3 MARKS OF A GENEROUS CHRISTIAN - Acts 11:27-30

All right, if you have a Bible or an

app, let's go ahead and open it up. We

are back in the book of Acts. Acts chap

11. We're going to be closing out

chapter 11 by looking at verses 27

through 30. We are in sermon number 34

over the book of Acts. And let me just

remind you why it's been so important

that we're spending several weeks

looking at this book in the New

Testament. This details to us the

history of the New Testament church. And

I've often said throughout this series,

it's very easy for us to read the

history and the narrative that takes

place in the book of Acts and to remove

ourselves from those stories

historically. And indeed, they are

history, but there are history. You'll

recognize that there is no official

conclusion to the book of Acts. And

that's done purposefully because we are

a continuation of what God began

centuries ago through a small group of

believers who we read in the beginning

of the book of Acts gathered in an upper

room and experience an outpouring of the

Holy Spirit in their lives. And that

outpouring empowered them, moved them

and equipped them to go and take the

gospel to the world. And we are living

breathing testaments of that. For those

of us who have placed our faith in

Jesus, we have done so because someone

told us about Jesus. Someone took the

time to pray over us and to be used in

the ministry of the gospel and we heard

the gospel proclaimed and we felt the

conviction of the very sin that once

identified us and we repented of our

sin. We placed our hope, faith and trust

in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and

we have never been the same. And God

continues to do a transforming work in

our life. God doesn't just save us. The

Holy Spirit doesn't just fill us and

then leaves us to our own devices to

figure it out on our own. But that

becomes the first step of a life that

should be rich and flavorful and deeply

intimate with our creator who is in

heaven. This is what we find all

throughout the book of Acts. Their story

is our story. Their history is our

history. Their mission, church, is our

mission. And so as we continue this

morning by looking at the closing verses

in Acts 11, remember we have already

seen a tremendous outpouring of God's

hand and God's power, not just in the

life of the Jewish nation, not just in

the life of the Israelites, but God is

clearly demonstrating that his power and

salvation is available to anyone who

would call upon the name of Jesus. If

you've been with us over the last couple

of weeks, we've looked at this story

between Peter, a Jewish leader in the

church, one of the 12 disciples of

Jesus, and a Roman centurion by the name

of Cornelius, who both received visions

from the Lord. It was this divine

appointment that God brought to their

lives and to their hearts where they

were led to one another to experience

this truth that salvation that the

gospel that Christ being our Lord and

our savior is available if you will turn

from your sin and receive him as Lord.

Well, what happens after

that? What becomes of the church? What

becomes of a Christian? someone who has

now given their life to Jesus, what

changes, what transforms in their home,

in their marriage, and the way they

engage in work and in the community?

Well, that's what we see here in Acts

11. And the way that we see that is

through the act of generosity. And so,

what I want to do this morning is I want

to talk to you about generosity. I

actually read this quote this week. I

thought it was um pretty interesting as

it really defined what biblical

generosity is. It says generosity is a

movement of the soul. Your soul, son or

daughter of the most high God. It's a

movement of your soul when you are

pierced by the recognition of another

soul's need. That's what biblical

generosity is. It's recognizing that

there is another soul in need, another

individual who bears the image of God.

the same God who saved you, who is

saving you, who is transforming you, who

is using you in service and in the work

of his kingdom. When we recognize that

need in another human being, we are

pierced to our soul and we can't but

help to operate from the overflow of

generosity that has been poured into us

by Jesus Christ himself.

Have you ever known someone who was just

overly

generous? I'm in my 21st year of

ministry. And when I began 21 years ago,

God had me um at a small church here in

South Texas serving in the youth

ministry. And what was real neat is

there was this really neat restaurant

called the Railroad Seafood Station.

Anybody know what restaurant I'm talking

about? Um over in ODM, Texas. And it

just so happened that several weeks in a

row, we just decided after Sunday

church, we would go over to the railroad

station and we would enjoy lunch. Well,

it turned out that there was another

church family there enjoying lunch as

well. And they ended up paying for our

lunch. Well, that was one week. Praise

God for that. Well, the second week, we

ended up going to that restaurant as

well. And wouldn't you know it, that

family was there as well. And again,

they paid for our lunch. I thought, man,

two weeks in a row. How awesome is this?

