Romans 4:31-37

So chapter 4, let's stand up as we read God's Word. Acts chapter 4, beginning with verse 31. When the church had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the Word of God with boldness. Now the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own. All things were common property to them, and with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was on them all. There was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, meaning son of encouragement, owned a track of land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Chapter 6, verse 1. Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, complain arose in the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. The 12, some in the congregation of the disciples, and said, it's not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables, select from among you brethren seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, and the statement found in parable with the whole congregation, they chose Stephen a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nikonor, to moan, parmenus, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, and these they brought before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them, and the Word of God kept on spreading, the number of the disciples to continue to increase greatly into Islam, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Amen, and the God bless this reading of his holy, infallible, and inspired word. The grass withers in the flower fades, but not the Word of God. Know the Word of God stands forever. Amen. You seated, please. Her name was Beth. Beth, simply the most incredible person I had ever met up to that time. Beth allowed me, Beth was a minister's wife, and I lived in this minister's home when I was 17, the summer when I was 17 to summer when I was 18. She fed me, the house was small, a little tiny house, only had three bedrooms. I was given one of the bedrooms, she did my clothes, she took me into her family and never with a hint that I was an outsider or a stranger, or not one of her own, never felt the least bit imposing or uncomfortable in that place. She just was my mother from day one. On Sundays, Beth would make breakfast for her family and prepared her lessons for the Sunday school class she would lead, and then she would jump in this ancient car. They had, I don't know much about cars, but it was a push button, transmission. And it had no tread on any of the tires, and she would take off down the most precipitous winding paths into the hollars of upper-glade, West Virginia, and she would come back out with a car filled with about 12 of the smelliest, dirtiest ill-clad children you've ever seen. Beth was an incredible woman. She, more than once, I saw her furniture walk out the front door of her house, given to needy people who just showed up the door. People she didn't even know in the community. And not like surplus stuff in the garage, I saw Beth give their couch away. I saw Beth give their dresser drawers away. She just take the family's clothes out and walk it out the door and give it away. But nowhere was her character ever more evident to me than in the way she loved Alice Clevenger. Alice Clevenger lived across the street from the church. She was nuts. She'd come out in the front lawn and scream at people as they came to church. One time, Alice came into the church with a shotgun and called Beth a witch, right in the middle of the service. I don't know that anybody knew, but I knew, because I lived there every night. Beth, when she finished cooking dinner before the family could eat, piled the food on a plate, put tin foil over it, and drove down to Alice Clevenger's house, instead that deranged woman who hated her dinner every single night. Now, I just want to ask, if we wanted the world to sit up and take notice that maybe so that we would have an opportunity to tell them that Jesus Christ is the Lord of heaven and earth, and He's transformed us, that what kind of behavior might we want to adopt before them? Do you think we ought to go around shooting abortion doctors? Will that work? How about boycotting Disney? How about throwing big seminars on the end times, and invite our whole community to come? That'll really wow them, won't it? Now, I don't think that any of those things would be quite that effective. I think that, in fact, maybe being like Beth, voluntarily, radically, divesting ourselves of our income for the neediest people in our midst, might cause the world to sit up and take notice. You know, we said just the other day that the worst argument for Christianity is very often what? Christians. Christians who are smog and self-righteous and self-absorbed and stingy. They're about the worst argument for Christianity there is. You know what the best argument for Christianity is? Christians. Christians who have been so radically set free by the gospel of grace that they're kind of like that. Or they're like the church we see in Acts chapter four. So take your sermon outline and let's study it together. The first thing I want you to see is that in the church there was this practice of radical generosity. The practice of radical generosity. Look at the Jerusalem church. Matter of fact, Calvin, hundreds of years ago said, your heart is made of iron. If you can read this passage and not be touched by the generosity of this church. They actually gave their stuff away. I mean, people had an extra property, extra money. They came, the Bible says, and they laid it at the Apostles' feet so that it could be said that there was no need in that place. I mean, they were so committed