Stewardship of Spiritual Disciplines
Stewardship: God-given responsibility with accountability
1. God owns everything. I own nothing.
2. God entrusts me with everything I have.
3. I am responsible to increase what God has given to me. (I may increase it or diminish it)
4. God can call me into account at any time. It could be today.
Psalm 1
Observation: God will bring His plans to an “end of all things” climax in which you will want to be established in His assembly, in His presence, among His people with joy expressible through praising God.
Question: How then can I make it so that I am firmly established at the end of all things?
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law (Torah—instruction) of the Lord, and in His law (Torah—instruction) he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Answer: The only way for me to be established at the end of all things is by establishing my life around God’s instructions now—“Delighting in,” “meditating day and night in the instruction of the Lord.”
Illustration: David’s path to inherit the kingdom of His God
· David had known God’s instructions as a youth.
· David had to rehearse over in his mind the promises of God in trial even when it seemed the promises of God would never come to pass.
· David could have listened to the “counsel of the wicked” in multiple forms but he did not in his early years.
· Because David stood in the instruction of God’s word, not in the counsel of the wicked, he stood in trial and he was established at the end of all things in the assembly of God, reigning over the kingdom of God, enjoying the chorus of praises to God.
· The Psalms express in prayer the struggles of the servant of God; figure—David—in the midst of suffering as the promises of God seem to languish. Yet the servant continues to return to the instruction of the Lord. Then, when God acts, the servant and all those who have joined themselves with God’s servant explodes in joy and praise at the end of all things.
Illustration: Justin Miller
Take Aways:
1. God’s first instruction to those who don’t know Him is to repent and turn to Jesus Christ.
2. Do you rehearse and nurture some form of instruction in your mind day and night? Which instruction is it? Only God’s instruction will establish you to persevere—standing now and at the end of all things.
3. Prayer is our expression of the outworking of God’s promises and instructions in our lives. Very little prayer reflects very little wrestling with the instruction of God in our lives. The spiritual disciplines of delighting in the Word and prayer go hand in hand.
4. What ways do you need to increase your understanding and establishment in God’s instruction?
a. Seeking out personal relationships that challenge you with the instruction of the Lord?
b. Small group Bible Study?
c. Adult Bible Fellowship?
d. An FCI class?
