Review:
The Power of Unity is displayed in an Unselfish church. (Acts 4:32)
See John 17:21
I Am Unselfish When:
- I keep my eyes on the Mission. (Acts 4:33)
- I come to Give. (Acts 4:34-35)
- sacrificial
- voluntary
- joyful
- I follow Godly Examples. (Acts 4:36-37)
- encourage
- voluntary
Review and listen to the I Want to Give Sermon Series
New Testament Giving is:Encouragement is:
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Acts and chapter 4.
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Acts 4, the title of today's message is "Power in Unity." While you're turning there, Aaron and I, our first experience as parents was actually with foster children.
00:21-00:27
And we had five foster children over the years, but we had a brother and sister at one point.
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little boy's name was Walter.
00:32-00:39
And we had signed Walter up-- he was five years old-- we had signed Walter up for five-year-old soccer league.
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Do you know about five-year-old soccer league?
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Have you ever been to a soccer game of five-year-olds?
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Have you seen this?
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OK, it's not exactly FIFA World Cup, if you know what I mean.
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When we talk about skill levels, certainly, they're five.
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Come on.
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when we talk about the enforcement of the rules, it's basically trying to teach some fundamental skills of soccer.
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Well, this one mother was kind of heading up the team that Walter was on.
01:07-01:11
And she had found out that I played soccer in high school and in college.
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And she said, would you help me coach the team?
01:15-01:17
And I said, I would be glad to.
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And I remember coaching these little five-year-olds running around chasing the ball.
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We had our first game.
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And the mother came to me and she said - she pulled me aside.
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I just need to give you the heads up.
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My son - I can't remember his name - she said, "My son, he has a really hard time when we get scored against." And we're working on that.
01:44-01:50
But I just want to warn you that he might have a little bit of a meltdown if we get scored on.
01:51-02:22
just giving you the heads up. And at this age the coaches are actually allowed to be on the field with the players. We're like running on up and down the field with the players telling them what to do. So the game starts and a couple of minutes in sure enough the other team you know scrambles down and gets the ball and the other team the other team scored on us. And when this mother had told me that her son has a meltdown when we get scored upon, she was is understating the fact.
02:22-02:33
Because after the other team scored, they all ran over to celebrate, and I looked down, and this lady's son was standing in the goal just shredding his uniform.
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(screaming)
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He's ripping his clothes and he's ripping his pants.
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He turned into this 30-pound Incredible Hulk if you get the image.
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He is screaming and freaking out.
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I just remember standing there going, "Wow!" Like she wasn't kidding.
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And then all of a sudden, the thought hit me, "Wait a minute.
03:01-03:12
Where's Walter?" All of a sudden, my foster son who I was supposed to be watching on the soccer team, who I signed up to coach just so I could be close and keep an eye on him especially, he was gone.
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I'm like, "Where did I lose my foster kid?" I'm looking all over.
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He's not with the team.
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Where did he go?
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I looked down.
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He was down with the other team giving hugs and high fives to them.
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And I'm standing back looking at this scene.
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Here we have a kid on our team completely freaking out because we got scored on.
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And here we have another kid on our team that's doing handshakes and high fives and hugs and celebrating with the opposing team.
03:43-03:46
And that's why I don't coach soccer anymore.
03:48-03:52
My point is, this unity on the soccer field was humorous.
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It was actually hilarious - the scene.
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This unity in the church is not so funny.
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And today, we're going to be talking about unity.
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Remember, Jesus told us in Acts 1 that when He leaves, the Holy Spirit would come upon His believers.
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He said you will receive power.
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Why does the Holy Spirit live in us?
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Jesus made it very clear.
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You will be My witnesses.
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The Holy Spirit resides in us so that we might be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
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When we get to Acts 4, Peter and John got the first taste of persecution.
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The same religious leaders that turned Jesus over to be killed are now after Jesus' followers and they threaten them to stop preaching.
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Last week we saw Peter and John went to pray with their friends - the church - for boldness.
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And this boldness was just so evident in this young and exciting church that was so unified.
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That's what we're going to see in this passage today.
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At this stage in the life of the church, we see such a unity.
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But what I want you to see in this passage is the ingredients - the key ingredient of unity.
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Write this down in your outline.
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The power of unity is displayed That unselfish church.
05:20-05:24
We're talking about unity today, but specifically, how do we get there?