that they fed the widows, didn't they? Now, they didn't have a monthly feeding program for the widows. How often did they feed the widows? What did it say? Every day. The ministry that happens every day. If you feed people, you can't take a day off, can you? Because they still have to eat. And the widows who had no one to care for them were depending on the church and the church took care of them every day. In fact, as the church grew and they got away from the Apostles, they weren't doing a very good job. It was such an important part of the church that the Apostles said, find seven men, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom to be the administrators of this integral part of the work of the church, the feeding of the widows, the care for the poor. I'm afraid that we often think that caring for the poor is certainly the peripheral part of what the work of the church is. You know what the work of the church is? It's to open the Bible and it's to preach and teach the Bible. That's the work of the church. And if we get diverted from that to anything else, we're making a big mistake. But I want to tell you something. The church had elders, didn't they? And they were to be concerned with the word and prayer. But the church had a whole different group. They were called decons. And their concern was to take care of the poor. It was integral to the work of the church. Now, our church is a softball thing. And I think that's nice. Sometimes they behave themselves. But you know what? If our church didn't have a softball team, I wouldn't say, you know what? I resign. This is no longer a church of Jesus Christ. Because we don't have a softball thing. I understand that the fact that we play softball, that's okay. But it's not integral to our being a church of Jesus Christ, is it? But very often, whether a church takes care of anyone as poor or not is considered kind of like a softball team. If you have it or you don't have it, I mean it's nice if you have it. But it's not a decor. And I want you to understand that the Bible says it's right at the heart. It's right at the heart of the early church. And that in fact, it's been at the heart of God's people from the very beginning. From the very beginning, the Bible tells us that the world, there wasn't any poor folk. The God had us in the garden and it flourished. And there was plenty. Because that's the kind of God we have. He's a God as lavish and generous. But we announced to God that we were taking over the food distribution system of the world. That fact that we're going to take over the whole world. And God said, have at it. And the Bible says the world doesn't work anymore. We've got Hurricane Mitch. We've got thousands and thousands dead. We've got the food delivery systems destroyed, crops gone, starvation and disease that will now live in our southern neighbors for years and years to come. We've got AIDS. We've got divorce. We've got broken homes. We've got warring nations. We've got needy people. But we've got handicapped folks whose needs are dire. The world is broken. But God didn't abandon his rebellious world. He said, let me paint you a picture. One day, the desert will bloom. One day, the most arid parts of the earth will become food producing. One day, the lion and the lamb will lay down together. One day, a little child could stick his hand in an attire's den. One day, the mountains will flow with sweet wine. God started to establish the first sort of down payments of that new world, that new kingdom. You had a people called Israel, didn't you? And if you look in your sermon outline in Deuteronomy, I think it's chapter 15. God said of his people Israel amongst them there would be no what? There would not be poor. Not in God's family. And all the nations around the poor would be considered a lower caste. They would be considered worthless. They would be considered disposable. But God said, not in my family, there will be no poor. Because this family was to be a reflection, a light to the world, of what God's governance would yield. And that in the place where God governs, there would be prosperity and there would be care for the neediest among us. And so we see the passion that God, in Deuteronomy, God says, he says, care for the widow, care for the orphan, take care of the alien, take care of the person who's not from the stranger, the outsider who has nothing, who has no means of support, he has no family, he has no land, you take care of them. And this is the part I love. Because once God says, you are an alien in Egypt. And I took care of you. Once you were the outsider, once you were the nobody, once you were a slave, once you had nothing. And I fed you. And so all through the Old Testament, we see this passion, God says, care for the poor. In fact, the prophets very often, we study the minor prophets this summer. And again and again and again, the indictment of the minor prophets on Israel was what? You forgot the poor. You are selfish, self-indulgent. The Bible tells us that Jesus, God took on flesh and He came, He invaded the world to transform it. He could have been reborn into royalty. But He chose a poor woman, right? A poor family, a family of meager mean. He lived amongst the poor. He preached the gospel to the poor. He said, if you feed and care for and clothe and visit the prisoner, the very least in our culture, then you're doing it as untuhu. You're doing it to me. You want to show your love for me? Go down to the prison. Care for the rapist. Care for the murderer. Care for the thief. Care for the one who's the most hated and ostracized. And when you do that, you care