Romans 5:20 - …where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…
church – ekklasia…
ek – out of
kalew – to call
Matthew 16:18 - I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Four Principles of Stewardship
1. God owns everything, you own nothing
2. God entrusts you with everything you have
3. You can either increase or diminish what God has given; He wants you to increase it
4. God can call you into account at any time, and it may be today
4 examples of how the concept of increasing is a significant theme in God’s Word
1 Timothy 3:1 - It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
John 11:24-25 - Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…”
I. God Designed His Created World to Increase
A. Vegetation and trees - the third day
Genesis 1:11 - Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
B. Animals on land and sea – the fifth day
Genesis 1:20 - Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”
Genesis 1:21 - God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:22 - God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
C. Mankind – the sixth day
Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
II. God’s Foundational Old Testament Covenants Celebrated the Possibility of His People Increasing
A. Noahic covenant – Genesis 9
Genesis 9:1 - And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
B. Abrahamic covenant – Genesis 12
Genesis 12:1-3 - Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 15:5 - And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
C. Davidic covenant – 2 Samuel 12
2 Samuel 7:16 - Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.
D. New covenant – Jeremiah 31-33
Jeremiah 31:33 - But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Jeremiah 33:15 - In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.
Jeremiah 33:17 - For thus says the Lord, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel…”
Jeremiah 33:22 - As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.
1 Corinthians 11:25 - In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
III. Scripture’s Principal Stewardship Passages Emphasize the Possibility and Importance of Increasing
A. The all-important context – the conversion of Zaccheus
Luke 19:7 - When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
B. The master’s instructions
key phrase - v. 13 – Do business with this until I return
Stewardship Principle #3 - You can either increase or diminish what God has given; He wants you to increase it
C. The challenging conditions
v. 14 - …his citizens hated him…
D. The faithful servants who increased
v. 16 - Master – your mina has made ten minas more…
v. 18 - …your mina, master, has made five minas…
E. The faithless servant who squandered his trust
Luke 19:20-21 - Another came, saying, “Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you…”
F. The pending judgment
Luke 19:27 - But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.
IV. The Story of Christ’s Church is Filled with Examples of Him Empowering His People to Increase
A. Acts 2:47
B. Acts 5:14
C. Acts 6:1
D. Acts 6:7
E. Acts 9:31
F. Acts 11:21
G. Acts 11:24
H. Acts 12:24
I. Acts 16:5
J. Acts 19:20
- Brent isn’t the only pastor on staff that loves space
- So when we started receiving pictures from the newly minted James Webb Space Telescope, I couldn’t get enough of the images—one in particular…
- § [picture of Webb’s Deep Field image]
- What do you think of when you see something like this? (I know the detail is hard to see on the screens)
- “we finally did it! We’re able to take pictures of the edge of the universe!”
- “look how awesome we are!”
- “we now know everything there is to know about creation!”
- And there are thousands of GALAXIES in this image along—and who knows how many beyond this (some of those dots are itty-bitty)
- His creation alone takes your breath away—imagine what He’s like
- On it’s face, pictures like this also show that He’s a God of abundance
- § Romans 5:20 - …where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
- the word He chose to describe His followers in this day and age is church – ekklasia…
- § ek – out of
- kalew – to call
- Jesus said the path to destruction is wide, implying that a majority of these created “image bearers” will not turn to Christ’s grace for forgiveness of sin
- But there are many who will be “called out” of this broad path and put on the narrow path of salvation that comprises the Bride of Christ—His universal Church
- · Matthew 16:18 - I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
- This God who created the heavens and the earth loves to see things increase…
- One of my jobs growing up was as a landscaper…
- The company I worked for excelled in specialized jobs
- We did some mulching and tree-planting, but the bulk of our time was allocated towards building retaining walls, large paver projects, things of that nature
- When you join the team, there’s basically one main principle: build, don’t break
- The Lord is using us to call people out of that broad path of destruction by the power of His Gospel, and subsequently build His church
- And on this team, our foreman is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself…
- Last week, Pastor Viars talked about this concept of increase as it played out in the church family
- 58 years ago, God used 5 “called out” families to plant Faith Church
- And God has been faithful to His promise of building the church
- It’s now called ACBC
- And how is it doing now?
