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How to Experience a Spirit-Filled Community
October 20, 2025 · 53 min
Drawing from Acts 4-5, Pastor Jeff shares how being selfless in our generosity, surrendered in our giving, honest about our struggles, and reverent in our worship creates authentic community.
Series Unstoppable October 20, 2025 · 53 min · Unstoppable
Drawing from Acts 4-5, Pastor Jeff shares how being selfless in our generosity, surrendered in our giving, honest about our struggles, and reverent in our worship creates authentic community. ...more Show the full description Show less Drawing from Acts 4-5, Pastor Jeff shares how being selfless in our generosity, surrendered in our giving, honest about our struggles, and reverent in our worship creates authentic community.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
139K followers
In this video 0:00 Generosity and Unity in the Church14:30 Generosity and Surrender28:47 Honesty and the Consequences of Sin40:20 Holiness and Reverence for God
Generosity and Unity in the Church 0:00 Good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our Brave Church family that's worshiping with us today? So great to have all of you. For those of you that call Brave Church your home, you know that we, started a 30:11 year capital campaign a month ago. We've been taking pledges and donations that have been coming in. They're still coming in, and we thank you for your generosity. We kinda want to let you know, where we're at in that0:23 process of trying to raise 35000000 dollars over the course of the next 3 years. And I just wanna let you know, we've been a generous church from the beginning, so what you're gonna see is not surprising to me. But God0:34 is so good here, and I wanna make sure he gets all the praise for all of your generosity when we unveil the numbers. So guys, if you just go ahead and put up the slide as to what we've been either received or pledged to0:46 date, just over 20000000 dollars Let me just say, that's gonna go a long way to advancing Christ's kingdom for all the different things that we've talked about. We're super excited.0:58 Plus, we know the church will continue to grow. More people will continue to give. God's gonna be able to provide everything we need for everything he wants us to accomplish as a church. But let me just say to you as1:06 your pastor, thank you, thank you, thank you for your personal generosity. As a matter of fact, when they when they gave me the number this morning, I looked in the slide, I'm like, there's no like change. When we talked
1:16 about the widow's mite, there was no change. I said, actually there was. There was, you know, it was like something and change, like 78 cents in donations and then pledge were something and 22 cents, so it rounded off to
1:27 zeros. I'm like, so that's an exact number. They said, yes. So you're seeing the exact number that we've either had pledged or has been given, so super excited about that. And with that, let's continue our worship this
1:36 morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Will you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise, because you and
1:46 you alone are worthy of it all. Lord, we thank you for being able to gather with our family here today. Our brothers and sisters in Christ to worship your name. To sing praise to you. To pray and seek your face for
1:58 what you want to accomplish during our time together. And Lord, we're encouraged and excited to hear your living and active word because we as a people believe every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed
2:09 that you are speaking. And so our prayer this morning collectively is, speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who
2:20 will believe what he tells you, and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, would you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Amen. Everybody is
2:32 looking for harmony in relationships. Everybody wants relationships where there's harmony, where there's peace, where everyone's getting along. We can be talking about a team. We can be talking about the family. We can
2:44 be talking about marriages. We can be talking about friendships. We can be talking about your neighbors. And there's this expectation when we're in a relationship that it's gonna go well. And especially for those of us
2:54 who are born again, who have the spirit of God and dwelled inside of us, indwelling inside of us, we have this understanding that, hey, this should work. And when it doesn't, it challenges us, and we wonder what's wrong.
