Stewardship Within The Body Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 21, 2013

Date Preached: June 23, 2013

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Giving Our All

Sermon Title: Stewardship within the Body

Sermon Text: Luke 18:18-30 [NLT]

Introduction:

Over the past several weeks we have studied stewardship & learned that true stewardship has a very basic foundational truth –that is – God Owns it All!

We learned that we are ALL caretakers of the resources God provides for His Kingdom... they are NOT for our own personal gain/pleasure, but for svc to Him...

Last week we looked at our Fathers… our Dads and what ‘Dadly Stewardship’ looked like! Good ‘dadly’ stewardship is when Fathers take a stand! They stand SURE in their Savior and they stand SHAMELESS in the Gospel message! Standing sure and shameless to see God’s kingdom grown and expanded!

But this morning I want us to go back to the overall aspect of Stewardship… Stewardship of the CHURCH!

Our passage this morning is Luke 18:18-30 where Jesus is using a young man’s question as a teaching moment opportunity for the young man, His disciples and ALL who were listening… and ultimately ALL who will ever read about this story!

Let’s all turn to the book of Luke, chapter 18 and I will begin reading from v.18…it is the story we have come to know as “The Rich Young Ruler”… I will be reading from the NLT!

18Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” 19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. 20But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’” 21The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” 22When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich. 24When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! 25In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” 26Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?” 27He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” 28Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.” 29“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, 30will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”

The BIG question asked here was:

What Must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life? We see this in v.18…

18Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Here this young man was seeking to get an answer from Jesus about eternal life… His question was basically, Jesus, How can I BE what God really wants me to be… and enjoy God’s eternal rewards?

This is a question MANY of us ask… but today I am not focusing as much on the individual as I want to focus more on the corporate body here at Oak Park Baptist Church… I want us to ask the question, “How can we become the church God wants us to be?”

I believe we can look at our passage this morning and find some principles in here that will lead us to BE the church God wants us to be… When we read this passage, the 1st principle I see is:

You must LOOK the PART – v.20-21

20But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father & mother.’” 21The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

Have you ever thought about how IMPORTANT it is to LOOK the part if something is going to be successful? There are movies we have all watched where we think, “Wow this guy or this girl is PERFECT for this part… they just LOOK like they belong in this character!”

Take the cult classic movie from 1984 “The Terminator”. We all know who starred in the lead role for this movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger! We all remember that classic line by Arnold [in your best ‘Arnold’ voice… lay it on thick!] “I’ll be back…