- Well, the last time I reached out to ACBC with a question, it wasn’t Pastor Viars on the other end of the line…
- By God’s grace, it’s blossomed into an entity that finds it difficult to secure a venue for its annual conference big enough to hold all of its participants
- God loves His living, active, and authoritative Word, and will certainly cause it to increase—whether through associations like ACBC or other entities: including Christian schools
- Interesting fact: one of those kiddos is the wife of one of my overseeing pastors in seminary: Kelly (Curtis)
- It’s incredibly to think that I now have 3 kids of my own attending Faith Christian school
- Not only that, one of the main initiatives in our Free to Dream campaign is an FCS expansion
- God likes to build
- Our foreman, Jesus Christ, love to build
- And he loves to use simple laborers to carry out the work
- A question we must ask ourselves this morning is: is that true of you as well?...
- this is our third week of Stewardship Month – and this year, we’re devoting each week to a study of one of the…
- Ø Four Principles of Stewardship
- v 2. God entrusts you with everything you have.
- v 3. You can either increase or diminish what God has given; He wants you to increase it.
- v 4. God can call you into account at any time, and it may be today.
- so this morning, we’re focusing on The Joy of Increasing
- § And though I asked you to turn to Luke 19 for the purpose of walking through the parable of the minas, we’ll be taking an overarching biblical look to show 4 examples of how the concept of increasing is a significant theme in God’s Word.
- I can say from experience, being a pastor is an incredible privilege
- part of the “fine work” is the privilege of studying God’s Word in preparation for the messages we have the honor of delivering to God’s people each Lord’s Day…
- our adversary the devil wants to tear down and diminish and destroy…
- that’s why he believed that Christ’s death on the cross was such a tremendous victory…
- but what had Jesus previously told Lazarus’ sister Martha?...
- ¨ John 11:24–25 - Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…”
- and it wasn’t long before Jesus was saying – Lazarus, come forth…
- So this is and incredibly pervasive theme in Scripture because it deals with a glowing attribute of God Himself, and therefor it’s a bit challenging to rope in all God’s Word says about this great subject…
I. God Designed His Created World to Increase
- The second word in the Bible, according to the Hebrew, is WHAT, seminary students? (bara—made/created)
- So literally, this is a concept that’s introduced right after the single word that is rendered: “in the beginning”
- God started off by building—creating something where there was nothing and order where there was chaos
- And this theme continues throughout creation week, including…
- Genesis 1:11 - Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
- do you see what we’re talking about?...”sprout vegetation,” “yielding seed,” “bearing fruit after their kind”…
- We’re still in the very first chapter of the Bible and we’re already seeing evidence of this concept…
- Drew Burton stopped by our house the other week and dropped off an 80 lb. pumpkin…
- A seed?
- Maybe two?
- Why did God create the pumpkin to bear an overwhelming number of seeds per pumpkin?
- He loves to see good things increase
- Ø Genesis 1:20 - Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”
- Ø Genesis 1:21 - God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
- Ø Genesis 1:22 - God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
- did you see this theme on prominent display yet again – “waters teem with swarms of living creatures”, “with which the waters swarmed after their kind”, “be fruitful and multiple and fill”…
- this is even an important aspect of what theologians call the creation mandate, given to everything the Lord made…including…
- Ø Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
- Aren’t you thankful for the privilege of knowing and serving and enjoying a God who loves to see good things increase?
II. God’s Foundational OT Covenants Celebrated the Possibility of His People Increasing
- When walking through the Old Testament, there are highlighted portions that serve as markers—points where God makes promises to His chosen people…
- These promises—often called “covenants”—often involve God’s desire and promise to increase…
- what happened right after the terrible judgment of the worldwide flood because of mankind’s sin?...
- This is essentially a restatement of the original commission given to Adam and Eve in the Garden
- how many children did Abraham and Sarai have when God first came to them?...
- none…which would have been especially painful in that culture, and for a man whose name literally meant “father of many”…
- Ø Genesis 12:1–3 - Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
- § a few chapters later, He said - Genesis 15:5 - And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
- It’s easy to do from the heart of campus with all the light pollution: 17!
- But God had him in the desert, where it was virtually impossible to quantify the number of stars in the night sky on a clear evening
- Talk about “increasing…”
- Ø 2 Samuel 7:16 - “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
- The Lord promises to increase David’s house from a timeline perspective
- And “forever” is a great word to hear when it comes to the concept of increase
- Brothers and sisters, aren’t we thankful for that?
- Ø Jeremiah 31:33 - But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
- Ø Jeremiah 33:15 - In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.