Well, wouldn't you know it, we went a

third time and that family was there

again and they paid for our lunch. And

so, at that point, it started becoming a

running joke between my wife Crystal and

I and we kept saying, "Where is Brother

Olegel going to go to church?" Uh, going

to go have lunch today. And so, the

saying even to this day, we we'll just

throw it out there, man. Praise the Lord

for brother Oleggo. He recognized a need

for us families in their young 20s with

a newborn baby and and he

provided. That sounds like a small need

maybe, but it spoke deeply to us. We all

know someone who is generous, who is

overly generous. And maybe when you

think about generosity, you think about

the sacrifice that's involved. you think

about the call and the challenge to step

outside of your comfort zone in order to

be there for someone else. And I think

oftent times it is things like that that

really keep us from being generous. Or

maybe you're like me and you think about

generosity and you think, well, if I

only had more money, then I'd be more

generous. If if I only had more time,

then I'd be more generous. And this is

not original. I heard a preacher preach

on this one time. He said, 'If you are

not generous with what you have

now, what makes you think you'll be

generous if your situation changes? And

it reminded me of what Jesus tells us in

his gospel ministry that if you can be

trusted with

little, then you can be trusted with

much. And so often we look at generosity

and we think generosity is only the

outpouring and the overflow of much. But

what we'll come to discover here in

Actsap 11 in just a moment is that

generosity has nothing whatsoever to do

whether you have little or much, but has

everything to do with where your faith

and your heart

rests. So if you have your Bible or your

app open, let's go to Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

We'll begin in verse

27. Here's what Dr. Luke writes. He

says, 'Now in these

days prophets came down to Jerusalem,

from Jerusalem to

Antioch, and one of them named Agabus

stood up and foretold by the spirit that

there would be a great famine over all

the world. This took place in the days

of Claudius. In your Bible, you'll often

find that last sentence in parenthesis.

What is Luke doing here? Luke is rooting

this moment, this event in the life of

the church. He's rooting it

historically. This took place under the

reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. You

can even look at extra biblical

historical records and you can find that

indeed in the year 46 AD there was a

famine that struck the land of Judea in

the Roman Empire. Verse 29. So the

disciples determined upon hearing this

this prophecy that there was going to be

a famine. The disciples determined

everyone according to his ability to

send relief to the brothers living in

Judea. And they did so sending it to the

elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

And all God's people said, "Amen." Lord,

would you bless your word? Holy Spirit,

would you stir our hearts this

morning?

Amen. So, what strikes you from our

passage this morning? Well, if you're

like me, you are immediately drawn to

this individual, this prophet by the

name of Agabus. What does he do? He

brings a prophetic word to the people of

Antioch. He's been given this

prophecy from God himself. And what is

that prophecy? It is about an upcoming

famine that will strike the land of

Judea. And we read what their response

was. It wasn't

fear. Notice, let's contextualize this.

It It wasn't hoarding. They weren't

going to the nearest grocery store and

stocking up on toilet paper. But what

did they do? They responded in

generosity. They responded in

obedience. How different would our world

be? our culture be our life be. When we

heard of impending doom, that our first

step was not something that would serve

self, but our first step forward was a

step of generosity that would serve

others. Not for the sake of clout, not

because we want to be seen as better

than, not because we want to make a name

for ourselves, but because we want to be

obedient to the scriptures. We want to

be one who is recognized by a life that

is set apart for the glory of God's

kingdom and the goodness of his

church. Generosity, what we find is it

isn't momentary, at least not here

biblically. It's not a momentary

feeling. When we step into biblical

generosity, what we discover is that it

is spiritfilled. It's kingdom producing.