3:06 Why why is my marriage struggling? Why am I struggling with my kids? Why am I struggling with my neighbors? Why am I struggling in school? Why am I struggling with on the team? Why am I struggling in my church? And yet,
3:15 that's what God wants to talk to us about. God is the 1 who created relationships. God's the 1 who wants to put us in relationships. God's the 1 who's put us into community together. And it's important for us to
3:25 understand what God is trying to accomplish when things don't go our way. It's important for us to understand what do I need to do when things don't work out. Because there's this tendency in us as human
3:37 beings, when relationships aren't harmonious, to blame the other person or people that are in that community as to why it's not going well. Right? If you're in a marriage and it's not going well, it's your spouse's
3:48 fault. If she would just fix these 3 things, or he would just change these 2 things, everything would just be fine. Or with your kids, if they would just act this way, if they would just talk this way, we'd be fine. If
3:59 my parents would just change it, we think it's everybody else's problem. And I wanna let you know, even if it is somebody else's problem, God wants you to be the 1 to change. There are people, even when it comes to the
4:11 church, that leave church not once or twice or 3 times, but leave church after church after church after church after church because they're trying to find that church that just has great unity and
4:22 community where everybody gets along. To which I will tell you this, that church doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. The reason it doesn't exist is because God is trying
4:34 to change you. And God wants you to be the catalyst to bring change in the relationships that you're in, in order to experience the harmony and peace that God would want. And so today, I wanna
4:46 talk about how it is that we can experience a spirit filled community. If we're raising up a spirit filled army to fight for the fulfillment of the great commission in our lifetime, how do we develop a spirit filled
4:57 community? What does it look like in a church where people are living filled with the spirit, doing the things that God wants, and relationships are going according to his plan. And to do that this morning, we're
5:09 gonna start off in Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 starting in verse 32, and we're gonna go through Acts chapter 5 and verse 11, and we're gonna talk about how to experience a spirit filled
5:21 community. And in doing that, I'm gonna highlight 4 different points for you as to what you can do to contribute to being part of the spirit filled community that God's in. Now just so you know, this is not a message
5:33 that you wanna forward to your friends and say, you should have been there, bro. This was totally for you. This is 1 that we're gonna listen to and while it may be for your bro, it's definitely for you. You need to hear
5:44 this in your own heart, because no matter where you go geographically, no matter what relationships you're that you're in, this is what the word of God teaches us that we need to become. And as we pick up in acts chapter
5:55 4 verse 32, you'll you'll remember in the chapter before, they had just seen this man that had been paralyzed for more than 40 years being healed. They're celebrating the fact that even though they've been arrested,
6:06 they've been released because they say, we're not gonna stop talking about Jesus, and there's great things going on. They had prayed, the whole place was shaken by the Holy Spirit, and they all began to be filled with
6:16 the Holy Spirit, and they were speaking with boldness. So what you've seen in this community from the beginning is this group of people was praying and waiting on the Lord. The Holy Spirit indwelled them. They were
6:27 speaking the word with boldness, and God was doing amazing things. And even when people tried to stop that, they continued to pray, wait on the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, speak the word with boldness, and God was
6:37 continuing to move. And so what you're seeing in this early church is God's presence among them, and they wanted to see it to continue. And this is where we pick up in Acts chapter 4 in
6:49 verse 32. He says, and the congregation of those who believed were of 1 heart and soul, and not 1 of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own,
7:01 but all things were common property to them. And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them
7:13 all. Let me give you the first point. As the spirit of God creates unity within the community, be selfless. As the spirit of God creates unity in the community,
7:25 be selfless. Notice what he says, in the congregation of those who believe they were of 1 heart and soul. We see that throughout the New Testament. They they're they're unified. It doesn't mean they think
7:37 all the same things. It doesn't mean they believe all the same things politically or about education. It means they were unified in their thoughts about who God was and why they were being brought together. Here's what
7:49 happens. When you're born again by the spirit of God, through Jesus Christ, you have access to the father. Which means all of us who have been born again share relationship with the same father, which makes all of us
7:59 brothers and sisters in Christ. It means when you're born again, you're baptized into the family of God. All the relationships around you today of those who have been born again are part of
8:11 your family. And so what happened was is when the spirit of God changes a man, woman, boy, or girl, you recognize other believers as they're my family. And you begin to think of them as your
8:23 family. You don't begin to think of them as church attenders, or they go here, or they live they're my family. And you begin to treat them as you would your own family, because you recognize that you serve the father,
8:35 and the father sees you as kids, and you're gonna treat his kids with the same kind of compassion and grace that he would. So notice what they do. It says, they were of 1 heart and soul, and not 1 of them claimed that
8:46 anything belonging to himself was his own, but all things were common property to them. Now let me explain what this means. It means they recognize at the time that they were born again,
8:58 that everything that they had, everything in their possession monetarily, everything that they owned, all the gifts, treasures, talents, relationships, they all belong to the father. They
9:10 all belong to God. There's nothing that they individually possess. They started to recognize themselves as stewards of everything that God had given them, which guess what? Is the same as it
9:22 is today. If you've been born again by the Spirit of God, everything you own, every gift that you have, every talent that you have, every ability that you have, it is not yours. It is
9:34 a gift that's been given to you to steward to others to bless the body of Christ. That's true of everybody. Right? And this is what the early church was doing. They recognized, hey, everything I have
9:46 and everything that I thought was mine, it's not mine. It's God's. God's the 1 who's given it to me. So I'm asking God now, how can I use what I have to meet needs of my family members? How can I use
9:58 what I have to encourage my family? How can I take the gifts that I have to build family members up? Because that's how I see the world now. I see it differently than before. Before I was saved, I saw the world as mine.
