Generosity & Greed: The Battle for Our Hearts |07.28.24|Actions Speak Louder! pt.7
Morgan Folgers
my name is Morgan Folgers, and I am on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.(…) InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is a ministry that is bringing the gospel to college campuses. My full-time job is helping students say yes to Jesus with their whole lives, and helping students who don’t know Jesus seek Jesus out for the first time. And it is a joy to be in God’s kingdom work, and I am so blessed by New Life. New Life has been a faithful prayer partner and supporter in my mission work, so I also just want to extend gratitude to you all for being on the journey with me.
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So, this summer, we have been on a journey through the Book of Acts, which focuses on the faithfulness of the early church in going and making disciples of all nations. We have also been focusing on this dark theme, that the good news of Jesus is that we are offered grace and invited to participate in the kingdom of God here and now.
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Today, we will be diving into Acts chapter four, verses 32 through chapter five, verse 11, together. And we are going to further investigate what it means to be faithful participants in the kingdom of God. So, let’s read the passage together and prepare our hearts to receive from God’s word.
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Acts chapter four, 32 through chapter five, 11.
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“All the believers were in one heart and mind.(…) “No one claims that any of their possessions was their own, “but they shared everything they had.(…) “With great power, the apostles continued to testify “to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.(…) “And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all “that there were no needy persons among them.(…) “For from time to time, those who owned land “or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales “and put it at the apostles’ feet. “And it was distributed to anyone who had need.
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“Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called “Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, “sold a field he owned and brought the money “and put it at the apostles’ feet.
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“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife, Saphira, “also sold a piece of property.(…) “With his wife’s full knowledge, “he kept back part of the money for himself. “But brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. “Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan “has so filled your heart that you have lied “to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself “some of the money you received for the land?(…) “Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? “And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?(…) “What made you think of doing such a thing? “You have not lied just to human beings, but to God.
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“When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.(…) “In great fear seized all who had heard what had happened. “Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, “and carried him out and buried him.(…) “About three hours later, his wife came in, “not knowing what had happened.(…) “Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price “you and Ananias got for the land? “Yes, she said, this is the price.
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“Peter said to her, how could you conspire “to test the spirit of the Lord?
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“Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband “are at the door and they will carry you out also. “At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. “Then the young men came in and finding her dead, “carried her out and buried her beside her husband.(…) “Great fear seized the whole church “and all who had heard about these events.
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“The word of the Lord.”
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Praise to you, God.
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So before we dive into the text, I think it’s helpful and needed for us to address some tension we might be experiencing.
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So there was a time when the church, the body of Christ, was new and small. At this point in history, Jesus had ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit down upon his people.
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Jesus sent out his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations.
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Luke, the writer of Acts, played a crucial role in the establishment of the early church as a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul, who we will read about later on in Acts, and as a doctor. This is Luke’s second description of the body of Christ being filled by the spirit, the first description being in chapter two of Acts.
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Step into excavating this passage together, and imagine some of us may be experiencing some tension. After all, we have a sharp contrast in this text, the Holy Spirit calling the believers to profound generosity, and then the consequences of Sapphira and Ananias, two members of the community, acting out of their greed and desire to deceive, which leads to their death.
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Sometimes when we read the Bible, there are texts that we find ourselves wrestling with. They lead us to asking deeper questions.(…) As we investigate this passage together, we can clearly see the reality that sin was damaging to the early church, and it is damaging to us in our communities today.(…) Sin keeps us from wholeness. That’s why we desperately need Jesus. He reconciles us to God the Father, and he delivers us from our sin that leads to death. So as we read Acts, we need to keep in mind that this text serves as a roadmap for us to draw closer to the one who brings us true life.(…) And asking questions is good for us. Ultimately, our questions lead us to loving, trusting, knowing, and following our good and beautiful God more and more.
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So before we dive in, let me pray for us.
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Lord, I just thank you for the gift of this day, and I thank you for every person in this room. And Lord, I just pray that you will open our hearts to receive what you have for us. Open our hearts to your heart. Open our hearts to your call for us to make you Lord of all.(…) So Lord, I pray that you will lead us away from things that don’t bring life, and lead us into what does bring life. And Lord, I pray that as the speaker today, that I will step out of the way and allow your Holy Spirit to move and speak.
