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“Why Do I Have All This Stuff?”
The Treasure Principle Series (6 of 6)
God’s Wisdom for Living in a Material World
Pastor Dan Sarkipato
II Corin. 8:1-5; Acts 2; 4:32-35 |
I grew up in church. And I have two primary and deeply ingrained memories and associations that I have with that experience.
If you say "church of your childhood", two primary images come to my mind; two things I remember more than anything else.
#1) Counting the ceiling tiles. I was so disengaged from what was going on in the service, that I entertained myself by counting the number of tiles on the ceiling.
#2) For like a year in High School, Merillee and I were in the choir; and we both learned how to spell on our fingers, you know, a, b, c, d, e, and I remember talking to each other during the service by spelling out words in the choir loft, because we were so bored by what was going on.
Those are my memories. Disengagement. Boredom. Irrelevance.
Those memories keep chasing me, like little devils, because as I have come to know Jesus and the text of His word, I have discovered just how FAR from what God desires these things are.
God's intent is that being in His Presence, being with His People, living life His Way SHOULD BE THE MOST EXCITING, FULLY ENGAGING, COMPLETELY CHALLENGING AND FULFILFILLING EXPERIENCE YOU CAN EVER HAVE EVEN IF YOU LIVED A THOUSAND LIFETIMES!
My perception is, not everyone experiences church like that.
I don't know, what do you think?
If I'm right, then, when we get together on a morning like this, we come with this longing and joyful expectation that we are about to have our best hour or two of the week, and we can't wait to come and we hate it when it is over.
You ever go on a really cool vacation; you go somewhere you have been longing to go for a long time, and you are finally there, and then almost before you know it, it's just about time to go home and you say to yourself, NO-it can't be over already. I need more time to be here and do this....well, that feeling is what you feel when you are with God's people.
I talked to a young mom here on Wednesday; asked her how she was doing; she said: "Well, I've been better." I said, "What's going on?" She said "I'm sick" (I was backing up a step right then, and I was wondering what she was doing here; I soon found out) "I said to the kids this afternoon-kids, I have some bad news-we aren't going to church tonight because mommy is sick. And then they started screaming and crying, "No, No, No, we HAVE TO GO TO CHURCH and they carried on so much I thought, "Oh well, then we'll just go anyway."
AH-the spirit of a child! Remember what Jesus said, I'm telling you guys something you better remember-unless you become like little children you cannot... what???…cannot "enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:3)
This morning, I want to talk to you like those kind of children. Those who CANNOT WAIT to come into God's presence, who find your greatest joy in God; you know from experience Ps 16:11
“You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
“You give them drink from your river of delights.”
NIV Ps 36:8
“You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.”
Ps 4:7
“The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.” Ps 19:8
“Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Ps 37:4
I want to talk to you as those kind of children.
I know not everyone is there yet.
And here's the deal.
I encourage you to eavesdrop on this conversation, but you need to realize something-if you are eavesdropping, because God is not yet your delight, some of this is going to sound really strange. Almost like a foreign language. You probably wont get it, probably won’t agree with it, may even be upset by some of what you hear.
That's OK. Just listen in, and remember who I am talking to-the children of God who CAN'T WAIT TO BE WITH GOD AND HIS PEOPLE.
Because realize this-when that happens to you, because of the grace and love and grandness of God, EVERYHTING IS DIFFERENT!
Let's read the text.
Acts 2:40-47
This is #6, Treasure Principle. What have we seen so far?
#1 Would The Real Owner please Stand Up?
God owns everything. I'm his money manager.
Matthew 6:19-21 (Treasure Principle)
#2 Your Heart Follows Your Money
My heart always goes where I put God's money.
#3 Think Like an Alien
Heaven, not earth, is my home.
#4 He Who Dies With the Most Toys Still Dies
I should live not for the dot, but for the line.
#5 The Best Investment Advice You'll Ever Hear
Giving is the only antidote to materialism.