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How does a church really be knit together and enjoy a life of Christ-honoring service?
05:36-05:41
The word of the day is "unselfish." Unselfish.
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Look at v. 32.
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"The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
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And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own." But they had everything in common.
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You see the unselfishness in this passage.
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It says one heart and soul.
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No one said that any things that belonged to him was his own.
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We live in a culture that folds parking spaces with folding lawn chairs.
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Like this is mine.
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"I'm going to park here.
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This is my space." And the early church said, "Nothing that I have actually belongs to me at all." It says, "But they had everything in common." The power of unity is displayed in an unselfish church.
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This is what Jesus prayed for the church and what Jesus prayed for us.
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Specifically, John 17:21 - jot that reference down.
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It says, "This is Jesus praying in the garden for His church that is coming.
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Jesus prayed, "They may all be one just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me..." That's the witness.
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Verse 22, "that they may be one even as We are one." When Jesus was praying for His church, He prayed very specifically that we would be knit together, unified in God's love.
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And it's ironic that we have become our own problem.
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And when we become our own problem, it always boils down to one thing, and it's self-centered sin.
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When there are problems in the church, it is because someone isn't getting their own way.
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Because the very nature of sin Selfishness.
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The word "selfishness" is almost a synonym for sin.
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That's what sin always boils down to.
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You pick any sin.
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And at its very root is the statement, I want what I want, not what God wants.
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Sin is selfishness.
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Remember the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve.
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What was the first thing they noticed when they ate off of the tree that the Lord forbid?
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The first thing they noticed It's selves.
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Selfishness.
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Selfishness.
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Sin is selfishness.
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We see that so obvious in our children.
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Those of you that have children, I'm sure you can get up and testify, children will fight over a toy not because they want it, just because someone else has it.
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True or false?
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True or false?
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Shout it out.
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No!
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True!
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This happens in our home all the time.
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Our two boys will fight over the PlayStation.
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The thing sat there for three hours and nobody even noticed it.
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Then all of a sudden, they're both clawing each other's throats out trying to get the PlayStation, and 15 minutes later, they'll be on to fighting about something else.
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What's up with that?
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It's selfishness.
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Sin is selfishness.
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But you see, Aaron and I didn't sit our children down and teach them how to be selfish.
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That's inherent.
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That's part of the sin nature.
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Some people never grow out of it, really.
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We all have the tendency, but some never - even those who come to Christ - never really allow Christ to grow them in this area.
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Selfishness is a unity killer.
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If you're in a marriage and you're insisting on getting your own way, you're going to destroy your marriage.
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It's your workplace.
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If you always insist on everybody doing things your way, you might not have that job for long.
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But this attitude creeps into the church.
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What does this church have to offer me?
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Instead of coming to a church and saying, "What do I have that I can offer this church?" As we look at this text, I want us to be thinking in the back of our minds, what kind of a church do you want Harvest Bible Chapel to be?
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I imagine everyone in here would say I want this church to be Christlike and unselfish love.
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That's what I want for this church.
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Christlike and unselfish love.
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Well, that starts with you.
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We're going to look at the example in the days and the church was really living it.
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Because next week - spoiler alert - next week when we get to Acts 5, we're going to see the first problems in the church.
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And in this passage, Luke is really highlighting this is what it was like when the church was young and exciting and on task.
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So jot these three things down today.
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I am unselfish when...
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You want unity for this church?
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result from you being unselfish.
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I am unselfish when, number one, I keep my eyes on the mission.
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I am unselfish when I keep my eyes on the mission.
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Look at v. 33.
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It says, "And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all." and this early church was giving us a statement that said this is the thing that typified the early church, and it wasn't their potluck dinners.
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It wasn't the colors of the hymn books.
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The thing that typified this church was the mission that they were rallying around and behind.
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With great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
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They were so focused and driven by the mission that they didn't have the time, the energy, or the interest to think of themselves.
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Because when you do, when you start thinking about yourself instead of thinking about the mission, then we start thinking about our preferences.
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And when we start thinking about our preferences, something happens - in our culture and it starts to happen to us, but we come to the church with a consumer mentality.
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We start to think of the church like Walmart or Target.
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To say, okay, which church is going to give me what I want?
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And the problem is the church has bought into the consumer mentality, so churches in turn do what they can to try to make people happy.
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It's the supply and demand thing.