10:10 I saw possessions as mine. I saw gifts as mine. I was out for me. But now that I've been born again, I recognize the teaching of Jesus is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to
10:21 love your neighbor as yourself. So my focus goes vertical first, and then it goes horizontal to my family. That's why we read all all throughout the New Testament. You see it you see it everywhere. In
10:33 Ephesians chapter 4 verses 3 and 4, be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What's he saying? Now that you're members of the same family, do everything in
10:45 your power to keep harmony and unity and peace in those relationships as far as it's up to you. Or how about this great chapter in Philippians chapter 2, where it talks about the humility of Christ. Just think of these 2
10:56 verses. These should be a placard on every American's front door, house, bathroom, living room. Think about this. Philippians chapter 2 3 and 4. Do nothing from selfishness
11:09 or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard 1 another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests
11:21 of others. How about that? As a believer, do nothing out of selfishness. Not 1 thing. Not in your marriage, Not in your friendships. Not in your
11:32 work. Not in your church. Do nothing from selfishness. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. But with humility of mind, consider others more important than yourself. Think
11:44 about that. If in every relationship that you're in, you preference other people and you thought they were more important than you, how would your life change? When you're standing in a line at the store, everybody in
11:56 front and in back of you, and even the cashier, they're more important than you. You're in traffic on I 25. Every other car is more important than you. Right? In your marriage, your spouse is
12:08 more important than you. I'm gonna preference them. In your school, your teacher, your other fellow students, they're more important than you. And I'm not doing anything selfishly, but I'm gonna preference them. How
12:19 would the world change if every single born again believer just lived that? And said, because Jesus is in me, this is my heart, I'm gonna honor God by preferencing
12:31 others. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I mean, if you wanna see who would act like that, study Jesus.
12:47 Create unity in the body, which is his desire, and our enemy, the devil, is trying to create discord and dysfunction and all those things. When he's talking about how to build unity, who's he talking to? He's talking
12:59 to me and you individually to say this. Be selfless. Not selfish. In case I wasn't enunciating correctly. Self less. It's not about
13:12 you. Or how about in Colossians chapter 3? Colossians chapter 3 and verse 12 and following. He says, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,
13:23 put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And then he says this, bearing with 1 another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord
13:35 forgave you, so also should you. How about this? So I'm in a relationship. I'm I'm in a cadre. It's just not going so well. Okay. Well then, put on compassion and
13:47 humility, and do everything in your power to show love to the other people. And preference them, and put them first. And when they don't listen to you, bear the burdens that they're going through. And
13:59 when they hurt you, forgive them. Because that's exactly what Jesus did. What would happen to community if you saw that? See, in the early church, very early on, this is what people were seeing. They were hearing
14:11 the proclamation of the resurrected Christ, but then they were seeing the results of all these people who claimed to be born again, who were radically loving 1 another, compassionate towards 1 another, humble with 1
14:22 another, forgiving 1 another, and they had never seen anything like it. And there's nowhere else you can see it other than in the church. The challenge becomes, when you do get hurt, you've never
Generosity and Surrender
14:34 been hurt by the church. Just let me clear that up. By the church. And what tends to happen is when we get hurt by people, we don't show
14:46 compassion. We don't preference them. We don't go speak honestly with them and show them what their fault was. We don't forgive them. We don't wanna reconcile with them. What do we wanna do? I wanna find a new church.