TODAY #6 Why Do I Have All This Stuff?
God prospers me not raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.
Today is the conclusion.
What's the point of learning what God and Jesus say about money and things?
It is so that we will live differently. That is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED in the first days of the church.
Context of Acts 2:
Jesus lived, taught; died on the cross. Looked like the whole thing was done. Then, on the 3rd day, a head-shaking, you-gotta-be kidding-me event happened: he was RAISED FROM THE DEAD. He was genuinely dead. Then, after being dead A COUPLE OF DAYS (not just a few minutes) he was genuinely alive.
After appearing to about 500 people, Jesus was taken back to heaven from where he came. Then, after a few more weeks, he and God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to fill and live in every follower of Jesus. That is written about in this chapter, just before the part we read.
And this changed them; powerfully and forever. They were filled with the Holy Spirit; God wasn't just with them; God was in them.
And stuff happened.
The church exploded.
They went from a dozen core disciples, and a few dozen other followers, to more than 3,000 IN ONE DAY.
And then the verses we read tell about how they lived. What was it like, what did it take, to be this community of people who followed Jesus in an utterly transforming way?
They had some core practices:
1) Apostles' teaching (Word of God)
2) The fellowship (doing community together)
3) Breaking bread in the Lord's Supper, communion, remembering Jesus' death
4) Prayer
They LOVED it. It was the best thing that ever happened in their lives.
God was there; right there, and they knew it.
Everyone was going WOW, THIS IS AMAZING every single day.
Never seen anything like it before. Miracles were happening; transformation was everywhere; signs and wonders flowed.
They were together all the time and could not get enough.
God was in their midst, and people were being helped and saved and changed on a daily basis.
In that context, that early community where amazing things were happening, something else happened.
vv44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
They had a completely new way of thinking about their possessions. WE ARE IN THIS THING TOGETHER; AND IF WE MEAN IT, IT INCLUDES OUR STUFF.
They knew it belonged to God.
But that was not just some theory that they nodded their heads to while they went about their business and activities.
They actually sold their stuff and shared it with anyone who needed it. Pretty amazing.
We've been learning about the Treasure Principle.
Our stuff and our money is neither our stuff nor our money.
If we belong to God, our stuff does too.
From the outside looking in that might sound sort of nuts, but from the inside it makes perfect sense. I am not my own; I belong to God and to Jesus and to the family of God.
If that is true, it is going to radically impact how I relate to money and things. Radically.
The call to follow Jesus, to know him and live for him, is a radical and life-encompassing call to the most sold-out existence imaginable.
If it is not true, it is craziness.
But if it is true, then it is the most logical thing in the world to give money and things to others who need them.
If Jesus is who he said he is, (eternal Son of God and Savior of the world) and if I am who I say I am (follower of Jesus) then it follows that it will radically impact how I relate to possessions and money.
One of the chief things it will do is make a giver instead of a consumer.
I am a giver because God is a giver.
He gives us his Son. He gives us all good things to enjoy-did you see the colors this week? The full moon, in the evening and still in the morning? The sunlight and sunset? These are gifts God gives us free of charge.
He gives every day.
So, why do I have all the stuff I have? So that I can accumulate more and more and more?
No.
So that I can share and give.
Here is the question I want you to engage this morning:
HOW CAN I SHARE WHO I AM AND WHAT I HAVE?
I want to explore the answer in 3 ways:
My money
My stuff
My life
(Remember-it is all God's-it is already God's money; God's stuff, and even your life is God's life...)
When we are a community of Jesus' followers, like that early Acts 2 community, here is what happens to us and in us:
I hope you are a Jesus follower, like those people in Acts 2. That is what we want to be at our church. We aren't there yet, but oh how we want to be that kind of community. With that hunger, that joy, that desire to be with God and be with the people of God. I want to live in a community like that, I really do. And I think you do too. If you don't want it consciously, then there is a stirring in your gut somewhere, because God made you, where you want it.