for me. That's how much it matters to me. James said, pure and undefiled religion is this. That you reflect the heart of generosity. That you reflect that you've been the recipient of the grace and mercy of God and you give it to others. I want you to see that the practice of radical generosity runs through the whole Bible. It's always been a part of the people of God. Matter of fact, the Apostle Paul is a great story. And Peter, James and John, they're kind of the people of God. They're the people of God. They're the people of God. They're the people of God. They're the people of God. They're the people of God. They're the people of God. That's a funny story. And Peter, James and John, they're kind of the inner circle, the brain trust of the church. And they haven't really ever met Paul. All they know Paul is that he was the guy that was killing their family members. Christian. They already converted and he's not working among the Gentiles. And Paul comes to Jerusalem to meet them. And this is kind of tense, who knows. And this renegade Paul's out there. Gentiles are becoming Christians. Paul thinks that Peter, James and John, are going to tell them. all those Gentiles have to be circumcised. All those Gentiles have to conform to the Jewish ceremonial law. And when Peter, James, and John meet with Paul, they only ask him to do one thing. What was it? Galatians 2.10, don't forget the poor. Don't forget the poor. Now, here then's the challenge for us that the Holy Spirit would move in our hearts in such a way that he would lay on us this practice of radical sharing. Does it happen? Does anybody really do this? Well, sadly, few. Let me tell you something. I know a fellow in this church who saw the opportunity to buy for our school and church community 40 acres so that we could expand our our ministry. He didn't have the money to do that, but he knew that he was to receive an inheritance. So he went to his relative who was giving him an inheritance and he asked them to buy the land with his inheritance and give it to the church. That's pretty radical. The friend told me just two weeks ago that they had raised their family in one house. His friends about 45, 46 years old. They raised their family. And just recently, they moved to another house, but they kept the original house, got some good renters and it's paid off. And so now their whole life savings is in that house. And if they were to sell it, it's six figures of equity they have in that house. He said he was praying and God said, I want you to give that house to the church. And this guy said, okay, okay, gave it all. They gave his whole life savings. Their daughters on the mission field, they're going to go visit her this Christmas. They were going to take some of that money out of the house and to be able to do that on the other side of the world. Might not be able to do that. They don't know. They just gave it all. Now, is this one of those guilt sermons? Or is this a chance to say, God, if I don't see that kind of generosity coming out of me, what has to happen? Because as I understand, the practice of radical generosity runs right through the Bible, right through the church, this is what happens when people understand your grace and mercy. They become freed up to live this way, but I don't see enough of it in my life. What has to happen? That's point two, the enablement. The enablement. God, how could you take a stubborn, heart-like mind and turn me into a radically generous person like that? You know what gives me the greatest hope? What are you talking about? Who's leading this church? These bold apostles. I mean, they're standing in front of the San Hadron and the San Hadron says, if you keep preaching in the name of Jesus, we're going to crucify you just like we crucified Jesus. And so they shrivel up afraid, right? Now, they walk right back out and they preach in the name of Christ. They're absolutely bold. Where did that come from? Remember, just a few weeks before, they were cowards. When the soldiers came and arrested Jesus, they ran like cowards. Peter wilted in front of a little slave girl. Just a few weeks before, they weren't generous and sharing. They were arguing about who would be first in the kingdom of God. They were mad because a woman came in and poured expensive light on Jesus and they were sitting there saying, what a waste. How? We got a good money for that. They were self-centered and they were self-absorbed and then something happened. What? Well, they saw their savior die. They saw their savior make himself poor for their sake. They saw their Lord and their master hung on a tree. And then they saw him resurrect from the dead and they saw him ascend to heaven and they experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and they were transformed. And now they were bold, bold not only in a word but bold indeed. Now, I want to ask you, could not the Holy Spirit transform us? Could not the Holy Spirit make us radically generous, too? Could this same thing that happened to these Galilean fishermen happen in Lecanto, Florida? They not only can. Now, how does the Holy Spirit set us free? How does he enable us? First of all, he sets us free from pride, from self-love. Our natural condition is that we are proud, we're self-absorbed and we're not particularly gracious towards other people. We live with a great sense of, we deserve, you know. We're not a gracious, even the way we talk, we say things like, you know, you get what you pay for, there's no free lunch in this world, you made your bed, you sleep in it, you reap what you sow, and I for an eye, could pro quo. Have you ever been at a baseball game and seen a horrible call by the umpire? And heard the crowd, sort of rally around and start to chant. Forgive the ump, forgive the ump,