14:57 And if it's bad there and the next 1, I'm done with church. I'll just love Jesus. I just hate the church. God never put that spirit in your heart. That is the spirit of the enemy. Every single believer needs
15:09 to be part of a life giving church. And no matter who your community is, they'll be challenged to it. Case in point, take the couple that just got engaged, that when you come
15:20 alongside of them and tell them you wanna help them, they they kindly tell you, we really don't need your help. Like, we love in a way that nobody's ever loved in the history of the world. Like, you and your wife may
15:30 have not known what love is, but we know, Which is fine until they get married, and then they realize there's some things that maybe need to get worked out. There's things that where you need to preference the other.
15:42 There's ways that you need to communicate and do that. Or pick a cadre where you pick all your best friends you've been friends with for 10 or 12 years, and you get in a group. God brings things into that group that are
15:51 challenging so that it's not just easy street because he wants to grow. And so when you have difficulty in relationships and harmony is not working, look inward not outward. Don't try to fix somebody else. It'll save
16:03 you a lot of time. You can't fix anybody. You can't change anybody. The only person you have the ability to change is yourself, and that's only with God's help if you're willing. Right? So start with you. Be
16:15 selfless. It's everything opposite of what the world tells you. Preference others. Put them ahead of you. Send them on. Let them do it. Let them go. Help them become what they need. Don't worry about you. Amen?
16:27 And we see this all over. I mean, I just wanna tell you, I pastor a church where so many of you are already this way. I mean, I've been on the receiving end and I've seen it happen. Recently, I was, going to visit
16:39 pastor AJ, our campus pastor up in Westminster when he got diagnosed with a throat issue, which you can still pray for him. He's still in the middle of it, but he's doing much better. And when I got to the hospital, his
16:49 family was there. People from the church were there. Everybody I mean, the hospital waiting room was like a prayer room by the time I got there. It was so cool. Hospital and have people coming there and praying for me.
17:01 I've seen it. And sometimes it's just being present with people. Other times it's serving. It's getting outside of your comfort zone and doing something that you feel uncomfortable doing, but you feel prompted to do it.
17:13 When we started our church, I was so compelled by prayer and thought prayer is the most essential thing that we can do as a church. If we can be a praying church, God will take care of everything else. But prayer has to
17:22 be foundational. So we started doing prayer meetings all the time. At least once a month, we would do a prayer meeting. But when we did our prayer meetings, I mean, if we had 15 to 25 people show up, we thought that was
17:32 a good night. And then people wanted to sing, but we didn't have anybody that played an instrument or sang. So guess who played an instrument and sang? I did. Aren't you glad we're not there anymore? But why did I do it?
17:43 Not because I'm so talented and gifted and I love No. Because I wanted God's people to get excited about prayer. Sometimes it's you serving in a way that's uncomfortable for you for a season until God brings somebody
17:55 else in, but you wanna do what God wants you to do because of a greater good he wants you to have. But sometimes, can I just tell you being selfless involves the humility of just being able to receive it?
18:07 Sometimes it's easier for us to serve other people than it is to receive from other people that wanna serve us. When I was a youth pastor, we used to do this camp up in Northern Minnesota and the camp would end every
18:18 single every single week with this talent show where all the kids would do all these things. And some of them are crazy, and some of them with Bible memory. And it was just a it was a variety show. And I was kind of the
18:30 emcee of it, and I would see the list of what it was, but I wouldn't know what everything was. And sure enough, I'm reading down the list, and we're going through it, and everyone's having a good time. And the last 1 was
18:37 called Toe Jam. And I remember, okay, high school admitted. I know what this is gonna be. It's gonna be crazy. And 1 of the other leaders came up, and 3 of the other leaders came up and said, here's what we're gonna do,
18:47 Jeff. Here's what we wanted to let you know. We've been so blessed by your teaching all week, because you've taught us the word. You've taught all day long. You've taught every day. We as a camp wanna wash your feet. And
18:58 I remember thinking, you ain't gonna touch my feet. And they proceeded to have me sit in a chair, and they took off my shoes, and they took off my socks, and they had a bucket of water. And every kid in that camp, and
19:09 every leader came and knelt down, and washed my feet, and told me how thankful they were for me being able to teach them the Bible. And I wept. Sometimes being on the receiving end of somebody serving is more difficult
19:20 than serving somebody else. Amen? And some of us are in a season where people have tried to serve you or tried to help you or tried to do and you've kind of pushed them away, And it's really not them you're pushing away,
19:30 it's your pride that's getting in the way of saying, okay. I'll receive what you have for me. And as the spirit of God creates unity in the community, be selfless. Be able to receive. Be able to serve. Be able to
19:42 give however the Lord would help you. The second way you can do this is as the spirit of God produces generosity in the community, be surrendered. As the spirit of God produces