It's this heart and this mindset that

overflows into our lifestyle. So, what

does a generous Christian look

like as we come to celebrate and lift up

the influential women in our lives? As

we seek to be generous to them, as we

seek to live a life that is generous to

others, what does that look like? Well,

let's go back to our passage and I want

us to see three markers of generous

Christianity. So, if you're taking

notes, here's the first marker that we

see. We see that a generous Christian

listens to the

spirit. It's been once said that

generosity doesn't begin with the hands.

Generosity begins with the

ears. What is influencing us? What is

directing and guiding our behavior? Go

back with me to verse

27. It says, "Now in these days,

prophets came down to Jerusalem from

Antioch. And one of them named Agabus

stood up and foretold by who?

Fore that there would be a famine all

over the world." This took place in the

days of Claudius. Now, I want to pause

here for just a moment because I want us

to recognize something very special

here. The reason they were able to

receive the word of God as told through

the prophet Agabus is because the people

in Antioch had been positioned to hear

the word of God. So often we miss out on

what God is doing, what God is saying,

how God is working, and how God is

moving because we've not positioned

ourselves to hear the voice of God. Do

you remember where we finished last in

Acts chap 11 last week that Barnabas and

Saul had come to Antioch and had spent a

year with the Antioch church to raise

them up in spiritual disciplines and

understanding what it means to mature

and grow in the gospel seed that had

been planted so that that gospel seed

would bear fruit in their lives. And I

think so often gospel seed is planted

and maybe we placed our faith in Jesus

and maybe we can look back to a moment

in history where we were baptized and

and God indeed did a work but there has

never been fruit or witnessable fruit in

our lives where others can see that we

have positioned ourselves to hear from

God to be used by God.

And so what happens

here? The people of Antioch, their

devotion to the Lord, their

intentionality with what God was doing

put them right where they needed to be.

Their ears and their heart were prepared

to hear from God. Here's the challenging

question for us this morning. Are we

prepared to hear from

God? Maybe you're stepping into a new

season of life. Maybe you're coming out

of a very difficult season of life.

Maybe you find

yourselves, so to speak, like a ship at

port, ready to set sail. But you are

just looking for the winds to change

direction. You're looking for a plan.

You're looking for something that is

telling you you need to you need to

raise anchor and you need to set sail.

Here's the thing. When we step out in

faith and trust and in full obedience to

God, it is then when we position

ourselves to begin to hear from God. And

this is what we see here in Actsap 11

that the mark of a generous Christian is

one who listens to the

spirit. The spirit stirred a need, a

very obvious need that historically we

can go and read about. and they

responded with

obedience. Now, I I think it's worth

mentioning about the subject of

prophecy. The subject of prophecy is not

something traditionally that we're

comfortable hearing about in the Baptist

tradition or even in the Baptist church.

But here's what we discover. Prophecy in

the New Testament functions as a way of

edifying and guiding the church. This

was Paul's purpose in bringing up the

gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14. He's bringing clarification

to what it's about. And Agabus's word

was clear. Did you recognize that his

word was spirit

authenticated? Because Luke himself

makes it a point to tell us, the reader,

the recipient, that the prophecy of

Agabus was a prophecy that was filled

with who? with the spirit. Not doomsday

predictions, not Bible codes, not

looking at the latest headlines and

predicting what would happen, but this

was spiritfilled authentification. Which

is why Luke will reference the reign of

Roman Emperor

Claudius. So that we this side of the

story could look back historically and

say not only was it authenticated by the

spirit himself, but this is

authenticated in

history. Not only that, prophecy is

often confirmed by the fruit it

produces. Well, what was the fruit of

this prophecy? a famine actually

happened. But more than the prophecy,

what's generated here? Unity in the

church and generosity from

believers. You know, true God-honoring

generosity starts with spiritual

sensitivity. And I think so often that's

what we

miss. We miss being marked by a heart

that is sensitive to the spirit of God.

We say, "Well, Roland, how do I position

myself to have a heart of sensitivity?

How do I position myself to hear from

God? And once I hear from God, to not

just sit on it, to not just rest on it,

to not just sit on my high horse as if

I'm set apart from everyone else because

I hear from God and they don't, but but

how can I take God's command, God's

word, and use it as a catalyst so that

what God does in here overflows out

there?" That's what generosity is.