You may not have identified it yet; you may be trying to fulfill that stirring through your job or your fun or your hobby, but I'll give you the biggest tip of your life: ONLY JESUS CHRIST CAN FILL IT; and he will only fill it when you not just follow him but you follow him with a band of brothers and sisters determined to do it with you.
That is who we are becoming.
Let me describe some things that happen in that community:
What do Acts 2 Jesus followers do?
• Acts 2 Jesus followers Give their Money
You look for ways to give.
It is an entirely different way to think and to life.
There is no arm-twisting;
There is this eagerness to do it.
Here is another report of another early church; further evidence about how money is handled:
2 Cor 8—1”And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.
2Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,
4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.
5And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.”
They were begging for the chance to give. Couldn't wait for it.
An Acts 2 community is like that.
Makes me think about a notice that was put in your boxes a few Sundays ago. A reminder, I think it said "urgent" to give to your church family.
I have a couple of thoughts about that.
Thought 1, no apology for asking God's people to give to your local church. This is where God wants you to give; priority one. Give and give generously.
Thought 2, how I wish we never had to do that, because God's people were so eager to give, that we had more money than we knew what to do with. The more we become an Acts 2 community, the more that will happen. If we all gave like that, we'd be having special meetings to figure out what God wants us to do with the excess.
Tabernacle... people gave... until they said "STOP-we have more than we need" Ex 35:5-7
The person who is filled with the Spirit, growing in Jesus, is asking this question:
HOW CAN I GIVE?
How can I give to God's Work? to spread the gospel? to help the poor? Asking that question, really wrestling with it, that is a sign of spiritual health and growth.
Start in your local church. That is the first place to give; the place where you worship, where you are in community with others.
If you cannot give joyfully and generously because you don't believe in your church, or you don't trust your church, you need a new church!
This church does a tremendous amount of good and many forms of ministry that touch the needs of people on all levels.
If you have income, then you can give some of that income.
If you have assets, you can sell assets-that is what happened here in Acts 2.
• Acts 2 Jesus followers Share their Stuff
Text says that they had everything in common
Sold possessions. Realized that this stuff was meant for the good of the community, not just for my personal good. THEY WERE IN THIS, IN LIFE, TOGETHER!
Acts 2 Jesus follower ask this question:
WHAT CAN I SHARE?
my home?
my car?
my things?
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
33”With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
Acts 4:32-35
Acts 2 Jesus followers Live to Serve
Life is not about pleasure, it is not about acquisition; it is about service and love!
If you are an Acts 2 Jesus follower, God has a call for you, to serve in mission.
God calls-are you answering that call?
Do you hear that call? that prompting, that leading from God, that leading?
We're going to end this morning by considering not just God's call to give, which is a very significant call, or his call to share, but also his call to serve in mission.
WHERE CAN I SERVE IN MISSION?
We're going to give you three ways to answer that question. Because your life, your time, is a part of what you are to give to God.
Questions:
•HOW DID PEOPLE FROM OUR CHURCH SERVE GOD AMONG YOU?
•WHAT NEEDS ARE THERE NOW?
Honduras...
Pascagoula...
LendaHand...
God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but my standard of giving.
Verses to Ponder and Memorize:
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” Acts 2:44-45 |
Acts 2 Jesus followers Share Their Stuff
Stuff-Share
Acts 2 Jesus followers Live to Serve
Life--Serve
#6 Why Do I Have All This Stuff?
God prospers me not raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving
God gives us more money than we need so we can give-generously.
2 Cor 8:12-God wants you to give what you have, not what you don't have
WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND?
2 Cor 9:13-you will be glorifying God through your generous gifts
This message will be a direct calling to respond to God's calling, and God's Word, and to "step it up" when it comes to giving. I'm going to challenge each hearer to carefully and prayerfully engage in an examination of spending and giving habits, and to become more obedient in the area of giving.
40”With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:40-47
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