there you know, big union workers, longshoremen paid their good money to go to the game, and when that happens they say, look at each other and they said, remember Joe, when you made that mistake at work last week, if we just said, that's all right, we all gathered around you and we made up for it, well let's let's extend that same grace to the umpire. Mr. umpire, we forgive you. You have our backing, that's not what they say, do they? What they say, we couldn't even say. I mean, kill the ump is tame compared to what we get now. There's not much grace out there, how could it be? I mean, when we yell, kill the ump, and when we boo, and we were so mad when somebody makes a mistake, how have we really just forgotten? How much grace we need? How have we really forgotten that we're like major league mess-ups ourselves and that we're constantly in need of grace? You see that's the problem we deal with the poor is we've just forgotten.

Let's just have a moment of honesty here. Now maybe my heart's worse than anyone else in this room, but I'll tell you what I've thought about the poor most of my life is that there's a whole heck of a lot of jobs out there, and the day I whip open the newspaper and find no one adds, that's the day I'll care about the poor. Now they're a poor, you know, who are in wheelchairs and a handicapped and they couldn't do anything about it, you know, sure, sure, those people we should help, but the vast majority of the poor are exactly what Tracy said. In my eyes, they were people who are dependent, lazy, used to people taking care of them, products of our welfare state government, and the last thing we ought to do for them is give them a handout and only enable further enabled their irresponsible behavior. I mean, who do I think I am? You see, if that's our attitude, if that's my attitude, I forgot, have a night. I've forgotten that when God looked at me, pitiful Ray Cortese, he didn't say, you know what, I'm going to wait till he deserves my mercy, then I'll give it to him. I'm just going to let him wallow in the mess he's made out of his life. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says God has poured out his lavishness, his generosity, and his grace on us, and we are utterly unworthy friends. We are rich, but we've inherited it all. It was all given to you. If you think you've earned anything you have, you're an arrogant fool, and we are arrogant fools, aren't we? And it's the Holy Spirit that sets us free from this pride. I like the story of the man who was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, he pulls his luxury car and his wife into a gas station when he gets the gas, he goes into pay for it, and when he comes back out his wife is an animated conversation with the gas station attendant. And when they get in the car she said, you know, I went to high school with that guy. She said, not only that, I dated him for a long time in high school. And you know after an edit moment or two, her husband gets kind of a smug smile on his face and he says, well, I guess you're pretty glad that you married me, huh? You know, that you married a president of a large company and not, you know, a gas station attendant. She said, well, actually I wasn't thinking that at all. She said, you know what I was thinking? I was thinking that if I'd have married him he would be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. And you would be a gas station attendant. See we think we're self-made, but we're not. Not one of us. And the Holy Spirit frees us from our arrogant pride. Secondly, the Holy Spirit sets us free from idolatry. Listen to this parable. Once there was a young girl whose parents took her to the shrine of the Golden Arches. There she saw an opportunity to buy a combination of food and a little toy that someone in a fit of marketing genius labeled a happy meal. May I have it please? I must have it. I don't think I could live without it. No, her parents told her the toy is a trivial little thing that just enabled the price of this package to be raised beyond what it's worth. It's not in the budget. We can't do it. But you don't understand, she thought. We would just be buying fries and nuggets and a dinosaur stamp. We'd be buying happiness. She was convinced that she had a little McVacuum at the core of her soul. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in a happy meal. So she explained, I want that happy meal more than I've ever wanted anything before. And if I get it, I'll never ask for anything again ever. No more complaining, no more demanding. If you get me that happy meal, I'll be content for the rest of my life. Her parents thought that's a good deal. They bought it. And it worked. She grew up to be a contented, grateful, joyful woman. She lived with serenity and grace. Her life in many ways was hard. The man she married was allowed. She abandoned her with three small children and no money. The kids were a disappointment. They dropped out of school, spunged off her resources, and then eventually lapped without a trace when she was an old woman, social security collapsed and she had to live hand to mouth. But she never complained because she'd gotten a happy meal. She would think of it often. I remember that happy meal. She'd say to herself, what great joy I found that day. Just as she had predicted, it brought her lasting satisfaction. She was grateful the rest of her life. Now isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard.