That's what generosity does. Generosity

isn't just something that we feel on the

inside. Generosity is something that is

demonstrated on the outside, but it

first begins by being positioned to hear

from God. By being sensitive enough to

hear from God. And and let me just

clarify it this way. It isn't as if God

is speaking a new word to

us. Let me be absolutely clear. There is

no new revelation from God. God has told

us all that we ever need to know right

here in his holy word. And if anyone

ever declares that they have new

revelation outside of what God has

already revealed, then that is not

spirit authenticated. That is not

something we receive. As a matter of

fact, that's something that we reject

and we flee

from. So Roland, how do I position

myself to hear from God? I'll tell you

how you position yourself to hear from

God. Know his word.

This is how God speaks. This is how God

chooses to reveal himself more and more

into the hearts and the lives of

Christians and his

children. You can't know the God of the

word if you don't know the word of God.

This is how God is revealing himself to

us. And when we step into this spiritual

sensitivity to God's voice, we are

stepping into, don't miss this, a

conversation that has already

begun. A conversation that started way

back when in Genesis 1 when the

scripture declared, God said, "Let there

be light." We are stepping into an

already existing conversation. Maybe

you've heard us phrase it this way. When

we come to worship God, we're not

stepping into anything new. We're not

creating new platforms or avenues of

worship. What we are stepping into is an

already

existing worship where the scripture

declares is happening in the throne room

of heaven as the angels and the

multitudes are declaring, "Holy, holy,

holy is the Lord God Almighty who was,

who is, and is to come." Generosity

begins by listening to the spirit. So,

real quick, ask yourself

this. Where is God calling me to meet a

need? Because generosity is going to

grow when our heart and our ears are in

tune with the voice of God. And what if,

just what

if, what if your next generous act,

whatever that may look like, God is

already

preparing by positioning you and

creating in you an intentionality and a

purpose of being right where you need to

be. The question is, will you pause long

enough to recognize

it? Here's the second mark that we see.

A generous Christian gives what they

can. It's right here in verse 29. What

does Luke write? So the disciples

determined, here's the key. Everyone

according to his

ability to send relief. Here's what I

love in particular about that phrase

that that Luke with purpose writes

according to his ability. I read that

and for me it is such a freeing fa uh um

phrase. It is so so loving and so

spiritfilled of the Christian to

recognize needs that are being filled

for those who are in deep circumstances

who are going to face famine like the

people of

Judea. That that need is being met by

what each one in the relief they send in

accordance to their own ability. Here's

what this means. that no one gave beyond

their means. No one gave to impress.

They simply gave what they

could. I love this. It's some may have

given

sacrificially, others from their

surplus, but but here's here's the point

of what Luke is saying that the generous

people in Antioch, they didn't

give out of obligation.

They gave willingly and out of

obedience. And we talked about this

several weeks ago when we looked at the

subject of giving. God will do

more with a little that is given from a

heart that is

allin that is saying yes. Use this for

the goodness of your people and for the

glory of your kingdom. than he will from

a begrudging heart that gives what we

might consider a

lot. You say, Roland, how do you know

this? Well, we see this as a pattern all

throughout the

scriptures.

Jesus honors the widow's might. You

remember that story in the

Gospels because she gave out of her

poverty. She gave willingly and

obediently. She gave sacrificially. Paul

his later teaching in 2 Corinthians 8

says this for if the readiness is there

it is acceptable according to what a

person has not according to what he does

not

have. God doesn't measure the size of

the

gift. He measures the obedience of the

giver. This is why

generosity is such an incredible act.

This is why we'll again read later in

the New Testament that it is better to

give than it is to receive. God does

something unique from an obedient heart

that gives because they want

to. And

here's here's what we need to know. You

don't have to be rich to be

generous. You just need to be faithful.

