Live Free with Josh Howerton - God Works Through Community • Dr. Tony Evans | Ep. 59 | Thursday April 27, 2023

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

It’s one thing to be blessed by the church; it’s another thing to be a blessing to the church. When you're generous with your time, talents, and treasures in the church, the Kingdom of God benefits *greatly* because you're an active part of it. This episode with Dr. Tony Evans serves as a reminder that you’re a part of something bigger than yourself. The church, your community, is meant to be a blessing to and through you. It’s never a bad time to learn more about what this looks like, so be sure to tune in for a lesson on Biblical community! For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit.church slash daily drive. In this week's episodes, we will be hearing from our special guest. Dr. Tony Evans. And now, let's dive in to today's devotional. This is Dr. Tony Evans again, welcoming you to our Thursday podcast as we walk through Psalm

128, A Life on Target. It starts with taking God seriously, fearing God, and you do that as you walk in his ways, and then it is benefiting you in your fortune, your feelings, and your future, because God is pleased with how seriously you're taking him. Then it goes to your family. We saw that on yesterday. It starts with a husband and wife relationship as they prioritize each other and the well-being of their home, including the raising of their children, which is done at the table.

Then the next place where you need to have a life on target is in your church. It says in verse five, the Lord bless you from Zion. Here's our word bless again, divine favor. There's some things God will do for you and with you in your individual walk with him. But there were other things he will only do if you're connected to his family. And that's where Zion comes in. Now, Zion is one of the great words of Scripture. There's a mountain called Zion, Mount Zion.

There is a city called Zion. But then there's a building called Zion and the city called Zion is located on the mountain called Zion. And that's the temple. All three are called Zion in Scripture. Since he's getting ready to talk about the city, and we'll get to that tomorrow, we're going to talk now about the building, the temple. The temple was a place where parents took their kids to let them see. We're part of something bigger.

There are a lot of other folk who think like we think, walk like we, walk, talk like we talk, learn like we learn, believe what we believe. And I want to introduce you to the community of faith. But now the temple was not just a religious entity. It was the center of all of life. for God's people. Their economics was learned from the temple. Their social structures were learned from the temple. Their governmental guidelines were learned from the temple. Their understanding of justice and righteousness was learned from the temple. In other words, it influenced all of society. You see, one of the great problems we have is we have an illegitimate division between secular and sacred.

Once you know Jesus Christ, everything becomes sacred and nothing is secular. Because whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, 1 Corinthians 1031, you are to do all to the glory of God. So God is to be all up in. Every aspect of your life, talk, walk, thought. He is to be the controlling influence of the totality of your well-being. And how that should work should be learned from the temple. Well, you may say, but that's in the Old Testament. Not quite.

Hebrews chapter 12 says when you come to worship, you come to Mount Zion. Ephesians chapter 2, he calls the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit. So the New Testament church is the temple. It is the gathering, it's the watering hole for the kingdom of God, where the king's principles are learned by his community that they might live it out in their world. Now, the job of the temple was to make sure that the community of saints operated in unity for the well-being of the broader society. That means you don't just come the church to sit, soak, and sour,

but you also come the church to serve. You also come the church to use your talents, your time, your gifts, your treasures, in order to advance the one purpose for the church, which is to advance the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the rule of God. The word kingdom means the rule of God or the authority of God operating. In fact, that's the central theme of the Bible. The central theme of the Bible is the,

glory of God through the advancement of his kingdom or his rule. And so the job of the temple was to bring the kingdom from heaven in the history, or as we say in the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, I will build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it, verse 19, and I will give you the keys to the kingdom. So God gives the church the keys to the kingdom so that the church can advance the kingdom. and when the church advances the kingdom, he says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

You buying, you loose, but I back up. When you are operating based on my kingdom principles through the temple, when I play football, I'd come home after two a days, and I'd be so tired. I'd say, oh, boy, I'm so tired. And what I was saying is, Mama, don't ask me to do anything. I'm tired. She said, boy, you better get yourself in this kitchen

and wash this floor. do these dishes or whatever, I say, but mama, I'm tired. She said, did you tell me you were tired? She said, did you just tell me you were tired? She said, let me explain something. If tiredness was a criteria of function, your clothes wouldn't be washed. If tiredness was a criteria of function, your food wouldn't be cooked. She told me, one time, boy, if tiredness was a criteria of function,

I'd have gotten rid of you today after you were born. In other words, you have to meet your responsibility. You just can't come in this house and say, provide for me, but expect nothing from me. and you can't come into the kingdom of God and say sing to me, preach to me, pray for me, marry me, bury me, but expect nothing from me. That's called a leech. And too many churches have evangelical leeches. They want to come and be blessed, but they don't want to come and be a blessing. So you have a responsibility if you're going to live a life on target to be a benefit to your church, to be a benefit with your time, talents, and treasures so that the kingdom of God benefits because you are a active part of it. I know coming out of COVID it's easy to sit there and sit and watch a screen and call it your worship. That's not worship service, that's worship selfish, because all you doing is thinking about you. You're part of something bigger.

And while we don't want you to risk bad health, if you have a reason to stay home, don't let yesterday's problem become, make you a bedside Baptist or mattress Methodist. or whatever you are. You need to represent the kingdom of God by your presence so that God gets the glory while the people of God benefit from your service. Looking forward to our last day tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship,

join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful, you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt. Church slash Daily Drive.