Only a little child would be naive enough to think that some thing could make you happy, right?

You see, the Holy Spirit freezes from idolatry. From all our adult happy meals, from our cars and our boats and our houses and our clothes and our trips. And all the things we simply have to have. Because we are a culture not obsessed with divesting what we have for other people, we are a culture of purchasing what we do not have for ourselves. We believe that happiness is found in stuff and only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to see that in Jesus Christ is satisfaction and in nothing else. We are self-absorbed with labels, the right shoes, the right clothes. It's nothing but idolatry. It's as idiotic as a child thinking a happy meal will make her happy. There's a tropical island. I remember reading about where they would catch monkeys by taking a little jug and tethering it to a tree, putting a little piece of fruit or meat in there. And a monkey would stick its paw in the jug and when it made a fish to grab whatever prize was in there, it couldn't dislodge itself. Of course all it had to do was let go. Trappers would come along and kill the monkeys because they wouldn't let go. Jesus met a young noble man and told him let go. And you can have your life. You can have eternal life. Let go of the little piece of fruit this world offers you and the rich young ruler wouldn't let go. And he lost his soul. Only the Holy Spirit can cause you to see what in our best moments is only so obvious that we ought to let go and embrace Christ. Third, the Holy Spirit not only freezes from self-love and idolatry. The Holy Spirit sets us free from fear. We are not given a spirit of fear, the Bible says, but a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. How come there was radical generosity in the church? Look at verse 33 of chapter 4. It's in your sermon outline. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and abundant grace was on them all. The Holy Spirit, verse 31 says, was poured out on the church and because of that they were bold. They weren't afraid anymore. They preached boldly. They lived boldly. They were radically generous. You see, we're not radically generous and it's not primarily because we're stingy. It's because we're afraid. We're afraid that if we are really generous with our stuff, there won't be enough when we need it. That there will be no one to take care of us because it's our job to take care of ourselves.

And the God of the Bible says, if I did not withhold from you my own son, will I not freely give you all things needful? Why are you afraid? You don't believe, do you? You don't believe that I own the cattle on a thousand hills and that taking care of you really doesn't even cause a sweat to come on my brow. It's not a challenge, but we hold on because we think it's up to us. We think that God having given us a Mercedes is going to keep the formats from us. He's giving us his own son. And so we hold on because we're afraid. We have people raised in the in the ashes of the great depression in World War II. They believe that you can never have enough because they will never suffer deprivation again and they will never allow their families to suffer deprivation again. And they're filled with fear, a generation filled with fear. And God says, let go. Let go. You do not have to have enough for emergencies. You have me. We're afraid that we won't have enough for pleasure. And we are afraid to give it to the church or to anyone else so that if we give it away, we'll handle it ourselves because we're afraid they won't use it right because after all we work long and hard for it. And it'll be squandered. The Bible says they brought their money and laid it at the feet of the apostles. They weren't afraid because the Holy Spirit, when he came on them, convinced them of what? That they were the children of God. If you've got a father like God, you're set free. For bold living, bold giving. My friend told me when he decided to give his life savings to God, that he went home and told his wife. And she said, no. And he said, she started to cry. And he did something very unfair. He said, will you talk to God about it? What are you going to say? No. She said, I'll talk to God about it. She said the next morning, she went out walking. And as she walked, she said, and I talked to God and I cried and I prayed and I tried to talk him out of it. She said the birds started to mock me in the sermon on the mount. You remember what Jesus said? Consider the birds, how they neither so nor reap. And the heavenly Father cares for them. Will he not also care for you who are so much more valuable than birds? She said the birds began to mock me. And I went home and I said to my husband, yes, joyfully, gladly. Yes. I love the