Be faithful with what you have. Whether

that's a college student giving from a

part-time job or a retiree giving from a

fixed income, the Lord honors both if

they give as the Lord leads. If they're

generous as the Lord leads. So here's

another challenging question. What's in

your hand? Figuratively, what's in your

hand? And are you holding on to

this tighter than you're holding on to

the faith that rests in the heart?

Right? That that that's that's that's

the marker of true generosity. or if

what I have in my hand I I'm willing to

open up in service to the kingdom of God

for the good of his people out of the

overflow of the generosity God has shown

to the sinner to a sinner such as

I. But

generosity, right? It it it it isn't

just from peerto-peer.

When we step into this this type of

generosity, what do we read here at the

end? It becomes

missional. It begins to move the kingdom

forward. Right? This is what we find.

Here's our third marker. A generous

Christian gives to build the

body. Notice right here back in verse

29. What does it say? To send relief to

the brothers living in Judea. And they

did so, sending it to the elders by the

hand of Barnabas and Saul. Let me focus

on that last portion before we get into

that first portion. Sent at the hands of

Barnabas and Saul. Previously, what do

we know about

Saul? He was not a very good individual

prior to becoming a Christian. He sought

to silence the gospel, approving of the

persecution and the murder of believers.

He was a man who had a reputation for

imprisoning those who would attempt to

preach the gospel. So much so that after

Saul was saved, after Jesus transformed

his heart, he goes to spend three years

in the deserts of Arabia growing in his

understanding of what the gospel is and

the mission God is calling him to. He'll

then go spend uh years in Jerusalem with

Peter. And even then, the people begin

to look at him and say, "I don't believe

he's a Christian. I don't believe his

life has been transformed." Anybody ever

been in those shoes before? Maybe you've

been the one pointing fingers and

questioning someone's salvation. Or

maybe you've been the recipient of

someone questioning your salvation. Let

me just say

this. Your heart and your savior is just

that, your heart between you and your

savior. Don't listen to people that

would question what God has legitimately

done in your

life. And and church, let's not ever be

a people that question what God has

legitimately done in someone else's

life. God moves. God works. And what we

see here when Luke is saying that it was

sent to the elders by the hands of

Barnabas's and Saul, what what what Luke

is setting up in in in a short sentence

is this understanding that Saul though

he was once questioned and his salvation

was once questioned um has now grown

enough, been discipled enough, become

spiritually mature enough where now

people are trusting him and they

recognize a change in his life. They

recognize that God has done a

work. And here's what's beautiful about

this, about this generosity that's

building up the body. It isn't just

giving to the poor. It's that, but

there's so much more that's happening

here. It's Gentile

believers giving to Jewish believers.

If you've been with us the last couple

of weeks, we've learned how incredibly

radical that

is. Especially in a moment in time when

Judaism was set apart. They were seen as

the elect. They were seen as the

important ones. They were seen as God's

special people. Which is why they

questioned Peter when he went to

Cornelius's house. Why would you go to a

Gentile's house? Why would you risk your

cleanliness and your uh you being pure

uh pure in in the face of ceremonial and

temple laws and now risking all of that

to go and meet with a gentile, someone

who was looked down upon, someone who

was considered an outcast, someone who

according to tradition and culture would

make you impure and

unclean. And we see here that God has

absolutely bridged the gap.

And so the unclean now providing for the

clean, so to speak. Two groups that

didn't historically mix, but now under

the banner of Jesus helping one another.

And what becomes the bridge? Not just

the gospel, but the overflow of the

gospel, which is generosity. And we see

this pattern that is unique to the New

Testament

church. And so what does that tell us?

That tells us several things. It it

tells us that when we are positioned to

hear from God, that means that that we

are walking in such a way that we're

obedient to spiritual disciplines. We're

obedient to the call and the path that

God has laid before us so that we can

discern his voice. Remember, I remind us

of this often, there are multiple voices

speaking into your life. Parents know

this all too well with our kids.

multiple voices speaking into their

life. And what is our job? Our job is to

raise our kids up to know the truth of

God's word so that when the world comes

screaming at them, they're able to

discern the lies of the world versus the

truth of God. They're able to discern

what is evil, wrong, and sinful versus

what is holy, righteous, and true. This

is what we are called to do. But that's

not just parents to their children.