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People are like, where can I find a church is going to make me happy.
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And now people are sitting in churches - leaders in churches are going, we need to find what's going to make people happy.
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And if we offer them that, they're going to come to our church.
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So what do you want?
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Well, we want just a little worship.
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And we want really, really safe prayers.
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And we don't really want to get involved with people.
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In fact, that small group video that you showed is just about perfect.
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And we want short messages.
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And we would prefer that you never mention sin.
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And you really have to contextualize.
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You know, talk about things that are interesting to me.
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Not too much Bible now.
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If an unsaved person feels comfortable in church week after week after week, then there's a real problem with what that church is doing.
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Because the early church, very clearly, your Bible tells you Great power.
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The apostles were giving their testimony to what?
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The resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
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The early church was focusing on the very thing that the Sanhedrin had just forbid.
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And the end of verse 33 says, "and great grace was upon them all." They were seeing God at work.
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See, that's the result.
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I heard this expression a long time ago that always stuck with me, and said that God's work done in God's way gets God's results.
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And that's what this church was saying.
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God's work done in God's way gets God's results.
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That's why so often at Harvest Bible Chapel we remind you of our mission.
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Our mission is to make disciples.
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The fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.
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We remind you often of our pillars.
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Unapologetic preaching.
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Unashamed worship.
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Unceasing prayer.
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Unashamed boldness.
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Unafraid boldness.
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The reason we keep going back to that is to remind us why we're here and who we are.
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This is the kind of church - let's keep our eyes focused on the mission.
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That's going to keep us unselfish.
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When we come to church, and it's not about you and it's not about me, it's about what did Jesus tell us we should be about?
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I'm unselfish when I stay focused Secondly, I'm unselfish when I come to give.
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When I come to give, look at verses 34 and 35.
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How would you like to be a part of a church like this?
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It says, "There was not a needy person among them.
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For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
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and it was distributed to each as any had need.
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I come to give not.
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I expect to receive.
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You see, we talked about the consumer mentality that has crept into the church.
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The consumer mentality looks to get.
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Where can I get?
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That's not everyone.
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I love talking to people about their church, whether they come here or they worship somewhere else.
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I want to talk to people about where they worship, and you can tell a lot about what someone thinks about their church when they answer this question.
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I like to ask people, what do you like about your church?
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What do you like about your church?
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Now, we all receive.
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This isn't a guilt trip sermon.
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Because at times in the church, we all receive.
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Receiving should happen very naturally.
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It can't be your motivator.
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In the early church, the motivator was in the giving.
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Sacrificial, monetary giving.
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And did you see in the text, their idea of sharing, their idea of meeting needs was not, ok, well, I guess I can be generous with the church.
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Do I have any extra stuff in my closet?
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And your wife is like, "You know, you have that old nasty purple and gray Baja jacket that I hate.
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Why don't you donate that to the church?" So I bring this thing down to the church that my dog would be ashamed to sleep on, and I donate that, and then I feel really good about myself.
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Like, yeah, I'm really generous.
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And that's not really the definition of generosity.
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Look at how the early church gave.
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Again, it says, "As many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds." That's sacrificial giving.
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You understand, when you sell a piece of property and then take the money and give that money, there's no turning back from that.
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That's burning the bridges.
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You're saying I am so committed that I am giving in such a way There's no way I'm going to get that back.
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But their mentality was not what can I afford, but how can I give more?
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It's not enough for me to give just out of the income that I receive.
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Are there creative ways that I can give more beyond what I'm able?
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They said, well, I have stuff that I can sell.
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See, it's all God's.
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It's a blessing to be able to give back to God a portion of what He gives to us.
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It's a blessing.
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I need to insert this because there are some people that would criticize Christians that don't embrace a particular political ideology - socialism.
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Christians should totally understand socialism because it's in the Bible.
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You look at this passage here next - You know, here's why you should embrace socialism, Christians.
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The early church did it.
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Isn't it a shame that the Bible says that the early church were socialists and Christians are not wanting to vote in a socialist president?
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And this is not socialism.
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If the Bible were going to promote socialism, it would have to say something like this.
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So Rome forced the church to give to the government, and then Rome made sure that everybody's needs were taken care of as the government saw fit.
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That is not what happened at all.
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What we see in this passage was this giving was initiated and led by the church, not the government.
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When it comes to this type of giving, there's three words.
