Do you own or rent your faith?

Sorry it is long, but it felt good to write. I think that it will feel even better to speak on Sunday. Thanks for taking the time to read it if you do.

Do You Own or Rent Your Faith

Intro:

When I sat down to pray and think about what I was to bring to you this morning, I asked myself, “how do I know if what I am bringing is what God wants me to speak about?” This to me is a valid question. My conclusion was, if I am walking through it, you will hear about it. In a sense I am preaching to myself.

Renting:

Dictionary Def.: A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to occupy a property or a similar payment for the USE of equipment or service.

- We have use of faith, but at some point we will realize that it is not our own. A good example of this is the person that thinks they are saved because they grew up in a Christian home. No choice was made, but I was around it enough for it to rub off on me.
- The question of “once saved always saved.” This is a touchy one. But if we believe that God gives us free will and a choice to accept Him into our lives, then, we have the same rights given to us going the other way. We choose to remove ourselves from His hand.

Owning:

Dictionary Def.: To have rightful possession of and to acknowledge responsibility for.

When we realize that we can take ownership of our faith, we will truly live free lives. When we acknowledge that it is our responsibility to walk in that freedom, not God’s, we will truly own our faith.


Text: Acts 2:42-47

Background:
- The disciples are waiting in the upper room of this house in Jerusalem. They are waiting there, because Jesus said that someone was coming who would give them power to preach and make disciples. The Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit shows up and the place is on fire. Figuratively and literally.
- Tongues of fire rest on all who were there and they began to speak in other tongues.
- The people think that they must be partying and drunk. I mean who has that much fun as a church.

Listen to what Peter, one of the disciples, says: “No, don’t mix things up. We are not drunk, but we have been the recipients of a gift that was promised us; the Holy Spirit.”
Peter goes on to preach his first sermon and 3000 people get saved.

One sermon = 3000 people get saved. God’s power was there.

What the early church, those 3000 +/-, in the next few verses will give us some markers or signs of what it meant to own our faith.

I want to go through 6 things that we can use to gage where we are at. Do we rent or own our faith.


Personal Devotion

Vs. 42

Last few weeks we have talked about “Biblical Stewardship”. Giving of ourselves for the purpose of building up of others and the Kingdom of God.

Investing

- The early church was wholly devoted to the life of the church. Not just the building, but the people.
- They saw that as they invested in prayer, teaching, and relationship that they were investing in themselves personally.
- It didn’t matter where, who, or what they were going, with, or doing; they were personally devoted to the cause.

Personally Devoted


Reverence

Vs. 43

I like to call it the awe factor. What is awe some?
I use the word awesome a lot.
- Your shirt…
- Your hat…
- You smell…
- Your car…
What is truly awesome? When I was a kid and was getting in trouble. My parents would say something like, “I am going to put the fear of God in you”. In other words, “I am going to remind you who is the boss”.

The fear of God or the Awe factor = the constant awareness of God’s Holy presence.

The Awe Factor


Going “All In”

Vs. 44

Who has played poker? Texas Holdem?
What does it mean to go “All In”? = You put all of your chips in.

When you go all in with poker you do so to intimidate the other players.

Satan will get pretty intimidated if we as individuals and as a church go all in. When we begin to look at things from the perspective of ownership:
- We are all in this together.
- Not one carrying it all, but many.
- No one saying, “This is my church, but I’m not really involved”. Rather “This is my church, where do I sign up”.
- Not mine or Len’s church, but God’s.
- Not my ministry, but our mission.

I’m All In


Generosity

Vs.45

3000 +/- people that called themselves the church.
3000 +/- that said, “Whatever you need we, the church, will take care of it”.

The federal budget just came out. We heard all sorts of responses to it from all sorts of people. “Where is my money?” “Why does Quebec get that and we don’t?” “We as a part of the opposition I will not support this.”

If we took on the mindset that the early church did, it would revolutionize the country over night. If we said, “You won! Congrats. The rest of us don’t like this term “opposition”. So we want to be called the assistants to the governing party. I know we won’t agree on everything, but that isn’t the point. That is not why we are here. The people need us and we will be your support. Let’s take care of the people, together”.
Having this mindset would turn the system inside out.

Generosity


Worshipping Together

Vs. 46a

Some versions use the term “one accord”. In music a chord is specific note put together to make a chord. They work together and it sounds good.

Have you been in a church service where someone in the band plays the wrong chord?

Piano player show us a good chord and a bad chord.

Good – We want to reach the lost
Bad – Me too, but I want to do it my way
Good – We are of the same mind and goal
Bad - Not just people in the same building
Good – I love coming together and worshipping at church on Sundays
Bad – It would be better if the music didn’t suck
Good – Kamloops is our mission field
Bad – But I can’t work with that other church

Our lives are the worship that we offer to God. Do we want God to hear…Bad or Good chords?

In One Accord


House to House Relationship

Vs. 46b

This one is the one I want the most.

There are three main parts to a house. These three parts are what people will see when they come over. Each one represents a deeper level of relationship we will have with another person.

Foyer
- Most formal
- Small talk or surface conversation
- Gives a filtered look into a persons life
- You don’t get to see the mess in the other rooms, but it is the starting point

Living room
- Less formal
- You visit here
- A little deeper conversation

Kitchen
- This is the least formal place
- Usually the room in the house that takes the most time to clean
- Messes can be put there and dealt with later
- Only good friends can help out in this room
- Intimate conversations
- Messes are cleaned up and meals are made here

The church in Acts saw the need to have their homes and lives open to all. Wee need people in our lives that will look past the mess and help us clean up. This is the hardest part. Allowing other people into our lives, to love us for who we are, and let them help us clean out our kitchen.

We need people in our lives and we need to be in other peoples lives.


Vs. 46c-47

When we choose to own our faith, when people around us see our devotion as individuals and as church for God and His mission for us, when we discover through our devotion that God’s Holy presence is in our day to day lives, when we choose to go all in and live lives of generosity, helping, loving, worshipping and when we allow others to help us better ourselves by experiencing and doing life together…

We will have great joy. Not a little bit of joy. Great joy! Not just enough joy. Great Joy! We will also find the favor of the people.

The early church knew what it meant to be others centered, choosing to help one another, and help them selves by allowing people to get into their lives. Those 3000 people knew that this was owning their faith. God has great things for this church, but we need to take ownership of our faith. Own your faith.