19:54 generosity in the community, then be surrendered. Notice how this story continues. It says, for there was not a needy person among them for all who were owners of land or houses would sell
20:06 them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles feet, and they would be distributed to each as he had any need. Now let me be clear on this. The reason this
20:18 worked and still works is when it's the individual's choice to do it. This is not socialism. Socialism is totalitarian rule saying you must sell this, you must
20:29 give this, you must do that. That is not what's going on here. What's going on here is the spirit of God is working so well in this community that there are individuals in the community that say, this is my family and
20:40 there's some needs in my family, and I have a way to meet that need. So I'm gonna sell some of my property, I'm gonna give it to the leadership of the church, and I'm gonna let the church distribute it to the needs that
20:50 people have. Financial need, that should be temporary. The only reason it's a long term need is because you have
21:02 some spiritual things out of whack in your life. Financial need, then let's meet that need. But maybe, within the next month, you should get a job.
21:15 Maybe you should spend less than what you make. Maybe you shouldn't take a 10000 dollars vacation if you only make 5000 dollars a month. I mean, there's choices that you can make. And so to give out to people in need
21:26 didn't mean that the church was just doling out programs to everybody. It meant that they were meeting with people. And as they had need as a family, they were making sure the needs were met. But it was all voluntary. It
21:37 was all willing. Nobody was forcing it. Nobody was making it happen. Nobody should ever make it happen today. All giving in the New Testament is grace giving. It's as you're compelled. Because why? Because God loves
21:50 a cheerful giver, the Bible tells us. So this is what they were doing. They were seeing family members in need and they were saying, I'm gonna I'm gonna help do this. And here's what you can learn. There's so many things
22:00 to learn. I mean, Acts 20 verse 35 said, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. If you've ever been on the receiving end or the giving end, it's way better to be on the giving end.
22:11 It feels way better to be able to serve somebody to give. It takes a lot more humility sometimes than to receive. But when you understand how God is and how generous he is, you know, again the Proverbs, Proverbs
22:23 11 25, the generous man will prosper. When Jesus teaches in Luke 6 38, give and it will be given to you. You realize you cannot out give God. And I taught this over the last month. The problem with the prosperity gospel
22:35 and word of faith people is what they're teaching is you need to give to me and if you do, you'll get more and you'll be rich. That's such junk. It's it's garbage. What the New Testament teaches
22:47 is be generous to God and his people, and you'll never run out of what you need to accomplish what God has for your life. And if he does give you more, then you have more opportunity to serve and bless more
22:59 people. That's the point of it. Not so that you can have more stuff. More stuff won't make you happy. Right? Being able to serve in God's kingdom will. But if you understand the
23:11 generous principle that God will meet all of your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ, You can be generous to God and with God's people knowing he's got me. He'll take care of me. He's always taking care of
23:21 me, and I trust him to take care of me. So whatever he prompts me to do individually, I'm gonna do that cheerfully. I'm gonna do that sacrificially. I'm gonna do that because I know that my God will meet all of my needs.
23:33 And this is what you see. So when the spirit of God is moving in a spirit of generosity, you just stay surrendered. Surrendered means this, God, my life and everything I have is yours. How can I
23:45 possibly best serve you? You've given me certain gifts. You've given me certain talents. You've given me certain resources. You've given me a certain amount of influence. What I would like to do, Lord, is to know how to
23:56 steward those things best for you. What would that look like for me? Lord, search me and try me. Are there any changes that I need to make? Is there anywhere that I'm not aware of selfishness in my life that's keeping me
24:07 from giving you my best? Because, Lord, I just wanna know that when I stand before you, that I've done everything I can to give you glory. And when you live this way, you're not you're not gripping onto
24:19 your resources, you're gripping onto your redeemer. You're you're holding on to Christ, and you're telling him, hey, you get whatever I want. Because the spirit of God, you know what he loosens? The spirit of God loosens
24:29 up your greed. I mean, we live in a culture that thinks it's all about us. I mean, I don't know how many times I've met somebody young who will say, I know God's calling me in the ministry. I know God's calling me to do
24:38 this, or I know he gets calling me to do that. But I'm gonna go do this, this, this, this, and this first. And once I do that, then I'll have enough money so I can go do this. Wherever God's calling you, just go do what
24:47 he's asking you to do in the moment and be obedient, and God will then unfold your next step. That's what he does. And so this is what we see. We see in this community as people are generous, the people in the community
24:58 are saying, okay, I'm in. I'm surrendered. Lord, what does it look like for me? See, generosity is really what humility in action. It's it's open hands that meet the needs.
