Everything You've Got...

Everything You’ve Got...

Intro -...the book of Acts covers the way the early church began to move in the world, but to get there, it starts by showing us how the individuals in the church moved in the world. And we need to start there too. Just like a football team, we are all no better than our weakest player. And more to the point, we must always strive as followers to evolve into a more strong and productive representative of the God who calls us to follow.

That same God is the example to us, today, as Fathers, and to all of us as followers. But our Father in Heaven has shown us men how to live. So whether you have children, adopted children, teach, coach, mentor, serve, love - if you are a man and you find yourself in this moment alive, you have a call to serve as a father for someone or something. To love like God, and to serve His creation. And most importantly, to imitate the Father that we see through scripture who lived out his life - was incarnate in flesh - for us to see the example and try to live it out.

We are going to talk about three ways we do that on this Trinity Sunday. And that starts with the idea of giving everything we’ve got.

Acts 3:1–10 NRSV

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Pray

Everything You’ve Got

What do you value? What matters the most to you? These are questions you have heard me ask over the past year, and they are questions that I pray you are asking yourselves! I say that because scripture calls out to us to constantly evaluate what we value.

I think that all of us - at least us men and for everyone at least at some point - but all of us can view faith as transactional.

Now what do I mean by that? Well what I mean is this: we tend to view our faith like buying a house. We search. Maybe we don’t like this or that about the houses we see (or the churches we visit), so we don’t buy it. But then, one day, we find the perfect house. So we buy it. And we are so excited when we buy it, right? We take pictures and post them on social media. We try to fix it up and make it feel like home.

But after a while, we slow down. It just becomes for us the place we go at the end of the day. We begin to value other things, maybe we even search for other houses every now and then, wondering if we would be better off moving. The initial blush of the transaction has worn off, and now the home offers more work than it does enjoyment. So we try to bring back that good feeling by moving again.

In the same way, we view faith as transactional from time to time. We find a place that feels good and we buy into it. For practical discussions, think about salvation. We are baptised, so now we get Heaven! We are Christians! And if we have viewed faith as transactional, then that is the end of the transaction! We got what we paid for!

But to follow that same metaphor, we are essentially buying a house and then never putting in the work needed to keep it up. To make it a home. We are just buying it, and then sleeping in it as it crumbles around us. And we eventually grow pretty tired of it.

But faith takes more than that. Our faith lives demands more from us. Just like a football team, you can’t just make the team and then stop trying! This picture in our text of the leaders of the early church should remind us that even though they just experienced the spiritual high point of all human existence, that doesn’t mean that they can just stop! Faith in Christ demands everything we have in this life!

[picofAthanastios] But why? Why can’t we just have faith, show up for church and be done with it? Well, in short, we can’t do that because to do that, would negate the overwhelming and every present fact that God continually works out His will in the world in order to bring the world to Him.

This man you see on the screen puts it this way: “He was consistent in working through one man to reveal Himself everywhere, as well as through the other parts of His creation, so that nothing was left void of His Divinity and knowledge...so that the whole universe was filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters fill the sea.”

It takes everything you’ve got, because everything you’ve got is intended to reveal Christ to this world!

Your money. Your jobs. Your relationships. Your opinions. Your social standards. Your politics. Your time. It all is intended to reveal to the world your heart - your Christ!

[look at me!] And that is where I hear Peter yelling these words to us! Look at me! Stop asking for money, or a blessing, or the solution to some worldly problem! Stop begging for bandaids for your life or faith!

It is like those moments when as parents, or as Dads, we have to roar a little bit. We have to make everyone understand what is really important - if only to get everyone back on track! That is Peter in this moment! Look at me! I don’t have what you think I have! I can’t offer you a bunch of money, or that other stuff that you value, frankly because I don’t value that!

And church, money isn’t really the point here. God calls us to give back, don’t mishear that, but there is so much more that He calls us to beyond that! He demands everything we are! He needs us to dig deep and offer more than just silver and gold!

To do that, we have to practice. We have to put in the work.

[picoftrainingcamp] You don’t get there on talent. Or on election. Or through some supernatural process that comes after being baptised. You get there by effort.

Now understand, I am not talking about salvation - or even eternity - that is what grace is for. But if you want to live out your life the way God wants you to, then you must invest in your faith.

Men, that means reading something. And not the same somethings you always read because you agree with it. That means challenging your faith in order to let God speak to you.

That means being kind to those who wrong you. To practice grace. To practice mercy. To practice love. And not just go through the motions!

1 Corinthians 9:26–27 ESV

So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

[1 cor 9:26-27] No! We don’t just act like we have faith! We beat our souls into submission! Or as Paul says, [read]. We train hard spiritually so that we can somehow not be disqualified from the prize of seeing Christ in everything and then being Christlike for everyone we see!

