That was a primary concern in Christ's day, in Paul's day. Widows couldn't go out and get a job like women in our society can today and so a single woman particularly older single women who were widowed were in a difficult situation. They couldn't provide for their own needs and they needed help.

If you were part of the Judaism and part of the Hebrew culture and society. The synagogues and the temple took up money and helped to distribute it to the widows in Jesus' day. When the Christians, when those were who were saved on day of Pentecost and others after them trusted Christ they were immediately cast out of the synagogues and therefore the church had to pick up the slack and in Acts chapter six we read about the first deacons. The first deacons of the church, were chosen for primarily what purpose? The purpose was, to help provide for the widows.

We're already in Acts so let me just read Acts chapter six and verse one. In those days when the number of disciples was multiplied there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. In other words, there were widows who went wanting, lacking in daily needs. And there just were not wasn't enough time for the apostles to to handle all of that along with the preaching and teaching and praying part of their ministry. And so their solution was to pick out deacons from the church who in particular among other things would be able to distribute that was that which was brought in to the church to the different widows and orphans and other people in the church that had needs.

So, we see that issue being dealt with in Acts six and Paul deals with it with Timothy in first Timothy chapter five and gives him instructions on the care of widows there. One of the things that Paul was concerned about was that Timothy not take on the responsibility of taking care of widows who somebody else should be taking care of. He said if they're young widows, if they're still in their 20s, 30s, 40s and they can remarry and so forth and so on. Don't take on all the responsibility for them because they will probably find another husband. So he said be careful there and another thing Paul was concerned about was that widows who had children particularly children in the church that those children take care of their their mom.

They weren't the responsibility of the whole church. They were the responsibility of the children and that the children could take care of their parents, they needed to be doing that. And the church didn't need to come in and just usurp that responsibility and so in that context, Paul writes this verse to Timothy. He says, But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Infidel is an unbeliever.

Paul says, if those who can't take care of their family are not taking care of their family. Then, you see to it that they understand. You warned them. You rebuke them. That they are not fulfilling their responsibility to their family.

And they are a very poor example of a Christian. As I mentioned, if we don't take care of our families, if our families fail, it will most definitely adversely affect our church ministry. If they fail financially, it will affect the church. If they fail institutionally, it will affect the church. If they fail spiritually and doctrinally, so will the church.

One of the main challenges facing present day church in America is the breakdown of the family unit. In each of these ways. And the church in America America has suffered because of it. Fathers, who are unwilling to stick with their families and provide for their children and provide for their parents when they were up in age. Is a scourge of sorts in our society today.

As a result children suffer. As a result wives suffer. As a result aging parents suffer. As a result our government has tried to take on responsibility that wasn't supposed to be its own to have all kinds of welfare programs to provide for that which either children or parents cannot or will not. Today in public schools they have in many schools now they'll if you go early, they'll feed the kids breakfast for free.

They'll feed the kids lunch for free and in some schools you can stay after school and they'll feed the kids supper for free. Now that's great and some of those kids really need that. But the problem is why they really need that. And that's the breakdown in the home of fathers in particular giving of themselves to take care of their families and if the families break down in this way, then obviously, that's going to affect the church and you say, well, that's the world out there that's not in the church. Oh yes, I'm afraid it it is in the church as well.

Not only failing financially to provide for their home but families failing institutionally. What I mean by that is this, families that don't stay what? That don't stay together. The divorce rate's around fifty percent in our country, has been now for a decade. Nearly fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.

And the majority of those end in divorce within the first ten or so years of marriage and in many cases, they involve children. You say, well, again, pastor, that's the world. That's not the church. I wish that were the case. Do you realize that in Christendom that the divorce rate is almost identical to the divorce rate outside the church?

That's the case. That's a problem. There is a vast failure among even Christians today to hold their homes and families together. There are many reasons for that. Primary one is selfishness.

