Today at church, the sermon was on Acts 4: 31-37.
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
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. 33 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 34 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 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
One of the main points was on ownership and the Biblical understanding that everything is God’s. The pastor had us make a list of all the things we own (or as many as we could write down in about 2-3 minutes). He then asked what pronoun would go in front of each of those items. The obvious answer is “my”. Then he had us write “God’s” in front of all those possessions and asked two good questions:
- What items on the list were hard for you to write “God’s” in front of?
- How does thinking about your possessions as “God’s” change your perspective on them?