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Lord, we thank you for this time, and we pray all of this in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
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Before we dive into the text, I want you all to imagine you are at a dinner table with a group of people you have never dined with before.
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This group of people is unique. These people are breaking bread together with joy, sincerity, and gladness. They are clearly enjoying one another, and they clearly care a lot about one another.
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Then something happens that shocks you. Each person at the table begins taking out their money bags and gives them to one another. And they aren’t just money bags that contain small amounts. You come to find out that the money bags include everything that each person owns.
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You can see how this is possible. Why is everyone so willing and excited about giving up their possessions? What is motivating them?(…) And then after they finish giving their money bags to one another, the group begins singing with great joy. “I want what they have,” you say to yourself.
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Then a man named Peter approaches you. You tell him you want what the community has. You want to partake in the joy and delight of the community,
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and you want to make a difference in the solution. He smiles.(…) Let me tell you about Jesus.
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As we engaged with the imaginative prompt, I hope we got a picture of what it looked like to be a part of the early church and how contagious their joy was. It was very evident in both chapters two and four of Acts that the Acts’ church devotion to Christ and one another impacted their community and surrounding communities powerfully.
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We see evident joy in this image and picture, but we also see a community devoted to wholeness and holiness.
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Authentic joy and generosity cannot be present without the work of the Spirit.
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Today, we are going to investigate what it means that greed and generosity are battling for our hearts.(…) So in order to dive into what the Lord has for each of us, I want to leave you all with these questions.
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Are our hearts tethered to Christ in his kingdom, or are our hearts tethered to prosperity in the world?
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How can we respond to the Lord’s call for us to be incredibly generous with our hearts and with our actions?(…) So let’s dive in together.
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So I’m gonna start us off with chapter four, verses 32 to 37, in which we can see the theme of the Holy Spirit transforming the Acts community in powerful ways.
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In the first section, we see the believers partaking in fellowship together. All the believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, are united in heart, mind, and action. They share all they have with one another, and with great power that was poured out by the Holy Spirit, they continue testifying to Jesus rising from the dead and defeating the grave.(…) And we also see that God’s grace is so powerfully at work in them all that there are no needy persons among them. The members of the community who have a lot of money and resources are radically generous.
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The landowners in the community sell their houses and land and bring the profits from the sales to the apostles, so anyone who has need in the community can be blessed.
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And Luke even highlights Joseph, a leader in the Jewish community from Cyprus.(…) Joseph is so moved by the Holy Spirit that he sells a field he had previously owned and gives the money to the apostles.
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It’s clear Joseph wants to use his resources to bless the community and beyond. It’s clear that Joseph is fully and wholly devoted to Christ and to the community.
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So now we’re gonna move on to the second part of this passage.
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Chapter five, verses one through 11, where we see the theme of Ananias and Sapphira, rejecting the ways of the Lord and resorting
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to taking matters into their own hands.
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Ananias, together with his wife, also sells a piece of property. But with his wife’s full knowledge, he keeps part of the money for himself and then brings the rest to the apostles.
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Rather than being honest with the community about withholding money, he deceives the community and the Lord. He leads all to believe he did, in fact, give up everything.
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So now we see that Peter, one of the 12 disciples who walked closely with Jesus and who was appointed as a leader of Jesus’ church, rebukes Ananias. He calls Ananias out on the ways Ananias has responded to Satan instead of Jesus.
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Ananias has lied to the Holy Spirit and has kept his money for himself.
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Because the property belonged to Ananias and Sapphira and the money was in his hands in control, his actions warrant consequences.
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Peter asks Ananias what compelled him to do such a thing. After all, not only has Ananias lied to his community, he has lied to God.
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In hearing this, we see that Ananias falls down and dies. Then some young men come forward, wrap up his body, carry him out and bury him.(…) Then three hours later, his wife comes in, not knowing what has happened.(…) Peter asks her, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?(…) Rather than being truthful, Sapphira expresses that the price Peter had received was the correct price.(…) Peter then rebukes Sapphira, admonishing her for testing the Holy Spirit.