It's just selfishness. We're not walking in the spirit as we're studying in Sunday school but we're walking according to the flesh. Letting the desires of the flesh drive us and drive us away from one another and not allowing God and his spirit to unite us together in our homes and that has had desperate and very sad effects on our churches And then the third one failing spiritually and doctrinally to raise up the next generation. Children not following in the faith of their parents. How sad it is that that is the case.

So much in churches today. Children not following in the faith of their parents. Going other directions others, children, following in their parents' faith but not following in their parents' church. When I was a youth pastor in Georgia, I was a youth pastor at a church. The name of the church was Hardison Baptist Church.

That's kind of an odd name. Why do you think anybody would name a church Hardison Baptist Church? Well one guess. The person who donated the land and property for the church guess what his last name was? Hardison.

That's right. And when I was youth pastor there we had one family that still came sporadically and their last name was guess what? Hardison. They were third generation hardisons. There is now a family that's more faithful, praise the Lord, to the church.

The next gen, the fourth generation of hardisans that are at that church. And the third generation of some Smiths that are at that church. But you know how common that is today? That's not very common to walk in the church and see second, third and fourth generations. Why?

Well two reasons. One, in many cases the children haven't followed in the faith of their parents and they're not in church. And in other cases they're at other churches and that isn't all bad. I am not at my parents church. God called me to another place and to another church.

And in our culture today children don't stay at home so to speak the way they used to. And they move here and they move there and so again it's not as likely that you see second and third generation in churches the way you once do but that is a challenge for our churches today because we don't reproduce into our own church. We have to go out and we have to bring bring others in. You see the stewardship of the family is vitally important to the church and as we close, I wanna mention two different things mentioned in our church covenant that are vitally important in reference to that and the first is what our church covenant calls secret devotions. Secret.

Now, I've never called it that. Secret devotions. What we would probably call it would be personal devotions or daily devotions. In other words, secret devotions is time that you set aside, that I set aside to spend building our personal relationship with the Lord. Through time and prayer and through time meditating on the word of God.

Psalm chapter one. Psalm chapter one addresses this among other verses in scripture. Blessed is the man who walketh not in the council of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

All of that prosper there. It doesn't mean prosper financially. Means prosper spiritually and in every other way that really matters hinges upon a person choosing to spend their time meditating on the word of God and not listening to the voices of the world around them. Who would pull them in the opposite direction. It is also important as individual Christians and children of God that we find time to spend with our Lord.

You cannot build your relationship with somebody. If you don't spend time with them. And spending time with them in church one, two, three hours a week isn't enough. What if the only time I saw my wife was one or two, three hours a week while we were in church. Wouldn't make for very strong relationship, would it?

But yet, as Christians, sometimes, that's sort of the way we deal with it. The way we deal with God And then we don't grow spiritually. We don't grow stronger. We don't grow more mature and so when we get together as a church, we're not able to help strengthen each other and to fulfill the ministry like we should because we're weaker than we should be. Because we're not spending personal time with the Lord.

If we become stagnant in our own spiritual growth, how can we possibly be effective to lead our home or to lead our church? God said to Joshua, when he was going to lead the children of Israel into Canaan, he said to him, don't let this book of the law depart out of your mouth. But meditate therein but meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written for therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. Simply God was saying to Joshua, the only way you're going to succeed in leading this people into the land and conquering Canaan is to spend time with me is to learn more about me is to hide God's word in your heart and follow it in your life.

If you are not strong spiritually, how are you going to lead these people? If we fall into sin, it will not only affect ourselves but it could also destroy our homes and our churches. How many churches have been ministries have been destroyed because of a pastor or church leader who's fallen into sin. But not just a church leader but any member of the church who becomes weak and an easy prey for Satan is going to affect others around them when they fall. Look at David.

David, committed adultery with Bathsheba, tried to hide it by having Uriah killed in battle. What happened to his family? His family was torn apart. Because of it. One son killed another son who molested a daughter.

Then the other son who killed him led a revolt against his father. And it goes on and on. It affected his family. It affected his nation. Also affects the church.