And that takes everything.

All our effort. All our soul. All our strength. All our hearts and all our mind. You know, just like Jesus commands us.

Silver and Gold we do not have, BUT WHAT I DO HAVE I GIVE TO YOU! And you might not have money. You might not have food. You might not have the knowledge needed to get someone help in that moment. But understand that there is something that you do have, and it is the most undervalued commodity in our modern world!

[pic of clock] You have time.

But Pastor, you might think, who has time? Who has time? Well, to that I say this: If we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?

Faith takes our time. God needs our time. He needs our moments. He needs our presence in the lives of those around us who need to know His love. He needs everything we’ve got in this life! And not just for a minute, church. He needs everything we’ve got…

For as long as it takes.

Peter and John could have left after they spoke to this man. When they gave everything they had - all the love and power that Christ gave them - that man was healed. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” Peter says! He is healed. Its over.

It is just like when someone asks us for help, or for money, or for food. They ask. We give. We walk away. After all, God’s got it, so we can just pray and throw money at it and leave!

No. Christ is calling for us to invest. Invest in our faith, giving all we have to it and valuing it, and invest in the world around us for as long as it takes.

Acts 3:7 ESV

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

[verse 7] This verse is perhaps one of the most looked over in all of scripture. You see, it is in this moment, there is so much more going on than Peter helping this man to stand. Scripture consistently affirms the importance of the right hand. And honestly, cultural tendencies of that time did so as well! But the right hand is the place of honor! It is where Christ is seated, after all, at the right hand of the Father! To this day we still call those people who we trust and esteem the most our “right hand man.”

And here, in this moment in the text, Peter reaches out his right hand to a physically, and spiritually unclean person - if only to show him that he is no different than they. To show him that we are all the same.

He was investing in him in this moment. He could have blessed him and left, but he needed to stay as long as it took for this man to realize that he mattered! That he had value! That God loved him, created him, and could sustain him no matter what he faced!

Acts 3:8–9 NRSV

Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God,

[verse 8-9] We give everything we’ve got, for as long as it takes. Because when we do that, we enable the world around us to worship WITH us.

[verse 8-9] We give everything we’ve got, for as long as it takes. Because when we do that, we enable the world around us to worship with us.

Notice here in the text that Peter and John were just going to worship. They had a place in the world, and a God to worship. Then their lives run across this man, who CANNOT worship, both because of the social situation - meaning that he wasn’t welcome because of who he was or what he was doing - and his personal situation. After all, it is pretty hard to worship God when you are broken physically and emotionally.

Not to mention the fact that he had seen the worst part of the world. People who didn’t value him and thought that God couldn’t love him because he was different from them.

So they run across this man, and instead of giving some money - which is all he really wanted - they gave themselves. Everything they were. And they didn’t just give it and walk away - they made him aware that he had value and was loved - for as long as it takes. And BECAUSE of that they didn’t walk away strangers, or go their separate ways! CHURCH, THEY THEN WENT INTO THAT TEMPLE AND WORSHIPPED GOD TOGETHER! NO DIFFERENCE! NO PRETENSE! THEY MET AS STRANGERS IN DIFFERENT PLACES IN LIFE - LIKELY AGREEING ON VERY LITTLE - AND BECAUSE OF THESE MEN BEING WILLING TO GIVE EVERYTHING THEY HAD FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES, THEY WERE ABLE TO WORSHIP THEIR GOD TOGETHER!

Colossians 1:16 ESV

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

[] And all the people watching were amazed. Church, men especially, I need you to hear this truth today. Christ isn’t the last name of Jesus. It is, as we spoke about last week, this thing that runs in and through all things!

Enemies or friends. Left, right, straight, gay, white, black, blue collar, white collar, no collar - we all bear the divine image and in us God is weaving His Spirit - the Spirit of Christ - for the benifit of all people.

And that demands something of us. It demands everything from us! Everything we’ve got, for as long as it takes,

[Find a way…] So find a way. Make it happen. Stop looking at the world hoping it will happen, and kick down the door to make it happen.

How do you do it? Look for Christ. Stop looking for sin. Stop looking for difference. Stop looking for comfort. Stop looking for WHATEVER would bring you enjoyment or would satisfy your love of self, and just look for Christ in all things. Perhaps as important - Invest in that Christ! Put faith to practice. Give your faith the time and room needed to grow. Look for Him in every moment.

He’s there. He is in every rock. Every tree. Every sunrise. Every face you pass on the street. Everything that is or will ever be. Look for it. Find a way. Put aside self, and look at the world through the eyes of Christ. Because when you do that, you will see that we are all the same. And being the same, you will find the truth that will set you and this world free.

Everything you’ve got. For as long as it takes. Find a way. Find a way to show this world how loved they are by you and by their God.

Invitation