That's for you as well.

And when you are sensitive to the

spirit, you're able to discern right

from wrong. You're able to discern what

God would have next for your life. And

and and let me just let me just put it

this way. Some of us, we're living in

sin. And because we're living in sin and

there's a refusal to repent of the very

sin that we're living in, we feel that

that we are in this walk with God where

where he's quiet and where he's silent.

And let me just say this, God is never

quiet and silent when it comes to

repentance and your salvation. God is

always calling you forward, calling you

to turn from the wickedness, to turn

from whatever addiction, to turn

whatever to turn from whatever vice

would shackle you and enslave

you and make you a servant of the devil.

We don't often hear it phrased that way,

but that's what sin does. Sin makes us a

servant of Satan.

But when we repent of our

sin and we discern the voice of the

spirit to turn from sin and turn to the

Lord and embrace his forgiveness,

embrace his grace, embrace his love, and

to then be positioned to hear what your

next step is, what my next step is, what

us together as a church is our next

step. I'm I'm I'm kind of going um um

off Mark here, but but let me just say

this.

This is why it's so important that as

individuals, we're walking in obedience

to the Lord. Because if you call the

Grove your home, that means that you're

part of this church family. And as a

family, when someone hurts, then we're

all hurting. Right? Paul likens church

family to the body. If if my hand hurts

and my body can't operate the me the way

it was meant to operate. I started

wearing glasses when I was uh 35 years

old, so six years ago. They're really

reading glasses and I can see you guys

fine. But I see a little bit of fuzz

around each of y'all. Maybe that's the

spirit just glowing. But when I put them

on, boom, it's like HD. It's like

4K. And so when my eyes go bad, I can't

operate the way that I need to operate.

You You guys understand what I'm saying?

So So the whole body when one of us is

not walking in the spirit, then guess

what? we can't operate the way that

we're called to

operate, which is why it's so important

to be in tune with the spirit, right?

And

so we need to ask the

Lord this moment as we express our

generosity as as we lay down our lives

as we crucify the flesh for the sake of

the kingdom and for the glory of the

name of

Jesus to unify

us to use us and to help us

overcome that which would shackle us and

hold us

back. This foundation of

generosity, right, it brings unity

across the church ethnically and

culturally to send relief to the

brothers living in Judea. And let me

just close with

this again. All of this is an overflow

from the greatest act of generosity that

we've been shown. And you guys know

where I'm going with this. That the God

of

creation would look down into my

life. He would look at my past sins, my

present sin, my future sin. He would

look at my thought patterns and my

perspective and my focus. All of it that

was in rebellion to God

himself where I attempted to set myself

on the throne of my life rather than to

humble myself before the God of creation

that he would look at that and out of

his great love for me would send Jesus

Christ to die on Calvar's cross in my

place. This is how personal the gospel

is. It's not just some generic message

that said God died for the world. Yes,

that may get the point across, but I

want you to know God died for insert

your name. God died for

Roland. And I don't activate the

benefits of any of that until the Holy

Spirit awakens faith in my

life. That's the greatest act of

generosity the universe has ever known.

And it's out of that generosity that

fills me, that changes me, that saves

and rescues me from

me. When that

overflows in my thoughts and in my

actions, not only does it unify us as a

body of believers, not only does it

extend a helping hand to people who are

in need, but what does it do? It

reflects the generosity of the father.

It shows his goodness, his mercy, and

his grace. And my hope and my prayer

today is that if you don't know the

generosity of our father who is in

heaven, that today would be the day for

you. Would you pray with

me? Heavenly Father, we are

grateful for

salvation. Thank you for the cross.

Thank you for grace and for

mercy. And we thank you that your

righteousness covers my

sin. Lord, I pray this

morning for the one who does not know

you. Lord, you call your people your

very own. And maybe today, this

morning, for the first time, the Holy

Spirit is awakening someone to the

realization that they are called

yours. Spirit, would you draw us to you?

Would you create in

us a deeper sense