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We've talked all about this in the "I Love to Give" series, but I'm going to remind you, giving - New Testament giving should be three things.
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It should be sacrificial, it should be voluntary, and it should be joyful.
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It should be sacrificial, it should be voluntary, and it should be joyful.
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That is generous giving.
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You are under no compulsion to give at this church.
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I don't know what anybody gives outside of my family.
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And I don't want to know.
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And we have things set up I don't know.
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I don't care.
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Because that is an act of worship between you and the Lord.
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That's not between you and me.
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That's not between you and Harvest Bible Chapel.
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That's not between you and James MacDonald or whatever.
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That is an act of worship between you and the Lord just as you're singing is an act of worship between you and the Lord.
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So your giving is voluntary.
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And we saw in the "I Love to Give" series that God loves a cheerful giver.
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It should be joyful.
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You should be joyful.
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So at this point, the apostles distributed the offering that came in.
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We see another principle here when we come to give as part of our worship.
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You need to give and you need to let go because you're giving to God.
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Sometimes people give to the church with a caveat or with an earmark.
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I'm going to give, but I want this specifically - I want to give this to the church but it's specifically for this.
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I want to make sure that this money is not used for whatever.
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That's a foreign concept to the Bible.
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What we see in the New Testament was these church members trusted these leaders You're faithful with the offering.
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And when you give, let go.
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You're not giving to me, you're giving to God.
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I'm unselfish when?
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I'm unselfish when?
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First of all, when I keep my eyes on the mission.
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Secondly, when I come to give.
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And finally, I'm unselfish when I follow godly examples.
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I follow godly examples.
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verses 36 and 37.
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It says, "Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas," which means "son of encouragement," "a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." You know, this Joseph, who we know better as Barnabas, becomes a prominent character in the book of Acts.
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He becomes a missionary.
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He becomes Paul's companion.
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I was kind of laughing reading this passage because Luke, the doctor, wrote the book of Acts, and he's so into the details.
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And it's all important, but it's just sort of funny when you see the personality come out.
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Because Luke doesn't just mention Joseph Barnabas.
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He goes into the whole pedigree thing.
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He's a Levite and he was from Cyprus.
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What else? He lived on 113 Sycamore Lane, apartment B.
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He liked Captain Crunch's Crunch Berries for breakfast.
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Luke gives us all these details about this guy's background, but really doesn't tell us anything at all about the property.
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And it doesn't really matter.
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The point simply is he's holding this man up as an example.
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This is what the early church was doing.
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He says, by the way, you guys know Barnabas?
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He was leading the way.
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He was leading the way in this type of sacrifice.
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At Harvest Bible Chapel, we have some tremendous examples here of this unselfish attitude that leads to unity in the church.
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One in particular at the risk of embarrassing the family, I think of the orcs when they first came to the church into our first party with the pastor.
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At that point in the church, we didn't have a lot of youth in the church, and we were wanting to start a youth group.
24:37-24:58
And you see, consumer mentality would have had Mark and Kristen say to each other, well, we need to find a church that's going to be more what we want for the kids, but at the party with the pastor, they said our attitude is we can be a part - by sticking around, to be a part of making it happen.
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Today we have a tremendous youth program because of families like the Oertz and the Harers and other families - I don't want to start mentioning them, I'm going to forget - committed to, "I'm going to be part of this and I'm going to make this happen." That's an unselfish attitude.
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Committed to the mission, unified in Christ.
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You see in the passage, there's two things these godly examples do.
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These are the things these godly examples do.
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First of all, they encourage.
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Joseph was such an encourager that they changed his name to "son of encouragement." That's unselfish.
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Selfishness says put the spotlight on me.
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Congratulate me. Give me kudos.
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Tell me what a great job I'm doing.
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This is the unselfish attitude.
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This guy was always looking at how he could encourage somebody else.
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"Worship, that was fantastic this morning.
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Great job." Encouraging.
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Always looking to give.
25:57-26:01
Dan, you and Elisha do such a great job with the youth that we just mentioned.
26:01-26:04
And I'm just hearing so many good things.
26:04-26:04
Keep it up.
26:04-26:05
It's encouragement.
26:05-26:12
It's looking outside of yourself on how you can give somebody else a little push.
26:13-26:17
This guy was so known for that, that they're like, we're just going to change your name, dude.
26:17-26:19
We're not calling you Joe anymore.