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He then tells her that the men who buried her husband are at the door and will carry her out also.
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And shortly thereafter, we see that Sapphira too dies.(…) Then as Peter predicts, the young men come in, carry her out and bury her beside her husband. In response, the whole community, the whole church is seized by fear.
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So this passage has a lot of complexity. In the beginning, we see the believers responding to the Holy Spirit with faithfulness and generosity. But then as we move into chapter five, we see the consequences of members of the community acting apart from the Holy Spirit. The consequences of members of the community(…) following their own desires rather than the desires of the Lord.
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In this text, we see that generosity and greed are both in the battle for our hearts.
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When the followers of Jesus respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting, they are led into radical love and generosity.(…) However, when the prompting of the Holy Spirit is ignored or dismissed, the impact is damaging to individuals and the community.
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So here are the three main points I want us to draw out here.
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So we see that Jesus calls us, his followers, away from chasing prosperity and status and calls us into radical generosity and servanthood. And when we respond to Jesus’ call to be generous, our generosity blesses our hearts and our communities.
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However, when we are tethered to greed and dishonesty, our greed and dishonesty are poisonous to our hearts and to our communities.
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We see in this text that Jesus calls his followers away from chasing prosperity and status, and he calls them into radical generosity and servanthood.(…) When we look at the big narrative of the gospel, when we look at the big narrative of the Bible, we see Jesus calling his followers away from death and calling them into life.(…) For generations and generations, God’s people have been longing for the coming of a Messiah who would deliver them from a broken world.
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And Jesus is so much greater than everyone expects, and he flips expectations upside down.
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Jesus’ life and ministry not only included preaching about the kingdom of God, but it also included caring for the sick and delivering humanity from sin.(…) So Jesus’ call for his followers is to leave everything behind.
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In verses 32 to 37, we see that many believers in the Acts church understand this call and live it out. They love Jesus, and they love one another. Furthermore, they understand the call of Jesus and they love to lay down their lives and their belongings, to follow him and to serve their community.
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And we see that the Acts church is united in one mind, one mission, and one Lord, Jesus.
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So next we see when Jesus’ followers respond to his call to be generous, their generosity blesses their hearts and their communities.
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In verses 32 to 37, we see that because God’s grace is so powerfully at work in the community, the believers are of one heart and one mind. Even though the believers gathered are Jews and Gentiles alike, they are unified in one in the body of Christ.
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Of course, the members of the Acts church are not operating out of their own strength. They are operating out of a deep love for Jesus and for one another.
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And as Jesus’ followers are recipients of his love, grace, and mercy, they are actively extending his love to their community.(…) They recognize that their possessions are not their own.
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Their possessions and all they have belong to the Lord. And therefore, they are willing and excited to be sacrificial. They are willing to give up everything they have to ensure all members of their community have what they need.
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We see this generosity even more through Joseph, who clearly has a heart changed by God so much so that his life is devoted to loving and serving others.
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And finally, we see that through this text, when people are tethered to greed, their greed is poisonous to their hearts and their communities.(…) In the beginning of chapter five, we see a direct paradox.
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Unlike Joseph, Ananias and Sapphira go against the call of the Lord by withholding their money.
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In addition, they deceive the Lord in their community by pretending they had given everything away.
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It is evident that Ananias and Sapphira want recognition.(…) They want praise. So rather than being truthful and generous, they choose deceit and greed. They give up some of their possessions, but not all.
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And they lead other members of the community to believe that they had given up their possessions.
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As a result, Peter, who was given authority in the early church, rebukes Ananias and Sapphira for both their greed and the ways they deceived the community and the Lord.
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Sapphira and Ananias are clearly not in the business of giving up their possessions to serve the Lord and others.(…) Rather, their motivation is rooted in their desire to earn the praise and favor of the community,(…) rather than submitting to Jesus and the life and joy he offers, they hold on to what they want and what they think is best for them.
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Ultimately, we see that Ananias’ and Sapphira’s deaths are a result of a much deeper issue that goes beyond finances.
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Sapphira and Ananias are so hungry for the praise of man that they are willing to deceive God in their community. As a result, their sin leads to their destruction. Their sin separates them. And this causes a deep fear in the community.
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And the incident involving Sapphira and Ananias highlights the importance of the church being purified.
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The hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira was damaging to the church’s witness to the world.
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And we see that God sees the true reality of their hearts. And we see that their sin damages them and the rest of the community.
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So friends, as Jesus’ followers, we are called away from chasing prosperity and we are called into radical generosity.(…) As we see in Acts, everything we have belongs to the Lord.(…) As Jesus’ followers, we are called to leave everything behind to follow Jesus.
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We are called to give up everything we have for the furthering of the kingdom.
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Worldly prosperity leads us to death, not life. Even though the world feeds us with the lies that wealth, power, and status will bring us to flourishing and satisfaction, these things suffocate us and keep us from life even when we don’t see it or notice it.
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Jesus is the only one who truly brings life.
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As Jesus clothes us with his love and his light, we are called to be participants in his kingdom work. We are called to use all we have for the furthering of the kingdom with honesty and sincerity. We are called to help those in need. We are called to care for the poor, sick, and marginalized.(…) We are called to lay down our belongings and possessions at the feet of Jesus. We are called to bless others with the resources and gifts that the Lord has entrusted us with.
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And when we respond to Jesus’ call to generosity, our hearts experience life and our communities are blessed.
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In chapter four of Acts, Jesus’ followers respond with immediacy and delight. Their hearts are not tethered to their possessions. Their hearts are devoted to Jesus. Therefore, Jesus’ work in their lives prompts them to give up everything because Jesus is everything to them.
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Similarly, when we respond to the prompting of Jesus, we experience new life.(…) When we allow Jesus to uproot pride and greed, our love for our neighbor grows.(…) The more we submit our hearts and lives to Jesus, the more we have room in our hearts for radical generosity.(…) And when we become participants in the kingdom of God, when we see our possessions and not ours but God’s, our desire to serve others deepens and grows.(…) Suddenly, we have a greater desire to use our time, resources, and money to bless others. And in this place, we have a greater desire to be faithful givers.
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When we are tethered to greed, friends, our greed is poisonous to us and to our communities, even when we don’t see it. As we saw through Ananias and Sapphira, greed is damaging. Greed keeps our hearts from love and selflessness, and it separates us from the goodness Jesus offers us.
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When our generosity is motivated by our love of self and desire for praise, it is damaging. When our generosity is self-motivated, it keeps us from true generosity.
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And above all, Jesus calls us to be honest with Him and with our communities.(…) Artist honesty leads to destruction, not to life. In order to allow Jesus to inform and transform our lives, in order for us to allow Jesus to lead us into a deeper place of being generous and loving our neighbor, we have to be honest about the state of our hearts. And out of this place of transformation, we have the capacity to be generous.
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Friends,(…) Jesus calls us to be honest with Him and with our communities about the state of our hearts. And as He transforms us and makes us whole, He calls us to entrust our time, resources, and money to Him and the furthering of His kingdom.(…) He calls us to love and serve Him, and He calls us to love and serve others.
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So when I look at my life, I can see how generosity and greed are in the battle for my hearts.(…) When I look at my life, I can see how my heart can fall into patterns of selfishness and greed. In my sinful nature, I covet what others have. I can fall into patterns of wanting the best next thing or the next best thing.
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Greed gets in the way of me being tethered to the heart of Christ.(…) Greed keeps me from generosity.(…) Greed causes me to believe the lie that my belongings are mine and I can do whatever I want with them. Greed causes me to operate out of my wants and my desires rather than the Lord’s desires for me and the people I am connected with. Because friends, I can assure you, God’s plan and God’s desires are so much better and so much better for me than Morgan Folger’s plans and desires.
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Greed keeps me in unhealthy patterns of seeking satisfaction from worldly things. Greed keeps me from seeking satisfaction from Christ and greed keeps me from serving my neighbor.
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When greed and dishonesty are guideposts in my life, I can fall into a pattern of being generous for the praise of others.
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I can easily fall into patterns of helping others for my glory rather than God’s glory. When I operate out of a place of greed and dishonesty, I keep myself from the life Jesus offers and I am far from Jesus’ call to love my neighbor.
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Jesus calls me to give up everything to follow him. He calls me to give up my time and my resources. He calls me to radical generosity.(…) He calls me to with every moment and every breath, love and serve and follow him. He calls me to give not just for my benefit, but for the benefit of others. And in fact, it’s not for my benefit, it is for the benefit of others.
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And out of this place of being filled by his love, he calls me to love and serve my neighbor.(…) Similarly to the disciples, I am called to leave it all behind to follow him.
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When I submit to Jesus,(…) I allow him to prune what is fruitful and plant,
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sorry, I allow him to prune what is unfruitful and plant what is fruitful.
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When I invite the Lord to search my heart and uproot the ugly and scraggly parts, I am allowing him to lead me into a deeper and more complete picture of loving my neighbor.
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Friends, generosity and greed are both in the battle for our hearts. Even though it’s easy for us to believe that we are nothing like Ananias and Sapphira, here’s the truth, it’s easy for us to fall into patterns of bowing to greed. We bow to greed with our money, we bow to greed with our time, we bow to greed when we seek out satisfaction in areas apart from Christ. We live in a greed-based society that calls us to worship idols instead of Christ.
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In Matthew 6, 24, Jesus reminds us that we cannot serve two masters.(…) We either will hate one and love the other, or we will be devoted to one and despise the other. We cannot serve both God and money, friends. We cannot serve both God and the idols in our lives.
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It’s also easy for us to fall into dishonesty like Sapphira and Ananias. It’s easy for us to trick ourselves into believing our self-motivated generosity is generosity, but our dishonesty does not lead to life, friends. If we continue to choose greed and dishonesty, we will miss out on the healing Jesus offers us.
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The kingdom of God flips this narrative on its head.
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Jesus, fully God and fully human, came as savior and servant of all.(…) He was the first to care for the needy, the sick and the lowly. In this, he called his disciples to do the same, and he calls us to do the same.
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Friends, if Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.
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We are called to worship Christ, not the world.(…) As we submit to Jesus in our lives, we are inviting him to tear down idols in our lives that keep us from him and keep us from serving him fully.
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And the truth is this, generosity is impossible apart from Christ, because if our hearts are not in the right places, if we only give to receive the praise of others, if we only give for our own personal gain, we are rejecting true life.(…) We are rejecting the opportunity for Jesus to renew us and make us whole, and in turn, we are rejecting the opportunity to love our neighbors as Jesus loves them.
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The early church in Acts was unable to be radically generous apart from Christ.
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As Jesus healed them and made them whole, their natural response was to give everything up for Jesus and for others.(…) As a result, we see a picture of a community rooted in a love of God that informs the ways they love one another.
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Friends of new life, the more we receive from Jesus, the more we are equipped with his love and compassion and generosity,(…) the more we are motivated to proclaim Jesus’ good news that he is the only way to salvation and new life. The more we are motivated to live like Jesus, the more we care for the strangers, the needy, the sick, the poor in our communities, the more willing we are to give up everything to serve the Lord and serve others, the more we devote our hearts and lives to Christ, the more we sacrifice everything for the kingdom, the more we see that Jesus is Lord of all.
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New life, we are all invited to partake in the kingdom of God like the Acts Church.(…) Every piece of our time and resources belongs to Jesus. Therefore, we are invited to use our time and resources to bless others in need. We are invited to use our time and resources to worship the Lord and proclaim who he is to others.
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So friends, I believe the Lord has two invitations for us today.
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Number one, I believe Jesus is inviting us to devote our lives to him fully. And number two, I believe Jesus is inviting us to live lives of radical generosity that causes the people around us to say, “I want that too, I want that joy and that delight “and that freedom that they have, where can I get that?”
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So friends, perhaps the Lord is inviting you to give faithfully.
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Perhaps the Lord is inviting you to use your money to bless a family in your neighborhood or job.
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So friends, how is the Lord calling you to live generously?(…) How is the Lord inviting you to sacrifice your money, time and resources for his kingdom?(…) How do you need to invite Jesus to search your heart and prepare you for a life of serving?