MONEY GOALS
The early church was crazy! According to Acts 4:32-37, these people were voluntarily giving to each other and making sure no one had any unmet needs. That’s nuts! In fact, there were people like Joseph (but they called him Barnabas) who were intentional about raising money just to be even more generous!
God has called us to be good stewards of what we have. The sad reality is that we often believe the lies of the world that teach us to never be satisfied. Culture tells us that happiness lies on the other side of a larger house, faster car, newer phone, and better wardrobe.
The truth of God’s Word tells us something very different from the lies of our culture. We’re shown that we should steward our money well—not to achieve some image of success or security—but for the purpose of preparing ourselves for generosity.
Acts 4 shows us how to be good stewards of our money and resources as followers of Jesus. First, we see that we are called to live generously.
Generosity was the modus operandi of the early church. It was their factory-default setting. No one had to be asked or pleaded with to be generous to others.
They had a clear understanding that God had given them everything they had, and His purpose was for them to be radically generous. This doesn’t mean the early church was full of only poor people. Consider Lydia, who was a seller of the rare and expensive purple dye used in high fashion. She certainly would have had access to impressive wealth.
This mindset wasn’t supposed to be temporary, but somewhere along the way, we have stopped trusting God in the manner the early church did. For many of us, generosity isn’t our natural state.
We also distort the order of good stewardship with our resources. Often, we think that good stewardship will lead to generosity, but we should be generous whether we have a lot or a little. Generosity isn’t a function of us saving, investing, and stewarding well—it is the very basis of a life of good stewardship.
If we neglect generosity, it doesn’t matter how good our investment portfolio is; we aren’t being good stewards. God will not bless us in unfaithfulness!
We are also called to be intentional in the way we live if we wish to be good stewards of the material things we have. Think about Barnabas here: he sold land, which means he was a landowner. He was investing for the purpose of being able to contribute to the Kingdom of God. He was setting himself up to succeed for the purpose of giving away what he earned.
This means no matter our age or status, we should begin today being intentional with what God has given us to maximize it for His Kingdom. Practically, this means budgeting, not spending all we make, taking care of what God has given us, and not being reckless with our resources.
This means we should conserve what God has blessed us with—not so our storehouse can be full, but so we have more with which to bless others. This means we should inventory our resources and think about the way in which they are being used.
With all that we have being God’s, we need to consider how we are using that which God has given us. Is it all for us? Is it all about us? Or is it about making Jesus’ name great?