26:19-26:20
We're going to call you Barnabas.
26:21-26:22
Because that's all you do is lift people up.
26:24-26:26
The Bible were still being written.
26:27-26:29
What would they change your name to?
26:31-26:36
Your role in the church and the way that you do ministry in the church, what would they change your name to?
26:38-26:39
A little food for thought.
26:40-26:44
But we're all struggling with something and a little encouragement goes a long way.
26:46-26:47
That's one thing Godly examples do.
26:47-26:49
They're constantly looking to encourage.
26:50-26:51
So unselfish.
26:53-27:01
And finally, right in the text, unselfish godly examples they encourage and secondly, they give.
27:02-27:04
As we mentioned before, they give.
27:04-27:07
This Barnabas, he wasn't just a leader.
27:07-27:15
"Do as I say, not as I do." He led by example - verse 37 - by selling a field that belonged to him.
27:18-27:23
If everyone followed your example in giving, What would the mission of this church be funded?
27:25-27:27
Again, I'm not cheering anybody out.
27:27-27:40
You guys have always been tremendously generous and faithful, whether it's Moldova or Romania or this family that we met at the Ronald McDonald House that you never even met that we're struggling.
27:41-27:43
You've always been so generous.
27:44-27:46
We're going to be calling on that again.
27:47-27:50
Like last week when we saw the early church prayed for boldness.
27:51-27:53
Today, we're going to stop and we're going to pray for boldness.
27:54-28:01
Today, we have a huge opportunity to make an impact for the Gospel in Asia.
28:02-28:05
And just as we see the example of this early church, let's follow that example.
28:06-28:14
At Harvest Bible Chapel, when we talk about missions, we talk about praying, giving, and going.
28:15-28:17
Every single one of us can pray.
28:19-28:21
Every one of us has something to give.
28:22-28:25
We're going to be calling on some of us to go.
28:26-28:37
Father in Heaven, as we close our time here today in Your Word, I thank You for the example of the early church.
28:39-28:49
Father, we know in every church, there's going to be problems, there's going to be conflict, there's going to be things that can be done better by Your grace and in Your power.
28:49-28:50
We work through those things.
28:51-28:55
But today, Father, we look at a time in Your church that we don't see criticism.
28:56-29:01
We don't see, "Oh, they could have done this better." Or, "This was lacking." We see a lot of that in Your Word.
29:02-29:07
All of the instructions to the Corinthian church and the churches in the Galatia region and Ephesus and all of that.
29:08-29:18
But how sweet to see a passage of Scripture that talks about a period of time in the life of Your church where things were really happening.
29:19-29:24
The Gospel was being proclaimed and needs were being met and people were being loved.
29:24-29:38
And it was just so easy for me to think about this church as I'm studying your Word because I see the same type of excitement, the same type of generosity, the same type of love.
29:38-29:45
Honestly, I see the same type of unselfishness in our church that we see in this early church.
29:45-29:50
And Father, I know, in Your Word, the next chapter, problems are going to come.
29:50-29:55
And Father, You know in our church, problems arise from time to time and we want to deal with them.
29:56-30:03
I thank You for this predominant, overarching attitude of unselfishness that we're not here for us.
30:04-30:06
We are here for Jesus Christ.
30:06-30:10
We present ourselves before You, Father, as Your servants.
30:11-30:12
We are here to advance the Kingdom.
30:13-30:20
We are here to proclaim the Gospel and we are here to love each other as the church, and we are here to love a lost and dying world.
30:21-30:29
Whether it's in the Pittsburgh community or Chiang Mai, Thailand, Father, You have called us to the ends of the earth with Your glorious mission.
30:30-30:33
Father, stir our hearts.
30:37-30:39
Remove selfishness from within us.
30:41-30:42
I glorify Your name.
30:43-30:45
I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 4:32-37
How does selfishness destroy unity? How does focusing on Jesus squelch selfishness? (Acts 4:32-33)
What are creative ways YOU can give to the mission, locally and abroad? Sell something, earn money on the side, etc? (Acts 4:34-35)
How can you set an example like Barnabas without (pridefully) drawing attention to yourself? (Acts 4:36-37)
Breakout Questions:
Pray for unity at HBCPN! Specifically that we:
Stay focused on the mission.
Cultivate an attitude of giving, not taking.
Set an example for other believers.