Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Key to Generosity | New Testament | Acts 4

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Do you have a generous community around you? How far will your generosity go? Acts 4 describes a community who was changed by the truth of the gospel. In today's episode, Jensen shares how to live as an example of Jesus's generosity. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Earlier this year, a group of three high school seniors from Texas realized that their new high school janitor had come out of retirement at the age of 80 because he could no longer afford his rent, which had gone up this past year by $400. Seeing his need, they started to go-fund me with the goal to raise $10,000 for their janitor so that he could continue. continue in his retirement. Within 12 hours, they had met their goal, most of the money being raised by the generosity of students in their school. By the time they stopped the donations to give the money to their janitor, they had raised over $270,000 with donations from people across the world. Now, that's the kind of heartwarming story of generosity we love to hear. It makes you feel

good, doesn't it? To know that there are people in this world looking out for each other, supporting each other, and giving generously to people around them in need? When given the chance, we would probably all want to pitch into an effort like this one. Giving here and there to good causes makes us feel good, doesn't it? We feel like we're making a difference, helping someone out. And we are. What these students did is awesome, and donating to causes like this is a great thing to do. But I always wonder if movements like these or our monthly donations or even our ties in some way make us feel like we did our part. Maybe I'm just projecting, but my husband and I talk about this often.

Sometimes I think we rely on our automatic tithing and giving to make us feel like we're doing enough. We allow these gifts to let us off the hook for other opportunities of generosity that might be a little more out of our comfort zone. And so, when I read the passage for today, I was really struck by the final verses of Acts 4. Luke is sharing about the community of believers within the early church. Verse 32. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all

that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement,

sold a field he owned, and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. Now, this picture of the early church is inspiring. These people are living generously within their communities. They know the needs of those around them, and they are quick to make sacrifices within their own lives to meet those very needs. Their actions were voluntary and flowed out of a deeper sense of community.

Verse 32 tells us, all the believers were one in heart and mind. they were united in their faith in Jesus. We learned that God's grace was at work in all of them. This was a community of believers that was changed by the truth of the gospel. They had been challenged by the example of King Jesus who gave up his life for the sake of others, who taught about humility and generosity,

and they had wasted no time in coming together to build his kingdom in their lives. The power of the gospel, is evident in this community. It changed everything, and the impact it had was incredible. It is challenging when I look at my own life. As someone who professes to believe what they believed, why am I not motivated in the ways that they were to serve and sacrifice for their community? One of my mentors has always reminded me that the furthest distance to travel is from the head to the heart. I know these things. I say I believe them, but it doesn't always make its way deep down into my heart.

When I know something, but maybe don't really believe it deep in my heart, that knowledge never makes an impact on my life. I can only guess that these people, witnesses to the works of Jesus surrounded by his disciples living in a community that was living out the gospel, were constantly challenged and reminded of the truth. of the gospel. They have the same selfish tendencies I do. They have the same temptations to build their own wealth, the same temptations to seek their own comfort. But they lived in a community of believers that encouraged, reminded, and lived out the truth of the gospel to the point that they shared all things in common. Do you have a community like that? A community that is rooted in the gospel. a community that is so involved in your life that they know when you have needs. A community that reaches out that sacrifices for one another, that spurs each other on and encourages

each other in the faith. When my husband and I were expecting our first child, he got COVID a week before baby was due. I was very pregnant and very unable to do anything, just trying to make sure I didn't go into labor so Sam would be able to come to the birth with me. And Sam would was very sick and having to quarantine away from me. It had the potential to be a really isolating and lonely time. But instead, we saw our community step up in surround us with love and comfort and food. We had friends bringing us groceries and meals and medicine. Friends stopping by to chat with me through a door. Friends stepping up to be in the delivery room with me if I went into labor too soon. And then, a few weeks later,

when luckily our son was born far enough away from COVID for Sam to be there. We had friends doing the exact same things again to support us through the newborn weeks. It was an incredible outpouring of love and generosity. And it reminded Sam and I of the gift that our community was. Each one of those people who stopped by and cared for us were also people who had poured spiritually into our lives. They were mentors and coworkers and friends who were friends who, loved Jesus deeply and saw our need as a moment to be the hands and feet of Jesus for us.

And that community has continued to surround us with their generosity and love. Not just supporting us financially through groceries or food or free babysitting, but checking in on how we're doing spiritually, encouraging us to parent our son with love, to lean into our church and our small groups, to deepen our love for Jesus in every area of our lives. Now that time in our lives has always been a time that has challenged me to want to be that for other people. When the community around us leans into our lives, it has always encouraged me to lean right back and give generously like they have and show love like they did because I know what a difference it makes in times of need. I know that not all of us may have a deep community like that right now. There have been plenty of times in my life where I haven't been where I am today in our community.

But we all have been shown the deepest generosity and love by our God and king. You see, God saw our need. He saw a broken world running away from goodness, in need of someone who could bring them back into his, his own goodness. And he chose, chose to become a man, chose to walk this earth, to care deeply for the people around him, to sacrifice his energy to heal his time to teach, to experience the brokenness, the temptation, the discomfort, the pain, and ultimately to experience the shattering effects of death for you and for me. The generosity of Christ that we see,

throughout the Gospels. Both in his life and death should be the driving force that pushes us to be that same generosity and love to the community around us. If you don't see that community around you right now, maybe you can be the one to take the first step, to show the generosity and love of Christ to the people around you, to invest in relationships so that you know where there is need. I don't want the extent of my generosity to be a few GoFundMe donations a year. I don't want escape by in my daily life because I feel like I covered generosity through my tithes. I want generosity to flow out of my life just like it flowed out of Jesus's. It takes time. It takes sacrifice. It takes laying down my wants and needs and comforts to uphold and value the once needs and comforts of

those around me. But if every one of us spurred on by the example of Christ like those in Acts 4 took the time to invest in our communities in this way, can you imagine the effect that would have on our churches, in our homes, in our larger communities? This week, let's all take time to reflect on the generosity of the people of God in Acts 4. Reflect on the life of Jesus. Remember the ways that he sacrificial gave of himself for the good of others. Connect the things you say you believe from your head to your heart and see how the truth of the gospel shapes the way you live out your faith every day. By the grace of God, may we become people who faithfully follow the example of Christ as we live generously from the outpouring of our faith and knowledge that we love

because he first loved us. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.