25:10 And notice notice how this happens. We're gonna hear about a a man next that you know. It says in verse 36, now Joseph, a Levite from Cyprian birth, who was also called
25:22 Barnabas by the apostles. That's how we know him. We know Barnabas. Barnabas, which translated means son of encouragement. The brother was so encouraging, he had the nickname encouragement.
25:34 Barnabas. Barnabas. Every time you saw him, you were encouraged. You ever have anybody in your life like that? You just like being around him because when you're around him, you feel better about yourself. That's
25:42 Barnabas, who owned attractive land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostle's feet. So he's giving an example of a man that was doing this. And this is the reality in the church. There's no
25:54 have to in the church. There's no my pastor made me. That's legalism. There's a compelling of the spirit that says, this is what I have for you. Will you walk in that? And when we walk according to the spirit,
26:05 and we do it willingly and cheerfully the way that God wants, that's when we experience joy. Because we're surrendered. Because we recognize my life's not mine. I mean, I'm the only reason I'm still breathing is Jesus
26:17 gives me oxygen. The only reason I'm breathe I'm still alive is Jesus beats my heart. Only reason I can see is because I blink my eyes once every 6 seconds to get the moisture where it needs to go. Only reason I can see
26:26 is because of my retina that Jesus gave me. Everything I have is his. So I'm surrendered. So what would you have me do? Amen? And we see it in Barnabas. We see it in the ripple effect, but you see it this
26:38 day. I mean, I I know in our church, I've seen it over the years. I mean, we've had people in our church give cars away to people that need cars. We've had people go into people's homes and work on their homes. I've been
26:49 on the receiving end of that more than once. Serving others in selfless ways. I mean, you you hear story after story of people that are gifted and can do and see a need, and I'll meet that need, and I'll do that.
27:01 And what you realize is you can't do it too much. Some of you may remember the movie, Schindler's List from years ago that highlights a story of a man named, Oskar Schindler
27:13 that saved Jews during the time of the Holocaust. And at the end of the movie, there's a very, very sobering scene after this man had saved hundreds and hundreds of Jews. He's walking through at the end and he notices
27:23 his car. He's like, this car. Why did I keep this car? That would have been 10 more lives. Why did I keep this pen? This this pen I have that that would have saved 2 more lives? Why
27:35 did I hang on to all this stuff? And it's so compelling in that story because he recognizes in that moment the most valuable thing is life and giving to life. Friends, the most valuable thing we can do is
27:47 honor the Lord and serve the body of Christ, not hang on to stuff. I'm not saying it's wrong to have stuff. It's not wrong to have stuff as long as that stuff doesn't have you. Amen?
27:59 But if you get to heaven and realize, had I not held on to this or not held on to this or not held on to this, I could have helped the kingdom greater. That's not the place you wanna be. Here's the place you wanna be.
28:09 Knowing that you've given the most that you can give according to what the spirit of God has asked you to do, knowing we can always give more. Right? But I've been obedient to how I've been led by the Lord and I've been
28:19 growing in my obedience to serve him more greatly than I have. That's where you wanna be when you meet Jesus. Now if you've been born again because you've trusted his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead,
28:29 you will be saved. Do not get me wrong. You will be saved. God's not judging your eternal salvation on works, but if you have been saved, you're gonna be rewarded on the things that you've done from the time that you
28:40 were born again until you meet Jesus. And I'm telling you as your pastor, because I love you, be as generous as you possibly can be to the Lord. That's it. And what's that look like for you? It's gonna look likeShow more
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