If we are not walking daily with the Lord. The strength of the church is only as strong as the families which make it up and the families are only as strong as the spiritual growth and maturity of each individual Christian in the family including children which I wish Joshua wasn't sick so he was here to hear that. See, each member of the family affects another. Old, young, in between, and each one is important to the family and to the church. If your own relationship with God is stagnant or practically non existent, the family and church as a body will suffer like our body with a defective organ in it.

Brother Steve Altman had a defective organ in his body. His kidneys failed. And because his kidneys failed, for eight years he was on dialysis. And for the eight years he was on dialysis, the rest of his health spiraled down and spiraled down and spiraled down until three years ago he got a new kidney and things began to look up again. If you've got a defective organ in your body it affects the rest of your body.

It makes you sick. This past week Brother Steve had his gallbladder out because it was another defective organ that was affecting the rest of his body. Same thing is true with the family and with the church. Personal devotions, personal growth, personal walk with the Lord is key to the strength of the family and key to the strength of the church. Personal devotions.

The other thing it mentions in there is family devotions and religious education of the family. Consequently it is the responsibility of parents to raise their children to know God. Proverbs 20 two:six, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Who is God talking to? He's talking to parents and it's parents responsibility to train their children in the way of the Lord.

So that when they're older, they won't depart from it. And sad to say in our society, we've seen a lot of departing from it and there are many different elements that affect that but a primary one is the home and and the parents. And we have a great responsibility that's been laid upon us to train our children in the way that God wants them to go. In the book of Judges, it gives us an explanation. Therefore, the rebellion of Israel against God and what explanation does God give us?

He says here in Judges two ten and also, all that generation was gathered unto their fathers, the previous generation and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which God had done for Israel. How could that be? One generation passed off the scene. The next generation did not know the Lord nor the works that he had done. How was it that they didn't know the Lord and the works that he had done?

Biggest reason, evidently, the parents didn't do a real good job. Passing that on to their children God foreseeing this problem in Deuteronomy chapter six. Pleaded with the children of Israel. To teach their children the ways of the Lord every day at every opportunity. Because that was more important than whether they could do algebra.

That was more important than whether they knew their times tables or how well they could do many other tasks. First and foremost, they needed to know the Lord. And it is the parents responsibility. To educate their children. In the ways of the Lord.

It is not primarily the school's responsibility. It is not even primarily the church's responsibility though the church can play a part. It is the parent's responsibility. To train their children in the way they should go. In the ways of the Lord and so that is part of our church covenant.

That we have personal time with the Lord and that we also spend time training our children and teaching them to meditate on God's word and to spend time in prayer. Much of what has failed of the church today can be traced back to the failures of the home. In conclusion, we have looked at three means today of reaching the goals of advancing God's kingdom through the edification of the body of Christ. Three stewardships that have been placed in our care. The stewardship of the church and giving of ourselves to assist one another and provide for the needs of the members of the body and the ministry of the church.

The stewardship of the gospel by giving and going with the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. That needs him. And then number three, the stewardship of the home. By sustaining our own spiritual growth in Christ and training as well as protecting. And caring for the next generation to come.

Three stewardships that God has placed in our hands as Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. That we need to focus on, that we need to take seriously. How are we doing? We've looked at these today as there one that's kind of God is kind of pricked your heart about and says, I can do better here. If so, as we conclude in prayer and with a song, maybe it would be a good time just to bow your head in prayer for a moment.

Ask the Lord to help you. To do better. In whatever area he's laid on your heart. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for your word.

Thank you Lord for making us stewards of the church, of the gospel, of our homes. Lord, help us to be faithful stewards. Lord, we're not perfect stewards because we're not perfect human beings. Lord, we may not be the most fantastic stewards. But Lord we can be faithful stewards.

And Lord help us to do our very best by the grace of God given to us. Lord help us where we have failed to recognize it. Lord, to confess that to you and to seek your strength and guidance that we might do better. For the glory of our God, for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for each other. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen.