Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #9

Back to the Beginning:

When Church was Church

*Evil Lurking at Eden's Gate*

*Acts 4:32-5:11*

 

 

Now I will tell you upfront today that we are going to talk about money and possessions and we don't LIKE that but I have to teach what is in the passage.

We are approaching the book of Acts as a Church trying to learn from the Lord as a 21st Century church looking back to the 1st Century … So … we KNOW from Jesus that

You cannot Serve TWO MASTERS

 

Jesus is Lord OF ALL or NOT AT ALL.

In the Beginning …

God created heaven and earth and everything in it and it was GOOD

 

He made Man and Woman and put them in the center of the garden and told them to enjoy it, manage it, have dominion over it

He told man, eat ANY TREE in the garden but NOT the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil …

He made Eve and brought her to Adam

 

But there is Evil Lurking at the Gates of Eden

 

Chapter 3 of Genesis begins… /now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made/

 

There is evil lurking at the Gates of Eden

 

In Acts 1 Jesus promises the coming of the Spirit in power and commissions his people to be witnesses.

In chapter 2 God pours out his Spirit  and  3000 new souls come to Christ and the church is birthed

 

In chapter 3 God shows his power through the life of a simple crippled man

 

In Chapter 4 truth is proclaimed and God's people are favored

 

Yet there is EVIL lurking at the gates of Eden

 

Evil lurking at the door of the church

 

That evil is in the form of Temptation to be in control

 

It is a question of Ownership versus Stewardship

 

Read 4:32-5:11

 

I see three options in our attitude about things and possessions.

Do your things own YOU

Do YOU own your things?

Does GOD own all things and you simple Manage them

 

*1.

When YOU Own or are OWNED by Your Possessions*

 

Will Rogers said - /too many people spend money they don't have to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like/

 

  *A*.

*Greed* & *Jealousy*

We want to run everything, be known by everyone, and do as little as possible

 

/Leftovers/

/Leftovers are such humble things, /

/We would not serve them to a guest, /

/And yet we serve them to our Lord/

/Who deserves the very best.

/

/We give to Him leftover time, /

/Stray minutes here and there, /

/Leftover cash we give to Him, /

/Such few coins as we can spare.

/

/We give our youth unto the world, /

/To hatred, lust and strife;/

/Then in declining years we give/

/To Him the remnant of our life.

-Author Unknown /

 

 

 

  *B.*

*Deceit*

    1.

The issue here was NOT that they kept part of the sale of their property … the issue was that they sought notoriety, prestige, praise from men and then they lied to make it greater

    2.

their gift would have been unacceptable even if they hadn't lied, because their attitude was unacceptable - think of CAIN and Able

    3.

the largest attempt at deceit was NOT that they sold for a larger amount but the attempt to prove themselves to be more SPIRITUAL than they were

 

 

  *C*.

*Death* or Destruction

    1.

disobedience always brings a "death" in the relationship

    2.

when we are owned by our things, or we OWN them with our demand of control, it is destructive to every relationship around us.

We hurt ourselves and those around us to maintain control or satisfy the demands upon us

    3.

Trust is broken

    4.

when we are struggling to maintain control and ownership … so many things can get in our way or damage our dreams and we allow nothing to get too close, like a dog trying to keep everyone away from his bowl

 

Sapphira's name in Aramaic means /beautiful/ - some things that appear beautiful can be deadly

 

    5.

Peter pointed out the important thing - when we are owned or own our things and are deceptive, stingy, greedy, jealous, we are NOT out of relationship with man, we are out of relationship with God.

    6.

While yes a church can be hurt by the faulty giving of it's people, greater issue is the broken relationship with God.

You are NOT hurting the church, you are hurting your relationship with the Head of the church, the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, as you grieve the Spirit of God living in you.

V3 /how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit/

 

Recognize the Spiritual Warfare -

DO NOT trivialize the Spiritual Warfare

Eph 6 - we do NOT struggle against flesh and blood

When we struggle with ownership over things, with giving up control to God who owns

 

Why does God use our gifts and our finances in his eternal purposes?

They are an indicator of whether God has all of us or whether we are holding back from him

It shows if we are ready for supervision over things with eternal results

Luke 16:10-15

/Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

11 so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  12 and if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?  13 No servant can serve two masters.

Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and Money/

/14// The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.  15 He said to them, "you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.

What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight/

 

We are STEWARDS, MANAGERS, of what God owns

 

How silly would it be for a Sheep to say "look at this beautiful pasture, it belongs to me." "I can go anywhere I want, this is my land"

 

No, he is simply the property of his loving shepherd

Ps 95:4-7 /in his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

6Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care./

*2.

When God Owns Your Possessions*

 

 

God owns everything

 

He told his people in Lev 25:23 - that they couldn't sell any land permanently because /… the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants/

 

1 Cor 4:2 - /now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful/

 

in our gifts to the Lord through our tithes and through our offerings we show ourselves faithful to the commands of God and make ourselves available for greater ministry, greater trust with eternal things

 

/stewardardship// - Websters Def -  conducting, surpervising, or managing of something entrusted to one's care/

 

There is great FREEDOM when we relinquish ownership of our lives and things to the Lord.

When we don't HOLD ON too CLOSELY to anything we have

 

Hold on to your integrity,

Hold on to your Faithfulness

Hold on to you working OUT of your salvation

 

Everything else, hold loosely and with an attitude of stewardship or management

 

  *A*.

*Generosity*