story of a little girl who was born with a cleft palate. She said that growing up she was different. The kids made sure she knew she was different. She hated being different. She had this nose out of shape, these teeth that were mis, you know, ill placed. Her lip was funny kind of her perpetual sneer. She wore her speech was garbled. And when other kids would say, little kids in school, as they would, would say to her, what happened to you? She'd say, I fell and cut my lip on glass. And she said that somehow it seemed better than than just having to have always been this way. She said, but my life changed in second grade. It was the day we had the hearing test. And it was Mrs. Bradshaw. Mrs. Bradshaw was shortened and she was squat and she was happy. And she said words that day that changed my life. Should the hearing test went like this? The teacher would sit at her desk and the student would stand by the door and she would test their hearing by whispering something to us if we had to be able to hear it and say it back. She would say something like the sky is really blue or is that a new pair of shoes? When it came my turn and I stood by the door, I heard these seven words, I wish you were my little girl. And I was never the same again, she said. You know what I see when I looked out at this room? You know what I see when I look in the mirror? I want you to frighten the little kids who really believe all too often we're in this world all alone. So we have to hang on and make our way on our own. We will never be radically generous until we hear the God of the Bible Lena over in whisper by the Holy Spirit. Not I wish you are my child but you are. You are mine. You are precious to me. To relax. Enjoy it. I've set you free. Now just in closing and what's the effect of radical generosity? What happened in that church? What does chapter 6 for 7 say? Many, many people were converted. Not only were many people converted but the priest who was in charge of dispensing aid to the poor in the Old Testament, the priests. And when they saw the New Testament church doing it, the priest said this is the community of Yahweh, this is the real deal. And friends, if there's anything I want us to understand this morning, it's that the preaching of the Word and deed ministry always go hand in hand. If you have deed ministry without the Word, you have something that exalts men,

something that's proud and self-righteous actually. And if you have the preaching of the Word without the deeds, then you are hypocritical and fake. But when you put the two together, you have something powerful that changes communities and changes parts. You know, I'll speak for ministers of God-fearing churches all over the United States when I tell you that nothing is more troubling than the fact that people who attend churches give their money very often to this charity and that charity in this United Way agency and that. And that money is dispensed never by giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. In fact, it's forbidden while the church very often struggles to take up the care of the poor because they have less than full generosity of their members. Let me tell you something. When we hand out mercy, we do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Because folk need their stomachs filled, but they need their hearts transformed as well. Deed ministry, word ministry, when you put the two together, the world sits up and notices. And do I have to give you a better example than a New Hampshire carpet layer named Tom Gorsky? Do you know how many people were in this church on Friday that had walked far away from Jesus Christ? Or had never ever known him? Tom's cancer doctor, who's Jewish, who never has gone to a funeral of any patient and you know that almost every patient he's ever had has been terminal, never been to a funeral of one of his patients. Why did he come here Friday? Why did many others come here Friday? Some of them have dropped out of this church. Why did they come? They told me why they came. They said, we saw the life of Tom. It wasn't like anyone else and we would ask him, what's with you? This irrepressible joy, what's with you? And Tom would say, it's Jesus Christ, it's my church family, they're what sustained me. And you know what those people said to me Friday? We had to come and see if it was true.

And it is. You see, he lived the life and people came to find out what it was about.

Because about nine years ago, Tom Gorsky heard God whisper to him, you are my child. And he was never the same again. You want to, you want the world to sit up and notice? You want to have people gather at your funeral and say this one was radically generous. Yes. Don't go do anything. Just get quiet and see if you can hear the Holy Spirit whispering to you. Amen.