- Ø Jeremiah 33:17 - “For thus says the Lord, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;
- Ø Jeremiah 33:22 - ‘As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’ ”
- now we’re seeing four different aspects of increasing converging – quality (I will give them a new heart), Jesus (the Righteous branch of David), longevity (David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne), and number (as the host of heaven cannot be measured and the sand of the sea cannot be counted, so I will multiply the descendants)
- Even after all of this, we’ve barely scratched the surface concerning all the passages we could have visited that highlight this concept of increase—that’s one of the reasons why this concept is so exciting and so important
- We worship a God that loves to see good things increase
- Concerning the concept of increase, there’s a pattern we see in…
III. Scripture’s Principal Stewardship Passages Emphasize the Possibility and Importance of Increasing
- Ø But let’s not overlook…
- the first ten verses are about the salvation of Zaccheus, and if we’re following the song, we know him to be described as what (wee-little man)
- but more importantly, he’s a tax collector who had lived far away from a relationship with the Lord…until this day when Jesus purposely came to His house…why, because he wanted God’s family to increase…
- Not everyone enjoys Jesus (our Great Foreman) and His plan to build and call laborers…
- that’s the context in which Jesus tells the parable of the Minas…
**read Luke 19:11-27
- Looking at the key points in our passage, we see…
- § This is seen in His…
- do business for what purpose?...to increase what had been entrusted to them…
- that’s the point of this third principle of stewardship…
- and friends – that’s really the question for each of us to consider…do we love and value the issue of increasing as much as our God does?...
- where’s the evidence that you are seeking to increase what God has given you across the board…and what steps could you take in the coming days to make that even truer in your life?...
- *examples:
- *increasing greatest commandment (e.g., growing in love of God + fruit to show it)
- *cultivating spiritual gift(s) (e.g., Caden: compassion story)
- *planting seeds of the gospel (like a pumpkin—evangelism + discipleship)
- That may be one of the reasons our parable is set in challenging conditions as well
- Ø v. 14 – his citizens hated him…
- What passage did we open our time with? Romans 5: where sin increased, grace increased all the more
- Though this world, mainly comprised of those on the path to destruction, likewise hates Jesus, He provides hope and forgiveness to treasonous citizens such as you and I
- Praise God He’s still “calling out” men and women from the dominion of darkness into His marvelous light
- And yet, the charge is the same: a call towards faithful stewardship—exemplified positively in…
- Ø v. 16 – Master – your mina has made ten minas more…
- Ø v. 18 – your mina, master, has made five minas
- Because our work is dependent upon Christ’s enabling through the power of His Spirit, we can see this growth and increase regardless of our circumstances and setting
- Paul said it this way in Colossians 1:
- ¨ Colossians 1:29 - For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
- Contrast this with…
- Ø Luke 19:20–21 - Another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you…
- it’s amazing how often fear stops us from increasing what God has given…
- And notice where the emphasis is placed in each servant’s reply
- The focus of the two faithful servants stems directly out of our first and second stewardship principle: God owns everything, I own nothing, and anything I have is simply a trust given by Him
- The focus of the unfaithful servant stems from a misunderstanding of the Master and a fixation on his own supposed “power”
- Our passage does not end on a redemptive note, but rather…
- Jesus leaves no room from debate concerning His rule and a steward’s responsibility…
- Looking back at the context of this passage: Zaccheus would have been in this verse, had it not been for the compassionate ministry of Jesus in vv. 1-10.
- Our ministry will increase if we choose to be like him, or it will be squandered if we choose to be like those pictured in v. 7
IV. The Story of Christ’s Church is Filled with Examples of Him Empowering His People to Increase
- Does the Book of Acts contain any evidence of God’s desire to increase His church?
- B. Acts 5:14 - And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,
- v C. Acts 6:1 - Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number…
- D. Acts 6:7 - The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
- E. Acts 9:31 - So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
- F. Acts 11:21 - And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.
- G. Acts 11:24 - for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.
- H. Acts 12:24 - But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.
- I. Acts 16:5 - So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily.
- J. Acts 19:20 - So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
- I think the Word of God makes a compelling case – Our God loves to see good things increase…which is why His people should look at all He has entrusted to us…and ask, am I living in a way that is increasing what God has given?...
- 1) Is it possible that you could be here and what first needs to increase is your response to the gospel? Perhaps you’ve heard it many times – but it’s not bearing fruit because you’ve not truly accepted it, believed it, embraced it for your own yet?
- 2) What steps could you plan to take now as an individual or a family that would help you increase what God has entrusted you in some specific way in the weeks and months ahead?
- 3) Regarding the illustrations we gave at the beginning of how God has increased things at our church in a series of amazing ways – Do you think He is done? What role do you believe He wants you to play as He continues to build His church?
- Looking once more to the God of the universe, who calls us to increase what He’s given us, let’s go before Him and ask for His help as we labor and strive towards this end…
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