Ownership of Our Faith

Intro

Thanks everyone for coming! We are really glad to have everyone here. It’s been really good to get to know some new faces and talk with familiar ones.

So, Katie and I both are really excited for what God is doing here at NPA and even in this group. But we also know that He is going to do even more in this coming year .

We’re hoping to spend a little time finding out what you would like this group to look like this year, and after that I hear Andrew brought Spike Ball again - so I suspect that’ll get set up. :) But before we do, we wanted to take 5-10 minutes for a short devotional.

Haha, Katie opted out of doing the devo for today… so I’mma gonna do my best.

Ownership vs. Buy-in

I want to start with reading Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So, I want to illustrate the difference between buy-in, and ownership today. I find that often I open my computer to check my email, and find that 99.9% of it is spam email. Crap I’ve signed up for over the years so I could access a website or get free pizza or something. I don’t care about any of it, but honestly I’m way to lazy to unsubscribe from it haha. But there’s one email that shows up in my inbox usually every other day that I have a vested interest in. I will actually take the time to read this one: Car and Driver. Oh I just love that magazine! I will actually take the time to sit down, and take in the information. I will think about it, and mull it over a bit. I will decide how much I agree w/ and don’t. I actually have a vested interest in it… I didn’t just buy-in to that one for the heck of it (or free pizza).

In the same way that most of us just "buy-in” to junk promotions and random newsletters and stuff that we never really look at over time, anyone can “by-in” to a good idea if it’s presented well. Buy in looks like “yeah sure, I’ll participate.”(Like me, “yeah sure, maybe I’ll some free food or something out of it). It doesn’t require a heavy commitment or participation. Ownership on the other hand requires sacrifice and commitment.

Ownership carefully selects, and then actively pursues.

The person who buys in sits back and says “where are you taking us?” The person who owns leans forward and says “Where are we going and how?”

In the passage we read from Acts, the believers truly owned their faith. They didn’t sit back, say “great idea Lord, this living as Christ thing is awesome. Can’t wait to see how it goes.” Instead they had an attitude of “how do I get involved? What’s for me to do?” They owned their faith, because it became how they lived. They actively sought to understand and draw closer to their Saviour, and to participate in His Kingdom.

If you think about your own life, are you owning your faith, or have you just “bought in?” Are you actively seeking God and cultivating that relationship. Are you connecting to the people of God, serving and sacrificing? Or, are you sitting, leaned back, saying, “ok God, sure, I’ll add faith in there and think about it when I have time.”

Katie and I have been praying through how this group can grow together. Lord willing, we will experience amazing things this year. But it has to start in the hearts of each of us. We need to be active followers of Christ, who take our walk seriously. If you take nothing else away today, even if you are not interested in joining us again, it is still important to determine if your faith is living and active, something that you cultivate and take ownership of, or if you have just bought in and have failed to actively engage with Christ. Like the believers in Acts, we need to be engaged and ready for what God will do.